<p>“you might want to give some passing thought to the possibility that some schools may give you a better edge than others at doing it.”</p>
<p>That is the worst of the many misinterpretations one could draw from this study. The implication is that the students at the top ranked colleges went to these professional schools BECAUSE they went to the top colleges. That is- take any student, of whatever motivation and talent, send them to Harvard, and they will end up at Harvard Law. Does this even sound remotely reasonable?</p>
<p>It is vastly more likely that the students who ultimately will get into the top professional schools are top students in high school. They work hard, get straight A’s in demanding courses, and score very high on standardized tests. When they get to college, they repeat this behavior. This is why they get into top professional schools, and it is why they got into undergrad at Harvard, Yale, Princeton…</p>
<p>If you look at the average SAT scores of the entering students at these colleges, you can predict where they ended up on this “ranking”. Then remember that students who attend colleges with top profesional schools that did not end up on the “top” list used by WSJ are likely to go to professional school at their own university, and a bit more of the relationship is predicted. Then notice that 11 of the 15 “top” professional schools, and 15 of the 20 “top” colleges are in the northeast. What about Pomona students who go to professional school at Stanford? Obviously a bunch of losers. What about Rice students who go to medical school at Duke? Failures?</p>
<p>If you got into Harvard and one of the other top 20 schools, there may be lots of reasons to prefer Harvard, but don’t let this study make you think you will be a better prospect for HLS just because you went to Harvard. You had better get top grades and ace the LSAT, wherever you go to college. </p>
<p>BTW they do not do this annually, they did it once. The results are particularly unreliable for the small colleges, since one student deciding to go professional school near where her husband works could move a college up or down a long way on the list.</p>
<p>This “study” was meant for entertainment. Not to be taken seriously.</p>