How did Harvard become the most powerful US university brand in the world?

[Anonymous]

Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HLS is nearly three times the size as YLS.

But it still has more cumulative Rhodes Scholars. Some of that is due to the fact that Harvard University (from whence HLS pulls a lot of its students) has many more Rhodes than YAle. Harvard has 362. Yale has only 245, then Princeton at 210.

You mean Harvard College. You still don’t get it (international?). Harvard College drives everything.

As for Harvard College grads going to HLS (which is an easier admit than Harvard College, as are all grad programs), they are not the cream of the Harvard College crop — which does not need to get a law degree to have a lucrative career.

But a number of the top academic College students do go to the Law School, and this is where the Harvard College students who go to HLS come from (almost exclusively from the top 10-20% or so). From an intellectual point of view, unlike most of H's grad schools, the typical HLS student would be at the top of the College student body. I have worked with a lot of H students or known them in other capacities, and I don't think you can compare the applicant pools of the College and Law School, statistically or otherwise, as they have varying levels of academic and other qualities, varying numbers of total applications submitted (diluting or increasing the admission rates), etc.

Also, you didn't address this, but a number of the College students are completely disastrous (i.e., it isn't clear how or why they got in). I don't have a good explanation for this, so I will allow others to speculate, but I suspect this is due to the fact that as a general rule, it is much easier to select students at the age of 23-24 or so then when they are 17.

Simply not true. You are apparently unfamiliar with Harvard.

This is not really a controversial point. Prior to 2020, when grade inflation truly took off, the Harvard College students who were getting into HLS had GPAs that put them at the high end of the student body as a whole. This particularly true for students who were not URM or connected in some significant way.

Cite? To the extent this was true, you would have to compare “soft major” GPAs to other majors. Suffice to say, GPA at Harvard is not the proxy you think it is.

No cite -- I personally am an academic who has seen how this works and am particularly knowledgeable about H. If you are affiliated with HC, as you say, you have access to all this information from one of your tutors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

There are levels to hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

"Having to"...what if you just want to? If you have a legitimate interest in law? Not everyone is as obsessed with "playing the game" as people on this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

"Having to"...what if you just want to? If you have a legitimate interest in law? Not everyone is as obsessed with "playing the game" as people on this forum.

In other words, there are no better options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

"Having to"...what if you just want to? If you have a legitimate interest in law? Not everyone is as obsessed with "playing the game" as people on this forum.

In other words, there are no better options.

Do you believe it's impossible to enter college wanting to become a lawyer or something? So far, all I've heard is vague, nonsensical platitudes—sounds like someone's still mad they didn't get into law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

This is true. There are two types of students at these elite schools: those preparing for graduate school, and those who don’t need to. It should be obvious which is the higher caliber student.

As for law school, it is a delicious irony that social science and humanities majors, who are universally looked down upon as inferior students, are now looked at as the “crème de law crème” of Harvard College students. These are the overwhelming majority of HLS students…

Not to mention the fact that if your goal is law school, and you have the test scores already, you don’t even need to go to an elite college to get into a (by definition, less elite) law school…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HLS is nearly three times the size as YLS.

But it still has more cumulative Rhodes Scholars. Some of that is due to the fact that Harvard University (from whence HLS pulls a lot of its students) has many more Rhodes than YAle. Harvard has 362. Yale has only 245, then Princeton at 210.

You mean Harvard College. You still don’t get it (international?). Harvard College drives everything.

As for Harvard College grads going to HLS (which is an easier admit than Harvard College, as are all grad programs), they are not the cream of the Harvard College crop — which does not need to get a law degree to have a lucrative career.

But a number of the top academic College students do go to the Law School, and this is where the Harvard College students who go to HLS come from (almost exclusively from the top 10-20% or so). From an intellectual point of view, unlike most of H's grad schools, the typical HLS student would be at the top of the College student body. I have worked with a lot of H students or known them in other capacities, and I don't think you can compare the applicant pools of the College and Law School, statistically or otherwise, as they have varying levels of academic and other qualities, varying numbers of total applications submitted (diluting or increasing the admission rates), etc.

