Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions Forum

[despina]

Cambridge is totally safe during the day.

We get emails from Harvard Police every month or two about someone being robbed walking alone at 2 am. There is a van service that you can call to take you anywhere within a (relatively close) radius of campus, and you can also get a taxi voucher from the library circulation desk.

[TripTrip]

Could someone comment on the safety of the area around the law school, especially for walking home at night? Any areas to avoid?

It's pretty safe. The area immediately around the law school specifically is
one of the safest parts of Cambridge: http://www.cambridgema.gov/cpd/communit ... emap1.aspx

Even though that map shows the square as a hot spot, it's not an area to avoid.

[Pneumonia]

Does Warren's Tax need a #1 preference?

[EdSaid]

Does TAW need a high preference? HLS Dope is saying no, but I had always heard the opposite. Or is that only for the winter TAW?

[Pneumonia]

Does TAW need a high preference? HLS Dope is saying no, but I had always heard the opposite. Or is that only for the winter TAW?

I have also heard from nearly everyone that TAW needs a high preference. If I were guessing, Dope isn't suggesting a high pref because the site tracks waitlist statistics for "professor + course" rather than just "course name."

[Mr. Elshal]

Does Warren's Tax need a #1 preference?

From what I have heard, yes.

[TripTrip]

Does TAW need a high preference? HLS Dope is saying no, but I had always heard the opposite. Or is that only for the winter TAW?

I have also heard from nearly everyone that TAW needs a high preference. If I were guessing, Dope isn't suggesting a high pref because the site tracks waitlist statistics for "professor + course" rather than just "course name."

Nah, it's because it had open seats after the registration process finished. (See the TAW detail page for how the preference order was determined.)

Out of an abundance of caution, I pulled the data grab from HELIOS. This is what the registration page for TAW looked like on August 28, 2014:

Winter could be different.

Edit: The HLS Dope detail page gets its information from a data grab on August 30, 2014. That's why it says 13 open seats versus the 10 on the screen grab; at least three people dropped between the data retrievals.

[nothingtosee]

IDK how difficult this would be, but it'd be great if Dope had a thing where I could put in my preferred courses and they could tell me which ones to preference highest (even better if it could be adjusted for my personal preferences).

[tomwatts]

14th with Feldman or Klarman?

I'm firmly of the belief that it's not worth wasting your #1 selection on what seems to be at best a coin-flip's chance at Klarman.

Obviously there's a fair point here. On the other hand, Klarman is actually that good. There's a reason that about half of the 2Ls and 3Ls who haven't taken his class preference it #1. My impression is that Feldman is excellent too, but that's just from hearing him speak at the occasional event, not from taking a class with him.

But holy crap there are a ton of 14th Amendment classes.

I'm pretty sure that Vermeule is headed to YLS. Also, more generally, taking the hottest admin class is probably the most sure-fire way to get a P I can imagine. (This admonition applies with particular force to Stephenson's class, but if Vermuele were the only good admin professor in a given year I'm sure it would apply to him too).

Why would this necessarily be the case?
Don't most people take admin law and most people prefer a professor who teaches it well?

I just don't understand how gunners would be more likely to get into classes with better profs when everybody wants those classes.

Just speaking from experience, my admin class (Stephenson in Fall 2011) had 35 people from HLR in it and probably two dozen people not in that group who ended up clerking. I expect that the curve was brutal.

I think high-performing students are more likely to find out who the good profs are, decide early which classes they want, and preference smartly. Admin with Vermeule in Fall 2013 was similarly disproportionately HLR. But hey, I really liked the class, and I got an H in it. It was worth it.

Given that a lot of popular multi sections have only one really good professor (e.g. Vermeule for admin, Fellon for fed courts), those are gonna be competitive and where I'd be spending my #1 bid (if I wanted one of those).

I seriously doubt you need to blow a #1 bid on Fallon's Fed Courts or Vermeule's Admin. I don't think either subject (regardless of prof) is sufficiently popular for that. You may have to ride a waitlist for a little while to get in if you preference them low, but I'd bet you'd get in off of nearly any bid.

I did use a #1 bid on Fallon's Fed Courts, and I'm pretty sure it was a waste of a #1 bid. I put Vermeule's Admin as #2 (in a different year), and I don't think I was ever on a waitlist for it.

[MyNameIsFlynn!]

14th with Feldman or Klarman?

I'm firmly of the belief that it's not worth wasting your #1 selection on what seems to be at best a coin-flip's chance at Klarman.

Obviously there's a fair point here. On the other hand, Klarman is actually that good. There's a reason that about half of the 2Ls and 3Ls who haven't taken his class preference it #1. My impression is that Feldman is excellent too, but that's just from hearing him speak at the occasional event, not from taking a class with him.

But holy crap there are a ton of 14th Amendment classes.

