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I'm currently a 0L trying to figure out whether to take a Hamilton Fellowship (full-tuition merit scholarship) at Columbia or go to Yale with about $20k financial aid for my first year. I'm wondering whether Yale is worth the extra money, which over three years will amount to somewhere between $80k and $120k plus interest.

With respect to firm hiring, would having "Hamilton Fellow" on my resume do anything to bridge the prestige gap between Columbia and Yale? What about for promotions later on in my career? Lateral transitions to government?

I'm not convinced that Yale is worth the extra money except as insurance against the poor job prospects that come with finishing towards the bottom of CLS, since I think that anyone who does well enough at Yale to qualify for the most prestigious employment opportunities would likely do as well or better at CLS (and would have an at least a marginal prestige bump from putting "Hamilton Fellow" on his/her resume) and so be just as competitive for the most prestigious jobs. I haven't made up my mind yet as to where I'm going, though, so I'm open to pushback.

Moved to the appropriate forum.

There's been a ton of discussion of whether Hamilton on your resume helps for hiring and I think those threads generally end up saying that it doesn't really do much (but use the search function to verify). I don't think Yale is worth the extra money if you only want to work for a firm. But if there's a chance that you want to do something else (PI/clerk/academia/whatever) then I could see a reason for picking

bk187 wrote:I don't think Yale is worth the extra money if you only want to work for a firm.

I probably want to try to clerk before working for a firm, and I could see myself trying to transition to government later on in my career. I know Yale's numbers for clerking far outstrip Columbia's, but I would be interested specifically in clerking for the 2nd Circuit or the District Court for the Southern District of New York, where I think Columbia might do better than its overall clerkship numbers suggest. I also wonder whether it's fair to assume that someone who is able to set himself apart at Yale in order to snag a clerkship might be expected to perform well enough at Columbia to be competitive for that same clerkship.

jd5 wrote:I also wonder whether it's fair to assume that someone who is able to set himself apart at Yale in order to snag a clerkship might be expected to perform well enough at Columbia to be competitive for that same clerkship.

Do you really have to set yourself apart to get a clerkship from Yale? A third or more of their students end up in Art III clerkships every year, and I have to believe a decent percentage don't want a clerkship.

Tough decision. Do you know if you get anything from Yale in your second and third years?

A former SCOTUS clerk I was lucky enough to talk to at a T10 ASW said that his impression was that the people who get really sweet clerkships out of Yale were the people who kissed the most ass (his terminology) or developed the best professor relationships (my terminology lol) because the lack of real grades makes distinguishing between Yalies on the basis of anything but recommendations difficult.

EDIT: If OP gets a 1L or 2L SA then I'm sure Yale will carve some of that $$$ out of his financial aid award.