How much would it be worth it to get to say your degree was officially from Harvard and now qualify for the bar, even if all you did was quietly watch the videos and do the homework?
I think you make a crucial point. Even if you were eligible in both situations to sit for the bar (say by virtue of California's looser education requirements), the Harvard name would be worth a heck of a lot more than $60k, at least assuming you were curved against other Harvard students in your examinations. The value of a law degree, at least in many circles of the legal profession, is 50% name brand, 40% sorting within the class, and maybe 10% education.
A few fields take this trait of education to a counterproductive extent (banking, consulting, law), but I think the unfortunate truth is that for most fields, the value of a degree is more than 50% in branding and sorting, rather than education. Even in engineering, outside some progressive places, I wouldn't put it much below 50%.
Still less than 60k. Unless it has the same bar the Harvard of today has, its not the same brand.
Part of the thing with Harvard, is getting in is so hard that if i'm interviewing a candidate half the job is already done. But if anyone is allowed into the program (and why not?) then that filter is gone... so the name while still having value as a great program loses the value as a filter.
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I think you make a crucial point. Even if you were eligible in both situations to sit for the bar (say by virtue of California's looser education requirements), the Harvard name would be worth a heck of a lot more than $60k, at least assuming you were curved against other Harvard students in your examinations. The value of a law degree, at least in many circles of the legal profession, is 50% name brand, 40% sorting within the class, and maybe 10% education.
A few fields take this trait of education to a counterproductive extent (banking, consulting, law), but I think the unfortunate truth is that for most fields, the value of a degree is more than 50% in branding and sorting, rather than education. Even in engineering, outside some progressive places, I wouldn't put it much below 50%.
Still less than 60k. Unless it has the same bar the Harvard of today has, its not the same brand.
Part of the thing with Harvard, is getting in is so hard that if i'm interviewing a candidate half the job is already done. But if anyone is allowed into the program (and why not?) then that filter is gone... so the name while still having value as a great program loses the value as a filter.
I'm assuming the online nature doesn't change the admissions standards. That's 90% of the point of going to Harvard.