WELCOME TO GARY WOLFSTONE'S BLOG 26 ~ Every college senior who has applied for admission to a Harvard graduate school is thrilled to receive the letter of acceptance from the Dean of Admissions ~ in my case, the Dean of Admissions at Harvard Law School. Some young men and women have been groomed from early childhood to attend Harvard, but most of us made the decision to take the leap during our junior or senior year in college. I had applied to six law schools and was admitted to all of them. Harvard, however, was a dream come true.

  At the present time, five United States Supreme Court Justices graduated from Harvard Law School (John G. Roberts Jr., Athony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Elena Kagan and Neil M. Gorsuch), and Harvard has produced the most justices in the Court's history. The law schools which have been represented are Harvard (15), Yale (6), and Columbia (2).

  John F. Kennedy was the first President in whom I became interested, and I will always remember his pride of Harvard. President Kennedy said it best when he delivered the commencement address at Yale University in 1962 where he was given an honorary doctorate from Yale: "It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds, a Harvard education and a Yale degree."

  That said, I can also report to my readers that Harvard has a long list of names of people who have received a letter of rejection. People who had put their hearts into an application to Harvard University are frequently bitter when rejected. Call it "jealousy" or just "disappointment" but it is real and it hurts. A Harvard graduate is well advised to tread softly when thrown together with colleagues. Inevitably, there will be an ugly colleague who is nursing his or her sour grapes. They are quick to say: "Who in the Hell do you think you are?"

  Most Harvard grads who have survived in the work-a-day-world have experienced some of this bitterness and have learned to smile when a colleague asks: "Is that the Harvard method?"

  My father lived to see me graduate from college and law school, and he was intensely proud of my achievement.

  I attended a small liberal arts college where the graduating seniors were familiar with each other. I believe that several poly sci majors (I was an econ major) applied to Harvard Law School at the same time that I applied. Only one member of my college class was admitted to Harvard Law, and I was that one fortunate person. My classmates who ended up going to "also ran" law schools look upon me with that attitude of "who in the hell do you think you are!"

  RSVP garywolfstone@gmail.com