HRC, at Wellesley, explains why she chose Yale's Law School over Harvard's.

[pnwmom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/us/politics/02clinton.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

SNIP

Mrs. Clinton described her four undergraduate years here in the late 1960s as among the most “exhilarating and formative” of her life, but added that “when I came to Wellesley, “I never in a million years could have imagined I would one day return as a candidate for the presidency of the United States.” She emphasized that “back then, women weren’t always taken seriously.”

Mrs. Clinton recounted how she had been admitted to both Harvard and Yale Law Schools and was at a Harvard cocktail reception for prospective students when she was introduced to a famous law school professor.

“One of my friends said, ‘Professor So-and-So, this is Hillary Rodham, she’s trying to decide between us and our nearest competitor,’” Mrs. Clinton said. “And he looked down at me, and he said: ‘Well, first, we don’t have a nearest competitor. And secondly, we don’t need any more women.’”

There were loud gasps from the audience.

“So,” Mrs. Clinton said when the gasps had died down, “I decided to go to Yale.”

SNIP

[MADem]

1. Ya know, Alberto "BushCo Suckup" Gonzales went to Harvard Law....

It would seem the better law education is to be found at Yale...

[LiberalFighter]

3. Don't forget Bush is the product of Harvard's Business School

[awoke_in_2003]

27. That doesn't say much for their business school. nt

[MADem]

36. They didn't really have grades back then, hardly. It was just a bunch o rich guys sittin' around

JAWBONING...as it were...

[LiberalFighter]

39. I tell people every chance I get how the local college operates their MBA

and that it is likely the same way at Harvard. That a good portion of individual's grade is likely to be based on the group's efforts.

[smalll]

2. Funny how destiny works. That professor engendered two great Presidencies with his stupidity.

Now Bill and Hillary would meet in line at the Yale Law School Library. Fate is as inexorable and inevitable as She Herself!

[pnwmom]

9. I forgot about that. You're right -- and I wonder if this professor is still alive

and just as full of himself.

[Catherine Vincent]

4. Thank God she did.

Otherwise she wouldn't have met Bill Clinton!

[bluestateguy]

5. I would have expected Yale to be the more sexist school

But then again, what do I know? I've received more rejections from Ivy League schools than I care to count.

[Lucinda]

8. In my experience there are idiots at all colleges

The one she met just tipped the scales for her.

[pnwmom]

11. Personal experiences like that probably determine students' choices

most of the time, when they're dealing with such comparable schools.

But Harvard can have such an unbearably smug attitude about itself. I think it says something in her favor that she wasn't attracted to that.

[Lucinda]

13. I based my undergrad major on meetings with two department heads

One clicked. The other didn't. So I know first hand how much a moment can change the course of your life :)

[pnwmom]

14. Kinda scary, isn't it? Especially when you're in a position

to influence young lives.

[Lucinda]

23. Yawp.

[pnwmom]

10. Something I had read about Yale's Law School made it sound

somewhat more humane than Harvard's -- with regard to the treatment of its students, that is. I don't know if that's still true, though.

[Lucinda]

6. I'm reading her bio now and just hit that a couple days ago

:) She made the right choice.

[journalist3072]

7. Yep, this very story is told on page 43 of Judith Warner's book

"Hillary Clinton: The Inside Story" which was released right after she became First Lady.

It's a really great book, with a lot of insight into Hillary Clinton. It's what made me a fan of hers in the first place.

[pnwmom]

12. Did you see those letters of hers from college that the NYTimes

published a few months ago?

I thought those were interesting -- funny and idealistic and philosophical.

[journalist3072]

16. Yes...exactly! eom

[Captain Hilts]

15. That fits with a friend of mine's experience with Harvard also. nt

[benny05]

17. Good forum

NYT treated this as news. Wellesley grads rule, I guess.

[Hieronymus]

18. Hillary certainly is a woman before anything else, isn't she?

[pnwmom]

20. That snotty Harvard professor clearly thought so.

But no, she's a human before anything else. And while she was at an all-woman'scollege, which happened to be her alma mater, she gave a speech about how much her education had inspired her.

