My ex-girlfriend went to a (the?) top Ivy League undergrad school. She lived in a dorm wing with other pre-meds. I was a bit puzzled to discover that she applied to medical schools, law schools and a liberal arts Ph.D. programs all at the same time. WTF, I silently thought to myself. She said she had done so to give herself a breadth of options, and she wanted to get into the most prestigious school she could, apparently regardless of field. For example, Yale Law would trump Penn Med. crazy.
It seemed a topic too dangerous to dig for details. I think if she actually got into a top-three (by some magazine-decided reputation) med or law school, she would have told me. Her MCAT/GPA was sufficiently high for the best schools. She did get accepted to, entered, and finished her Ph.D., at the (supposedly) best department in its field in the country.
Some people are unashamedly after title and prestige. and to be able to say, I got into such-n-such School of Law on a whim is just another notch on they can use to sell themselves.
