Stanford v. UVA Forum

[quakeroats]

Uh. When did a discussion about UVA v. Stanford become about Duke...?

Duke troll came in and for some inexplicable reason decided the solution to UVA v Stanford were the girls boyfriend was at UVA was Duke.

Considering distance, a T10 med school, a reasonably good shot at a large scholarship, a stronger IP program than UVA, and better employment and clerkship prospects seem to be pretty explicable reasons to look at Duke alongside UVA and Stanford.

[3ThrowAway99]

Stanford.

[09042014]

Uh. When did a discussion about UVA v. Stanford become about Duke...?

Duke troll came in and for some inexplicable reason decided the solution to UVA v Stanford were the girls boyfriend was at UVA was Duke.

Considering distance, a T10 med school, a reasonably good shot at a large scholarship, a stronger IP program than UVA, and better employment and clerkship prospects seem to be pretty explicable reasons to look at Duke alongside UVA and Stanford.

I'm a big fan of Duke, and I think Duke is a peer school with UVA. But this suggestion just doesn't make sense.

[swfangirl]

If I were in your situation I'd choose Stanford in a heartbeat. I personally wouldn't make a decision to go to UVa instead unless a ring was on my finger.

[clintonius]

Plus, Charlottesville is where DMB is from.

Which should seal the deal for Stanford right there.

[chup]

but we are also very young (21) so I doubt an engagement is in the near future.

This is all I needed to hear, and this:

He says he wants me to go to Stanford but I know that he would love it if I were at the same school. The ideal situation, of course, is that we make it through even if I go to Stanford. I know I would be happy at UVA but afraid that I would always be wondering about Stanford...

is icing on the cake. You should be going to Stanford, without question.

[arism87]

but we are also very young (21) so I doubt an engagement is in the near future.

This is all I needed to hear, and this:

He says he wants me to go to Stanford but I know that he would love it if I were at the same school. The ideal situation, of course, is that we make it through even if I go to Stanford. I know I would be happy at UVA but afraid that I would always be wondering about Stanford...

is icing on the cake. You should be going to Stanford, without question.

+1 but I feel you on a REALLY tough decision..hey if you decide to stay at UVA tell Dean Deal you know a fellow Wahoo willing to take your place!

[rundoxierun]

Im your age and currently in a long distance relationship(have been in it for 2.5 years now). We are about 7 hrs away and it sucks. Luckily, we have made it this far and will most likely be moving to my law school together but it was definitely a pretty awful ride. Granted, I did long distance plus a bunch of clubs/volunteer stuff, worked 20+ hours a week to afford the trips back and forth, and decided it was a good idea to take hard science classes to fulfill pre-med requirements so that could have made it a bit more difficult than average. If you think you want that girl long-term I would definitely say UVA. I would definitely rather "what if" on whether I would have snagged a more prestigious firm placement than wonder "what if" about a potential wife.

0L alert for anyone who wants to dismiss what I say on those grounds:
And to the people talking about break-ups because of the "stress" of school, you have to be among the most weak-willed people on earth if school stress breaks you up. School is just really not that stressful. I know a bunch of people from schools across a bunch of different tiers and it just isnt that hard. TLS really, really seems to overstate the difficulty of law school from what i have observed. I dont see how it is any more difficult than getting latin honors in moderately difficult undergrad major. If you cant handle law school+a girlfriend, I dont really see how you can handle life+anything.

[BruceWayne]

Im your age and currently in a long distance relationship(have been in it for 2.5 years now). We are about 7 hrs away and it sucks. Luckily, we have made it this far and will most likely be moving to my law school together but it was definitely a pretty awful ride. Granted, I did long distance plus a bunch of clubs/volunteer stuff, worked 20+ hours a week to afford the trips back and forth, and decided it was a good idea to take hard science classes to fulfill pre-med requirements so that could have made it a bit more difficult than average. If you think you want that girl long-term I would definitely say UVA. I would definitely rather "what if" on whether I would have snagged a more prestigious firm placement than wonder "what if" about a potential wife.

0L alert for anyone who wants to dismiss what I say on those grounds:
And to the people talking about break-ups because of the "stress" of school, you have to be among the most weak-willed people on earth if school stress breaks you up. School is just really not that stressful. I know a bunch of people from schools across a bunch of different tiers and it just isnt that hard. TLS really, really seems to overstate the difficulty of law school from what i have observed. I dont see how it is any more difficult than getting latin honors in moderately difficult undergrad major. If you cant handle law school+a girlfriend, I dont really see how you can handle life+anything.

Law school doesn't have to be as time consuming as a lot of us on here make it out to be, but it is really hard to get high grades. As far as the difficulty of major argument you're making goes you're 100 percent correct. Law school coursework isn't anywhere near as difficult as math/science/engineering. However, that's not what makes law school "hard". It's hard because you're being graded on a forced curve with a bunch of people who are intelligent and willing to sacrifice any and everything to get a good grade. If Billy get's an A in Torts, he's just forced Suzy into getting a B-. That sucks....

