"The Best Book on Yale Law School Admissions" Forum

[Übermensch]

Has anyone read this book? Was it useful? It's by a Yale Law School graduate.

You can buy it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/School-Admissions ... 924&sr=8-7

You can also buy it on Hyperlink:
http://www.hyperink.com/the-best-book-o ... ssions-b67

You can view many sample portions of the book at Hyperlink.

[Master Tofu]

Hi Kiel; can you discuss the basis of your authority? I am a law school graduate but I wouldn't claim to have any expertise on how my school's admissions process works. That might be more helpful for people looking to buy your books.

[Übermensch]

Hi Kiel; can you discuss the basis of your authority? I am a law school graduate but I wouldn't claim to have any expertise on how my school's admissions process works. That might be more helpful for people looking to buy your books.

I'm definitely not Kiel. I had the same thoughts as you, which is why I posted on this forum to see if anyone else found the book to be helpful. It's out of the norm to see recent law school graduates writing these sorts of books, considering the little credibility they have regarding the actual admissions process. But since there is certainly a market for it, especially for a school as competitive as Yale, I'm sure some people eat this stuff up.

[LSAT Blog]

I've reviewed a few of this company's offerings related to law school admissions and was not impressed with the quality of the content.

[lsplz]

Lol, I don't know kiel, though I've heard of him, but reading through the free sections posted, the guide is if nothing else pretty hilarious and spot-on as far as describing the law school. Almost tempted to buy it for entertainment quality alone. In his description of the SAW writing requirement (in the free bit where he writes about YLS's total absence of rules), I know at least one of the two people who he discusses as "exhibits," and this a very funny and accurate retelling of their paper-writing experiences. It's fun to see multiple rounds of edits on his essays, too-- I can imagine that being helpful to high-end readers. Don't imagine he has much "credibility" in the sense of formal qualifications, but looks like a fun, and potentially helpful, read.

[Master Tofu]

Oh hai Kiel.

[lsplz]

Ha, no, current student. I'll admit I'm probably biased because I know/like friends of his, and I certainly don't have any reason to think this'd be useful to someone actually applying to law school. Just funny anecdotes, and I'm online primarily procrastinating about the paper requirement that i referenced in that post, so it made me laugh.


"In reality, the requirement is simply to write two papers, each one of whatever length and rigor the supervising professor finds acceptable. This can mean diametrically different things.

Exhibit One—A friend of mine worked full-time, for three straight months (during a summer), to put together an intricate “event study” examining the effect of anti-FDA lawsuits on pharmaceutical prices. She intended to submit it as her SAW. It read like a dissertation. When my friend solicited commentary from me, I bashfully told her that, honestly, I had no idea what the event study was saying. It was too technical. The supervising professor, however, took a different view of the event study. In the professor’s mind, the event study was “not empirical enough,” and “too short” (70 pp.), to qualify as an SAW.

Exhibit Two—A few days before graduation, to fulfill his SAW requirement, another friend of mine submitted an “outline” of “concept clusters” that he’d written earlier that afternoon while watching a Mets doubleheader. The afternoon might also have involved beer. In the body of his email, my friend indicated that he would “send his final draft soon,” and that he was “sorry for the delay.” Before my friend had an opportunity to submit his final draft, he was preempted by the professor, who decided to just go ahead and give him an honors grade. To my knowledge, the paper was never finished."

[Übermensch]

Apparently, there is a similar book on Harvard Law School by the same publisher.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Book-Harvard ... 563&sr=8-4