HLS v. YLS
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 3:20 pm
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At both Y and H they cover clerkships if you go into something covered afterwards, and don't if you go to biglaw. Both of them basically give you a loan for the clerkship year that's expected to be paid back with your bonus if you go to a big firm and is forgiven if you don't.leslieknope wrote:0L here, but I think both Yale and Harvard's LRAPs cover clerkships (though it's restricted coverage at H), gov (at least for the first three until your raises start kicking in) and academia, so the difference might end up kind of negligibl.. Talk to the people at each school's LRAP office and ask them to run the numbers for you on potential jobs and see?
That said, Harvard for free or COL is basically the dream and 55k-115k is a lot of money if you end up not going the LRAP route, and I'm not sure you'd be losing out on opportunities to an extent that the difference is justified. I don't know, it's tough. You can't really go wrong.
That's fair, its just an odd situation I guess.psychmusic wrote:As I mentioned, I am happy to explain further via PM. I'd also be playing a pretty long game if I spent more than a year being relatively active on the site and creating a plausible backstory just to troll in such a pointless and specific way.bearsfan23 wrote:Unless you actually explain the cost difference, I refuse to believe you're not trolling.
You're telling me you have an outside merit scholarship that applies to HLS but not YLS?
I'm calling BS on that
Not going to guess at OP, but there are lots of situations where there might be a difference. There are Massachusetts native things for Harvard, and Connecticut things for Connecticut people for example. Both Harvard and Yale have lists of supplemental stuff on their websites.bearsfan23 wrote:That's fair, its just an odd situation I guess.psychmusic wrote:As I mentioned, I am happy to explain further via PM. I'd also be playing a pretty long game if I spent more than a year being relatively active on the site and creating a plausible backstory just to troll in such a pointless and specific way.bearsfan23 wrote:Unless you actually explain the cost difference, I refuse to believe you're not trolling.
You're telling me you have an outside merit scholarship that applies to HLS but not YLS?
I'm calling BS on that
I'd definitely do Yale if I were in your shoes, honestly having a stress free 1L year is probably worth 50K alone. But both are great options obviously
If the HLS debt will be perpetually uncertain, then I'm not sure what to tell you. I'd probably take YLS with your goals. Both schools are a steal at their respective prices.psychmusic wrote:My real problem is that I might take YLS at a $55k cost difference, but I'd definitely go HLS on the upper end ($115k), so I'd appreciate some input.
Ok then I say Yale. Congrats!psychmusic wrote:It'll be a year to year deal so I won't know until I've been enrolled unfortunately.quiver wrote:Is there a point in the future where you'll know the specific debt for HLS or do you have to decide with just this 0-60k range? if the former, just wait until you get real numbers. Clearly you have an idea of what to do in that scenario:If the HLS debt will be perpetually uncertain, then I'm not sure what to tell you. I'd probably take YLS with your goals. Both schools are a steal at their respective prices.psychmusic wrote:My real problem is that I might take YLS at a $55k cost difference, but I'd definitely go HLS on the upper end ($115k), so I'd appreciate some input.
Food for thought: I estimate that at least half of the YLS class goes in thinking "potentially academia," and yet only about 10% end up actually gunning for it. If your "potentially academia" goals are fairly vague, I'd hesitate before taking on $100K of additional debt for what might end up being no reason at all.psychmusic wrote:Thanks for all of the input everyone. I know that either decision is fairly defensible, and I'm still leaning Yale, it's just hard to know how well I'll stomach all that debt in a few years.
Enjoy in what sense? Neither location is pleasant, but cambridge is at least more tolerable & cultural IMEpsychmusic wrote:I agree that it's sort of ridiculous to go into law school planning on academia. It's like using scratch tickets as a long-term investment strategy.rpupkin wrote:Food for thought: I estimate that at least half of the YLS class goes in thinking "potentially academia," and yet only about 10% end up actually gunning for it. If your "potentially academia" goals are fairly vague, I'd hesitate before taking on $100K of additional debt for what might end up being no reason at all.psychmusic wrote:Thanks for all of the input everyone. I know that either decision is fairly defensible, and I'm still leaning Yale, it's just hard to know how well I'll stomach all that debt in a few years.
I know this is pretty contrary to conventional wisdom, but I am especially drawn to YLS because I think I'd enjoy actually going to school there more. Obviously three years of marginally more pleasant schooling isn't worth $115k and 10 years in extra debt, but combined with the better outcomes, it might be. I'm still not sure.
three years of marginally more pleasant schooling could be worth it if that difference straddles the divide between unpleasant and pleasant.psychmusic wrote:I agree that it's sort of ridiculous to go into law school planning on academia. It's like using scratch tickets as a long-term investment strategy.
I know this is pretty contrary to conventional wisdom, but I am especially drawn to YLS because I think I'd enjoy actually going to school there more. Obviously three years of marginally more pleasant schooling isn't worth $115k and 10 years in extra debt, but combined with the better outcomes, it might be. I'm still not sure.
Yale is around three times as good for academia. The problem is that those still aren't super great odds, so it comes to how much a 10-20% chance is worth VS 3-5%? I'd say not 115k for damn sure. 60k is a lot closer though, especially with a better chance to feed straight into gov and skip biglaw.bretby wrote:How are people possibly advocating Yale here? I truly don't understand it. Harvard is the clear choice. Like someone above said, Harvard for free, or close to free, is a dream come true.
Agree with this ^^^ Also I think it's important to remember that no matter what OP does, it isn't as if either choice is going to lead them down a path to homelessness. They'll be fine either way. I actually don't understand when people discount the academic advantage by pointing out that academia is a long shot. To me that is more reason to go with Yale in this situation: that way even if you don't get it, at least you'll never have to wonder if your school choice made you miss out on your dream job.omegaweapon wrote:Yale is around three times as good for academia. The problem is that those still aren't super great odds, so it comes to how much a 10-20% chance is worth VS 3-5%? I'd say not 115k for damn sure. 60k is a lot closer though, especially with a better chance to feed straight into gov and skip biglaw.bretby wrote:How are people possibly advocating Yale here? I truly don't understand it. Harvard is the clear choice. Like someone above said, Harvard for free, or close to free, is a dream come true.