[notanumber]

but we are also very young (21) so I doubt an engagement is in the near future.

This is all I needed to hear, and this:

He says he wants me to go to Stanford but I know that he would love it if I were at the same school. The ideal situation, of course, is that we make it through even if I go to Stanford. I know I would be happy at UVA but afraid that I would always be wondering about Stanford...

is icing on the cake. You should be going to Stanford, without question.

+1.

If being apart ends up really sucking then transfer to UVA after your first year. Transferring "down" isn't nearly as difficult as transferring "up." If you're scoring low enough on law school tests that transferring isn't an option then you really want to be at Stanford instead of UVA.

[chup]

0L alert for anyone who wants to dismiss what I say on those grounds:
And to the people talking about break-ups because of the "stress" of school, you have to be among the most weak-willed people on earth if school stress breaks you up. School is just really not that stressful. I know a bunch of people from schools across a bunch of different tiers and it just isnt that hard. TLS really, really seems to overstate the difficulty of law school from what i have observed. I dont see how it is any more difficult than getting latin honors in moderately difficult undergrad major. If you cant handle law school+a girlfriend, I dont really see how you can handle life+anything. I view relationships as some Nietzschean Trial of Will

Fix'd for brevity and accuracy.

[005618502]

Uh. When did a discussion about UVA v. Stanford become about Duke...?

Duke troll came in and for some inexplicable reason decided the solution to UVA v Stanford were the girls boyfriend was at UVA was Duke.

Considering distance, a T10 med school, a reasonably good shot at a large scholarship, a stronger IP program than UVA, and better employment and clerkship prospects seem to be pretty explicable reasons to look at Duke alongside UVA and Stanford.

You're an idiot

[rundoxierun]

Law school doesn't have to be as time consuming as a lot of us on here make it out to be, but it is really hard to get high grades. As far as the difficulty of major argument you're making goes you're 100 percent correct. Law school coursework isn't anywhere near as difficult as math/science/engineering. However, that's not what makes law school "hard". It's hard because you're being graded on a forced curve with a bunch of people who are intelligent and willing to sacrifice any and everything to get a good grade. If Billy get's an A in Torts, he's just forced Suzy into getting a B-. That sucks....

Oh I definitely understand this. But even taking that into account we are talking about 4-8 hrs/day for the majority of the year and mostly free weekends with relatively short periods of grueling 10-12+ hr days. I just dont see how life is ever much easier than that. People might be stressed about getting jobs but we are still talking about the type of people who would be stressed about something else if they werent in school anyway(promotion, recognition, job security ITE, whatever). At a certain point people have to stop making excuses and step into reality.

[rundoxierun]

0L alert for anyone who wants to dismiss what I say on those grounds:
And to the people talking about break-ups because of the "stress" of school, you have to be among the most weak-willed people on earth if school stress breaks you up. School is just really not that stressful. I know a bunch of people from schools across a bunch of different tiers and it just isnt that hard. TLS really, really seems to overstate the difficulty of law school from what i have observed. I dont see how it is any more difficult than getting latin honors in moderately difficult undergrad major. If you cant handle law school+a girlfriend, I dont really see how you can handle life+anything. I view relationships as some Nietzschean Trial of Will

Fix'd for brevity and accuracy.

I commend you for reading the word "will" and somehow twisting the entire point of what I said to focus on that one word. Incredible.

[chup]

0L alert for anyone who wants to dismiss what I say on those grounds:
And to the people talking about break-ups because of the "stress" of school, you have to be among the most weak-willed people on earth if school stress breaks you up. School is just really not that stressful. I know a bunch of people from schools across a bunch of different tiers and it just isnt that hard. TLS really, really seems to overstate the difficulty of law school from what i have observed. I dont see how it is any more difficult than getting latin honors in moderately difficult undergrad major. If you cant handle law school+a girlfriend, I dont really see how you can handle life+anything. I view relationships as some Nietzschean Trial of Will

Fix'd for brevity and accuracy.

I commend you for reading the word "will" and somehow twisting the entire point of what I said to focus on that one word. Incredible.

And I commend you for taking peoples' entirely legitimate concerns about making a long distance relationship work (which is backed up by overwhelming anecdotal evidence and god knows how many threads on this website that LDRs usually don't work) and twisting it into a matter of "handling" law school and a significant other, and an ability to handle life generally.

