<p>I know the competitive sort of Social Darwinism aspect of Harvard as a law school. How cut-throat it is compared to Yale Law School or Stanford Law School. I also know that Harvard ugrad sort of has this. Is this a general characteristic of Harvard?</p>
<p>Well, Elle Woods got through Harvard Law pretty easily so...</p>
<p>A higher percentage of admits to Harvard end up graduating than at any other college or university in the United States of America, so apparently its not that tough to stagger through the place. </p>
<p>There are a lot of motivated students, however, and most work pretty hard - although many claim to put as much time into their extracurriculars as they do into their studies.</p>
<p>Imiracle911, actually, Mr. Byerly is engaging in a bit of hyperbole here. While he and I are both fond of Harvard, Mr. Byerly's statement can't be considered absolutely true. The graduation figures to which he is referring can be assessed in a number of ways. One is freshman retention rate, a commonly used measure of the success of an institution in creating a meaningful and fulfilling first year experience. Quite simply, it is the percentage of freshman returning to an institution for their sophomore year. According to U.S. News, there are many schools that have a higher freshman retention rate than Harvard. Another measure is the percentage of students who graduate within six years. In this category Harvard is tied with Princeton. Perhaps the best measure is the percentage of students who complete their studies in four years. I don't believe those statistics are available for all schools in the country and they are not provided by U.S. News. (Perhaps someone else can point us in the direction of such a compilation of statistics.) As for how competitive Harvard is, the answer is very. On the other hand so are all of the other Ivy League Schools. You will always find some students at HLS and at the College who are obnoxious and mean-spirited in their competitiveness. This certainly doesn't describe all students at Harvard or even a majority. Again, however, I don't think you'll find this to be any different at any of the other competitive schools. I have often heard it said (though I certainly can't verify it) that competition at schools that accept a larger percentage of their applicants is actually meaner since the stakes are higher in the sense that only the top students get offers to the best graduate schools.</p>
<p>What a strange post.</p>
<p>No "hyperbole," but, in fact, the truth. </p>
<p>According to the 2006 USNews, Harvard has the highest graduation rate of any college in Ameerica - bar none - at 98%. Not tied with anybody.</p>
<p>The graduation rate is higher than the relatively meaningless "freshman retention rate" because Harvard students are actively encouraged to take a year off during the course of their studies, and many do. </p>
<p>Harvard has found that those who do so generally return with a sharper focus and get more out of their college education.</p>
<hr>
<p>Actual graduation rates - per USNews 2006</p>
<p>Harvard University (MA)
98%
Princeton University (NJ)
97%
Brown University (RI)
96%
University of Notre Dame (IN)
96%
Yale University (CT)
96%
Dartmouth College (NH)
95%
Duke University (NC)
94%
University of Pennsylvania
94%
Columbia University (NY)
93%
Georgetown University (DC)
93%</p>
<p>"A higher percentage of admits to Harvard end up graduating than at any other college or university in the United States of America, so apparently its not that tough to stagger through the place."</p>
<p>With that kind of grade inflation, anyone could "stagger" through! "Sail" might be a more appropriate verb, though.</p>
<p>If you consider the 91% that got honours at Harvard ... meaning only 7 percent passed without HONOURS ... and 2 percent dropped out/failed etc... kinda makes that stat as meaningless as ED yield.</p>
<p>Yes, but with recent administrative adjustments to the honors programs that are attempting to fight grade inflation and limit the number of honors degrees, that statistic will change.</p>
<p>Ok. Shall we say 88% will get honours then? :p</p>
<p>Yeah. I wish.</p>
<p>Honors inflation is a completely different thing than grade inflation. Honors inflation is a thing of the past; the policy was changed in 2001 (IIRC) and honors are capped at a much smaller percentage of the class.</p>
<p>As for grade inflation, Harvard is right in line with its peers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gradeinflation.com%5B/url%5D">www.gradeinflation.com</a>.</p>
<p>this site is also very useful:
<a href="http://www.gradeinflation.org%5B/url%5D">www.gradeinflation.org</a></p>
<p>I thought Yale's law school was considered the best in the country?</p>
<p>Yes, if you follow US News, Yale Law is #1 and Harvard Law is #2.</p>
<p>I've heard that in HLS there is more competition among students than in Harvard College. Don't know if it's true or not.</p>
<p>Harvard remains an institution that essentially hands its students a degree with a well-known name on it on a silver platter, honors or not.</p>
<p>So saith the ambassador from Palo Alto, whose first choice was Yale, but who seems compulsively facinated by Harvard and posts here more frequently than elsewhere! </p>
<p>One wonders what might have happened had he risked applying to Harvard. Might he have gotten in? We'll never know, will we ... and never will he!</p>
<p>No, we never will. </p>
<p>I visited Harvard and didn't like it at all. Harvard College offers a mediocre education at best, and everyone there seemed to know that. I'm fascinated because I really don't see what's so unbelievably great about your esteemed institution. At least you can't attack me for being a bitter reject, right Byerly? ;)</p>
<p>"ambassador from Palo Alto." I like that, Byerly, I really do. </p>
<p>As for Yale being my first choice, it was more or less a tossup between Y and S for my SCEA school. I figured Yale was a better bet EA to get in considering the EA competition for Stanford, and that was that.</p>
<p>u.s. news highest four-year graduation rates:</p>
<p>princeton 90%</p>
<p>yale 88%</p>
<p>harvard 86%</p>
<p>MIT 81%</p>
<p>caltech, stanford 77%</p>