<p>Crimsonbulldog, there is a more detailed discussion of which of the pre-law school rankings should be used at:</p>
<p>I know where you got those numbers ;), which are the same as I used above.</p>
<p>Yes, the HLS numbers are not as significant as the YLS numbers though, for the reasons I outlined in my post (namely, that YLS has a yield rate approaching 90% while HLS's yield rate is a miserable 60%)</p>
<p>though yale law will take more of its own because of nepotism - so using this as a ranking for colleges is sort of bad as it will favor yale.</p>
<p>Actually, Yale Law is one of the only, if not the only, law school where actual professors directly make decisions about who to admit. There is no preference given to undergraduates at Yale - they just want the best law students. Because of the extreme selectivity and very wide range of applicants, and the fact nearly everyone who gets admitted chooses to attend, I think it's a great way to rank undergraduate pre-law programs, in terms of which ones produce the most elite graduates.</p>
<p>I also got in at Williams, Darmouth, Wellesley, and Mt Holyoke.</p>
<p>I hear Harvard Law is better if you want to be a lawyer (ie, you often get recruited by better firms at higher salaries) and Yale law is better if you want to be a judge (I think around 40% go off to clerk from this school). Is this stereotype true?</p>
<p>No, GeorgeS, that is not true. YLS has the most successful alumni, overall, in both private (corporate) and public law.</p>
<p>Is there a link supporting that claim? It appears to be at odds with data reported by USNews 2006.</p>
<p>My friend chose Princeton out of those three. It might be because we live in Jersey though.</p>
<p>Statistical Comparison of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford
Harvard Yale Princeton Stanford
RESOURCES
1 Endowment 2004 ($billion) 22.6 12.7 9.9 9.9
2 Library (million volumes) 15.4 11.7 6.2 8.2
AWARDS AND HONORS
3 Nobel Prize winners 75 19 29 37
4 Current Faculty in National Academy of Sciences 164 62 70 124
5 Current Faculty in National Academy of Engineering 14 5 20 87
6 Current Faculty in Institute of Medicine 101 37 8 81
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
7 2005 National Merit Scholars 287 232 180 194
8 2005 National Achievement Scholars 70 57 40 51
9 Rhodes Scholars 315 166 126 84
10 Marshall Scholars 239 112 101 74
11 Putnam Math Competition First Place Finish 25 0 0 0
12 Putnam Math Competition Top Five Finish 51 11 24 5
13 2003 College Class Enrolling in Top Graduate Schools 358 231 174 181
ALUMNI
14 U.S. Presidents 7 5 3 1
15 Current U.S. Senators 17 7 3 5
16 Current U.S. Supreme Court Justices 6 2 1 1
LAW SCHOOL
17 Supreme Court clerks 1991-2005 128 100 0 42
18 2005 Law School Class Hired by Top 50 law firms 166 46 0 57
MEDICAL SCHOOL
19 2005 NIH grants ($billion) 1170 300 N/A 244
20 Current Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators 32 17 3 13
BUSINESS SCHOOL
21 Alumni among Fortune 500 CEOs with MBA 23% N/A N/A N/A</p>
<p>Sources: 1. <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0112636.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0112636.html</a> 2. <a href="http://hul.harvard.edu/about.html%5B/url%5D">http://hul.harvard.edu/about.html</a> <a href="http://www.yale.edu/oir/factsheet.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.yale.edu/oir/factsheet.html</a> <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/library/%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/main/library/</a> <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/home/stanford/facts/libraries.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.stanford.edu/home/stanford/facts/libraries.html</a>
3. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_laureates_by_university_affiliation%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_laureates_by_university_affiliation</a> 4. <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/site/Dir?sid=1011&view=basic&pg=srch%5B/url%5D">http://www.nasonline.org/site/Dir?sid=1011&view=basic&pg=srch</a> 5. <a href="http://www.nae.edu/nae/naepub.nsf/Home+Page?OpenView%5B/url%5D">http://www.nae.edu/nae/naepub.nsf/Home+Page?OpenView</a> 6. <a href="http://www.iom.edu/CMS/2951.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.iom.edu/CMS/2951.aspx</a> 7. <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/05_annual%20report.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/05_annual%20report.pdf</a> 8. <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/05_annual%20report.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/05_annual%20report.pdf</a> 9. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_scholarship%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_scholarship</a> 10. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_scholarship%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_scholarship</a> 11. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putnam_mathematical_competition%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putnam_mathematical_competition</a> 12. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putnam_mathematical_competition%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putnam_mathematical_competition</a> 13. <a href="http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/college/feederschools.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/college/feederschools.htm</a> 14. <a href="http://www.americanpresidents.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.americanpresidents.org/</a> 15. <a href="http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm</a> 16. <a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/biographiescurrent.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/biographiescurrent.pdf</a> 17. <a href="http://www.leiterrankings.com/jobs/1991scotus_clerks.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.leiterrankings.com/jobs/1991scotus_clerks.shtml</a> 18. <a href="http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1126256708738%5B/url%5D">http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1126256708738</a> 19. U.S. News and World Report 2006 Best Graduate Schools issue 20. <a href="http://www.hhmi.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.hhmi.org/</a> 21. <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-04-06-cover-ceos_x.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-04-06-cover-ceos_x.htm</a>. Harvard is also the school with the most undergraduate alumni among the Fortune 500 CEOs (<a href="http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/Statistical_Snapshot_of_Leading_CEOs_relB3.pdf#nameddest=GAedu)%5B/url%5D">http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/Statistical_Snapshot_of_Leading_CEOs_relB3.pdf#nameddest=GAedu)</a>.</p>
<p>^ A lot of those stats would be more valuable if they were standardized, since the different schools have differing populations. Not to say they're not valuable now, but they're also misrepresentative.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Cautious Pessimism. Many of those statistics are somewhat misleading and you really need to account for the total number of students at each university to get a more accurate picture. For example, while Princeton might be tied for 3rd largest overall endowment, it has the highest endowment per student in the country-- see <a href="http://en.wikpedia.org/wiki/Ivy-league%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikpedia.org/wiki/Ivy-league</a>. Also, while 6 Supreme Court justices have gone to Harvard Law School, only 2 (Souter and Roberts) attended Harvard undergrad. Also, I believe that the statistic relating to Supreme Court justices is only looking at placements from law school, not undergraduate schools. Since Princeton has no law school, that statistic is not relevant for Princeton and it is somewhat misleading to put down a "0" for Princeton.</p>
<p>keep taleban out of this discussion since taleban=Talibs plus Elm= Students of Knowledge= that would mean almost everyone on cc.</p>
<p>Hits to the EA decision stats for the class of 2010: Harvard - 123,000+, Princeton - 85,000+, and Yale - 81,000+. Why are we arguing about these 3 schools. Suffice it to say they are all great schools and no matter which one you pick you can't go wrong, It comes down to personal preferences.</p>
<p>^ Precisely.</p>
<p>I should really stop reading threads like this. I was hoping for an actual discussion about the characteristics and atmosphere of each school things a student would really care about. Instead, people are just tossing out gobs of meaningless statistics.</p>
<p>No two applicants "care about" the same things. </p>
<p>You should plan to visit any school to which you are admitted to check out the "atmosphere" if that is key for you.</p>
<p>Of course different students care about different things. I guess I care most about particular strengths or special opportunities each school offers. Data about prominent graduates is of no use to me.</p>
<p>I agree that visiting a school is the only real way to experience its atmosphere, especially since I've seen so many outlandish stereotypes and generalizations on this site. At least statistics are objective.</p>