Top Law Schools

Hello TLSers-

I have accepted admission + generous scholarship offer from a lower T10 (It was the best debt/career prospects balance I had). I have visited the school and really like it. I think I would be happy going there.

I was also waitlisted at Harvard and decided to remain on their WL. I however withdrew from all of my other schools.

The idea of the possibility of attending Harvard is ruining my excitement. Probably because I'm from the East Coast and everyone I know (including me) really cares about prestige. I also know that the legal profession is very elitist and I don't want to be looked down upon by others for my choice.

I would like to clerk, work for a large firm, then ideally get involved in (state or maybe national) politics.

Obviously, there is no way to know whether I'll receive an offer from HLS nor when I will hear from them.
If they end up rejecting me, it would settle the matter; but if not, I'm not sure what to do.

Am I being silly here?
Should I receive an offer late in the summer, would it be worth it to accept it? Has anyone been in that position? I keep hearing from some that the perceived gains from attending Harvard tend to be higher than in reality.
Would attending a lower T-10 make achieving my goals much harder?

I would feel bad withdrawing from a school after making a commitment though.

N.B. based on my age and personal income, I would probably qualify for a fairly large need-based package. Harvard might end up costing the same or about 10k more a year. So finances will not drive my decision.

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Hey Charles,
First, congrats! This is an amazing scenario! I have similar aspirations at the end of my career (local politics though), and I would say as long as your school has some lay prestige you are going to be fine on that front. I totally understand the want of prestige, and Harvard offers that in abundance! I'd just stay the course that you're currently on. Be excited for your T10 (which is freaking awesome with your package), and just keep yourself on the wait list. Don't drive yourself crazy with what-ifs. Start prepping for your school, get excited, and just keep Harvard in the loop, if you get off the wait list make that decision at that point. For firms and clerkships Harvard is the better option relating to the relative prestige of the ones available to you afterwards; I'm not sure by how much, and I doubt the pay would be all that different. Certainly for politics nobody will care if you went to Harvard, Duke, Yale, Stanford, Penn, whatever. Try not to worry too much and just go with what feels right. Your decision might even just be solved for you, so just relax and enjoy the fantastic package you've got now. Best of luck.

Thanks, wafflez. You're right, I should just wait and see I guess.

crazywafflez wrote:Hey Charles,
First, congrats! This is an amazing scenario! I have similar aspirations at the end of my career (local politics though), and I would say as long as your school has some lay prestige you are going to be fine on that front. I totally understand the want of prestige, and Harvard offers that in abundance! I'd just stay the course that you're currently on. Be excited for your T10 (which is freaking awesome with your package), and just keep yourself on the wait list. Don't drive yourself crazy with what-ifs. Start prepping for your school, get excited, and just keep Harvard in the loop, if you get off the wait list make that decision at that point. For firms and clerkships Harvard is the better option relating to the relative prestige of the ones available to you afterwards; I'm not sure by how much, and I doubt the pay would be all that different. Certainly for politics nobody will care if you went to Harvard, Duke, Yale, Stanford, Penn, whatever. Try not to worry too much and just go with what feels right. Your decision might even just be solved for you, so just relax and enjoy the fantastic package you've got now. Best of luck.