Yale 1L taking questions Forum

[The Stig]

thanks for the insight!

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

From what you've heard, how hard is it to get Hs in general? Is it just a matter of putting in the work or is it really tough to beat out a bunch of your fellow brains?

What, from what you've heard, is around the median in terms of ratio of Hs to Ps? What ratio do you think you'd need for feeder clerkships/Wachtell/W&C/Susman etc.?

Was it hard to motivate yourself to work first semester?

[pride09]

I am also interested to hear the answer to some of these questions ^^

[Trequartista]

Do you know anyone who got in at Yale and was rejected at Stanford? Do a lot of Yale students also apply and get into Stanford as well?

[abitaman6363]

Do you recommend preparing for your first semester/year of legal studies at Yale in any particular way?

Given your other law school offers, what stands out to you as the biggest thing(s) that Yale lacks that other programs may have offered? [Besides amazing weather : ) ]

How insulated do law students at Yale tend to be? Given the proximity of New York and Boston, do students find the time to make weekend trips to these locations?

Thanks for answering all of our questions! You've been incredibly helpful.

[Fred_McGriff]

Are students worried about the effect of Cooley overtaking you in the rankings on OCI?

[oso84]

From what you've heard, how hard is it to get Hs in general? Is it just a matter of putting in the work or is it really tough to beat out a bunch of your fellow brains?

Varies so much among professors that I can't really answer. My sense is that Hs aren't handed out like candy, but with effort you can earn them. Maybe the brainiest of the brains pull 4 Hs in a semester, but most people wind up with a mix. It isn't really discussed all that much.

What, from what you've heard, is around the median in terms of ratio of Hs to Ps? What ratio do you think you'd need for feeder clerkships/Wachtell/W&C/Susman etc.?

No clue on firms. Since you essentially interview for your firm job at the end of your 1L year, you only have a semester of grades anyway, so the sample size is small. I suppose that means 2nd sem/1L grades could be strategically important, but I haven't heard a single person talk that way.

Clerkships & grades requires a bit more strategic planning, and people do talk a bit about that. My sense is that it isn't so much the number of Hs you have as much as it's what classes they came in. An H in some random seminar is probably considered 'nice' while an H in Admin or Fed Courts would be far more important (perhaps required for the top feeders).

Was it hard to motivate yourself to work first semester?

No, everyone's self-motivated enough to do the work. It's nice knowing that the exams don't count for anything, but you don't want to blow them off. The stakes are high enough on the next set of exams that you appreciate the practice. And as for the other work, you see everyone else doing it too, so you jump in. First semester is relatively low stress, but that doesn't mean low work.

[oso84]

Do you know anyone who got in at Yale and was rejected at Stanford? Do a lot of Yale students also apply and get into Stanford as well?

So first of all, no one thinks about this, asks about it, or in any way cares. I mean, some people asked during the orientation cause we really had nothing else to talk about yet, but where you were admitted is a non-issue* by the time classes start and professor gossip starts filtering down to the 1L class.

But to answer the question directly, there are people who got in here but weren't accepted at S or H. Not many, but a few. Virtually everyone applied to H, and almost as many to S. Our student body is east coast heavy, and my sense is that there are a number of people who just had no interest in going west.

* The number of "WHY DIDN'T I GO TO STANFORD" comments did increase dramatically in January when the snow started.

[oso84]

Do you recommend preparing for your first semester/year of legal studies at Yale in any particular way?

Absolutely not. Enjoy your last true summer ever and don't stress about law school. This advice probably holds regardless of where you go. Especially avoid those prep courses.

Given your other law school offers, what stands out to you as the biggest thing(s) that Yale lacks that other programs may have offered? [Besides amazing weather : ) ]

Great question. The most obvious answer is location. New Haven isn't exactly New York, Boston, DC or "near San Francisco." More on that below.

