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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 OP, name the schools you’ve never heard of. DH is a HLS alum, and he went to Williams. His closest law school friends went to UNC, Michigan, Yale, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Harvard undergrad. All well known schools for those who are familiar with top colleges.

Harvard law draws from about 174 different undergrads institutions. Quite possible someone not familiar with all the schools on the list. https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

Nor is this unique. Look up any other elite law school and they will draw from around 100 colleges on up to the Harvard range, depending on size of the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 OP, name the schools you’ve never heard of. DH is a HLS alum, and he went to Williams. His closest law school friends went to UNC, Michigan, Yale, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Harvard undergrad. All well known schools for those who are familiar with top colleges.

Harvard law draws from about 174 different undergrads institutions. Quite possible someone not familiar with all the schools on the list. https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

Nor is this unique. Look up any other elite law school and they will draw from around 100 colleges on up to the Harvard range, depending on size of the class.

Which is a good thing. Where you went to college at 18 has a lot to do with parental wealth. You might be a totally different person at 24 than you were at 18 in terms of maturity, organizational skills, drive and financial situation.

[Anonymous]

[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 OP, name the schools you’ve never heard of. DH is a HLS alum, and he went to Williams. His closest law school friends went to UNC, Michigan, Yale, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Harvard undergrad. All well known schools for those who are familiar with top colleges.

Harvard law draws from about 174 different undergrads institutions. Quite possible someone not familiar with all the schools on the list. https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

Nor is this unique. Look up any other elite law school and they will draw from around 100 colleges on up to the Harvard range, depending on size of the class.

They have one person from the no name schools and dozens from Harvard and dozens from Yale though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 OP, name the schools you’ve never heard of. DH is a HLS alum, and he went to Williams. His closest law school friends went to UNC, Michigan, Yale, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Harvard undergrad. All well known schools for those who are familiar with top colleges.

Harvard law draws from about 174 different undergrads institutions. Quite possible someone not familiar with all the schools on the list. https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

Nor is this unique. Look up any other elite law school and they will draw from around 100 colleges on up to the Harvard range, depending on size of the class.

They have one person from the no name schools and dozens from Harvard and dozens from Yale though.

Is that correlation or causation, though? Someone who attends a no name college is less likely than someone who goes to Yale or Harvard to have been a good standardized test taker. Are those top law schools taking those dozens of students from top undergraduate colleges *because* of where they went to undergrad, or because they got 179s on the LSAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know HLS grads who went to Harvard undergrad. And I know HLS grads who went to undergrad at TCU and UK (as in, the University of Kentucky) and SCU. Oh, and Lake Forest College, though he was old (and kind of a jerk TBH).

There is a continuum. If your undergrad is in the top 100 ish, or is your state flagship, you are in good shape as far as undergrad institution. You don't need a top 30. You do need a high GPA.

Actually, that’s not necessary either. If they have high GPA & high LSAT, people do get in from schools ranked “regional colleges [north, south, west etc],” directional state colleges and liberal arts colleges ranked in the 100s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know HLS grads who went to Harvard undergrad. And I know HLS grads who went to undergrad at TCU and UK (as in, the University of Kentucky) and SCU. Oh, and Lake Forest College, though he was old (and kind of a jerk TBH).

There is a continuum. If your undergrad is in the top 100 ish, or is your state flagship, you are in good shape as far as undergrad institution. You don't need a top 30. You do need a high GPA.

Actually, that’s not necessary either. If they have high GPA & high LSAT, people do get in from schools ranked “regional colleges [north, south, west etc],” directional state colleges and liberal arts colleges ranked in the 100s.

Agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 OP, name the schools you’ve never heard of. DH is a HLS alum, and he went to Williams. His closest law school friends went to UNC, Michigan, Yale, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Harvard undergrad. All well known schools for those who are familiar with top colleges.

The list does not include the numbers from each school. And aside from the rabbinical school and a tiny handful of small colleges on the list, I’ve heard of them all. OP either knows 2 people from HLS who happened to go to one of the few random colleges on the list, or she doesn’t know much about colleges at all. Looking at that list, I’ve also heard of all the foreign universities. It’s not a completely random list like some PPs are suggesting. And I’d bet that if HLS listed the number of student from each college over a five-year period, you’d definitely see a pattern that favors top-50 undergraduate schools.

