<p>Hey guys,
I am currently a HS senior trying to decide where to go for college. I know I want to go to a T14 school in the future. I have narrowed it down to Harvard and a full-ride at a state school. Money is not a big factor in the decision, as I am more worried about the GPA factor.<br>
Is it better to have a close to 4.0 GPA from a state school or a 3.5 ish GPA from Harvard? Assuming I will have the same LSAT score. Also, does it matter what my undergraduate major is? Since getting a higher GPA would be much easier in certain majors.</p>
<p>I don’t have any advice relevant to your first questions, but I and everyone on here will tell you to find a major that you enjoy and that you can get a high GPA in. The undergraduate major does not matter to law schools.</p>
<p>That being said, the T14 are prestige hoes. A 3.6/17x from H may not get you into Harvard Law, but will undoubtedly open some doors from T4 on down, depending on the LSAT. NYU has accepted a few 3.6/171 Ivy grads this year, for example.</p>
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<p>Yes, but major is a minor factor in admissions. Any traditionally liberal arts major will be fine. Try to avoid what are considered ‘vocational’ majors, such as pre-law, criminology, kinesiology, physical therapy.</p>
<p>If money is not a factor, H is a no-brainer in my opinion. Even if you decide LS is not for you, you will still have the H degree.</p>
<p>@Bentley8: BlueBayou and I disagree that major is a factor. There are plenty of “vocational” majors at my T14 and I haven’t found anything in the data to suggest a real bias towards certain majors. I agree with Bluebayou that you should go to Harvard for undergrad if you can get it.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily assume you’ll do better at the state school than Harvard, GPA-wise. If the state school requires you to take more distribution requirements in things you’re bad at, has required curves in certain classes, or just has more distractions for you, you could easily do worse there. My sense is that Harvard is a lot harder to get into than to do well at.</p>
<p>“money is not a big factor”-go to Harvard; if all else is equal, take the Harvard acceptance. As the poster above points out, there’s no guarantee that if you attend a state univ that your GPA will be better.</p>
<p>I personally know the Ivy grads. But on LSN: a 3.56/171 (top 20 LAC, English major), and a 3.57/171 (liberal arts major), and a 3.7/171 (liberal arts major, top 50 undergrad)</p>
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<p>THAT data is available on LSN if you search for it. Nearly every high stat applicant who has not received an offer from the T6 attended a third-tier college and/or had a vocational major. As an example, look for an applicant with a 4.0/175 (generally auto-accept numbers) who just got an interview from H (even though he applied months ago): Criminal Justice major from directional college. Yes, he may still get accepted, but it will be off of the WL.</p>
<p>Or, just look at the history of all of those who claim that they have a “strange” cycle. No, they ain’t strange; they are very predictable.</p>
<p>Yes, vocational major grads are accepted into the T14. But the question is at what %? (I don’t have the answer, but I submit that it is much lower than other majors with the same numbers.)</p>
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<p>I disagree with this too. Basket weaving is a vocational major, as is Engineering. But the rigor of engineering will trump in the battle of vocational majors.</p>
<p>As a T-14 admit who will be starting law school this Fall, I assure you that the H degree will help you in the admissions process. It’s common knowledge that prestige of an applicants UG institution by-and-large doesn’t make a noticeable difference; however there are exceptions and H is one of them. </p>
<p>Attending H is good as insurance incase you don’t perform as you hope to on the LSAT as it will bump you up a bit.</p>
<p>Ive heard a lot about Harvard’s grade inflation, how bad is it really? Some students told me that although it does exist, it only means that you wont fall below a B in most cases, but A’s are still hard to get.</p>
<p>first, i’d wager it’s definitely easier to get a better GPA at a top school like harvard; in many state schools (i can speak personally of the UC schools), grade deflation is a real thing.</p>
<p>second, i would say the harvard degree will come in handy if law school doesn’t work out.</p>
<p>third, if it does work out, harvard undergrad will bit a very, very soft factor (but still nice to have) in getting hired by elite firms/employers.</p>
<p>Harvard. If you graduate at the bottom of your class there, you can still get into a very good law school. If you do not want to do law school, then it’s great to have on your resume.</p>
<p>Also, grade deflation at state schools is brutal.</p>
<p>I agree with Harvard and made a similar decision once upon a time. I also think that A’s at Harvard are not too difficult to get with good course selection and hard work. </p>
<p>If you were accepted, presumably Harvard thinks you are capable of the work!</p>
<p>one more thing, possibly contradictory to my previous post.</p>
<p>I think that if you go from Harvard UG to a less-selective law school (and all but a very few law schools are less selective than Harvard) it makes you look like an underachiever and if you go to a state school then move up in selectivity for law school it makes you look like a hard worker. I’d rather hire the University of Maryland undergrad who went to Stanford Law than a Stanford undergrad who went to the University of Maryland’s law school.</p>
<p>Of course, you have essentially no chance of predicting whether you will get into a selective law school at this point, or if you will even want to go to law school when you graduate. So pick the undergraduate school that will open more doors for you upon graduation, however you define those doors…alumni network (in the world? in the field/region you want to live in?), strength/variety of majors, level of debt, opportunity to take electives v. required courses, ease of making lifelong friends, etc.</p>
<p>Would this be true even holding the law school constant? Would you rather hire a Stanford undergrad who went to Michigan Law, or an Alabama undergrad who went to Michigan Law? I wouldn’t think it would make that big a difference.</p>
<p>Obviously a better law school trumps a worse law school for legal jobs. Within the law school firms probably care most about grades/LR/previous work experience, but I could see a shiny undergrad having some benefit.</p>
<p>me personally? Everything else being equal, I’d rather have the Alabama undergrad–strikes me as frugal, a striver, and with a more diverse background. But that’s just me. I’m sure many if not most folks who do hiring (especially at big firms) prefer the highest ranking for UG and law school possible. </p>
<p>my point was just that since you don’t know what kind of law school you might get in to (or if you will even want to go to law school) it could possibly be better to take the one that:</p>
<p>a) has a better chance of letting you move up the prestige ladder if you do go to law school (if you go to Harvard undergrad, there’s very little but down for you to move for law school)</p>
<p>You don’t, and can’t, know what you will want to do four to six years from now. You’re going to discover all kinds of options that you never knew existed. Maybe they will include law school, maybe not. Choose the undergrad you want for its own sake, not because you think you can pull a 4.0 that may play no role in your success on paths other than law school.</p>