As for Yale itself, I wouldn't say it "lacks" anything in particular, but I think that there are trade-offs when you compare Yale to X school. The biggest thing is size. We're tiny. Really tiny. The faculty is also relatively small, though we have a low faculty/student ratio and so the faculty isn't as small as you'd expect. I personally don't think we suffer for being small. The course offerings are diverse and interesting. I will not be able to take every class that I'd like. Our clinical program is hands down the best anywhere, and access to classes and clinics is incredible. But *ahem* size does matter. You know everyone you go to school with and you're together in the same single building most of the day. It is a bit insular. Oh, and because our faculty is small, we don't have a ton of specialists. H and NYU will have a prof for every single specialization. We simply can't. We tend to bring "Distinguished Lecturers" in to teach some of those classes (e.g. immigration and tax). There are a sufficient number of geniuses on our faculty that you can find someone to supervise whatever papers you'll want to write. Even if we don't have a "specialist" in a given area, we for sure will have someone who is knowledgeable about the topic.

Because we're small, we also have comparatively fewer alumni. This isn't a big deal in Boston/NYC/DC but our alumni base is pretty tiny outside of those markets. It might be harder to break into small markets (e.g. Denver) or large markets on the West Coast (i.e. San Francisco) for that reason. This is balanced, though, by the fact that firms out there are really interested in hiring Yalies precisely because we're a rare commodity outside of the Acela corridor.

How insulated do law students at Yale tend to be? Given the proximity of New York and Boston, do students find the time to make weekend trips to these locations?

This varies by person. I haven't left New Haven during the term but once, while my roommate probably goes into NYC once a month. A ton of people are in relationships with people in Boston and NYC, and most of them are on the "we-each-travel-once-a-month" plan. NYC is close enough so that when people have a reason to go, they go. At the same time, though, it isn't close enough to be a weekend playground just to goof off without a reason. Sometimes it kinda sucks that New Haven isn't a wildly metropolitan area, but lets face it: you're studying most of the weekend anyway, and the beer here tastes just as good.

Thanks for answering all of our questions! You've been incredibly helpful.

My pleasure!

[oso84]

Are students worried about the effect of Cooley overtaking you in the rankings on OCI?

We can fend off Harvard, but Harvard and Cooley at the same time?!? Let's hope alumni giving picks up....

[chasgoose]

How insulated do law students at Yale tend to be? Given the proximity of New York and Boston, do students find the time to make weekend trips to these locations?

As a Yale undergrad alum, I would say that New York isn't quite close enough for regular weekend trips. Most of my friends and I only went if we had a reason to go (and we went more often than the typical Yale student). The trip there is about 2 hours each way, so you kind of have to devote the whole day to it (I never liked going unless I would spend more time in NYC than I did on the train getting there and back). I can't imagine law school students are going to be more likely to have entire days to devote to a trip to NYC than undergrads, but maybe that's just me. Basically I wouldn't recommend going to Yale thinking that you can just jaunt off to NYC whenever you want, it's not difficult, but just difficult enough to not make it a regular thing (I knew a lot of people freshman year who were all I'm going to NYC all the time who maybe went 3 times first semester and than once or twice a year the rest of their time there). That said, New Haven wasn't that bad. It's a little confining (I definitely recommend owning a car/becoming a ZipCar member) but you kind of grow to love it. If I could deal for 4 years and not as intense of a workload as YLS, than unless you have issues with winter it should be fine for 3 years of law school.

[oso84]

For the record, we're internally split on whether this is cute or ridiculous....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/education/22dog.html

Still here if anyone else has questions. There are a ton of admit calls in late March/early April....

[Confused&Pissed]

Ty for answering questions:)

Where do students with families generally live? How do they fare academically?

[oso84]

Ty for answering questions:)

Where do students with families generally live? How do they fare academically?

A bunch of people are married and don't have kids. They live more or less in the same locations as everyone else, some are downtown and others are in East Rock. Having a partner doesn't seem to change where you live aside from obviously having to consider where that person works, etc.

The bigger question is married and with kids. For folks in this boat, East Rock and Hamden (bordering town to New Haven) are more common. This makes sense. Both ER and Hamden are more neighborhood-y, are safer, and have other families living in them. Rent is also cheaper, so you can afford the extra room a family needs.

I can't speak to the academic progress of my classmates with families, but if you'd like, PM me and I'll pass along their email addresses.