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Which prestigious national scholarship? What would you be studying overseas? I would get an answer from Yale before thinking too much about it.

what do you want to do?

what do you gain by this prestigious national scholarship?

which country?

Take corporate law internship, go to Yale, win at life.

Travel later.

creu

Stop wasting your time here and go ask Yale for the deferment. It really depends on their answer, right?

Yale never grants deferrals.

I think passsing up Yale for the opportunity to network and learn culture would be one of the worst decisions you could ever make. Go to Yale -- you'll have plenty of time for all that when you're done.

The only reason that scholarship would be really appealing is if you were trying to get into Yale. You're in!

edit: deleted quote

Brazil > Yale. If you haven't been reading the news lately, this country's going to be eaten alive by BRIC over the next couple decades.

I'd go learn Portuguese.

If I were in your situation and Yale will defer, I would take the scholarship in a heartbeat. That just sounds like a cool experience and even if you lost the corporate internship, you'll be at Yale. You will manage to find another internship that pays well.

Travel the world before you have to wear a suit and work 80 hrs/wk. 20 years down the road are you gonna be wishing that you had an extra year of corporate law under your belt or wondering what it would have been like to spend a year in Brazil?

What are you talking about? BRIC includes Brazil. Is it planning to eat itself? And how does learning Portuguese connect to participating in Brazil's economic growth?

Terrible advice.

creu

AztecaRex wrote:Thanks for the quick responses, guys.

FWIW, Yale will defer for sure--based on this, any new advice?

You mean that Yale will defer YOU or that in some cases they defer?

scammedhard wrote:

AztecaRex wrote:Thanks for the quick responses, guys.

FWIW, Yale will defer for sure--based on this, any new advice?

You mean that Yale will defer YOU or that in some cases they defer?

They'll defer me.

AztecaRex wrote:

scammedhard wrote:

AztecaRex wrote:Thanks for the quick responses, guys.

FWIW, Yale will defer for sure--based on this, any new advice?

You mean that Yale will defer YOU or that in some cases they defer?

They'll defer me.

Then I'd go to Brazil...

EDIT: Now you should start a poll

Well that changes everything. If you have a guarantee on Yale in 2012, take the scholarship.

I would go to Brazil. Portuguese is a pain the ass to learn, and will only be more important as Brazil's economy becomes more relevant internationally. The connections you can make straight out of undergrad may be helpful, but I don't think they offset the value of a living abroad and learning another language. There's plenty of time to make connections if you're able to get into schools like Yale.

Mce252 wrote:What are you talking about? BRIC includes Brazil. Is it planning to eat itself? And how does learning Portuguese connect to participating in Brazil's economic growth?

Terrible advice.

Wat. Yes, BRIC includes Brazil. It's going to eat the United States. Learning Portuguese helps you do business there, because their English sucks.

Terrible international business experience?

Go to Brazil, man. Yale is waiting for when you get back and you really want to do this. People saying travel later are wrong, it's very hard after you've started a career and even if you do find the time you should go while you are young and healthy. Beautiful country, don't let this become a "what if I had..."

I forgot... if you are going to Brazil, you should also dump the girlfriend.

Brazil is tempting, but it typically takes two years of immersion after a few years of college level study to become "proficient", not fluent, in a foreign language. Regardless, Brazil for a year is an amazing opportunity & language study has to start somewhere & sometime. The real issue, however, is will you be willing to leave Rio for New Haven ?

ahduth wrote:

Mce252 wrote:What are you talking about? BRIC includes Brazil. Is it planning to eat itself? And how does learning Portuguese connect to participating in Brazil's economic growth?

Terrible advice.

Wat. Yes, BRIC includes Brazil. It's going to eat the United States. Learning Portuguese helps you do business there, because their English sucks.

Terrible international business experience?

It would be a lot more practical to focus on learning Portuguese when OP knows their career is heading to Brazil. Brazil is not going to "eat" the United States. Yes, the U.S. is becoming less and less of an economic power, but it's not going to assimilate into Brazil. Suggesting that OP risk losing a Yale law degree to learn a years worth of Portuguese was not good advice. There are plenty of people who do much business with Brazil who know only english.

With deferment as a possibility, it's a different story.

According to Goldman Sachs, in 2050 the US will move from the top GDP... to #2.
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Yeah. BRIC is swallowing the G7, but the US still destroys BR combined and nearly ties with I.

If you want to take the scholarship, do it. It sounds like a once in a lifetime chance. Just a few caveats:

1) Remember that the mentioned scholarship comes with a service requirement that will severely limit your possible post-graduate plans (i.e. no clerkship, no biglaw).

2) Largely because of the service requirement, the mentioned scholarship isn't incredibly prestigious. If you want something to "bolster your resume" this isn't it (the work you do in Brazil, however, might be)