heyguys wrote:I also want to make one final comment about interaction with classmates: one of the biggest draws is how much more broadly educated the other students are than me. I know everyone tires of the [perceived-to-be] snooty "Everyone else is so smart, but not me" attitude, but that's not exactly what I'm getting at--after the ASW, I can say that I feel myself to have a sharp enough mind to keep up with the other students.
As a young guy, I can objectively say that I simply don't have the background of my classmates (I don't have any particular scholarly interests, no advanced degree, no couple of years away from school into the real world, etc). In a lot of ways, I think I will enjoy riding off the coattails of those who have spent a few years away or are finishing up a graduate degree in terms of what they can offer the class, and that's actually a pretty exciting idea for me--I know I was probably someone admitted to bolster gpa/lsat numbers (vis-a-vis the oxford graduate students and such), and I definitely plan to take full advantage of the opportunity to learn from those who are far more accomplished than I.
I think your feelings are shared by many of the younger students, and I have an anecdote to share about it. I was talking to someone right out of college. S/he (I want to respect this students privacy as such as possible, including hiding his/r gender) was saying how s/he felt so unaccomplished next to all of us older admits.
My response: "You must of done something amazing ... Did you cure cancer during one of your summers at college?"
S/he: "No, nothing like that."
Me: "What about saving a village in a third world country, it seems some of the other admits have done that?"
S/he: "No, not that either, I'm really just straight from school."
Me: "Published a great article or a book?"
S/he: "No, nothing really."
Me: "So what did you do? Get a 180 on the LSAT?"
S/he: Yes
S/he wasn't kidding either.
(To put the conversation in context, we were at one of the many parties during the ASW and I was definitely joking and teasing him/r ... I just think it's hilarious that s/he was not, and I wanted to share to the TLS group[/i]).
I think Yale is the only place where a student with a GPA and an LSAT score well above the lofty 75 percentile scores risks feeling intimidated by his/r peers. The accomplishments of everyone at Yale also humble those of us with life experience. I mean, if you have a grad degree from a place like Oxford and the person to your right in class is a published scientist while the person to your left started a non-profit before law school, who should be intimidated?
Personally, I am intimidated by those students whose brains are still young and sharp.