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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son was recently admitted from the Harvard waitlist. He was all set to attend Brown. Normally, it would be an instant "yes," but the Harvard cap on A's has him hesitating. While he isn't entirely sure about his career path, he's considering law school and is worried that a lower GPA will hurt his post-grad chances. What does everyone think?[/quote]

If your son is considering law school, you should pick Harvard because Harvard Law takes a large cohort of Harvard undergrads in each year, about 8 to 12%. So he will have a boost - and, Princeton doesn't have a law school.  Of course, he would have to have top LSAT and top grades from undergrad to be one of those selected (classmates of mine went overseas to get a master's degree while studying for the LSAT and then reapplied and got in the second time).
The new policy doesn't start until fall 2027, and probably will be modified as Harvard compares it's grade readjustment plan to Yale's. , so your son have a year in the yard (a good thing) under the regular grading system.

HLS will know, of course, about the new grade system when it is implemented and will take that into consideration when looking at applications, just as any other good law school in the U.S., because everyone knows what is taking place.

To give you an idea of how difficult it is to get into Harvard Law, here are the stats at the 75th percentile:   4.0 GPA and a 176 LSAT.  Even the median student has a GPA between 3.89 and 4.00 and an LSAT of 171 to 176.  Many, many Harvard College undergrads go on to very fine law schools all over the nation.[/quote]

Are you saying Harvard undergraduates will be competing with each other for those HLS spots?[/quote][b]

DP. Yes. Same at every university that has a law school. The benefit is that, say, UVA, will take in more UVA undergrad students compared to other student applicants (and bear in mind that UVA law is a public school) but, yes you are competing against other UVA grads for those slots. What makes the analysis more tricky is that 70% of undergrads, nationally, take time off before applying to law school. At Harvard it is 80%. So, when, you have taken off time to work for two years as a paralegal or were a Rhodes or Marshall Scholar, you apply competing against 3-4 years or more Harvard applicants for one year of HLS seats. Many of my undergraduate friends at Harvard tried right out of college, but, knowing they would likely be turned down, simultaneously tried for the Rhodes, Marshall, etc. If turned down for HLS, and not getting a Rhodes or Marshall, then they would enroll at LSE or other European schools and pick up a Masters degree, or work as a paralegal or on a political campaign and return to try again. Failing that, they were usually picked up quit fast by other T14 law schools. [/quote]

Wow[b]. I never thought about it that way. I slid right in from a SLAC so for my DCs,[/b] I never consider whether a school has grad programs/law schools/med schools etc. I also know plenty of other law school classmates who came from no name undergrads. Everyone gets there some how - no need to think so deeply about it at 18. [/quote]

I[b], too, slid into HLS as valedictorian of my no-mention SLAC and went straight in.  But the statistics for today's applicants are quite interesting. Yes, over 85% (recent class) at HLS take time off, and many do so with Rhodes, Marshall, and other scholarships.  Over 200 Rhodes Scholars have gone to HLS.  Also, four/five of the SCOTUS justices have Oxford degrees before attending HLS. Kagan/MPhil. Gorsuch/ DPhil. Breyer BA (Marshall scholar): Souter AB (elevated to MPhil, as is normal in the Oxford system)and MPhil (Rhodes), and all of them attending Harvard or Yale for undergrad. So, if you are interested in law school and your choices are Brown or Harvard, I think you pick Harvard (or Yale, if that is an option, which it isn't here).[/quote][/b]

Or, if you pick Brown, try to get a Rhodes, Marshall, etc., from there to get into a top law school.[/quote]

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