<p>Rolen27: Without intending to discourage you from applying to HYS, you have to realize that your chances, or anyone else's, for that matter are slim when it comes to HYS. Yale and Stanford are uber-picky. They want people who have distinguished themselves in special, although somewhat traditional ways. Think Rhodes and Marshall scholars, immaculate academic records at top schools, published papers/theses/books, ran for political office, PhDs, and other major accomplishments. They look for a mixture of these things. They don't seem particularly interested in your tipical go-to-college to get a job, vocational major, student. </p>
<p>A major in Finance, while it will not prevent you from being admitted to HYS, will not help you; the exception could be if you come out of a Ross or Haas or Stern, where the reputation of the school would make up for the less theoretical major. </p>
<p>Harvard is supposed to be numbers oriented: where numbers could get you in. But even then, it is "Harvard." You cannot "count" on getting in simply because you have the numbers -- many others will, too.</p>
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They want people who have distinguished themselves in special, although somewhat traditional ways. Think Rhodes and Marshall scholars, immaculate academic records at top schools, published papers/theses/books, ran for political office, PhDs, and other major accomplishments. They look for a mixture of these things.
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<p>It is hard to believe that these constitute the preponderance of accepted students.</p>
<p>The median GPA of accepted students at Yale this year was a 3.88. Obviously, more than half did not have immaculate academic records.</p>
<p>There were three students accepted from Georgetown this year, and none of them earned any of the above fellowships, published anything, or ran for political office.</p>
<p>Such aspects are attractive, but in no way are they prerequisites.</p>
<p>At Yale and Stanford? They do. Most people don't have all of them, but most people do have at least one...usually an immaculate academic record at a top school. If you want to go straight from high school to college to YLS, and your resume doesn't show a major leadership role in some big important project (or an impressive diversity story), you better have a 3.9 from Princeton or Harvard. Then you have a CHANCE.</p>
<p>Bear in mind how small the class is. It's not that hard to find 100 people who have PhD's, peace corps, president of the college student government, McKinsey, diversity, etc. etc. to fill the bottom half of the class.</p>
<p>The special attributes mentioned here are in no way an exhaustive list. If you could see the kids from my college class who DIDN'T get into YLS...</p>
<p>You do have a shot. #1, those #'s are high enough to give you a fighting chance for the right-out-of-college slots, and #2, you don't know what aspect of your resume or essays may blow them away. Given the EC's of my classmates who didn't get in, I pretty strongly believe that my essays played a role (though of course you never know).</p>
<p>I know I probably will not get accepted, but I might as well take the chance if I have a shot. Worst case involves my losing an application fee and effort, but the reward is worth it.</p>
<p>What about coming from undergrad at MIT? I heard the average freshman GPA there is like a 2.8 on a 4.0 scale...and they don't even give D's or F's to freshman. Considering that, wouldn't a 3.5 be fairly competitive?</p>
<p>out of curiousity, how is university of rochester looked upon by law schools. do they feel it has a strong courseload? Since there are no gen ed requirents, and the university heavily recomends 4 courses per semester, do you think it will be looked down upon in contrast to those students taking 5-6 courses per semester at other colleges?</p>
<p>I know that it is almost impossible for me and most everyone else to get into YHS but my primary concern is this... will Harvard look at (all other things equal)</p>
<p>a 3.9 GPA in Government and a 175 LSAT and say lets give this kid a chance</p>
<p>and then look at</p>
<p>a 3.9 GPA in Finance (HONORS) and a 175 LSAT and say this guy's major is too vocational?</p>
<p>That's pure speculation. Have you even taken a practice LSAT? It's just too silly to play with hipothetical scenarios; your exact situation and stats will be different to what you expect/speculate. </p>
<p>Go to college, take the LSAT; see how you do, and THEN match your GPA LSAT scores.</p>