URM 2016-2017 Cycle Thread Forum

[renc56]

This has already been said, but this is the best thread on TLS (at least socially for incoming 1Ls).

[Mr_Chukes]

Anyone deciding between HLS and YLS and leaning toward HLS because of student body diversity/social life concerns? I believe YLS may have a higher proportion of minority students (particularly those that identify as AA) than HLS but because the class is so small not many students of color overall.

Wow guys can I just say like go us for even being here...

very true. it can be really hard to recognize the success when you get swamped down in the admissions frenzy but its also really important to recognize the big picture

+1

Agreed. Also, people are getting into Yale and shit like... YES REPRESENTATION! Lol

+1,000,000

Not in your position but I would choose Yale of the small class size and more individual attention. Plus being a bigger percentage is cool also.

[crookedsmile]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

I'm facing a choice between either a full tuition scholarship at Berkeley or need-based aid at Harvard.

I don't have my need-based award at H yet but I'm guesstimating it should be max/near max (~40K grant + 50K loan). At Berkeley, I would only need to cover living expenses which are estimated (by them) to be ~25K/year.

To add some context, I'm planning on doing BigLaw out of school, ideally in Southern California. I visited both campuses and liked both, but fell somewhat in love with Cambridge and the H campus, but I know financially, Berkeley probably makes more sense. I am a CA native and have never lived on the East Coast, though I don't think I'll hate the weather too much as I like the cold + snow.

Any thoughts, advice?

[dietcoke1]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

Any thoughts, advice?

tough choice. if Biglaw in Socal is your only goal then financially Berk makes sense. your not interested in clerking? what else could you see yourself doing if BigLaw ends up not being for you?

[crookedsmile]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

Any thoughts, advice?

tough choice. if Biglaw in Socal is your only goal then financially Berk makes sense. your not interested in clerking? what else could you see yourself doing if BigLaw ends up not being for you?

I absolutely see myself clerking. But it's not the end all be all I guess. Ideally I'd like to do BigLaw for a few years to pay down the debt + help out the fam (that URM life). If BigLaw doesn't end up being for me, I dunno tbh. I'd love to do PI but the money just isn't there to draw me.

[dietcoke1]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

Any thoughts, advice?

tough choice. if Biglaw in Socal is your only goal then financially Berk makes sense. your not interested in clerking? what else could you see yourself doing if BigLaw ends up not being for you?

I absolutely see myself clerking. But it's not the end all be all I guess. Ideally I'd like to do BigLaw for a few years to pay down the debt + help out the fam (that URM life). If BigLaw doesn't end up being for me, I dunno tbh. I'd love to do PI but the money just isn't there to draw me.

honestly I think you can't go wrong with either option. sorry for not being too much of a help, but if you get the need aid that you think your going to get then I think H is justifiable. I personally would go with H, but that's just because I'm the type of person that is going to wonder "what if" when it comes to HYS. but B on a full ride is an amazing outcome.

[hammy393]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

I'm facing a choice between either a full tuition scholarship at Berkeley or need-based aid at Harvard.

I don't have my need-based award at H yet but I'm guesstimating it should be max/near max (~40K grant + 50K loan). At Berkeley, I would only need to cover living expenses which are estimated (by them) to be ~25K/year.

To add some context, I'm planning on doing BigLaw out of school, ideally in Southern California. I visited both campuses and liked both, but fell somewhat in love with Cambridge and the H campus, but I know financially, Berkeley probably makes more sense. I am a CA native and have never lived on the East Coast, though I don't think I'll hate the weather too much as I like the cold + snow.

Any thoughts, advice?

Think about where you want to end up 10, 20, 30 years from now, and how hard it will be to get there from either school. You won't be crippled in debt at HLS - you'll pay it off in about 7 years. And, trust your gut: where do you truly want to go and where do you think you'll be most successful? Money won't be an issue in your life, regardless of your decision.

[brinicolec]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

Any thoughts, advice?

tough choice. if Biglaw in Socal is your only goal then financially Berk makes sense. your not interested in clerking? what else could you see yourself doing if BigLaw ends up not being for you?

I absolutely see myself clerking. But it's not the end all be all I guess. Ideally I'd like to do BigLaw for a few years to pay down the debt + help out the fam (that URM life). If BigLaw doesn't end up being for me, I dunno tbh. I'd love to do PI but the money just isn't there to draw me.

honestly I think you can't go wrong with either option. sorry for not being too much of a help, but if you get the need aid that you think your going to get then I think H is justifiable. I personally would go with H, but that's just because I'm the type of person that is going to wonder "what if" when it comes to HYS. but B on a full ride is an amazing outcome.

I didn't think much of clerking until I heard about things like clerking bonuses + found out some boutiques only hire people who clerk.

