HLS Admissions for College Juniors: Game Changer? Forum

[tirakon]

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/ ... t-program/#

If this program's deferral operates like normal deferrals, then this seems essentially like an ED program.

For those HYS admits who chose YS, do you think you would have applied to and enrolled in HLS''s 2+3 program had that been an option for the earlier security?

Will future HYS applicants forgo the opportunity to apply to YS for the opportunity to secure their futures earlier?

Will Yale and Stanford jump on board?

[hung jury]

Seems like a TTT move to me.

Why not just apply after your two years work experience?

[ManOfTheMinute]

Hmm... Not sure how I feel about this. Why can't they just apply senior year and then defer for two years?

[tirakon]

Hmm... Not sure how I feel about this. Why can't they just apply senior year and then defer for two years?

They still can. The draw of the program is that you can a) lock up your law school plans ridiculously early and b) apply for jobs with Harvard Law School already on your resume.

That seems pretty enticing.

[Lavitz]

Looks like it'll only be an option for Harvard undergrad students for the first few years.

[txdude45]

Looks like it'll only be an option for Harvard undergrad students for the first few years.

Opening it to YP can't be too far behind. That trio just love one another too much.

[ManOfTheMinute]

Looks like it'll only be an option for Harvard undergrad students for the first few years.

Opening it to YP can't be too far behind. That trio just love one another too much.

In before some stanford undergrad makes it HYPS

[heywatchitbuddy]

they still have to take the LSAT and everything, so not really a big deal

[tirakon]

they still have to take the LSAT and everything, so not really a big deal

I think it really could be a big deal. If you're someone who knows during college that they're interested in eventually going to law school, wouldn't you rather apply to Harvard early and be done than blanket HYS a couple years down the road? Plus, this way you'd be able to apply for jobs with HLS already on your resume, and you'd be able to relax about grades your senior year. Those all seem compelling to me.

[sinfiery]

Harvard playing dirty.

[Elston Gunn]

Total TTT move.

[dawyzest1]

Total TTT move.

Mean, but true. I will resort to euphemism here and say that this move is not one HLS is making from a position of strength.

Anyway, H knows it is losing the talent battle (or at least they aren't winning as much as they would like) to Y and maybe S, so it makes sense for them to try to fight the battle earlier when the information asymmetry is greater--a college junior won't know as much about where they might be able to go as a college senior would. Could work...for a period of time, but then once Y and S start doing the same thing the party is over.

[biznardos]

The death of K-JD starts now

[09042014]

The death of K-JD starts now

I doubt. Only HLS and NU really value work experience. Hardly a huge trend.

[law2015]

The death of K-JD starts now

+1.

[txdude45]

The death of K-JD starts now

Imagine a world where only TT and below schools will admit you without a 2+3 commitment. Chaos.

[toothbrush]

This is interesting. My ttt UG had a similar program with their law school and it led to them accepting people with lower LSAT / GPA than normal. This COULD *potentially* make admission for regular applicants more difficult if HLS wants to keep their medians. I guess it depends on how many people they accept and how strict they are.

[beepboopbeep]

This is interesting. My ttt UG had a similar program with their law school and it led to them accepting people with lower LSAT / GPA than normal. This COULD *potentially* make admission for regular applicants more difficult if HLS wants to keep their medians. I guess it depends on how many people they accept and how strict they are.

That's what I was worrying about with it. But it's also Harvard. They'll lose 400 students a year to Y/S and some to Hamiltons/etc, but there's not as much competition above them as, say, Illinois, which offered a similar program - and resorted to fudging LSATs to avoid this very problem.

Anyway, H knows it is losing the talent battle (or at least they aren't winning as much as they would like) to Y and maybe S, so it makes sense for them to try to fight the battle earlier when the information asymmetry is greater--a college junior won't know as much about where they might be able to go as a college senior would. Could work...for a period of time, but then once Y and S start doing the same thing the party is over.

I think that's about right. The class size hurts.

ETA: I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't expand. More schools are trying to retain their own undergrads, and H would be the second in the last couple years (Chicago started a UG-ED program as well, which admitted 4 out of the 6 students who applied last year [according to my sources]) to do so. The multiyear deferral thing is odd, though - I wonder if it's more about keeping their numbers stable in future years (having time to adjust RA rates, etc) than the stated "work experience" reason.

[d330]

Can't understand why a Junior at Harvard would do this. Too much going on during that time to make a truly considered decision about law school. The pool of people you could bounce your ideas off would be reduced and the only benefit is for Harvard. If you would get in as a Junior you'd likely get in HYS a year after graduation, definitely Harvard. I can't understand a single good reason to do this - unless you want to check out your senior year and having admission gives you that false sense of freedom.

[banjo]

The article mentioned attracting hard science majors. Do science majors have their hardest classes during their senior year? Maybe it really is a GPA shield for science types.

[untar614]

The article mentioned attracting hard science majors. Do science majors have their hardest classes during their senior year? Maybe it really is a GPA shield for science types.

Not necessarily - I took most of mine my junior year and had a blow-off senior year, but it's certainly not uncommon for people to put off biochem, cell structure and molecular physiology to senior year. It worked out well for my friends applying to med school who got in in the fall or early spring as they didn't have to worry about getting As in all those classes any more.

[tirakon]

The article mentioned attracting hard science majors. Do science majors have their hardest classes during their senior year? Maybe it really is a GPA shield for science types.

I don't think they do. My guess would be that the hardest classes GPA-wise are probably the weed-out intro classes.

I think that the focus on hard science majors is an attempt to grab these students before they go off into straight science jobs like engineering and research, that pay decently without requiring an extra degree. That was the goal behind Harvard Business School's 2+2 program.

[laxbrah420]

The article mentioned attracting hard science majors. Do science majors have their hardest classes during their senior year? Maybe it really is a GPA shield for science types.

I don't think they do. My guess would be that the hardest classes GPA-wise are probably the weed-out intro classes.

No. Not even close.

[09042014]

The article mentioned attracting hard science majors. Do science majors have their hardest classes during their senior year? Maybe it really is a GPA shield for science types.

Not really. The hard weed out classes happen sophomore year. By Senior year you either are doing well or you aren't. Though Harvard has high grade inflation and is TTT as engineering so maybe they have that problem.

[jbagelboy]

Can't understand why a Junior at Harvard would do this. Too much going on during that time to make a truly considered decision about law school. The pool of people you could bounce your ideas off would be reduced and the only benefit is for Harvard. If you would get in as a Junior you'd likely get in HYS a year after graduation, definitely Harvard. I can't understand a single good reason to do this - unless you want to check out your senior year and having admission gives you that false sense of freedom.

lol this actually sounds great, although you couldn't totally check out -- you'd still have to do consulting or IB rounds in the fall or some sort of FT employment for it to count right? Either way, I somewhat disagree that it has no utility, especially if they will take Harvard kids with slightly lower numbers. If you could have told me junior year I had an opportunity at a guaranteed admission to a top 3 law school that wouldn't offer me a competitive merit scholarship anyway, I'd do it.