Yale or Harvard (Embarrassment of Riches Post) Forum

[eph]

Private schools in Ct are around 35k a year. The great public schools are in towns like Greenwich and Darien with median home prices of 3.5 million. The public schools in New Haven are not terrible. 4 yr graduation rate around 62% with a dropout rate of 25%. Much better than Bridgeport or Hartford. I lived my whole life around 40 miles west of New Haven. Ct is a nice place. It just that it costs a lot of money to live well here. Then again Boston and the surrounding area ain't cheap but the public schools are better.

I forgot. In case this is a question of which. Harvard.

[ishciagb]

If you're looking for family flexibility, it should be an easy choice. YLS has a much more pleasant environment, particularly during the first semester when there is nothing you can do wrong. The ease of access to professors relative to HLS (which dovetails with your potential law professor goals), greater class choice flexibility (not in terms of how many classes, but in terms of what classes you have to take), lower stakes when it comes to grading, negotiable deadlines, few class attendance requirements, and fewer peers to compete with make YLS a pretty ideal place to balance family life. This is in addition to the fact that YLS has more cachet in legal academia (and in most other non-business fields). The public schools in the greater New Haven area are fine as long as you're cognizant of your school district, and the private schools in the area are some of the best in the country if you can afford them.

[CanadianWolf]

Have you sought input from your family ? How old are your children ?

[eph]

I know that it is accepted knowledge that Yale has more pull in academia than Harvard. A quick count of the faculties at Michigan and Stanford (happened to have those materials on hand) shows about the same number of Profs from each school. Now odds wise I guess you have a better chance coming from Yale but is that because fewer Harvard grads want to go into teaching? 34% of Yale get clerkships 17% of Harvard but in absolute numbers with a class 2 1/2 bigger as many or more from Harvard get clerkships. At asw at Harvard I was told that if you want academia tell them and they will work with you from the get go. The odds favor Yale for your field but it might be just as possible from Harvard simply because fewer wish to follow that track. There are a whole lot of Harvard alums at the top schools.

If you can afford to send the kids to Choate while attending law school for 3 years chuck it all and just buy the vineyard now.

[ManOfTheMinute]

once i saw the words "law professor," the answer was clear. yale, duh. new haven public schools aren't great, but choate, hopkins and a bunch of private schools nearby are fantastic, among the best in the country.