Also, you didn't address this, but a number of the College students are completely disastrous (i.e., it isn't clear how or why they got in). I don't have a good explanation for this, so I will allow others to speculate, but I suspect this is due to the fact that as a general rule, it is much easier to select students at the age of 23-24 or so then when they are 17.

Simply not true. You are apparently unfamiliar with Harvard.

This is not really a controversial point. Prior to 2020, when grade inflation truly took off, the Harvard College students who were getting into HLS had GPAs that put them at the high end of the student body as a whole. This particularly true for students who were not URM or connected in some significant way.

Cite? To the extent this was true, you would have to compare “soft major” GPAs to other majors. Suffice to say, GPA at Harvard is not the proxy you think it is.

No cite -- I personally am an academic who has seen how this works and am particularly knowledgeable about H. If you are affiliated with HC, as you say, you have access to all this information from one of your tutors.

Then you know your undifferentiated by major gpa argument is gobbledygook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

This is true. There are two types of students at these elite schools: those preparing for graduate school, and those who don’t need to. It should be obvious which is the higher caliber student.

As for law school, it is a delicious irony that social science and humanities majors, who are universally looked down upon as inferior students, are now looked at as the “crème de law crème” of Harvard College students. These are the overwhelming majority of HLS students…

Not to mention the fact that if your goal is law school, and you have the test scores already, you don’t even need to go to an elite college to get into a (by definition, less elite) law school…

I'm constantly hearing about "needing" to attend grad school. Have any of you ever fathomed that it's simply possible to WANT to go to graduate school? To WANT to become an academic researcher, or a doctor, or a lawyer? I would consider a microbiology researcher who discovers the cure to a disease or a civil rights lawyer at the ACLU to be far more successful than the 10,000th investment banker that these schools pumped out, not only because the former two are significantly harder to achieve than the latter but because they also reflect a much higher level of sheer dedication. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with wanting to be an investment banker—I'm currently recruiting for IB myself, and my parents' work in the field is the only reason why I'm not drowning in student loans—but maxxing out earnings isn't the only possible goal a college student can have.

[Anonymous]

I went to Harvard and Yale. Yale better experience by miles - except for fact Harvard has Boston. Yale takes second place to no one for quality of academics. Harvard is far more impersonal.

[Anonymous]

Harvard's networking is very strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

+10

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

"Having to"...what if you just want to? If you have a legitimate interest in law? Not everyone is as obsessed with "playing the game" as people on this forum.

In other words, there are no better options.

Do you believe it's impossible to enter college wanting to become a lawyer or something? So far, all I've heard is vague, nonsensical platitudes—sounds like someone's still mad they didn't get into law school.

Doesn’t everyone get into law school these days? I thought schools were shutting down because they couldn’t fill spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

"Having to"...what if you just want to? If you have a legitimate interest in law? Not everyone is as obsessed with "playing the game" as people on this forum.

In other words, there are no better options.

Do you believe it's impossible to enter college wanting to become a lawyer or something? So far, all I've heard is vague, nonsensical platitudes—sounds like someone's still mad they didn't get into law school.

Doesn’t everyone get into law school these days? I thought schools were shutting down because they couldn’t fill spots.

The top schools only see applications going up! It’s very similar to undergraduate admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having to attend law school is rather mediocre. Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.

"Having to"...what if you just want to? If you have a legitimate interest in law? Not everyone is as obsessed with "playing the game" as people on this forum.

In other words, there are no better options.

Do you believe it's impossible to enter college wanting to become a lawyer or something? So far, all I've heard is vague, nonsensical platitudes—sounds like someone's still mad they didn't get into law school.

Doesn’t everyone get into law school these days? I thought schools were shutting down because they couldn’t fill spots.

There was a glut of lawyers awhile back. Maybe that’s why students stopped applying?

I think if a student has a specific goal, something like public defender or prosecutor or civil rights attorney they will be happy. The miserable lawyers do real estate closings or collections or something completely mundane. Harvard law school graduates can usually get their top choice job.