After touring these schools this month, I realized that Davis was definitely the better option. At first, I applied to both thinking Hastings would be best because of its access to SF jobs and location in a great city, but what I found was quite different. SF is certainly beautiful, but Hastings is in one of its worst neighborhoods. I knew this before I visited, but what I found in The Tenderloin was even worse than I expected. Walking there from my hotel near Powell Street BART via Market Street, I was approached by a drug dealer, a couple times by beggars, and harassed by someone else. This is not the sort of neighborhood where I would enjoy spending three years of my life...
The Hastings buildings were nice and newly renovated, but students seemed downright gloomy. Socratic Method in the class I visited was the most extreme and unnecessary that I have seen in the five schools where I have attended classes. The Hastings class also had over 100 students and a seating chart that almost rivaled the height of the professor.
Moreover, the cost of living in San Francisco is just too high for law students. Let's face it, you will not perform at optimal levels if you're living in a cheap apartment in a sketchy part of the city or commuting from another part of the Bay Area. Paying perhaps $10k more per year for housing in San Francisco for a school equally prestigious as Davis just does not make sense. Why not just wait until after graduation and job offers to live in San Francisco, when you can actually enjoy it!
In contrast, I was very impressed by Davis. Before visiting, I was somewhat weary of the surroundings, since I live in a major city and enjoy it. But this was not an issue! Davis is an attractive and very leafy place with a defined downtown. People were friendly and laid back, and there were ample recreational activities. If you have a car, you can easily use it in Davis with a short commute. If you don't have one, you can easily get just about anywhere using a bicycle. The cost of living is much lower than San Francisco, which is still only an hour-long Amtrak ride away.
As for Davis Law itself, I found that the "open door" policy among the professors is true. Office doors were indeed open, and the professors were very approachable! Staff were responsive and really do seem to care about the students. I was also blown away by how much students trust each other with personal belongings. Generally, I noticed that Davis has the same high level of intellectual stimulation and career prospects as Hastings, but the quality of life at Davis, which is crucial for one's own success, is much higher than what one can expect at Hastings. Davis also beat Hastings in the most recent CA bar passage rates, and job prospects/average salaries in the public and private sectors are pretty much equal.
Regarding reputation, I spoke with a number of Bay Area attorneys who went to neither school (to avoid bias), and one school does not, by any means, beat the other. They are both fine schools, but one seems to have a better quality of life and smaller student body than the other.