I'm not a Yale 1L, sadly, but I want to vouch for New Haven a bit. It gets an awful rap, but I currently teach in the city and it's not nearly what people make it out to be. Lots of good bars and fantastic ethnic food. Nice people, though parts are a little sketchy.

Seriously, though, don't buy into the "New Haven sucks" meme by default.

Hey everyone,
Thanks for your replies about New Haven. I'm not so much concerned about what there is to do in New Haven as I am about general safety. I actually spoke to a co-worker who was a grad student there, and she said that even though she lived in the "safer" part she was constantly looking behind her back as she walked to campus in the middle of the day. (I think she said that it was not quite at the level of the area of the Johns Hopkins campus though. ) We spoke at length about relative comfort walking around and sleeping at night without worrying that someone would break in, and she said that hands down she wouldn't have chosen to go there had she known how New Haven would be. n=1 here, so I just wanted to get perspectives from other Yalies.

I've actually been mugged before close to Cambridge, MA in an area people think of as "safe" so I don't expect any place to be 100% safe anyway. I just want to be able to sleep at night and not be too paranoid walking around.

And btw, I totally know that this whole conversation could be a moot point for me, but I'm very attracted to Yale because of the strong academic tradition and high placement into clerkships, and I thought their unique admissions process would warrant at least applying - only if I'd even consider moving to New Haven.

Thanks!

This may not have been a consideration for you but I'm hoping to gain admission to Yale and I've also been awarded a full scholarship at UVA (hoping to get money from some other schools as well). This may be presumptuous but, having spent some time at Yale, how would you weigh the prospect of no loans after law school vs. the unique YLS experience?

Having spent the last 4 years trying to pay off undergrad loans, I'm partial to the no loans option but I'd like to get your take as current students.

Do 1Ls have time to join non-law related clubs and organizations (the Yale Symphony, for example)?

Also a YLS 1L here. Procrastinating on my brief, so I'm going to take a stab at some of these questions.

Below (wow, looking back at this, it really is *way* below) is a post of mine from the end of the last cycle (as I was deciding on a school). I think this all still applies. If you don't feel like reading, the gist is that Yale's loan repayment program is so amazing that this should hardly be an issue at all. If you make less than 60k, they pay all of your loans for you, no matter what kind of job you do. Above 60k, you only have to put 25% of your income toward loans. So if you make $100k, you pay 10k in loans per year. This was small enough to allow me to ignore the full rides I got elsewhere (Hamilton at Columbia, Furman at NYU, etc.).

To answer a few of the other questions:

Here's a typical weekend for me in terms of social stuff (and I'd like to think I'm about average).

Wednesday: poker with a revolving group of friends (since I only have one class on Thursdays and Fridays, and the reading is not much, and I don't have to worry about getting ahead because this place is relaxed, etc.). It'll be a different group each week, since some will have a brief due one week, or someone will be preparing to turn in a report they're writing for New Haven Legal Assistance or a Venezuelan opposition NGO (I don't mean to gush, but the opportunities here really are amazing, especially for 1Ls, from what I've heard from friends elsewhere.

Thursday: Bar Review. Go out to one of the dozens of fun local bars with much of the school (if I had to estimate, maybe a third of the school goes on a given Thursday? Good chance to see people you haven't seen all week (though they are few, since the school is one building and you see most everyone at one point or another).

Friday: Relax, game night with friends or a small group gathering or a play at Yale Rep or a performance at the symphony hall. (And to answer an earlier question, I know several people who have joined a string quartet, another who is playing in the orchestra for a play at Yale Rep. There was an email to the Wall a few weeks back asking if anyone was in need of a cellist. I think the woman found a gig.)

Saturday: Go to one of several parties always going on at someone's apartment/house.

Sunday: Intramural soccer for me, others are playing softball. Might also play squash with friends - turns out this is social currency on the east coast. Who knew? I just picked up the sport but I've already become a lot closer with several people just by a playing a few games. This highlights how easy it is to meet people, and how happy people are to make new friends here, I think.

My guess is that this level of socialness is slightly higher than elsewhere, if only because the workload first semester here is so much lower without grades. I don't mean to portray this as "YLS kids are more social" or anything. I'm just trying to counter the prevailing notion (which at least some people hold) that YLS is a social abyss (See the tone of the question: "Is there anything social?" As if the answer were going to be "No, we study 9 hours a day and then do our best to avoid human contact for the other 15.")

"Do 1Ls have time to join clubs?"

