Folks who chose HLS over SLS - do you regret it? Forum

[Nathanael]

I chose SLS over HLS and also have no regrets, for what its worth. I'm out of law school now and back on the East Coast and still have no regrets. I think the folks who say that its really about fit and which place you like more are right. I wouldn't get too bogged down in the minutiae of SCOTUS clerkships, or anything else. For PI, there are advantages and disadvantages to both, and both will afford you enough of a platform to have a meaningful career. Go where you want.

I agree with this. I wouldn't split too many hairs over the differences in outcomes. Frankly, those differences are minute. What you put into school, networking, the job search, making relationships with professors, etc. will drive your employment outcome far more than choosing HLS or SLS. It's also silly to try and pick based on the differences in characteristics of your fellow classmates. In truth, there is no way to predict what your classmates will be like at either school. I'm at HLS and even across different sections the section "personalities" vary WILDLY. At the end of the day you are going to be surrounded by law students, so you're going to have to put up with some people you probably won't like. You'll also meet some wonderful people.

I don't regret choosing HLS over SLS. I really like the size of the school, I feel like I can personalize my experience here to a very large degree. There's also something to be said for not knowing everyone and not being known by everyone. I like how often I get to meet new people here. I would also really hate being on a quarter system; two rounds of exams was shitty enough. Of course that stuff is really personality dependent, and I could see it cutting the other way for someone else.

My advice would be this: 1) Consider where you want to live for 3 years of your life. This is a pretty unique chance to check out one of two pretty awesome and very different parts of the country. Consider where you want to spend your summers and how far away your family will be. 2) Try and determine whether you want to be part of a large class or a more intimate environment where you'll likely get to know all your classmates. 3) Try and weigh things like quarters vs. semesters and the importance of variety in class offerings and student organizations.

[kloseframe]

I don't regret choosing HLS over SLS. I really like the size of the school, I feel like I can personalize my experience here to a very large degree. There's also something to be said for not knowing everyone and not being known by everyone. I like how often I get to meet new people here. I would also really hate being on a quarter system; two rounds of exams was shitty enough. Of course that stuff is really personality dependent, and I could see it cutting the other way for someone else.

I agree with everything here (but answered the opposite way). I wanted a small school. I wanted a place where I knew everyone (which, in my case, pushed me to meet people outside the law school, which was a goal I had going into it). I loved the quarter system (only taking Admin for 10 weeks - thank god!). As an east coaster, I wanted to see what NorCal was all about.

[Nonconsecutive]

To anyone faced with a similar choice - what did you choose and do you think you made the right choice for yourself?

I made this same decision and ultimately chose HLS over SLS. For me it came down to two factors: 1. I wanted a larger school (I spent 13 years of my life in a class with 55 people, so I was kind of over that) 2. HLS gave me more money once I leveraged SLS and HLS against each other for need based aid. Was it a huge amount of money more? No, but it was a few thousand more, and after visiting both schools I felt like HLS was a better fit for me, so the added money was a nice bonus.

Also, while I am not one to engage in the HLS vs SLS debate (both are great schools), I do have to say that I would have taken a full ride at a T14 like a mofo, but I did not have that option. In fact, due to my stats I was looking at less in merit scholarships at all the other schools I'd been admitted to, than I was at need only at HLS and SLS. When it's all said and done I'll have received about 40k more in need-based aid alone than I was going to from multiple rounds of merit-based negotiations elsewhere. So, for me the HLS vs. SLS decision precluded most other T14 considerations from the outset, and thus it came down almost entirely to fit, not HLS/SLS vs. $$$$.

So in the end I chose HLS and have not regretted it.

[Glasseyes]

I have no skin in the game as my lowly t14 is far beneath both in terms of sexy-times prestige, but I can talk about my impressions of my coworkers who have attended both schools. Full disclosure: I came in with low expectations of the Harvard kids. I expected snobbery, sharp suits, weird gunner vibes, and sure, all of that was mostly true. But most weren't terrible! Strange but true. Now the Stanford kids... 75% of these guys are just tumbling, tumbling dickweeds, even the girls.

If you have no preference between Palo Alto and Cambridge (basically the same place, right?) and class size doesn't matter, and you'd enjoy clerking as much as teaching (haha fuck that, biglaw all the way), then I suggest you judge based purely on the quality of the assholes at each school, in which case Harvard is more than a tiny bit but still only slightly better. Pretty much a nobrainer.