Top Law Schools

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Seems a bit late to be making such a decision. Have you actually been accepted to both places.

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Apply to Yale and see what happens. Whether the difference in CoA would be worth it would depend on what your career goals are as much as anything.

IMO, spending a little cash for an application and deciding, for your own personal situation, that YLS isn't worth the extra cash is a far better situation to be in than not submitting an app and deciding, too late, that it may have been worth it had you been accepted

This is among the most presumptuous posts I've ever seen on this forum. And TLS reeks of presumption.

For TX biglaw as your #1 goal? HLS, no question

CCN for 0 COA would also be a better choice than either of these

Apply to both if you want but HLS is a much better fit for what you want to do, and if it's basically free, all the better.

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So you have thousands in savings and you're considering of not applying to the best law school in the country to save the $100 application fee? Just apply and make the choice when you actually have all of your options in front of you.

jbagelboy wrote:This is among the most presumptuous posts I've ever seen on this forum. And TLS reeks of presumption.

Disagree. If he's above 75% at both, he's a minimum 3.97/176. He's for sure in at Harvard and is as good a bet as you can be at Yale, even if he acknowledges that's not a guarantee. Worthwhile question to ask even if, yeah, it could probably wait till he actually applies.

I'd murder a small animal for free Harvard. Yale isn't $85k more special.

ETA: That said, still apply to Yale. $100 is a drop in the bucket as an insurance policy if for whatever reason someone at Harvard decides to hate you. Plus you may fall in love with it over the cycle, or, I don't know, whatever, it's the best effing law school, apply to it.

graphia wrote: Columbia or NYU would actually end up costing me slightly more, due to higher CoL in NYC than Boston. Harvard, Columbia, and NYU would all be tuition free; I would just have to worry about paying for CoL.

Seems like HLS is your best option and it really isn't even close. YLS isn't worth 85k more for a biglaw motivated individual compared to HLS. Goodluck on your cycle, thanks for your service, etc, etc.


But yeah, next time you should probably just wait to make such a thread.

graphia wrote:Because of GI Bill/YRP contributions, these are the numbers I would be looking at if admitted to both schools. I understand this is a very hypothetical question. I'm just trying to figure out if Yale is worth 85k more than Harvard, and if I should even bother sending an application. With savings and a monthly housing stipend, if I went to Harvard I would graduate with essentially zero debt.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to specify my career goals in order of preference: Texas Biglaw > California/Chicago Biglaw > Bigfed > Biglaw anywhere > Military/Gov't. Really not much interest in academia at this point.

Had the same choice. Not sure where you are getting these numbers from but GI Bill/YRP should make Harvard free and Yale should be like 45K. I chose Harvard, but other things were in play not just the money (although that did factor in). Harvard just made more sense for my situation. Once you get in revisit where you're at in life and what you want to do, then ask this question. The forum will probably be a lot more helpful then.

Edit: Yale really reduced their YRP. It should still come out to only 100K though.

Dear God.

Just--

Okay.

My original numbers were for CoA, including cost of living. So the 75k number for Harvard was for rent, food, insurance, etc.

graphia wrote:My original numbers were for CoA, including cost of living. So the 75k number for Harvard was for rent, food, insurance, etc.

Yeah but you get paid for that. So your COA should be zero.

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graphia wrote:Fair enough. The BAH rates for Boston and New Haven are just about the same though, so it's just about the same difference between costs however you calculate it.

Yeah it's a similar difference but the real numbers should be free vs. ~82,000k.

graphia wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:This is among the most presumptuous posts I've ever seen on this forum. And TLS reeks of presumption.

Ugh, I knew I was going to get this reaction. You normally seem like one of the more level-headed posters on here, but if you bothered to actually read what I wrote, you would see that I don't assume I'll be admitted to either of these schools. If I was lucky enough to be admitted to Yale, however, it's pretty likely I would be admitted to Harvard as well. I was just trying to save myself the application fee to Yale if it wasn't worth it.

sinfiery wrote:For TX biglaw as your #1 goal? HLS, no question

CCN for 0 COA would also be a better choice than either of these

Columbia or NYU would actually end up costing me slightly more, due to higher CoL in NYC than Boston. Harvard, Columbia, and NYU would all be tuition free; I would just have to worry about paying for CoL.

Ah, well, my apologies. I came off as more rude than necessary. In fact, I did read your entire OP; acknowledging that there is no guarantee of admission and then stating that outcome as a definitive choice is the exact presumption (a reaction you anticipated). You see, it's just a phraseology issue I suppose: You could have asked, "Yale or Harvard for TX Biglaw" and arrived at the same point. If I were you, I would still hit all three of HYS. Once you've been admitted, visit, see which you prefer, and moreover, research the outcomes at that juncture.

I agree with everyone here that NOT applying to yale and stanford would be a mistake on your part. Also remember for Yale, you could always apply in january or february with no damage to the strength of your chances: you would have found out by mid-Jan whether Harvard was in the bag.

Best of luck

No hard feelings, thanks for the advice. I can definitely understand how the phrasing of my post came across as presumptuous.