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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Having to attend law school is rather mediocre.  Like becoming a tax accountant or dentist.[/quote]
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…[/quote]
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.[/quote]
Nice all caps! You kids can do what you want. But to say that the portion of you that “chooses” to go to law school is better than the portion that does not — or even, ahem, that law school drives Harvard’s prestige — is downright silly talk. Two suggestions: look in the mirror, and learn how to write.[/quote]
I was not aware that using all caps for emphasis was inappropriate for an online forum, but I will respect your preferences and exclusively write in a more formal register. Is that good enough, or do my opinions still not matter because I disagree with you?

Anyways, you are completely misrepresenting the intent of my post. Multiple comments in this thread have suggested that students who attend law school—or any graduate school in general—choose to do so because they "have to" in order to have a successful career. Said comments additionally imply that these students "have to" attend graduate school due to their lesser competence. See this comment:
[quote]
There are two types of students at these elite schools: those preparing for graduate school, and those who[b] don’t need to. It should be obvious which is the higher caliber student.[/b]
[/quote]

My comment merely suggested that some students have legitimate personal interests that make them more likely to attend graduate school, such as wanting to become a doctor or academic. I furthermore noted that certain outcomes which require graduate school certainly can be considered just as successful as the "best" non-graduate school outcomes (e.g. private equity, big tech), including developing the cure to a disease or being a civil rights lawyer for the ACLU, both of which have the ability to be fairly lucrative and personally satisfying.

I never once implied that students who attend graduate school are better than those who do not — it would be some sick irony given my own path in life — nor did I say that law schools drive a university's prestige. Feel free to reread my earlier post and find evidence of my saying so; I know, however, that it is a strawman. [/quote]

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