I'm pretty sure that Vermeule is headed to YLS. Also, more generally, taking the hottest admin class is probably the most sure-fire way to get a P I can imagine. (This admonition applies with particular force to Stephenson's class, but if Vermuele were the only good admin professor in a given year I'm sure it would apply to him too).

Why would this necessarily be the case?
Don't most people take admin law and most people prefer a professor who teaches it well?

I just don't understand how gunners would be more likely to get into classes with better profs when everybody wants those classes.

Just speaking from experience, my admin class (Stephenson in Fall 2011) had 35 people from HLR in it and probably two dozen people not in that group who ended up clerking. I expect that the curve was brutal.

I think high-performing students are more likely to find out who the good profs are, decide early which classes they want, and preference smartly. Admin with Vermeule in Fall 2013 was similarly disproportionately HLR. But hey, I really liked the class, and I got an H in it. It was worth it.

Given that a lot of popular multi sections have only one really good professor (e.g. Vermeule for admin, Fellon for fed courts), those are gonna be competitive and where I'd be spending my #1 bid (if I wanted one of those).

I seriously doubt you need to blow a #1 bid on Fallon's Fed Courts or Vermeule's Admin. I don't think either subject (regardless of prof) is sufficiently popular for that. You may have to ride a waitlist for a little while to get in if you preference them low, but I'd bet you'd get in off of nearly any bid.

I did use a #1 bid on Fallon's Fed Courts, and I'm pretty sure it was a waste of a #1 bid. I put Vermeule's Admin as #2 (in a different year), and I don't think I was ever on a waitlist for it.

Maybe. I don't really have any basis for judgment other than what I hear, and I may be overestimating the popularity of Fed Courts in particular. For admin, though, it seems like the options are particularly shitty next year. Sunstein is Sunstein, the visiting guy is a wild card, and Vermeule is well regarded, which leads me to believe Vermeule at 1 would be wise.

Every semester we have this same discussion and it always leads me to wonder why administration doesn't publish any demand data to guide student preferencing.

[tomwatts]

There were only Vermeule and Sunstein two years ago, so my guess is that getting Vermeule will be easier than it was before.

Eh, maybe a top 3 for Vermeule would be wise. I did get in off a #2, so I don't know how far down one could go.

[Nonconsecutive]

Nooooo muh premium Gold edition of HLS Dope is gone.

[HorseThief]

Nooooo muh premium Gold edition of HLS Dope is gone.

+1

[Nonconsecutive]

Nooooo muh premium Gold edition of HLS Dope is gone.

+1

True story, I've had two different people ask me how I got the Gold HLS Dope and if it had extra features. I now feel as though I'm no longer in the cool kids club.

[TripTrip]

Nooooo muh premium Gold edition of HLS Dope is gone.

+1

Check again.

[HorseThief]

Nooooo muh premium Gold edition of HLS Dope is gone.

+1

Check again.

Ha, love it!

[nothingtosee]

Dope says neither Feldman ConLaw class needs to be preferenced high - is that correct?

[TripTrip]

Dope says neither Feldman ConLaw class needs to be preferenced high - is that correct?

Mmm where does it say that? I can't find any preferencing data on Feldman's Con Law.

(Since the Registrar doesn't provide data sets, there are some courses that we just don't have any data about . . . even if they've been offered before.)

[Nonconsecutive]

Nooooo muh premium Gold edition of HLS Dope is gone.

+1

Check again.

Ha, love it!

[nothingtosee]

Dope says neither Feldman ConLaw class needs to be preferenced high - is that correct?

Mmm where does it say that? I can't find any preferencing data on Feldman's Con Law.

(Since the Registrar doesn't provide data sets, there are some courses that we just don't have any data about . . . even if they've been offered before.)

http://hlsdope.org/view-class.php?term= ... an&o=68492

there's no preferencing data

[TripTrip]

Dope says neither Feldman ConLaw class needs to be preferenced high - is that correct?

Mmm where does it say that? I can't find any preferencing data on Feldman's Con Law.

(Since the Registrar doesn't provide data sets, there are some courses that we just don't have any data about . . . even if they've been offered before.)

http://hlsdope.org/view-class.php?term= ... an&o=68492

there's no preferencing data

Ah.

I may need to clarify this on there then. When there's no pref data, it just means nothing in the preferencing database matched that particular course. It might have had a long waitlist, but when the bot saved all the data from the semester it was looking at it didn't see Feldman's con law.

[Pneumonia]

What happened to the professor reviews on HLS Dope?

[TripTrip]

What happened to the professor reviews on HLS Dope?

They're on the bottom of the course detail pages. (Click a course to view that Prof's.)

Less than ideal, I know. We have a fresh data set that we'll be uploading soon.

[cheesin23]

Hi! Would any current students be willing to talk about their living expenses? I'm trying to figure out if I can afford Harvard and want to see how feasible it would be to get the room/board/personal expenses down from the suggested $21,373. Thanks!

[yomisterd]

why doesn't hls ever do a law revue video?