Choosing between HLS and YLS
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:43 pm
Edit: Summary at end if you have better things to do than read my whole post
Hi, everyone. This theme isn’t new, and I realize that you can't go wrong with either one of these. Still, with deposit deadlines approaching, I’m stuck and figured I might as well start a thread.
Location: Both New Haven and Cambridge sound exciting to me relative to the much less interesting location of my college, and I liked both while visiting (yes, really).
About Me: I’ll be coming straight through from a large undergraduate institution and am interested in international commercial arbitration, hoping to spend time both on the East Coast and a in specific European region with which I have personal (including languages and citizenship) connections plus limited professional ties. I might spend a couple of years litigating at a big firm immediately after graduation if necessary.
Some Noted Differences: HLS seems to have a huge practical advantage given its negotiation/mediation workshop and clinical program with Professor Bordone. There is also a negotiation journal and a negotiators student organization. YLS has one superstar professor in the international arbitration field (apparently the other is at CLS) and a few more theoretical courses that are at least vaguely relevant—but seemingly little else at the moment.
The retort, of course, is that students can lobby YLS to create additional programs. In a somewhat underwhelming YLS response to this concern, I was told that employers wouldn’t care if a student had taken course X or workshop Y while in law school, anyway. Another person there mentioned that since international arbitration is hard to break into, it makes no sense to base a school decision off of this interest. In other words, perhaps this deficiency at YLS is insignificant and should be treated as such, I don't know.
Another point that works in Harvard’s favor is the seemingly enhanced networking opportunities. See, for instance, the Harvard European Law Association, which also brings together the other Harvard schools for Europe networking events. I suspect this sort of resource would really help me develop professional connections to the area in which I would like to work. (Whether this is significant in helping me achieve my career goals is another story. The recurring theme here is that it’s hard to tell what matters once even after you’ve identified differences!)
The Size Issue: I’m used to putting in effort to develop faculty relationships as part of a large student body, so I’m not necessarily terrified about “slipping through the cracks” at HLS. Having said that, it would be stupid to assume that I’d be able to automatically out-compete 500 other talented individuals in my class there, so maybe I'd slip through the cracks after all. My level of risk-aversion is moderate, but not terribly high.
Intangible “Feel” Factors: I like students at both places when I visited—and none of them were miserable as some portray HLSers to be. Significantly, though, every single cross-admit that I was most impressed with seems to be going to Yale. I think one’s fellow student body is an important factor to consider, and I think on average the YLS student body may be a more exciting group to go through law school with and get to know. (This observation was made at ASWs, so take that with a grain of salt.) Finally, YLS gave off a distinctly attractive, tight-knit vibe that particularly appealed to me. To be fair, I felt at home at HLS, too. My take-away from its ASW was that it has fundamentally changed for the better post-Kagan.
To over-simplify, I feel like I’m choosing between somewhere that I’ll enjoy more (Yale) and somewhere that will give me unparalleled training and networking opportunities (Harvard). Both schools seem at least decent in the area in which I’ve given the advantage to the other. Most people simply say to go to Yale, but at least some have suggested Harvard may better fit my profile.
TL;DR Version:
I'd like to make an informed choice beyond "Yale is Yale" or "Harvard is Harvard."
Non-Factors between H and Y: Academia, cost, location.
Important things: Practice-oriented training (both in general and regarding ADR/negotiation/arbitration), networking opportunities, international reach, general happiness/environment.
Hi, everyone. This theme isn’t new, and I realize that you can't go wrong with either one of these. Still, with deposit deadlines approaching, I’m stuck and figured I might as well start a thread.
Location: Both New Haven and Cambridge sound exciting to me relative to the much less interesting location of my college, and I liked both while visiting (yes, really).
About Me: I’ll be coming straight through from a large undergraduate institution and am interested in international commercial arbitration, hoping to spend time both on the East Coast and a in specific European region with which I have personal (including languages and citizenship) connections plus limited professional ties. I might spend a couple of years litigating at a big firm immediately after graduation if necessary.
Some Noted Differences: HLS seems to have a huge practical advantage given its negotiation/mediation workshop and clinical program with Professor Bordone. There is also a negotiation journal and a negotiators student organization. YLS has one superstar professor in the international arbitration field (apparently the other is at CLS) and a few more theoretical courses that are at least vaguely relevant—but seemingly little else at the moment.
The retort, of course, is that students can lobby YLS to create additional programs. In a somewhat underwhelming YLS response to this concern, I was told that employers wouldn’t care if a student had taken course X or workshop Y while in law school, anyway. Another person there mentioned that since international arbitration is hard to break into, it makes no sense to base a school decision off of this interest. In other words, perhaps this deficiency at YLS is insignificant and should be treated as such, I don't know.
Another point that works in Harvard’s favor is the seemingly enhanced networking opportunities. See, for instance, the Harvard European Law Association, which also brings together the other Harvard schools for Europe networking events. I suspect this sort of resource would really help me develop professional connections to the area in which I would like to work. (Whether this is significant in helping me achieve my career goals is another story. The recurring theme here is that it’s hard to tell what matters once even after you’ve identified differences!)
The Size Issue: I’m used to putting in effort to develop faculty relationships as part of a large student body, so I’m not necessarily terrified about “slipping through the cracks” at HLS. Having said that, it would be stupid to assume that I’d be able to automatically out-compete 500 other talented individuals in my class there, so maybe I'd slip through the cracks after all. My level of risk-aversion is moderate, but not terribly high.
Intangible “Feel” Factors: I like students at both places when I visited—and none of them were miserable as some portray HLSers to be. Significantly, though, every single cross-admit that I was most impressed with seems to be going to Yale. I think one’s fellow student body is an important factor to consider, and I think on average the YLS student body may be a more exciting group to go through law school with and get to know. (This observation was made at ASWs, so take that with a grain of salt.) Finally, YLS gave off a distinctly attractive, tight-knit vibe that particularly appealed to me. To be fair, I felt at home at HLS, too. My take-away from its ASW was that it has fundamentally changed for the better post-Kagan.
To over-simplify, I feel like I’m choosing between somewhere that I’ll enjoy more (Yale) and somewhere that will give me unparalleled training and networking opportunities (Harvard). Both schools seem at least decent in the area in which I’ve given the advantage to the other. Most people simply say to go to Yale, but at least some have suggested Harvard may better fit my profile.
TL;DR Version:
I'd like to make an informed choice beyond "Yale is Yale" or "Harvard is Harvard."
Non-Factors between H and Y: Academia, cost, location.
Important things: Practice-oriented training (both in general and regarding ADR/negotiation/arbitration), networking opportunities, international reach, general happiness/environment.
