Who We Are
LevelBar is a San Francisco Bay Area non-profit dedicated to increasing opportunity in graduate school education. We currently provide a year-long pre-law preparation program--LevelBar Scholars--to motivated students in the Bay Area who are preparing to apply to law school.
We are committed to helping Scholars all the way through the admissions process, and to setting them up for success in their school and ultimately in their field. We provide a series of workshops, writing classes, and ongoing mentorship and support to our grantees. Learn more about LevelBar collaborators! See how the program works! |
Why We're HerePerformance on the "gatekeeper" graduate-level aptitude tests mediates to a substantial degree a student's acceptability as a candidate for graduate study, and competitive preparation for these tests requires substantial resources. Test-specific coaching alone (in the form of classes or tutoring) can cost anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars. But even more expensive are the hours required: a critical component of a successful student's pursuit of a higher score is a considerable investment of time. It is incredibly difficult to adequately prepare for the LSAT, MCAT, GMAT or the GRE while working a full-time job (or more than one!), and students with the resources to take time off to study are at a significant advantage.
We're here because we believe that all students should have a fair chance to prove their abilities on these decisive admissions exams regardless of their economic circumstances. In a more perfect world graduate school admission criteria would be impervious to economic bias, but for the moment test scores are our meritocratic yardstick. Graduate credentials are (perhaps unfortunately) not equivalent across institutions. Where a student matriculates will matter to her career. It takes years to build a successful career, but our programming, strategically placed in our Scholars' lives, carries the potential to have a disproportionately large impact on their futures. |