[crookedsmile]

honestly I think you can't go wrong with either option. sorry for not being too much of a help

Gracias for your contribution. I honestly have no idea what to do and need to decide by this Friday at 5PM

[hammy393]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

Any thoughts, advice?

tough choice. if Biglaw in Socal is your only goal then financially Berk makes sense. your not interested in clerking? what else could you see yourself doing if BigLaw ends up not being for you?

I absolutely see myself clerking. But it's not the end all be all I guess. Ideally I'd like to do BigLaw for a few years to pay down the debt + help out the fam (that URM life). If BigLaw doesn't end up being for me, I dunno tbh. I'd love to do PI but the money just isn't there to draw me.

honestly I think you can't go wrong with either option. sorry for not being too much of a help, but if you get the need aid that you think your going to get then I think H is justifiable. I personally would go with H, but that's just because I'm the type of person that is going to wonder "what if" when it comes to HYS. but B on a full ride is an amazing outcome.

I didn't think much of clerking until I heard about things like clerking bonuses + found out some boutiques only hire people who clerk.

yea standard clerking bonus at biglaw is 50K

[brinicolec]

honestly I think you can't go wrong with either option. sorry for not being too much of a help

Gracias for your contribution. I honestly have no idea what to do and need to decide by this Friday at 5PM

I mean, I think if you're uncertain about BL and think you MIGHT be interested in PI (even though $$$ is not that great), taking on less debt will at least give you the option of PI if you decide that you're willing to give up the money in order to do that kind of work.

[Dip]

Ding at Penn

[Mr_Chukes]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

I'm facing a choice between either a full tuition scholarship at Berkeley or need-based aid at Harvard.

I don't have my need-based award at H yet but I'm guesstimating it should be max/near max (~40K grant + 50K loan). At Berkeley, I would only need to cover living expenses which are estimated (by them) to be ~25K/year.

To add some context, I'm planning on doing BigLaw out of school, ideally in Southern California. I visited both campuses and liked both, but fell somewhat in love with Cambridge and the H campus, but I know financially, Berkeley probably makes more sense. I am a CA native and have never lived on the East Coast, though I don't think I'll hate the weather too much as I like the cold + snow.

Any thoughts, advice?

Damn that's such a hard choice. I love that boalt offer but at the same time. It's Harvard lol. Financially Berkeley​ hands down but Harvard's reputation is strong. It'll probably be easy to get a big law Cali job outta Berkeley but at the same time you have ties to California, so it shouldn't be too hard from Harvard.

I say Harvard but at the same time Berkeley may allow you to do more sooner because you won't have to worry about debt. This is a hard decision but this is awesome that you have this decision to make. God bless you bro!

[suitsandpotions]

Ding at Penn

When did you go complete? Can you please pm stats? I've been patiently waiting for that acceptance call/WL

[texcellence]

Any thoughts, advice?

Think about where you want to end up 10, 20, 30 years from now, and how hard it will be to get there from either school.

I got this same advice from a partner I work with. The path to CA biglaw is easy from either school so I wouldn't even consider that as a factor. Think about your contingency plan should you decide you don't want to build a career out of it and try to feel out what each school's connections/alumni network is like. Have you asked the schools to put you in touch with alumni who have jobs you're interested in? That's a good way to see how much a school will hustle to advocate for you. Either way, you won't make a "wrong" decision because both are fantastic options.

[renc56]

Has anyone who has accepted or is likely to accept admission into the school chat up the dean? I'm debating on doing this since the dean keeps sending out "I'm friendly, you all can talk to me" e-mails lol.

[brinicolec]

Has anyone who has accepted or is likely to accept admission into the school chat up the dean? I'm debating on doing this since the dean keeps sending out "I'm friendly, you all can talk to me" e-mails lol.

What do you mean by chat up? Lol.

[renc56]

Has anyone who has accepted or is likely to accept admission into the school chat up the dean? I'm debating on doing this since the dean keeps sending out "I'm friendly, you all can talk to me" e-mails lol.

What do you mean by chat up? Lol.

Nothing diabolical. Just to learn more about the school and what it has to offer. I didn't go to the school for undergrad so I'm not super familiar with the campus and I'm curious to see what dealing with administration is like at this school.

I'd prefer to talk to the career center but idk if they'd bother talking to an 0L or tell me to come back October 15 or whatever

[brinicolec]

Has anyone who has accepted or is likely to accept admission into the school chat up the dean? I'm debating on doing this since the dean keeps sending out "I'm friendly, you all can talk to me" e-mails lol.

What do you mean by chat up? Lol.

Nothing diabolical. Just to learn more about the school and what it has to offer. I didn't go to the school for undergrad so I'm not super familiar with the campus and I'm curious to see what dealing with administration is like at this school.

