Skool wrote:I think the above is advice that applicants follow at their peril. If I'm understanding correctly, its opening seems to suggest that it's luring readers down a "less objectively wise course to fulfill some other need/desire/ambition of yours." Whenever someone starts trying to seduce you with something they acknowledge to be the less wise thing, it's time to be a bit skeptical about the value of the advice.
I think a lot of this advice gives undue weight to vague promises of the benefit of being in an elite club. I don't doubt that all things being equal there's value to going to HYS over NYU/UVA. But all things are not equal and the promise of people looking at you differently when you drop the H-bomb probably isn't going to outweigh the freedom that comes from a full-ride at a T-14 school.
Bottom line, everyone here is entering professional school to build a career in a profession. Entering into an elite and exclusive fora for legal education is not an end unto itself. Everyone here should be thinking about their long term professional goals, not vague promises of the benefit of being in an elite club or to "represent and prove that we belong."
Make good choices based on likely outcomes as determined by known data. For some that will mean HYS. For others that might mean NYU/UVA. Remember the flip side of the fliptrip's scenario. While there may be those who feel regret at chasing the money and not going HYS, I wouldn't want to be the big law grunt on the in house track who could have saved 160k in debt if he had subbed his NYU degree for the Harvard one and still had the same job and prospects.
Alright, first, thank you for responding to my long diatribe, skool. We need to liven this place up and I think this will be a great way to do it for at least a little bit. I am not trying to go ad hominem, but for the sake of everyone reading us, some disclosure is in order. You had this choice, skool and you took NYU, if I remember things correctly. I'm deposited at Stanford, so clearly I see things differently. So this is like Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley going at it.
Now, be fair, skool. I gave the exact advice that you are advocating for in my first paragraph. If you are someone who is freaked by downside risk, then by all means take the free ride to NYU. Lots of people do and I doubt they regret it. I'm sure you'll be very happy. But, just because your course of action has merit does not mean that alternative perspectives and reasoning need to be dismissed out of hand. To illustrate further that I understand this calculus, friends, if you take door #2, flip's gilded and glittering door of prestige, skool is 100% right, you could end up having paid $160k (probably more) you didn't have to to end up in the same place as you would have otherwise.
Now, if you think you're going to maximize your potential in life by always playing it safe, I have to tell you you're wrong. If you don't take risks and you always stick on the safe path, that's an excellent way to end up being some functionary somewhere who is filling space and doing enough to not get fired. If that sounds like an a-ok idea to you, then what I'm saying probably sounds like the ramblings of a madman. But, if you want to do something big, if you want to just see how much you really can achieve, and the idea of getting by until you retire sounds like a waking death, then you'll also understand that going to HYS has a higher ceiling than going to NYU. Skool's right, I can't say with any specificity, but I can tell you that it means something valuable to have attended those schools. I think this clip from A Civil Action captures this thing that I'm talking about that is so hard to put into words:
https://youtu.be/XEGy_asxL2U?t=14s . If you put yourself in the Travolta character's shoes and you basically get checked/put in your place because of your pedigree, how does it make you feel? If you don't give a shit because prestige is a myth and you're debt free and working and stable, then you should definitely go to NYU. If being in that position would make your blood boil, then you might wanna consider door #2.
So, this is less about what I am advising any of you all to do and more about just sharing who I am and how I am just in case there's anyone similarly wired out there who might take comfort in knowing they are not alone. Isaiah1992 is a 2L at SLS right now who turned down good money at Berkeley to go to Stanford. He says he doesn't regret it:
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... start=2500 Frankly, if I were to end up in skool's worst case scenario, my reaction would not be to wander to the Triboro Bridge and hop in the river. I'd say, "well flip, that didn't go as planned, but fuck it...I took a shot." I and I emphasize
I can live with that. I don't doubt at all that for a lot of folks that sort of scenario would cause a lot of drooling into the existential pillow of remorse and shame. I guess this is like most things, know thyself and proceed accordingly.
I suspect strongly that our friends who have AnBryce interviews in this thread will be receiving the scholarships in the next few weeks. I look forward to seeing how y'all reason/work through the big choice that awaits you. And, just so I make this 100% clear, skool is a boss and I know he's doing great things at NYU.
