<p>LW, what I do not need in my life are more Northwestern alumni than are already there, excepting perhaps my kid in a year’s time, g-d willing. </p>
<p>She is probably going to end up at Harvard/ Yale/ Top 10</p>
<p>@MrMom62, only the law students with the highest grades in the class even make it on to law review, let alone get elected editor. It’s basically how you know which of your fellow students are the A students during your second year – you look at who made it onto law review. </p>
<p>Also Obama graduated from Harvard Law magna cum laude.</p>
<p>It staggers me that anyone questions Obama’s brains or academic chops. You may hate his politics, you may think he’s a criminal, a hypocrite, a secret Muslim, a traitor, or an alien from outer space, but his intelligence is pretty much the one thing I don’t think is up for question. It’s like arguing that he’s not really that tall.</p>
<p>As for Malia, I’ll pick Stanford in the CC pool. </p>
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<p>I don’t know why. I never said he was a slacker, just not as bright as his syncophants make him out to be. He’s an above average intelligence guy with an amazing personality. Most politicians are.</p>
<p>Also, take a look at this, from Wikipedia about the Harvard Law Review:</p>
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[quote]
Membership in the Harvard Law Review is offered to select Harvard law students based on first-year grades and performance in a writing competition held at the end of the first year.The writing competition includes two components: an edit of an unpublished article and an analysis of a recent United States Supreme Court or Court of Appeals case. The writing competition submissions are graded blindly to assure anonymity. Fourteen editors (two from each 1L section) are selected based on a combination of their first-year grades and their competition scores. Twenty editors are selected based solely on their competition scores. The remaining editors are selected on a discretionary basis. According to the law review’s webpage, “Some of these discretionary slots may be used to implement the Review’s affirmative action policy.” The president of the Harvard Law Review is elected by the other editors.<a href=“Emphasis%20added”>/quote</a></p>
<p>Wouldn’t it make sense that the most dynamic personality be selected president?</p>
<p>^^^ I honestly never thought a birther would be hanging out on College Confidential.</p>
<p>Oh my God. Did you read the first sentence of the quote you posted?</p>
<p>Just to even be ON Harvard Law Review you have to either have the top grades in your class, or win a writing competition. So what we’re talking about here is someone who (a) got into Harvard Law, (b) was either one of the top students there or one of the best writers, © was chosen editor based on either scores/grades or discretionary factors (here’s where you decide to pounce on just the discretionary factors), and (d) also graduated magna cum laude. </p>
<p>Unless you’re saying that Harvard Law admits people and grades them based on their dynamic personalities, you have no grounds to argue that Obama didn’t accomplish all that through academic ability.</p>
<p>Hate on the guy all you want, but seriously, your argument makes you look like you’re either not that smart yourself, or else so blindly prejudiced that you can’t look at facts objectively. Nobody else in this country would have their intelligence questioned based on a similar academic record – unless they were somebody who was already famous or had some kind of influence (like some people question the academic ability of movie stars who get admitted to Ivy League schools). But when he went to Harvard, Obama was just some random guy. </p>
<p>Now, I’ll admit that Malia may be a total slacker dunce for all we know. I don’t think it’s likely, but plenty of smart people have had low achieving kids. But she’ll probably still be admitted anywhere she wants to go.</p>
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Well, Sonja Sotomayer (who graduated summa cum laude from Princeton) faced something similar at the time of her nomination and confirmation hearings. Here’s an article from 2009 as a reminder: <a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018348.php”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018348.php</a> </p>
<p>And Sidwell Friends is definitely not a school slackers or low-achievers. Given that both of her parents are Ivy-educated, it’s hard to believe that anyone would assume that the daughter doesn’t have the stats that her parents want her to have – that is, I’m sure there has been an expectation since early childhood that the girls would take their studies seriously. </p>
<p>I think admissions for the offspring of Presidents is handled the way that development cases are handled everywhere. That is, I think that they do submit transcripts and SAT scores, but the apps go straight to the director of admissions for consideration (Anything else doesn’t make much sense really). </p>
<p>Where did Ford, Carter, Johnson kids go to college? </p>
<p>I am pretty sure FLOTUS is already making sure Malia is hitting the prep books for the PSAT and helping her review test rests. They don’t let their kids off the hook on stuff like chores and academics. And sorry… but personality and packaging don’t get you the As you need in Harvard Law to make Law Review. Ridiculous.</p>
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<p>What does that mean, “cashing it in”? How are the Clintons different from any other former presidential family whose prominence offers them paid speaking fees or leads people to buy their books? I thought people like you were all about capitalism? If the market will bear $X for Bill or Hillary or Chelsea to appear at an event or be a commentator on a TV show, what’s the problem?</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate that this thread is taking on a political tone. Regardless of politics- she’s a teen age kid who has nothing to do with politics at the moment except for being her father’s daughter. We have no reason to assume, considering the educational background of her parents, that she isn’t held to high academic standards. I think it’s obvious that she has her choice of colleges, and I think she will also have the grades and scores in the range of accepted students. </p>
<p>At this point we could have some fun guessing what the final choice will be.</p>
<p>Stanford.</p>
<p>“we’ve never seen a thing on his academic performance at the undergrad level at either Occidental or Columbia, nor Harvard Law.”</p>
<p>Magna cum laude means top 10% grades in the Harvard Law class. That’s grades alone, not classmate selection, personality, or anything else. And all the first-year courses and larger upper-level courses are blind graded with no names on the exams. So we do know a lot about his grades there.</p>
<p>Take it from someone who just missed the top 40%: those magna kids are blindingly smart.</p>
<p>I went to Harvard Law School. You don’t graduate magna cum laude unless you’re very smart (I didn’t graduate magna cum laude, and I’m incredibly smart). Also, Larry Tribe said Obama was brilliant–and Tribe doesn’t typically say that about people other then himself. This is just a silly meme that was used during both elections, and some people still haven’t gotten the memo that the new meme is that Obama is a tyrannical mastermind.</p>
<p>As for Malia, I’ll bet you that her parents will make her go through the motions of applying, including writing essays. I’ve seen nothing to suggest that they don’t take parenting seriously.</p>
<p>This thread has gotten way off track from college selection so I’m going to close it.</p>