<p>I really need a parent's perspective (please be honest...dont feel the need to sugar coat things please :) )
I chose to go to Johns Hopkins undergrad where I am really shooting to do the 5-year BA/MA with SAIS--the tippity top school for international studies (Tim Geithner went there)--or Sciences Po. I love history, politics, economics, french...that kind of stuff.
After completing that, I want to attend Yale or Harvard Law School---preferably Yale. (Yes I know it's hard....I'm a URM (black female) and I have taken the LSAT just for fun and already scored a 161. If LSATs are still used in the future, I will get it up to 170 something by app time).</p>
<p>Anyway, I have dreams of obtaining a high position in government (National Security Council, Environment Sustainability, FEMA director or even President). Am I screwed be/c Im choosing Johns Hopkins and not somewhere like Princeton for undergrad?
Or is the whole Ivy craze exaggerated? Should I try to transfer to a transfer friendly Ivy?
I don't want a mediocre job...I want a really powerful and fulfilling one..</p>
<p>You are attending a good school - if you also have a good FA package (if you need FA) and won’t incur too much debt then you have a great deal. Stop worrying about whether or not there is something more acceptable to others and do well where you are - presumably you chose this school for reasons particular to you. Enjoy your time there.</p>
<p>There’s a saying, and of course, I can’t recall the exact wording, but it’s something like this: Your first job reflects where you went to college. After that, it’s strictly up to you.</p>
<p>one question comes to mind…how will you pay for it?? will you have horrendous undergrad debt, followed by law school debt?? or will you recieve great financial aid for undergrad? nothing is worth being 250K debt imo. if the debt is huge, then imo reduce your undergrad debt by going somewhere affordable,</p>
<p>Also, it is often the grad school that says more than where one went for undergrad. Obama went to Harvard Law. I don’t think he did his undergrad there. Once you have a graduate degree, no one cares where you went to undergrad.</p>
<p>There are lots of successful people who went to other excellent schools such as yours. And, you are closer to Washington DC in case you want to do internships and things. Get the best education you can and be the best person you can and it will all turn out fine.</p>
<p>(and as the mother of a future engineer, Hopkins programs is rated higher than most of the ivies–especially HYP, so it also depends on the major).</p>
<p>Full ride at Hopkins in International Studies? It doesn’t get much better than that! You’ll be fine. I think in IR what matters is what sort of internships and experience you can put together.</p>
<p>Oh come ON, howdypal – what do you really expect people to say? "Yes, absolutely, if you don’t go to HYP you will be screwed, there is no one at Yale or Harvard Law schools who has ever attended any other undergrad other than HYP, and there’s certainly never been anyone in any powerful position in government other than HYP graduates?</p>
<p>Have you thought about the last several Secretaries of State (just to pick a high-level position) and figured out where they attended? Hillary Clinton and Madeline Albright attended Wellesley. Condolleezza Rice attended the U of Denver. Colin Powell attended the City College of NY. Do you see a pattern here? </p>
<p>You already know the answer. JHU is an excellent school. It won’t prohibit you from achieving anything you might want. It’s the person, not the school.</p>
<p>^No, it means that I applied ED Hopkins which stopped any possibility of getting into HYP or the ivies as a freshman. Maybe I should have used a different word</p>
<p>Really? Some powerful women and their alma maters:</p>
<p>Condoleezza Rice: University of Denver
Hillary Clinton: Wellesley College
Nancy Pelosi: Trinity Washington University
Indra Nooyi: Madras Christian College
Sheila Bair: University of Kansas
Oprah Winfrey: Tennessee State University
Janet Napolitano: Santa Clara University
Drew Gilpin Faust: Bryn Mawr</p>
<p>Good luck with Yale Law with only a 170, even as a URM. Make sure to keep your GPA at 4.0 while still doing incredibly impressive things, and even then…</p>
<p>Regarding not going to HYP: others have said it, but no, don’t be silly. It barely matters.</p>
<p>Why are people so ignorant then? I am so sick of everyone saying “oh, thats not Ivy? its not a good school then” --or anything along those lines. -_-</p>
<p>Regarding Yale or Harvard Law: Yale seems to rely very much on soft factors…so numbers only go so far. I said I will shoot for 170-something…not just 170. I think having a 161 right now with almost zero prep is a decent score that can be improved in 4 or so years. May the force be with me.</p>
<p>Because people are stupid, howdypal. By any measure, JHU is an excellent school. And the kind of people who think that the world turns on HYP attendance are some of the stupidest of all. Why are you giving these people the time of day? Smile, nod and move on.</p>
<p>Edit: On CC, the people who are most enamored of HYP and believe it is the golden ticket to four years of perfect bliss, chocolate coming from the water fountains and never a bad hair day, not to mention a lifetime of monetary success, eternal bliss and people bowing down to them on the street, are invariably high school seniors or college freshmen who, quite frankly, don’t know anything about much of anything. Their opinions on the relative value of HYP versus other fine colleges are uninformed and not worth anything.</p>
<p>For careers which one would go into with a law degree, a JD from Harvard or Yale eclipses the undergrad education. You don’t get any more doors open with the Harvard undergrad.
And law school is pretty close to a function of GPA and LSAT, so going to Johns Hopkins is fine. Edit: Yale may be a bit more “soft”, but Harvard is pretty automatic with a 3.9/4.0 and a near-perfect LSAT.</p>
<p>However, there are dire consequences for NOT going to Harvard or Yale Law. Chief among them is that you may actually have to become a lawyer.</p>
It hurt</p>
I just wanted to get a feel of it, you know?</p>