[ladyjane]

Muawiyah - I usually agree with you on issues but on this one I have to tell you, no way. Do you have any idea how many applicants at Harvard are direct descendants of a Forbes, Lawrence, Cabot, Adams, Lowell, Quincy, et al? Plus, Obama was applying to the Law School - a nouveau professional school founded in the nineteenth century - horrors. His pedigree doesn’t count - at least not in a positive way.

[muawiyah]

Do you recall exactly how many descendants of Dudley, Phipps, Stoughton, and that crowd, there've ever been? It's kind of a thin herd but it counts for a lot.

I hope you didn't imagine I was referring to just the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Then there are the Presidents of Harvard ~ http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/03.15/harvard_presidents01.html

I don't see any of those people you named on those lists. I'd be hard pressed to let a kid into any school on their account.

[Scoutmaster]

Obama was applying to the Law School - a nouveau professional school founded in the nineteenth century - horrors.

As a graduate of one of Harvard's 'nouveau professional schools,' and student of one of the joint graduate degree programs, I can only agree with that. The University, undergraduate faculty, and undergraduate students all clearly viewed the graduate professional schools as Harvard's community colleges.

Harvard Law School is the largest in the nation. That alone was held up as evidence that, well, it certainly wasn't particular about the students it admitted, unlike the undergraduate school and the non-professional graduate schools.