But people who WANT to find fault will find fault with anything she does.

[1932]

19. I read that Edwards picked UNC over Duke because it was much less expensive.

And he transferred from Clemson to NC State after not getting a football scholarship at the end of his freshman year for the same reason.

[pnwmom]

21. And North Carolina was lucky to get him. n/t

[fujiyama]

22. I know those rankings may not mean much

but US News has Yale's law school beating Harvard's anyways.

I think the class sizes are smaller and it's more selective as well.

[Debi]

24. One jerk at a cocktail party is how she based her decision? I'd hope there's more to the story .

I don't want a president that makes knee-jerk decision based on a rude comment by one individual of a large organization.

[cobalt1999]

26. LOL

This wasn't a candidate for president, this was a young kid. I'm sure you made decisions in your younger years based on less than that.

[Debi]

28. Sure, things like what to wear for the day or where to eat dinner

but for a 20-some year old to choose which law school to attend. I just can't beleive that the decision was made solely on that exchange.

[cobalt1999]

29. You must have been a boring young woman.

Your craziest decisions were food and clothes, huh? Kind of sad, some of us were a little more impetuous.

Regardless, it also has no bearing on today as your original post implied. You'd think a lifetime serious minded woman like yourself would have been able to grasp that.

There is a reason why candidates must be at least 35 to run for president, younger versions of even great presidents would probably have been disasters.

[Debi]

31. I don't consider choosing which law school to attend a crazy decision.

I said it made a cute story, but I think it makes Clinton seem more shallow than she actually is and I doubt that the conversation is the ONLY reason she had for choosing Yale over Harvard.

[cali]

40. Are you serious?

I consider the comment "we don't need more women" to be so seriously sexist, that making a decision based on it, just demonstrates good sense.

[ElizabethDC]

32. In her book, I think she says that she was leaning toward Yale anyway

although if someone made a comment that rude to me, I probably wouldn't want to attend that school, either.

Women were very much in the minority in many law schools in those days, and they were often made to feel unwelcome.

[Debi]

33. Thank you, that was what was supposed to be my point

I can't believe that a person who had already graduated from college and had been accepted to two very good law schools would make a knee-jerk decision like that. And we all know that even now there are jerks in every academic institution. If that was the final piece of her decision puzzle, it makes much more sense than if that was the only reason for her choice. However, again, it does make for a cute story.

[jmp]

25. Do her friend and the Professor have names?

Not that I doubt her veracity or anything. It's just that I wonder if anyone can corroborate this story. ;)

[CTyankee]

30. Well, as someone who lives in New Haven, I have to agree that Yale is the better choice

for law school. Also, my first husband was a Harvard man (as in "you can always tell a Harvard man, but you can't tellhim much). So I have my own prejudices.

That said, I like the law school. Their students are terrific and they do some great things....

[Turn CO Blue]

34. My daughter will choose between two public universities in CO

Hillary says: "I was so privileged that I had to choose between two very expensive, elite, Ivy League schools -- and one didn't want me! Boo Hoo!"

So what, Hillary? So the fuck what? That is your example of "making do"? That is your example of having experienced sexism? I hate it when people with money and power do the knowing nod and tell anecdotes about their loyalty to and the rivalries between Ivy League outrageously priced universities!

Hillary, please remember who you were 30 years ago and start speaking with that conviction and shut up about Yale.

[mentalsolstice]

35. Gore went to Harvard & Vanderbilt

...just sayin'.

[ElizabethDC]

38. FWIW, she took out loans to attend law school, and her parents didn't pay a penny.

And, by the way, just because people have money or their parents can afford to send them to an expensive school certainly doesn't make them exempt from sexism, racism, et.c

[Capn Sunshine]

37. I want to know how Yale prepared her to support torture

because she hasn't disassociated herself from it one bit.

She's "troubled" by Mukaseys views - support the Unitary Executive , torture is OK..... but will consider supporting him

WTF is that?

[cali]

41. She came out in opposition to Mukasey days ago n/t