Chance at Harvard? Forum

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waccc

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Chance at Harvard?

Post by waccc » Fri Jul 13, 2018 3:08 pm

hi guys. rising junior at a t14 undergraduate. I recently just started considering the possibility of a law degree, but I don't know a thing about law school application and am looking for some advice.

Assuming my credentials are as follows by the time of my junior summer:
- 3.91 gpa (business & international relations majors); 175+ LSAT; international applicant
- Economics & development research intern at a top think tank
- Investment banking summer intern at a bb in new york (all of my previous experiences are finance related)
- Long term involvement in rural development activities in my home country

I mainly have the following questions:
1. Do I stand a chance at Harvard? What are some of my reasonable choices?
2. One concern I have is that most of my experiences are finance related. I could sure come up with some compelling reasons for law school in the essays, but I was wondering if my background would hurt my application.
3. I can potentially raise my gpa to 3.93 by taking some extra load. Will this make a difference?

Any input would be truly appreciated. Thanks.

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t-14orbust

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by t-14orbust » Sat Jul 14, 2018 5:21 pm

You have a 100% chance of getting in.

DerKatze

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by DerKatze » Mon Jul 16, 2018 12:01 am

The difference between 3.93 and 3.91, even for Harvard, is minimal. I disagree that your chances are 100%, but they are certainly well above 50%. Taking extra credits to improve your GPA by .02 is a poor idea, because provides more risk that your GPA will actually go down. Even if this is unlikely, there is no upside.

Clacknesing

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by Clacknesing » Mon Jul 16, 2018 12:43 pm

Hello, dear! I am sorry, but i can't answer to you about the chances but anyway, i would like to wish you good luck in this issue!

waccc

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by waccc » Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:44 pm

DerKatze wrote:The difference between 3.93 and 3.91, even for Harvard, is minimal. I disagree that your chances are 100%, but they are certainly well above 50%. Taking extra credits to improve your GPA by .02 is a poor idea, because provides more risk that your GPA will actually go down. Even if this is unlikely, there is no upside.
thanks for the reply. I know it's not gonna be 100%, but knowing that there is a reasonable shot is good enough for me to prepare the lsat lol

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DerKatze

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by DerKatze » Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:07 pm

Of course. By "prepare the lsat" I assume you haven't actually taken it yet? Is the 175 your average practice score? An educated guess? Just curious. The difference between a 175 and a 173 is that for Harvard, your softs start to matter, because you'll be right around median for both numbers at Harvard. Same for Yale and Stanford--I think it's definitely worth it for you to apply to both those schools as well.

Your finance background won't hurt at all. Lots, if not most, people who apply to law school don't really have a background related to law. I would guess finance would be one of the more prestigious backgrounds either way.

waccc

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by waccc » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:16 am

DerKatze wrote:Of course. By "prepare the lsat" I assume you haven't actually taken it yet? Is the 175 your average practice score? An educated guess? Just curious. The difference between a 175 and a 173 is that for Harvard, your softs start to matter, because you'll be right around median for both numbers at Harvard. Same for Yale and Stanford--I think it's definitely worth it for you to apply to both those schools as well.

Your finance background won't hurt at all. Lots, if not most, people who apply to law school don't really have a background related to law. I would guess finance would be one of the more prestigious backgrounds either way.
thanks very much for the reply. yea, that 175 is just an educated guess. I haven't learned anything about lsat yet. I just want to gauge my chance if I reach a fairly competitive score. like 2300 for sat in old days haha.

btw, is there a huge difference between, say, an 175 and 178. for lsat, is it 'the higher the better' or 'over 17x, they're all the same?'

kellyjohnson

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by kellyjohnson » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:40 am

waccc wrote: btw, is there a huge difference between, say, an 175 and 178. for lsat, is it 'the higher the better' or 'over 17x, they're all the same?'
higher is better, but once you are over a school's 75th% then each point is probably not as significant. However, in the low 17x's a few points can put you below median, median-75%, or above 75% for a given school (HLS median is 173 and 75th is 175, for reference).

hoos89

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by hoos89 » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:55 am

waccc wrote:
DerKatze wrote:Of course. By "prepare the lsat" I assume you haven't actually taken it yet? Is the 175 your average practice score? An educated guess? Just curious. The difference between a 175 and a 173 is that for Harvard, your softs start to matter, because you'll be right around median for both numbers at Harvard. Same for Yale and Stanford--I think it's definitely worth it for you to apply to both those schools as well.

Your finance background won't hurt at all. Lots, if not most, people who apply to law school don't really have a background related to law. I would guess finance would be one of the more prestigious backgrounds either way.
thanks very much for the reply. yea, that 175 is just an educated guess. I haven't learned anything about lsat yet. I just want to gauge my chance if I reach a fairly competitive score. like 2300 for sat in old days haha.

btw, is there a huge difference between, say, an 175 and 178. for lsat, is it 'the higher the better' or 'over 17x, they're all the same?'
I wouldn't just assume you're going to get mid-170s because you did well on the SAT...they're completely different tests. If you were to score mid-170s you'd get into Harvard but without even knowing anything about the LSAT there's no reason to assume you would. I kind of feel like you might be building yourself up for disappointment here.

And to answer your question: anything over 17x is more or less the same for most schools, but Harvard's median LSAT is 173 and 75%-ile is 175 so yes...there's definitely a difference between 170 and 175 when it comes to Harvard.

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waccc

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by waccc » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:38 pm

hoos89 wrote:
waccc wrote:
DerKatze wrote:Of course. By "prepare the lsat" I assume you haven't actually taken it yet? Is the 175 your average practice score? An educated guess? Just curious. The difference between a 175 and a 173 is that for Harvard, your softs start to matter, because you'll be right around median for both numbers at Harvard. Same for Yale and Stanford--I think it's definitely worth it for you to apply to both those schools as well.

Your finance background won't hurt at all. Lots, if not most, people who apply to law school don't really have a background related to law. I would guess finance would be one of the more prestigious backgrounds either way.
thanks very much for the reply. yea, that 175 is just an educated guess. I haven't learned anything about lsat yet. I just want to gauge my chance if I reach a fairly competitive score. like 2300 for sat in old days haha.

btw, is there a huge difference between, say, an 175 and 178. for lsat, is it 'the higher the better' or 'over 17x, they're all the same?'
I wouldn't just assume you're going to get mid-170s because you did well on the SAT...they're completely different tests. If you were to score mid-170s you'd get into Harvard but without even knowing anything about the LSAT there's no reason to assume you would. I kind of feel like you might be building yourself up for disappointment here.

And to answer your question: anything over 17x is more or less the same for most schools, but Harvard's median LSAT is 173 and 75%-ile is 175 so yes...there's definitely a difference between 170 and 175 when it comes to Harvard.
yea you are right that they're very different tests. I only mention 2300 SAT as a reference for a LSAT score that is considered competitive for most schools. if my chance is still uncertain with such a score, I wouldn't even bother studying the test. likewise, knowing how specific score ranges are considered helps me to better gauge the degree of preparation needed. I was always pretty good at standardized tests, so I wouldn't expect something too bad if I put in the efforts.

thanks for the info anyway.

waccc

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Re: Chance at Harvard?

Post by waccc » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:41 pm

kellyjohnson wrote:
waccc wrote: btw, is there a huge difference between, say, an 175 and 178. for lsat, is it 'the higher the better' or 'over 17x, they're all the same?'
higher is better, but once you are over a school's 75th% then each point is probably not as significant. However, in the low 17x's a few points can put you below median, median-75%, or above 75% for a given school (HLS median is 173 and 75th is 175, for reference).
appreciate the information.

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