<p>Out of curiosity: in looking at the Wall Street Journal's list of the top 50 schools, based on percentages of alumni who then attend top-10 law, business or medical schools, I am glad to see that Harvard is ranked #1. </p>
<p>However, I also see Harvard alumni, every now and then, who attend less-selective graduate schools, sometimes out of the top 50 or top 100 US News rankings.</p>
<p>Question: are such outcomes common at Harvard? If so, do the students who head from Harvard to such schools usually motivated by generous scholarships or special situations (such as a desire to practice law or medicine near the school, or perhaps tied down by family commitments)? Or are there Harvard students who aim for higher-ranked schools but simply have no other choice?</p>
<p>I do not mean to offend, but I am genuinely curious. I graduated from the law school at H and everyone was able to get the general outcome that the person wanted with a Harvard degree, more or less (usually meaning a job with a prestigious law firm or the like in the geographic location that the person wanted), so I assume that Harvard undergrads would also be able to get the general outcome re: grad schools that they wanted (i.e., schools within a certain desired ranking and field).</p>
<p>Religious, e.g. an evangelical law school
Regional, where a student really wants to return to their home town, e.g. if you finish top of your class at Tulane you will be better positioned to go to New Orleans than anybody
Specialization, maybe-foreign policy work at GW or something really, really specific at one of the ones further down.
Legal training without intent to become a lawyer, whether for business or whatever
Really poor GPA from Harvard, for whatever reasons, but still want to go to law school.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the potential for merit, since I’m not close enough to hear about these reasons.</p>
<p>The other reason might be financial. Due to Harvard’s generous financial aid policy, many students are attending the college for the less than the cost of their flagship state school (60% of undergrads receive some form of financial aid). When it comes to graduate school, or law school, many students and their families cannot afford the cost of Harvard graduate school, or just do not want to take out a mortgage on their brain to pay for it. My niece, for example, graduated with honors from a top-ten university, but choose to go to her local state college to get her masters, as it was much more cost effective.</p>
<p>EDIT: On the other hand, I know a woman who took out a loan for her ivy league undegrad education, took out a loan for her ivy league medical school, took out a loan for her medical speciality, and now owes $400k in school loans. She can’t get a mortgage for a house, or even a car loan, because banks feel she’s in too much in debt, even though she has a good job as a doctor. To each their own!</p>
<p>I was actually surprised to find out that Harvard provides FA for MBA, JD (?) and MD. It may not be as good as undergrad but it exists. OTOH, getting in is much more harder than getting into undergrad.</p>
<p>The ranking of the school seems to be tied to potential recruitment and earnings for a lawyer. However, medicine does not work that way. The income is not impacted by the school attended and it only comes down to whether you can get in. Many state medical schools also control the admissions based on state residency and although Texas has 1700 + seats available in medical schools, only about 250 or so are available to non-residents (all state schools require 90% in state and Baylor about 77%). There are many states with similar rules and so unless they can get into private medical schools, their choices are usually limited to in state medical school.</p>
<p>So we have many attending HYPS or similar big name schools but returning to attend med school in Texas. There is an interesting anecdote of a Dallas area high school graduates where the Val attended H and Sal went to UT but both are attending Southwestern now. The fact that tuition in Texas is 16k does not hurt either.</p>
<p>There are lots of students who get into Harvard due to being legacy or recruited athlete etc, who aren’t up to snuff or able to compete with peers academically.</p>
<p>One that I knew got thru Harvard, but then rightfully so, got admitted to a middle of the pack medical school based on merit. I think they got in, because the name Harvard sells. I’m not surprised at all when some Harvard grads don’t perform well in terms of matriculation in professional schools. Eventually ability always catches up with you.</p>