Who here is in at HYS? How are you deciding?

[Zinfandel.]

For the last time, it's YSH.

[attic4fp]

In at Harvard and Yale, waiting to hear back from Columbia.  I will go to Yale, even if offered the Hamilton, because:

a) Less competition & less intense work load
b) smaller classes means more time with professors
c) supposedly better clerking opportunities
d) my girlfriend lives in New Haven

Can you elaborate on this?

Denny Crane...

In at Harvard and Yale, waiting to hear back from Columbia.  I will go to Yale, even if offered the Hamilton, because:

a) Less competition & less intense work load
b) smaller classes means more time with professors
c) supposedly better clerking opportunities
d) my girlfriend lives in New Haven

I have a feeling the work load will be equally intense. The professors will expect anything you produce to be perfect.

The Yale Law students I know do significantly less work than the Harvard Law students on this board claim to do (and the people I know are not all slackers, one has been hired to clerk at SCOTUS in 2009 for Justice Thomas).  Some of them do less work than most science undergraduates.

Many skip classes on a regular basis and no one seems to care about grades at all.  I know someone who has gone on a month long vacation in the middle of the semester without even informing professors and still done well in his classes (obviously an extreme case, but still...).

I know Harvard is less competitive compared to other schools where job prospects are less secure, and I know the workload at Yale will still be large, but I believe Yale is less competitive and has a smaller workload than Harvard.

Just my anecdotal experience, though.

[Chef Gordon Ramsay]

very, very cool. i love hearing about what people want to do with their degrees -- most of the people i know are gunning for biglaw, which is interesting in its own right (um, i think), but there really are so many avenues...especially for y'all destined for HYS, because no matter which one you choose, you'll be able to whatever it is in this world that appeals to you.

Which begs the question: what are the best post-JD career options outside traditional avenues like biglaw or clerkships?

[Denny Crane]

very, very cool. i love hearing about what people want to do with their degrees -- most of the people i know are gunning for biglaw, which is interesting in its own right (um, i think), but there really are so many avenues...especially for y'all destined for HYS, because no matter which one you choose, you'll be able to whatever it is in this world that appeals to you.

Which begs the question: what are the best post-JD career options outside traditional avenues like biglaw or clerkships?

Consulting and i-banking are big destinations for non-law careers.  McKinsey just launched a new program specifically for recent law school graduates.  Also, many corporate lawyers eventually make their way to i-banking (and not just ones with MBA's).

[Steve.jd]

very, very cool. i love hearing about what people want to do with their degrees -- most of the people i know are gunning for biglaw, which is interesting in its own right (um, i think), but there really are so many avenues...especially for y'all destined for HYS, because no matter which one you choose, you'll be able to whatever it is in this world that appeals to you.

Which begs the question: what are the best post-JD career options outside traditional avenues like biglaw or clerkships?

Consulting and i-banking are big destinations for non-law careers.  McKinsey just launched a new program specifically for recent law school graduates.  Also, many corporate lawyers eventually make their way to i-banking (and not just ones with MBA's).

As far as I know HLS is the only school where McKinsey does OCI (at least as of last year) /subtle trolling

I-Banking is overrated though

[safado]

Why is it overrated? It seems like the money is really good, and the hours can't be worse than in Biglaw, can they?

[Denny Crane]

Why is it overrated? It seems like the money is really good, and the hours can't be worse than in Biglaw, can they?

Don't forget the chicks.

[safado]

Ahhh, chicks, how could I forget the chicks. I-banking is for me!

[Catherine Morland]

Stanford's starting a nonprofit/general counsel clinic in the fall. That just threw a (welcome) wrench in my plans. I wish they would include more information than pictures, though. Their materials are gorgeous, but shallow. Why can't it be April and time to visit yet?

[Denny Crane]

I got the Stanford brochures today too.

Their clinical program is amazing, but the one program that would have been my main draw to the school (their Supreme Court Clinic), is now being challenged by Harvard's announcement that starting next year they'll have their own, full year Supreme Court Clinic taught by a former acting solicitor general.  Basically, for me, Harvard has neutralized the one trump that Stanford had.