Stanford or Harvard? Forum
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Stanford or Harvard?
decision made, post deleted thanks
Last edited by needgoodlsat on Wed May 06, 2009 12:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Stanford or Harvard?
sounds like you'd be happier at stanford. re: the diversity thing, stanford has a ton of graduate students* with whom you'll be able to socialize so i wouldn't look at SLS students as in a bubble. harvard's name recognition would certainly take you far, but as you said, at stanford you'll be competing with far fewer students (and any ny firm would take you coming out of SLS).
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Re: Stanford or Harvard?
You should try the search option--there are a number of semi-helpful threads regarding this topic. For my part, it really came down to it beginning as a tough choice but becoming an easy one after thinking about it a bit--imo, Stanford is far and away offer than Harvard (not to say that Harvard isn't great--I just felt Stanford to offer a far superior education).
- mallard
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Re: Stanford or Harvard?
It sounds like you would prefer Stanford.
- Justice4All
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Re: Stanford or Harvard?
I say you wait a year, retake the LSAT and try for Yale. Why quit the marathon 10 feet before the finish line?
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Re: Stanford or Harvard?
For what it's worth, I was making a similar decision - something familiar (Stanford) or something new (Yale) and went with the something new. If I'm pretty sure I want to end up in California, why not try out the east coast while I can? I think a similar logic suggests Stanford might be good if you're looking to try something different and you want to be in NYC after law school.
Personally, having visited both, I found Stanford much more compelling than Harvard for a number of reasons related to what I do and don't want from a law school experience - you can search for my posts recapping my ASW experiences at each, but you touched on a lot of the advantages to Stanford in your thoughts. However, I would disagree with your assessment on two points: I think Stanford as a university is at least as diverse as Harvard. Check out the general statistics. Also, I actually think Stanford is a much more tight community than Harvard is. Harvard's schools are more geographically scattered, are much much larger, and have less interaction than one another. Part of this simply is that most HLS students don't have any reason to go elsewhere given the breadth of the school. However, I definitely think, having been at Stanford for undergrad, there's a LOT of interaction between the different schools (As an undergrad, I took classes from biz school profs and with biz school students, from law school profs and law school TAs, and in several jointly-convened classes by profs from different departments. Also had friends who worked on projects with biz school students, were RAs for law school profs, and who took classes at the med school. There's TREMENDOUS interaction between schools).
At the end of the day, though, gut feeling is probably the single best factor to decide on.
Good luck - either way, you've got an awesome three years (and rest of your life!) ahead of you!
Personally, having visited both, I found Stanford much more compelling than Harvard for a number of reasons related to what I do and don't want from a law school experience - you can search for my posts recapping my ASW experiences at each, but you touched on a lot of the advantages to Stanford in your thoughts. However, I would disagree with your assessment on two points: I think Stanford as a university is at least as diverse as Harvard. Check out the general statistics. Also, I actually think Stanford is a much more tight community than Harvard is. Harvard's schools are more geographically scattered, are much much larger, and have less interaction than one another. Part of this simply is that most HLS students don't have any reason to go elsewhere given the breadth of the school. However, I definitely think, having been at Stanford for undergrad, there's a LOT of interaction between the different schools (As an undergrad, I took classes from biz school profs and with biz school students, from law school profs and law school TAs, and in several jointly-convened classes by profs from different departments. Also had friends who worked on projects with biz school students, were RAs for law school profs, and who took classes at the med school. There's TREMENDOUS interaction between schools).
At the end of the day, though, gut feeling is probably the single best factor to decide on.
Good luck - either way, you've got an awesome three years (and rest of your life!) ahead of you!
- kurla88
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Re: Stanford or Harvard?
+1mallard wrote:It sounds like you would prefer Stanford.
Re: lacking diversity - you said you were able to tough a lot out, I think toughing out a lack of diversity is easier than dealing with the extra competition that seems to come with Harvard. And it's certainly not as though Stanford is some 100% WASP wonderland.