I am an IP lawyer in private practice and have been admitted to Stanford's intellectual property (IP) LLM program and Harvard 2019/2020. I am now struggling with which to choose. No funding decision has been made yet, but I hope anyway to receive scholarships from my home country to cover all costs.

As indicated, I intend to specialise in IP and I am aware that Stanford is better than Harvard in that respect, even though Harvard is quite strong. The smaller class of Stanford is attractive as well. So in terms of substance of learning for IP, and possibly academic opportunities that may arise from the studies, I believe Stanford is a slightly better choice.

But what is struggling is that Harvard's general reputation in law seems to be stronger than Stanford's, at least internationally. Law is still a conservative field and simply the name of a school has - for better or worse - quite some weight. People I have already asked personally say that "Harvard is Harvard" in terms of its reputation outside the US, so it seems hard to beat, even in a field where Harvard is actually not the best.

I have seen forum discussions with students being in the same (sweet, but at the same time vicious) dilemma years ago, but I would really appreciate any new views from today. Do you think that one school above the other has a real advantage in my situation?

[Edited by hlvr on Mar 20, 2019]

I am an IP lawyer in private practice and have been admitted to Stanford's intellectual property (IP) LLM program and Harvard 2019/2020. I am now struggling with which to choose. No funding decision has been made yet, but I hope anyway to receive scholarships from my home country to cover all costs.

As indicated, I intend to specialise in IP and I am aware that Stanford is better than Harvard in that respect, even though Harvard is quite strong. The smaller class of Stanford is attractive as well. So in terms of substance of learning for IP, and possibly academic opportunities that may arise from the studies, I believe Stanford is a slightly better choice.

But what is struggling is that Harvard's general reputation in law seems to be stronger than Stanford's, at least internationally. Law is still a conservative field and simply the name of a school has - for better or worse - quite some weight. People I have already asked personally say that "Harvard is Harvard" in terms of its reputation outside the US, so it seems hard to beat, even in a field where Harvard is actually not the best.

I have seen forum discussions with students being in the same (sweet, but at the same time vicious) dilemma years ago, but I would really appreciate any new views from today. Do you think that one school above the other has a real advantage in my situation?

You are right. In the outside world and in the non-legal world, merely having done any degree from Harvard law school would help you to attract the best of clients. That's the sad reality of the world.

I am an IP lawyer in private practice and have been admitted to Stanford's intellectual property (IP) LLM program and Harvard 2019/2020. I am now struggling with which to choose. No funding decision has been made yet, but I hope anyway to receive scholarships from my home country to cover all costs.

As indicated, I intend to specialise in IP and I am aware that Stanford is better than Harvard in that respect, even though Harvard is quite strong. The smaller class of Stanford is attractive as well. So in terms of substance of learning for IP, and possibly academic opportunities that may arise from the studies, I believe Stanford is a slightly better choice.

But what is struggling is that Harvard's general reputation in law seems to be stronger than Stanford's, at least internationally. Law is still a conservative field and simply the name of a school has - for better or worse - quite some weight. People I have already asked personally say that "Harvard is Harvard" in terms of its reputation outside the US, so it seems hard to beat, even in a field where Harvard is actually not the best.

I have seen forum discussions with students being in the same (sweet, but at the same time vicious) dilemma years ago, but I would really appreciate any new views from today. Do you think that one school above the other has a real advantage in my situation?