I've kind of answered this one, but it's a resounding yes. Probably half of the class joins at least one secondary journal in the first semester to get the experience. Probably 25% do one of the public service projects (Lowenstein Human Rights - write reports for NGOs and lawyers in need of assistance from bright law students, maybe do a bit of direct legal help for immigrants and asylum seekers; Liman - I have a friend writing a report for the Brennan Center about inequitable legal fees in Connecticut courts, e.g.; one of the several projects assisting judges on the various international tribunals; Temporary Restraining Order Project - helping battered women (or, I suppose, battered men) get TROs; the list goes on. And this is before we're even allowed to do real clinics, which isn't until second semester.) Others have joined political organizations. Still others have continued their work from previous jobs - I know one person who flew to Chad over the fall break to follow up on some human rights work. So yes, there's plenty of time to do what you want to do, and the opportunities are endless.

I feel like I have to weigh in on the New Haven thing, too. Whoever said she has to look over her shoulder while walking around in the middle of the day is either in the wrong part of the town or unnecessarily jittery. New Haven's downtown is vibrant. Police are ubiquitous. Sure, so are unemployed loiterers, but they're friendly. One of them guards my front door. Or at least I like to think that's what she's doing. But seriously, the only moment when I've felt unsafe has been this one time at 4 AM when I was coming home from the other side of the tracks and a guy came up to me ranting in gibberish. But I smiled said hi and he went on his way. The rest of the time this is pretty much like any other mid-sized city. During the day, you have no reason to feel unsafe, and at night you just try to be smart. And take the Shuttle, which is free and will take you door to door.

Last: Just so you don't think I'm entirely uncritical, I think someone's point earlier about the size being limiting in a way is correct. If all you want to do is international arbitration, YLS might not be giving a class on that this year (prof might be on leave, or chose to teach another class instead, etc.). If you want to do IP, this might not be the best place (though our few profs in the field are really fantastic). But what we lack in number of profs and classes we make up for in outside opportunities. No human rights law class given this year? Do the clinic instead. And go to Jordan over spring break to document conditions in a refugee camp. Get credit for it. Write a paper about it. The point is, this place is what you make of it. If you need structured opportunities, then maybe in some fields this isn't the right place for you. But if you have any imagination and motivation, you'll be fine.

Oh, and gosh guys, whoever told you it was too late - for any school - is either crazy, uninformed, or trying to sabotage you. I applied to Harvard after Thanksgiving, Stanford second week of December, and Yale after Christmas and got into all three. I don't think this is rare.

Bump

I'm another YLS 1L. I saw no one had responded to this question about the China Law Center. The opportunities for working in China are amazing. Paul Gewirtz runs the China Law center and the people in his small group love him. He is teaching a seminar this spring on legal reform in China, and he his a lot of connections with both activists and government officials in PRC. Even if you don't know Mandarin, you would have no trouble finding an interesting internship in China for the summer where you could do work in English (although it would be much easier, of course, to start a career in china law if you speak the local language).

Also, I know it's a bit early, but if anyone else is debating between HLS, SLS, and YLS, I spent many months last year thinking about the three. Actually, I ruled out HLS right away since I was there for another degree, but I had the hardest time deciding between YLS and SLS. I am interested in science law (which pulled me towards SLS) and academia (which pulled me towards clerkships).

Here is another thought: even at YLS people stress out. I could not imagine being somewhere where first semester grades matter, it must be terrible. Two things that seem to be in limited supply even coming from Yale: clerkships with top appeals court judges and certain prestigious summer jobs. People do compete for these things, and they start thinking about them early. Anyway, it's a wonderful environment here, and I definitely think that if you get in you should probably come here. It is not utopia ... but it is the closest you will come to it in law school. I just spent the night with my small group (the 15 people with whom you take all your classes). There is ZERO competition among the small group. That's pretty amazing, and I doubt you will find it at any other law school in the world. Thought I must say if the first semester was honors/pass (like our other semesters) instead of pass/pass, I think it would ruin the wonderful small group dynamic here.

Another awesome thing about Yale: we can do whatever we want after the first semester. We don't have any required courses in the spring. It is such a luxury. I'm very excited for the new semester.

Our winter break starts tonight. I'll be traveling abroad, but if people want to ask questions, I will answer when I can ... and I bet my fellow 1Ls can contribute as well.

As can a 2L procrastinating on writing his SAW.

Hey guys, thanks for taking Q's, I have a few. First, given that law review doesn't tell employers much , with the lack of grades, would you recommend spending one's time on other projects and foregoing it?

Second, I was interested in 2 clinics, the supreme court one and the financial market regulation one. Could you tell me anything you know about those, and about the process of getting into clinics in general?

Thanks a lot!