Everyone I ever met who went to Harvard Law School graduated from a college I've never heard of.

[Anonymous]

This is probably more about your familiarity with colleges than about Harvard law admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just my impression—it seems that some graduate schools discriminate against applicants from their own undergraduate schools.

It’s a lower-level version of protecting against “academic inbreeding.” Guessing graduate programs don’t want to send students out into the world who’ve only studied at the same institution for years & years.

Except the biggest feeder to HLS is Harvard

[Anonymous]

You don’t know a very representative sample. The majority of Harvard Law’s class comes from top 20 undergrads, top LACs, top tier publics (UCs, etc) and a handful of other schools that are well known (byu, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t know a very representative sample. The majority of Harvard Law’s class comes from top 20 undergrads, top LACs, top tier publics (UCs, etc) and a handful of other schools that are well known (byu, etc).

+1. I went to HLS, granted a million years ago, and was surprised by how many had graduated from Harvard itself ("the college"), other Ivies, and top schools in general. There was no one else from my college, and I was definitely odd man out, an outlier, however you want to put it. My experience just wasn't what OP is saying. I worked for BigLaw and it was the same story, although I think that's changing a bit with DEI initiatives to hire from HBCUs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just my impression—it seems that some graduate schools discriminate against applicants from their own undergraduate schools.

HLS is definitely not one of those schools. The pipeline is huge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just my impression—it seems that some graduate schools discriminate against applicants from their own undergraduate schools.

It’s a lower-level version of protecting against “academic inbreeding.” Guessing graduate programs don’t want to send students out into the world who’ve only studied at the same institution for years & years.

Except the biggest feeder to HLS is Harvard

Absolutely this.

- Harvard college alum who got into HLS like a ton of other ppl in my class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t know a very representative sample. The majority of Harvard Law’s class comes from top 20 undergrads, top LACs, top tier publics (UCs, etc) and a handful of other schools that are well known (byu, etc).

+1. I went to HLS, granted a million years ago, and was surprised by how many had graduated from Harvard itself ("the college"), other Ivies, and top schools in general. There was no one else from my college, and I was definitely odd man out, an outlier, however you want to put it. My experience just wasn't what OP is saying. I worked for BigLaw and it was the same story, although I think that's changing a bit with DEI initiatives to hire from HBCUs.

It’s still the same way, and I think realistically the dei initiatives in biglaw aren’t really widening the net to bunches of directional state school undergrads or anything like that…with hbcu recruiting the top biglaw firms are taking the top 10% of the class at Howard Law School, the top HBCU law school, and those kids likely went somewhere “well-known” for undergrad anyway (a top tier undergrad or a top hbcu like morehouse/spelman).

[Anonymous]

I only know Harvard undergrad people that went to Harvard law

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t know a very representative sample. The majority of Harvard Law’s class comes from top 20 undergrads, top LACs, top tier publics (UCs, etc) and a handful of other schools that are well known (byu, etc).

+1. I went to HLS, granted a million years ago, and was surprised by how many had graduated from Harvard itself ("the college"), other Ivies, and top schools in general. There was no one else from my college, and I was definitely odd man out, an outlier, however you want to put it. My experience just wasn't what OP is saying. I worked for BigLaw and it was the same story, although I think that's changing a bit with DEI initiatives to hire from HBCUs.

It’s still the same way, and I think realistically the dei initiatives in biglaw aren’t really widening the net to bunches of directional state school undergrads or anything like that…with hbcu recruiting the top biglaw firms are taking the top 10% of the class at Howard Law School, the top HBCU law school, and those kids likely went somewhere “well-known” for undergrad anyway (a top tier undergrad or a top hbcu like morehouse/spelman).

Ahh yes where the average SAT is a 1250 and it has a 50% acceptance rate. If someone from a different university with that same academic profile applied to an Ivy League law school, they’d be laughed at.

[Anonymous]

For the most part a top law school requires two things (unless you’re a development admit/urm)—a great gpa starting with freshman year of college and a great ability to master standardized testing in order to get 170 plus on the LSAT. There are exceptions, sure but this is the general profile. There’s no athletic recruiting or such.

So someone already very motivated academically at age 18 with a great testing ability. So what does this translate to? The same pool of kids going to top 20 undergrads and shooting for top merit scholarships and honors colleges at top flagship publics. (While undergrads have gone test optional, for top schools, you still have kids submitting great scores)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the most part a top law school requires two things (unless you’re a development admit/urm)—a great gpa starting with freshman year of college and a great ability to master standardized testing in order to get 170 plus on the LSAT. There are exceptions, sure but this is the general profile. There’s no athletic recruiting or such.

So someone already very motivated academically at age 18 with a great testing ability. So what does this translate to? The same pool of kids going to top 20 undergrads and shooting for top merit scholarships and honors colleges at top flagship publics. (While undergrads have gone test optional, for top schools, you still have kids submitting great scores)

Aren’t top law schools LSAT optional now?

[Anonymous]

You are basically telling us you don’t know many Harvard law school grads…good to know

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just my impression—it seems that some graduate schools discriminate against applicants from their own undergraduate schools.

HLS is definitely not one of those schools. The pipeline is huge.

No top law school that I know of discriminates against their own undergrads. All the top ones draw heavily from their own undergrads

[Anonymous]

I went to Harvard Law and this isn't true. Lots of people from well-known, elite undergrad programs. Also lots of people from state flagships or the UC system who clearly excelled in those very large programs and who had impressive college resumes.

I went to Harvard undergrad. There were a few of us -- most people do not want to repeat grad school at their undergrad but I was waitlisted at both of my other top choices (Columbia and Yale) and chose Harvard over Chicago and NYU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t matter where you go to undergrad as long as you get a 4.0, a high lsat, do all the meaningless “intern” jobs you can that fill your resume (better to stuff envelopes for a Senator than have a job in their eyes - one of the ways the rich are privileged in this process), and apply in November.

But for most people who only got into those mediocre schools to begin with, they won't get a high LSAT. And a 4.0 GPA from Elon with a high LSAT still won't get you even into UVA law, much less Harvard. Trust me. I have a friend who boasts about her DD's 4.0 from Elon and she'll be wasting her money on a mediocre law school next year. A 3.2 from a top 30 will trump a 4.0 from an average college every time.