John Kerry - Boston College Law School

[Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division]

Why did John Kerry go to Boston College Law School? He graduated from Yale University which is a top college and then went to Boston College which is not a top law school. Why didn’t he go to a top law school? Did he have a poor GPA or LSAT score? Or did he just want to go to school in Boston? Was he rejected from Harvard?

[SmackFu]

It’s Wikipedia so I wouldn’t cite it in a paper, but here’s a very long biography of the man.

An important point is that he did an awful lot between graduating Yale in 1966 and starting law school in 1973. In those 7 years: two tours in Vietnam, protesting Vietnam, married (not to the rich Heinz woman BTW), birth of his first daughter.

Hopefully someone has one of his books where I presume he would discuss the time period in detail.

[cmason32]

http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/alumni/magazine/2003/winter/feature1/

Q.: What drew you to Boston College Law School in particular?

A.: Although my family lived in a lot of places as I was growing up, Boston’s always been home. I was drawn to BC Law mostly because of Father [Robert] Drinan, whose first campaign for Congress I ended up chairing after I got out of the Navy and got involved in politics. In fact, the first time I ever came to BC Law was to meet with Father Drinan about his campaign.

He had left his position as dean of the Law School by the time I enrolled, but he made me aware of the Law School and its commitment to public service. I had expected to go to law school after college but got diverted by the Navy and then by my involvement in Vietnam Veterans Against the War. I went back to the law school path after I lost a race for Congress in 1972. At that point, Father Drinan helped me to get into BC Law late in the process.

The experiences I still treasure most from my BC Law days weren’t in the classroom, they were the ULL [Urban Legal Lab] in third year, trying cases in the Middlesex D.A.’s Office, and the Grimes Moot Court Competition, which my partner Ronna Schneider and I won. I’d never focused more intensely on one issue, so that I’d be able to argue either side of the case, literally on the toss of a coin.