The stats behind Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Law Review
I’m a law school nerd and watched Obama speech with a friend who asked me what it really means to be Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Law School, one of the credentials that I find most indicative of Obama’s intellectual horsepower.
Every year around 7,500 people apply to Harvard Law School. Roughly 560 students matriculate with, on average, a 3.8 undergrad GPA and a 99th percentile LSAT score. After 1L year studying legal theory, around 40 of the best students are appointed to Harvard Law Review based on their first year grades and writing. Law Reviews are highly competitive student run scholarly journals considered mandatory by many for high-end legal careers. For the 7% that make it on to Law Review, 2L year is more legal theory plus highly detailed editing of emerging legal scholarship pending publication in the journal. At the end of 2L year, one member of Law Review is elected to be the next year’s Editor-in-Chief by the existing members. The Editor-in-Chief then runs the process of producing the next year’s editions of the journal. Since 1887, 121 people have been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Law Review. There were more than 7,000 Rhodes Scholarships granted during the same period.
holy shit that is competitive!
You fail to mention that Harv. L. Rev. reserves several seats on the Review for minorities. It is not purely based on grades and writing. Race is also a factor.
There may be seats reserved on the law review but the EIC is elected and race is not an issue. King of the Nerds no matter what way you look at it. That’s reality.
Since Obama refuses to release his grades, you cannot assume that Obama got into Harvard based on good grades. There is evidence that Obama was promoted to Harvard by influential people.
Once at Harvard, we can’t assume that he got good grades, either. Where is the proof that he had good grades there?
We can’t assume that good grades got him onto the Law Review.
And lastly, his being elected Editor was the result of political savvy and telling people what they wanted to hear (then as now) when the selection committee, after midnight, was tired and just wanted the process (which had taken 17 hours) to be over so they could go to bed.
Has Obama been successful as a politician? Yes.
But to imply that he is brilliant and more intelligent than 7,000 Rhodes Scholars, without any proof other of his grades, and based solely on his being elected Editor of the HLR, is intellectually dishonest.