The mere mention of the name “Harvard” invokes common notions among those who hear it: exclusivity, prestige, honor, all of which make Harvard an outstanding institution. To be selected as an undergraduate student to Harvard University is an honor in itself, and it is even more of an honor to be admitted to the much respected Harvard Law School, which has produced many of America’s most respected lawyers, politicians, and intellectuals.
I first met Elizabeth Crepps through my participation in The Law Society, an organization on campus dedicated to facilitating law school campus visits, LSAT preparatory company seminars, and a community for students interested in pursuing a legal education upon the completion of their undergraduate careers. Though representative of a large array of academic interests, the membership of the Law Society consists of primarily political science and philosophy majors. Among these, Elizabeth was an exception. Contrasting with the normally more outspoken individuals who feel more at home when debating ideological and philosophical topics, Elizabeth was an English major, and she was markedly more modest about her own academic achievements and law school aspirations than the rest.
Crepps entered CSULB on a full scholarship as a recipient of the President’s Scholars scholarship. As a high school student, she attended Dixon High School in northern California. Despite being admitted to other universities, upon receiving the scholarship, she chose to attend Cal State Long Beach. Needless to say, her work at Long Beach was also marked with academic excellence. Upon the completion of her degree in Spring 2008, Elizabeth had maintained a 4.0 GPA, completed her thesis as a part of her enrollment in the University Honors Program, participated in various organizations, and most important of all been admitted to Harvard Law School.
Communicating with Elizabeth in the weeks following her graduation, I was able to learn some more about what inspired her to want to pursue a degree in law, and what her sights are set on for the future. From this I was able to gain a bit of insight into her experiences within the honors program, writing her honors thesis, and in preparing law school applications.
For Elizabeth, the University Honors Program was a way to continue the unique experiences she had while taking honors and Advanced Placement courses during high school. In her own words, “one of the great things about the Honors Program is that it encompasses a number of very intelligent, very creative people, and the Honors Program professors often provide opportunities for their students to demonstrate these abilities.” Particularly, she noted the small class sizes, more specialized course topics, and professors who are very dedicated to the subject which they teach, as being major contributors to her experience. This is perfectly illustrated through her experience in taking the Honors Program’s Shakespeare I class, which by her recollection only had eight students in enrollment, and therefore created a comfortable and open environment where students could work without concern for a lack of attention among their peers or the professor.
One of the greater obstacles in graduating from the honors program is, of course, completing the thesis. Rather than being akin to an essay, many students who have completed it would characterize it as being much more similar to writing a book, albeit a short one at that. Crepps described her thesis writing experience as a mixed bag during the actual process; however, it was a great experience overall. Despite the stress and the rush that occurred closer to the due date, she “loved the opportunity the process gave me to really delve into my subject.” She gives much credit to her thesis advisor, Professor Erin Caron whom she described as being an amazing advisor, who provided her with a lot of support and feedback during the entirety of the process.
Most students do not consider what they want to do after they graduate until the latter end of their undergraduate careers. In Elizabeth’s situation, the beginning of her decision to go on to law school came when she first came to Cal State Long Beach. She first started seriously considering law school as a result of a discussion she had with her father when driving down from northern California to move in to the dorms during her first year. She had, up to this point, decided not to pursue a career in law due to the moral dilemmas arising from having to possibly defend the guilty. However, after her father pointed out that it was still possible to be a lawyer and avoid the quandaries brought on by criminal litigation, as demonstrated by her aunt’s work as a women’s reproductive rights lawyer, she found law to be once again appealing. Though she is not quite sure which area of law she will study while at Harvard, as of now she is interested in possibly studying environmental law or advocacy. What especially excites her about the practicing law is that “it provides a chance to learn constantly, as one prepares for each new case.” With the conversation with her father in mind, one of the first things that Crepps did was join The Law Society after finding out about the organization during the Week of Welcome organization fair that occurs at the beginning of each semester.
Approximately three years later, Elizabeth found herself gearing up to apply to law school and taking the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test). Though the fall of 2007 was three semesters previous to when she would graduate, she described it as one of the greatest challenges of her undergraduate career. On top of taking fifteen units of course work, working, and participating in two organizations as an officer, she was also taking an LSAT preparation course. For her, the hardest part of this was balancing her schedule to make sure that she was on task with the combined workload of balancing homework, practicing logic problems, and doing work for her student organizations. In retrospect, she described how “simply sipping a Starbucks energy drink immediately reminds [her] of those months of consuming way too many energy drinks, hardly sleeping, and carrying LSAT prep books with me everywhere, doing problems in any spare moment.” Though these time were hectic, they obviously payed off, producing a respectable score of 173 on the LSAT.
At the close of the law school admissions period, there were a number of schools to which she was admitted; however, her final choice came down to UC Berkeley or Harvard. Though Berkeley offered her a location much closer to home in northern California, she chose Harvard, a decision she described as being very difficult to make. Elizabeth attributed her choice of Harvard to the fact that she believes “it will provide [her] with more opportunities, both during and after law school.” Furthermore, she cited Harvard’s size, reputation, the wonderful variety of programs and organizations students can join and the many chances to interact with professors.
After the completion of her legal education at Harvard Law School, Crepps say that she looks forward to being able to return to northern California rather than staying on the East Coast. Looking back on her experience applying to law school, her advice to CSULB students who intend to do likewise is to join The Law Society and plan carefully and stay organized during the whole process of applying to law school, which has many deadlines and hurdles. For all of those Honors students out there who intend to attend law school after graduating, heed her advice and get started!
