Choosing HLS over YLS? Forum

[Nebby]

I also want to know how they came up with that statement when a lot of school's public interest fellowships don't make their amounts publically available

One thing to recognize here, and I think this is ridiculous, but when Yale says "peer school," it has two schools in mind, and Columbia and Berkley are not among them. Again, I don't condone that elitism, so don't shoot the messenger, but that's just the way it is.

No biggie.

[rpupkin]

I also want to know how they came up with that statement when a lot of school's public interest fellowships don't make their amounts publically available

One thing to recognize here, and I think this is ridiculous, but when Yale says "peer school," it has two schools in mind, and Columbia and Berkley are not among them.

Does YLS ever say "peer school?"

[Dcc617]

Harvard has a ton of great opportunities for doing PI work. There are some cool student practice organizations like Defenders (represent low income clients in criminal show cause hearings), PLAP (represent prison inmates in disciplinary hearings), and TAP (represent people in housing issues). Then there are great clinics like HLAB, CJI, immigration, and capital punishment. There are also a ton of organizations, speakers, and resources for doing that sort of work.

I don't know anything about Yale, but there's a lot of stuff at Harvard.

[rpupkin]

OP may have stopped reading this thread, but one thing I've noticed about TLS is that it generally sucks at giving PI advice. Most of us work in law firms. A few of us work in government. But just a small handful of posters work in PI. I remember when WorldTraveler used to post here and disabuse posters of silly assumptions they were making about the PI world. This thread probably needs some of that.

Anyway, OP, my point is that you really should talk to people who work in the PI field you're interested in. I have the vague sense that YLS offers advantages over HLS for a PI-focused person, but I'm basically a law-firm guy with law-firm expertise. You have posters in this thread talking about their PI clinics at their schools—which is fine—but I don't think it really tells you whether one school is better than the other for PI.

Talk to some real PI lawyers. Good luck.

[Dcc617]

That's fair. I kind of think that when you're looking at Yale vs Harvard PI placement has got to be pretty close though, and an individual's results swing on what you do in law school.

[Nebby]

The best school to maximize PI work experience in law school is Columbia due to the fact that it allows up to 30 nongraded credits. With such flexibility, one could spend every semester in 2L and 3L doing clinics, externships, and field work. Every national non profit has an office in NY, therefore there's a plethora of work and networking opportunities. It has the CLS in DC program. A PI student who is motivated and makes a flexible 3 year plan can take advantage of all of these.

Obviously I'm biased

[Dcc617]

The best school to maximize PI work experience in law school is Columbia due to the fact that it allows up to 30 nongraded credits. With such flexibility, one could spend every semester in 2L and 3L doing clinics, externships, and field work. Every national non profit has an office in NY, therefore there's a plethora of work and networking opportunities. It has the CLS in DC program. A PI student who is motivated and makes a flexible 3 year plan can take advantage of all of these.

Obviously I'm biased

Yeah, I don't think there's a huge outcome difference in PI for people from the T13. It seems to be a lot more of what you do.

I could be off base though, I only go to one school.

So OP, if you're super interested in PI for the sake of actually serving the public, then I'd pick the school you liked more and that was most affordable. If you're into PI to be a preftigious as possible, then that changes the calculation.

[Monday]

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[wksen]

OP here! After careful consideration of everything I've been told/seen at both schools, I've decided on HLS. While I've been convinced that I'll be giving up a competitive edge professionally and also a relaxing/family-like academic environment, I think my personality is more suited for a bigger, bureaucratic school like HLS, and I also prefer H's location/social scene. I'm also not planning to enter into an extremely competitive field (my interest is pretty niche) so going to HLS I think will serve me just fine.

Thanks all for your input! Ultimately, this was a personal decision, and was not based on which school I thought was "superior". The people are great at both schools and I'm very happy to have met/talked to all of you.

[HonestlyThough]

OP here! After careful consideration of everything I've been told/seen at both schools, I've decided on HLS. While I've been convinced that I'll be giving up a competitive edge professionally and also a relaxing/family-like academic environment, I think my personality is more suited for a bigger, bureaucratic school like HLS, and I also prefer H's location/social scene. I'm also not planning to enter into an extremely competitive field (my interest is pretty niche) so going to HLS I think will serve me just fine.

Thanks all for your input! Ultimately, this was a personal decision, and was not based on which school I thought was "superior". The people are great at both schools and I'm very happy to have met/talked to all of you.

Thanks for starting this thread!

I've been deciding whether to stay on WL at S and Y, or to just fully commit at H, and I think i'm leaning the way of OP.
(OP, congrats on your choices)

Yale's prestige edge is not enough to make up for how much I loved cambridge and how much I prefer the larger size of HLS (and other Harvard campuses). I'm also a person who greatly prefers the pragmatic to the academic/intellectual approach. I want to do movement lawyering or impact litigation. I was pleasantly surprised by how many state school (undergrad) admits I met at HLS. Great community.
Harvard has plenty of prestige for me!