Yale PhD in Law Forum

[Dr. Dre]

That's excellent to hear. Good luck with everything!

[Jchance]

tag.

Would love to hear about your experiences so far if there is any update, PLEASE?

[kartelite]

PhD classes, especially at elite institutions typically don't really have attrition.

Not to be the constant contrarian, and I suppose this varies by field (I'm sure it's worse in fields with longer average time-to-degree), but a lot of people who start a Ph.D. program don't finish (I've seen estimates of the attrition rate at 40-50%).

This is correct. Econ PhD attrition is usually close to 50% at top programs. Most of it is due to people not being able to pass the very challenging qualifiers. I left my PhD program after passing the exams, but feel like I need to add a line in my CV about having passed them so people don't think I got booted out and just got the MA as a farewell gift

[worldtraveler]

I'm curious if Alexandria is still around too. I'm starting a teaching fellowship next year and I'm wondering how different the experience is.

[Jchance]

I'm curious if Alexandria is still around too. I'm starting a teaching fellowship next year and I'm wondering how different the experience is.

her profile is online now, we can always email her and tell her to come respond, haha

[Alexandria]

I'm here! Don't come by all the time, but I'll check back soon to see if you have questions.

[Alexandria]

For a general update -- things are going well. I'm deep in the throes of getting my first draft of my first article done (note, times like this are when I come by TLS). Last semester felt more like law school, part 2 (good in some ways, weird in others). This semester is really all about our writing, so I feel like it is basically what life is going to be like in the program from here on out. I took four classes last semester (including the proseminar and a directed study with my main advisor), but this semester I just have the proseminar and a directed study with my other advisor (reading and discussing major books in my field). Plus, the proseminar this semester is all about the craft of writing legal scholarship (last semester we read a lot of legal scholarship and discussed, so more a typical seminar feel), so it feels less like a class and more like help with our main reason for being here.

Things are very good -- I'm really appreciative of the experience because I don't think I could have gotten this extremely high level of faculty interaction and support in a fellowship. My advisers, in particular, are really great, and they're two of the top minds in the field, so-- it's amazing.

I feel like I'm getting more involved in the Yale Law community this semester, outside of the PhD program, especially through involvement in the Information Society Project (which also has fellowships, by the way), and it's really good to get to know people who I expect I will be interacting with for years to come through scholarship, conferences, etc. And, of course, to see what other people are thinking about and writing about -- it helps get me out of my little niche I bring with me from practice.

[Dr. Dre]

ty for your update Alexandria

[worldtraveler]

For a general update -- things are going well. I'm deep in the throes of getting my first draft of my first article done (note, times like this are when I come by TLS). Last semester felt more like law school, part 2 (good in some ways, weird in others). This semester is really all about our writing, so I feel like it is basically what life is going to be like in the program from here on out. I took four classes last semester (including the proseminar and a directed study with my main advisor), but this semester I just have the proseminar and a directed study with my other advisor (reading and discussing major books in my field). Plus, the proseminar this semester is all about the craft of writing legal scholarship (last semester we read a lot of legal scholarship and discussed, so more a typical seminar feel), so it feels less like a class and more like help with our main reason for being here.

Things are very good -- I'm really appreciative of the experience because I don't think I could have gotten this extremely high level of faculty interaction and support in a fellowship. My advisers, in particular, are really great, and they're two of the top minds in the field, so-- it's amazing.

I feel like I'm getting more involved in the Yale Law community this semester, outside of the PhD program, especially through involvement in the Information Society Project (which also has fellowships, by the way), and it's really good to get to know people who I expect I will be interacting with for years to come through scholarship, conferences, etc. And, of course, to see what other people are thinking about and writing about -- it helps get me out of my little niche I bring with me from practice.

What do you think makes someone a competitive applicant for the program, aside from the normal top school and good grades?

[Alexandria]

So, normal stuff (top school, grades, doing good stuff after your JD, depending on how long you've been out). Obviously, it needs to be clear that you want to do legal scholarship, and they need to believe that you are capable of doing it very well. Beyond that, I think it's pretty idiosyncratic because they really want academic diversity in terms of particular legal fields the PhD students are writing about. So, you could be totally awesome, but if you're interested in the same thing as someone else totally awesome, they are probably only going to take one of you. They also want to make sure there is a good fit in terms of matching you up with faculty advisers.

[Twiqbal]

It looks like at least three Yale Phd candidates from the first class (of five, I believe) were hired to begin teaching in the fall, one at a T10 school. http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblaw ... .html#more

Anyone know what happened to the other candidates from the first class of Yale Phd students?

More generally, any sense of how the Yale Phd program is perceived now that the first class of candidates has (almost) graduated and seems to be doing just as well on the teaching market as the Climenko and Bigelow fellowship programs?

[Jchance]

^From what I've read on various blogs, the first class of Yale PhD Law was very strong so the results were not surprising. FYI three candidates accepted offered, other candidates might have had offers but not accepted too. However, a strong first class does not imply that later classes would achieve similar results.

I've also heard that Bigelow/Climenko has not done well in the past 2-3 years, I read that 1/6 Bigelow managed to get an offer. Bigelow/Climenko is no longer a guaranty, but things might be looking up for them given this past year's performance.