Apparently, I have already attainted the requisite standard of success in life. Apparently, that standard merely requires acceptance and enrollment into the Harvard Law School. All one has to do is look at the pedigree of Harvard University to understand. The famed halls of Harvard have tutored the likes of John F. Kennedy Jr., Ralph Waldo Emerson, W.E.B. DuBois, FDR, and many other luminaries. More specifically, the Harvard Law School can claim five of the nine current Supreme Court Justices. Even the Harvard dropouts have tycoon potential. Last I heard, Bill Gates and Matt Damon aren’t doing too badly these days.
Does Harvard Equal The Golden Ticket
Two years ago, when I was contemplating where I should enroll in law school, my father broke down the decision-making process in very simple terms. “There will be people at Columbia and NYU who weren’t able to get into Harvard or Stanford, but there won’t be anybody at Harvard and Stanford who couldn’t have gotten into NYU or Columbia,” he said. “By going to Harvard, you’ll have a greater chance of ultimately having more influence in the world by working with a larger, and frankly, much more influential alumni base, while also broadening your own scope within the larger world.”
I have to admit that there seems to be whole lot of common sense in those statements. A pure example of a father being a father, sharing some simple truths with his son. I’m not stupid, I listened to my father, he’s a lot smarter than I am, and we all know where I ended up.
Without a doubt, Harvard University has reverential prestige in almost every place that the human race resides, but that unparalleled respect is decidedly undeserved in so many respects. There is a key distinction between my father’s perspective on Harvard and my own. Like most other people, he could only formulate his opinions about the Harvard experience from the outside, while I live the insider’s life. Grinding out a couple of semesters in Cambridge can greatly change one’s perspective. That’s why I know that it’s far too easy to glamorize the history of the university by focusing on its tradition of producing distinguished alumni. Let’s stir up some controversy by focusing on a couple more practical questions.
Question 1: Will a Harvard education make me or any of my classmates a better lawyer than someone who has attended NYU, Columbia, Georgetown, or for that matter Howard? Of course my Harvard degree won’t make me a better lawyer or any other kind of professional. But, the classification has – and will continue – to at least create the appearance that my abilities are of a certain caliber, and that my presence adds a certain panache to the scene. Honestly, I would like people to realize that I possess these qualities even without my recently acquired Harvard status, but they often don’t, usually when they don’t know me that well. In my eyes, the “H-Bomb” is simply a good way to reaffirm the positive personal qualities that I already retain. With that said, unlike many others who may use the “H-Bomb” as a crutch, I am more apt to see my Ivy League affiliation as a scarlet letter rather than a brand of privilege.
Question 2: Does Harvard equal a “Golden Ticket?” Well, in many respects it does. There are so many people who assume that I am “set for life” now that I am a Harvard Law student. Unfortunately, these people do not understand that financial security comes at a price – it costs you your soul. Well, maybe not your entire being, but I do think that the Harvard Law School experience suppresses so many of the creative aspects of an individual’s persona. Independent thought and acknowledgement of emotion are discouraged while the “infallible” realm of “objective thought” is glorified. These are some of the many reasons that the law school process can become quite unbearable.
No comments:
Post a Comment