[rundoxierun]

0L alert for anyone who wants to dismiss what I say on those grounds:
And to the people talking about break-ups because of the "stress" of school, you have to be among the most weak-willed people on earth if school stress breaks you up. School is just really not that stressful. I know a bunch of people from schools across a bunch of different tiers and it just isnt that hard. TLS really, really seems to overstate the difficulty of law school from what i have observed. I dont see how it is any more difficult than getting latin honors in moderately difficult undergrad major. If you cant handle law school+a girlfriend, I dont really see how you can handle life+anything. I view relationships as some Nietzschean Trial of Will

Fix'd for brevity and accuracy.

I commend you for reading the word "will" and somehow twisting the entire point of what I said to focus on that one word. Incredible.

And I commend you for taking peoples' entirely legitimate concerns about making a long distance relationship work (which is backed up by the overwhelming evidence that LDRs usually don't work) and twisting it into a matter of "handling" law school and a significant other.

Are you on drugs?? That paragraph focused entirely on the idea of there being some inherent relationship breaking stress that comes along with law school. It was completely separate from distance. The first paragraph, the one in which I said that Im in a LDR, LDR sucks hard, take UVA if you want the girl, should have made it crystal clear that i didnt view making a LDR work as a trivial matter.

[1234543523]

Mmm, poppycorn.

[arism87]

[chup]

Are you on drugs?? That paragraph focused entirely on the idea of there being some inherent relationship breaking stress that comes along with law school. It was completely separate from distance.

I guess I thought you were referring to LDRs, since nobody seemed to be talking about "some inherent relationship-breaking stress" that comes with law school and it would make very little sense to rail against an argument that nobody is making.

[rundoxierun]

Are you on drugs?? That paragraph focused entirely on the idea of there being some inherent relationship breaking stress that comes along with law school. It was completely separate from distance.

I guess I thought you were referring to LDRs, since nobody seemed to be talking about "some inherent relationship-breaking stress" that comes with law school and it would make very little sense to rail against an argument that nobody is making.

In that case, my bad for lack of clarity. I was referring to some stuff kind of brought up on the second page and anticipating a point that people tend to bring up in these threads.

No, I obviously didn't get into Harvard (which is next to MIT). It was mainly dealing with a new environment and it was a different sort of stress. Law school+engineering+stress of school=breakup.

I was referring, sort of tangentially, to this and trying to say that the inherent "stress of school" shouldnt be a huge factor b/c life would likely bring them equivalent stress(not pointing directly to this posters specific situation since I dont fully know what it was). Ive heard a lot of people talk about how much stress it could put on a relationship.

[vamedic03]

Uh. When did a discussion about UVA v. Stanford become about Duke...?

Duke troll came in and for some inexplicable reason decided the solution to UVA v Stanford were the girls boyfriend was at UVA was Duke.

Considering distance, a T10 med school, a reasonably good shot at a large scholarship, a stronger IP program than UVA, and better employment and clerkship prospects seem to be pretty explicable reasons to look at Duke alongside UVA and Stanford.

Dude, get a life. You've been a Duke troll for over a year now. We don't care.

[vamedic03]

If you can get into Stanford you can get into several others schools that aren't UVA. You don't have to make a decision for a few months. Why not use the time to apply elsewhere, leverage aid packages and acceptances, see what others schools might better fit your needs, etc.? I can think of a school just south of UVA that might suit both your and your SO's needs.

Do you mean Duke?? or..... because that would be worse for her as she has already gotten into UVA (UVA>Duke) and so has her SO

I did mean Duke. I assume by worse you're referring to USNWR. I've discussed UVA v. Duke as it related to law enough. Feel free to look at my prior posts for the details, but as for conclusions: Duke outperforms UVA in NYC and D.C. hiring at top firms and AIII clerkships. I haven't spent much (read: any) time comparing medical schools, but Duke is ranked higher than both Stanford and UVA by USNWR. Perhaps that counts for more than it does in law school rankings, but in any case, it's closer to home than California and we tend to offer generous scholarships.

The only way that Duke outperforms UVA in Duke hiring is through your make believe spreadsheets. How about you stop trolling for Duke until you get: (a) your 1L grades and (b) go through OCI.

[quakeroats]

. We don't care.

Your subsequent post indicates otherwise.

[well-hello-there]

You're out of your mind if you don't go to Stanford.
/Flame Thread

[TheTallOne0602]

GPA median is almost identical too.

Of course the LSAT isn't a perfect predictor, but that works both ways. The students don't get better just because they walked into Stanford.

I completely agree; that's why I'm saying one shouldn't factor that into deciding amongst HYS.

It's inaccurate for one person, fairly accurate for 250 people.

People throw this around a lot as if there isn't actual data on it. LSAC has done the research, and the correlation is relevant but not anywhere near as high as you're making it out to be. Essentially, it's the best data that they have, but it's not a good predictor. I believe it's .35 or something in that area.

Is it that high? That is ridiculously high. A .35 correlation would be a spectacular success for the people who write LSATs. I mean, I suppose this would not shock me, but that does seem amazingly high...