I'd prefer to talk to the career center but idk if they'd bother talking to an 0L or tell me to come back October 15 or whatever

Hm... I think this depends on the school. I think all deans SAY they talk to students but I'm not sure all deans actually put that into practice lol.

[texcellence]

Has anyone who has accepted or is likely to accept admission into the school chat up the dean? I'm debating on doing this since the dean keeps sending out "I'm friendly, you all can talk to me" e-mails lol.

go for it. they already admitted you. i will say that there are some deans that are way more involved with students than others. not sure which school you're referring to but in my experience, Levi @ Duke and Farnsworth @ Texas are super easy to talk to/responsive, especially Farnsworth.

[renc56]

Has anyone who has accepted or is likely to accept admission into the school chat up the dean? I'm debating on doing this since the dean keeps sending out "I'm friendly, you all can talk to me" e-mails lol.

go for it. they already admitted you. i will say that there are some deans that are way more involved with students than others. not sure which school you're referring to but in my experience, Levi @ Duke and Farnsworth @ Texas are super easy to talk to/responsive, especially Farnsworth.

It's Farnsworth.

idk I had a really bad relationship with uni administration from undergrad so I'm hoping it won't be as bad in law school. Maybe knowing them as people and having them know me as a person will make the process easier.

[brinicolec]

Has anyone who has accepted or is likely to accept admission into the school chat up the dean? I'm debating on doing this since the dean keeps sending out "I'm friendly, you all can talk to me" e-mails lol.

go for it. they already admitted you. i will say that there are some deans that are way more involved with students than others. not sure which school you're referring to but in my experience, Levi @ Duke and Farnsworth @ Texas are super easy to talk to/responsive, especially Farnsworth.

It's Farnsworth.

idk I had a really bad relationship with uni administration from undergrad so I'm hoping it won't be as bad in law school. Maybe knowing them as people and having them know me as a person will make the process easier.

Oh Farnsworth is hella personable. Definitely just shoot him an email lol

[Mr_Chukes]

Has anyone who has accepted or is likely to accept admission into the school chat up the dean? I'm debating on doing this since the dean keeps sending out "I'm friendly, you all can talk to me" e-mails lol.

I've talked to the Dean in person at events. Just emailed quick questions. That's it.

[OnlyHumean]

Anyone deciding between HLS and YLS and leaning toward HLS because of student body diversity/social life concerns? I believe YLS may have a higher proportion of minority students (particularly those that identify as AA) than HLS but because the class is so small not many students of color overall.

Wow guys can I just say like go us for even being here...

very true. it can be really hard to recognize the success when you get swamped down in the admissions frenzy but its also really important to recognize the big picture

+1

Agreed. Also, people are getting into Yale and shit like... YES REPRESENTATION! Lol

+1,000,000

I'm also in the incredibly fortunate position of having to choose between HLS and YLS.

For what it's worth, I think choosing based on the amount of URMs at a school is reasonable if that will affect your social life and mental health. The only objection I have is that it becomes a kind of self-fulfilling cycle - if we have URMs opting out of places like Yale because of the lack of URMs, then the number of URMs will never increase, but if the number of URMs does not increase, then more URMs will opt out, and so on. And this will just keep repeating itself, and the problem that will always persist.

The only way we can address the problem of underrepresentation at this point is to opt-in to those spaces in which we are underrepresented and to make that space a safe and welcoming one for the groups of URMs that come after us. There has been an incredible group of URMs who have blazed trails for us to be able to be in the positions we are in now, and in some way, I see it as part of our duty to them and to those that come after us to continue blazing those trails, and expanding the spaces in which URMs of all kinds feel welcome.

This is not to say one ought to choose a less diverse school over a more diverse school - not at all. I think you out to do what is best for you. But I think part of the burden of being an URM is always being forced to consider how your actions and choices will affect those URMs who come after you, and to me, that's an important consideration in this decision.

[zkyggi]

I want to ask for all of your advice since y'all have helped me through this entire process.

I'm facing a choice between either a full tuition scholarship at Berkeley or need-based aid at Harvard.

I don't have my need-based award at H yet but I'm guesstimating it should be max/near max (~40K grant + 50K loan). At Berkeley, I would only need to cover living expenses which are estimated (by them) to be ~25K/year.

To add some context, I'm planning on doing BigLaw out of school, ideally in Southern California. I visited both campuses and liked both, but fell somewhat in love with Cambridge and the H campus, but I know financially, Berkeley probably makes more sense. I am a CA native and have never lived on the East Coast, though I don't think I'll hate the weather too much as I like the cold + snow.

Any thoughts, advice?

I don't know if this is the case for the law school, but Berkeley generally vastly underestimates living expenses. As in, rent is generally off by about half. Just something to keep in mind.