Harvard law draws from about 174 different undergrads institutions. Quite possible someone not familiar with all the schools on the list. https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

Nor is this unique. Look up any other elite law school and they will draw from around 100 colleges on up to the Harvard range, depending on size of the class.

[Anonymous]

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

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 OP, name the schools you’ve never heard of. DH is a HLS alum, and he went to Williams. His closest law school friends went to UNC, Michigan, Yale, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Harvard undergrad. All well known schools for those who are familiar with top colleges.

Harvard law draws from about 174 different undergrads institutions. Quite possible someone not familiar with all the schools on the list. https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

Nor is this unique. Look up any other elite law school and they will draw from around 100 colleges on up to the Harvard range, depending on size of the class.

Sorry, I spliced the PP quote in my post. Here is the post:
The list does not include the numbers from each school. And aside from the rabbinical school and a tiny handful of small colleges on the list, I’ve heard of them all. OP either knows 2 people from HLS who happened to go to one of the few random colleges on the list, or she doesn’t know much about colleges at all. Looking at that list, I’ve also heard of all the foreign universities. It’s not a completely random list like some PPs are suggesting. And I’d bet that if HLS listed the number of student from each college over a five-year period, you’d definitely see a pattern that favors top-50 undergraduate schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 OP, name the schools you’ve never heard of. DH is a HLS alum, and he went to Williams. His closest law school friends went to UNC, Michigan, Yale, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Harvard undergrad. All well known schools for those who are familiar with top colleges.

The list does not include the numbers from each school. And aside from the rabbinical school and a tiny handful of small colleges on the list, I’ve heard of them all. OP either knows 2 people from HLS who happened to go to one of the few random colleges on the list, or she doesn’t know much about colleges at all. Looking at that list, I’ve also heard of all the foreign universities. It’s not a completely random list like some PPs are suggesting. And I’d bet that if HLS listed the number of student from each college over a five-year period, you’d definitely see a pattern that favors top-50 undergraduate schools.

Harvard law draws from about 174 different undergrads institutions. Quite possible someone not familiar with all the schools on the list. https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

Nor is this unique. Look up any other elite law school and they will draw from around 100 colleges on up to the Harvard range, depending on size of the class.

Again, you’re assuming causation. There aren’t many kids at podunk college of the northwest who aspire to be Ivy League-educated lawyers. I bet very few are applying to law school at all.

[Anonymous]

I know several:
BA from Harvard: 2
BA from Bryn Mawr: 1
BA from Columbia: 1
BA from school I never heard of: 0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because it’s way easier to get a high GPA at one of those colleges, and student gpa is a data point in the US News rankings for law schools, so law schools have an incentive to admit lots of students with high GPA’s.

Lol. The average undergrad GPA at Harvard is a 3.7

Doesn't mean it's easy when they only accept top students in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 OP, name the schools you’ve never heard of. DH is a HLS alum, and he went to Williams. His closest law school friends went to UNC, Michigan, Yale, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Harvard undergrad. All well known schools for those who are familiar with top colleges.

Harvard law draws from about 174 different undergrads institutions. Quite possible someone not familiar with all the schools on the list. https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

Nor is this unique. Look up any other elite law school and they will draw from around 100 colleges on up to the Harvard range, depending on size of the class.

They have one person from the no name schools and dozens from Harvard and dozens from Yale though.

I went to a T5 law school (then and now, according to US News) and there were 7 kids from Harvard, no other school had more than 4, and most were the lone representative from their college. Law schools value diversity of backgrounds more than dcum thinks they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know several:
BA from Harvard: 2
BA from Bryn Mawr: 1
BA from Columbia: 1
BA from school I never heard of: 0

More a commentary on you than Harvard as I definitely have not heard of at least a dozen or so of the schools attended by this year’s applicants. Jackson State? John Brown University ? Centre College? All represented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know HLS grads who went to Harvard undergrad. And I know HLS grads who went to undergrad at TCU and UK (as in, the University of Kentucky) and SCU. Oh, and Lake Forest College, though he was old (and kind of a jerk TBH).

There is a continuum. If your undergrad is in the top 100 ish, or is your state flagship, you are in good shape as far as undergrad institution. You don't need a top 30. You do need a high GPA.

If someone theoretically had a perfect GPA & LSAT and was at an undergrad ranked #300, I’m sure they’d have good law school options.

But not Harvard. And major would matter, too. A dance major from App State with a 4.0 is not going to Harvard Law.