2025 Privates College Decisions

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12/17/2025 09:33

Subject: Re:2025 Privates College Decisions

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Anonymous wrote:I'd be pissed if I spent $50K a year on private school and my kid didnt get into Harvard or Yale.

Why? There are around 400K seniors in private school each year, and just over 4000 spots at Harvard and Yale.

I just find some of the snobbery on this thread a little perplexing. You spent $200,000 on a high school that got your kid into a university where most of the rest of the students attended their local public high schools at a cost to them of $0. Why is that an occasion for looking down your nose?

What’s it to you how someone else spent their money? There are families that have the funds so they use them for what they consider a better overall environment and experience. That’s the case for us where our barely accredited overcrowded public school has daily fights and many other severe problems (and, yes, even a murder a few years ago).

You're missing the point. No one cares about how you spend your money. All the sneering towards public schools and pretensions towards elitism seem a bit much though when your kids end up at the same (and sometimes worse) universities as public school kids. How elite can the education be if a kid in Sioux City got into the same university after attending the school down her street?

I agree, re: the disdain being unpleasant and unhelpful. But I don't think using college as the defining metric makes sense either. We'd all consider Harvard undergrad "elite" even though their grads end up at Harvard Law alongside grads from U. Nebraska and Iowa.

(I googled to be sure that was accurate: https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/)

Of course it’s 1 student from Nebraska the class and 30 from Harvard. But sure it’s exactly the same.

Law school admissions are based almost entirely on GPA and LSAT. My understanding is that you don’t get much of a boost from attending an elite university for undergrad. When I was at my top-5 law school I was one of a very few who went to elite undergrads (think top-3). Nearly everyone had gone to state school

Exactly. And I am sure the state school kids were very smart. Some of the very smart state school kids did not know any better, so did not attend a top law school. Their top 5% in their law school meant nothing, as it turns out, even though they were undoubtedly better than 25-50% of top law school grads. Big law is funny that way; no logic.

In a class of 550 at Harvard only 163 schools are represented. If you don’t think the most represented schools at HLS aren’t Harvard, Yale and Princeton you’re trying to wish something into existence.

And the rest of rant on smart state school kids sounds a lot the washed up high school athletes who swear they could’ve made the pros. At some point - college, law school, job- you are what your records say you are.

PP from two posts ago. Look: if you went to an elite law school you'd know that they admit a lot of students who went to state schools for undergrad--possibly the majority. If you're going around claiming that most students at HLS went to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, then the only thing you're proving is that you didn't go to an elite law school. Also, some of the state school kids do extremely well in law school, and I really don't think that going to an elite undergrad gives you a leg up over the competition once you're in law school. The students who get into the truly top law schools tend to be excellent no matter where they went to undergrad. Also, I'm not sure what you're proving in saying that only 163 schools are represented in a class of 550... There are maybe 10-15 schools I'd consider to be elite universities, and 10-15 is a much smaller number than 163.

As to whether some of the state school kids were very smart but didn't know any better and therefor didn't attend top law schools, that strains credibility. It's possible that there are some who are trying to save money and thus go for in-state tuition, or aspire to go into state or local government and don't need elite credentials for that. But the vast majority of people applying to law school know the rankings quite well and understand that for high-paying positions and clerkships, you're almost always better-off at an elite school.

If you went to a top 5 law school and think these two statements are the same - I fear for your clients:

“ If you don’t think the most represented schools at HLS aren’t Harvard, Yale and Princeton”

“ If you're going around claiming that most students at HLS went to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton”

And I’ll do the math for you: 550 students from 163 schools means some of those schools had more than one student attending. And my point is that the schools with most students attending are the Harvard, Yale and Princetons not whatever state school you want to propose. Having 1 student from Indiana U and 25 students from Harvard doesn’t make them equal in representation