Munger looks amazing and I do love sleeping in, but it's pretty expensive. Can SLS students shed some light on cheap student housing that's still close to the law school? Do many law students live in the Escondido Village? How about Lyman and Rains?

Hi Stig, thanks for taking questions. Stanford is my number one, and I am really excited to visit during ASW. I have a quick question. My fiancee will be moving to Stanford with me, and will be looking for work as an architect (so maybe in San Jose?). What is the public transit system like? Will she have to commute by car? She'd prefer a bus or light rail if its available. Thanks for any info.

Hopefully someone else can jump in here who actually lives in one of these places, but a fair number of law students do live in EV--definitely the second most after Munger, at least for firstyears. There are also a couple people in Rains, but I can't think of anyone in Lyman off the top of my head. EV and Rains aren't too far--definitely not as convenient as Munger, but a very manageable bike ride or walk. Plus it seems like there are a lot more opportunities for getting to know non-law grad students if you live in EV. EV has a ton of different options, everything from highrise apartments to two-story, two-bedroom townhomes. They're not as uber-nice as Munger, and the bedrooms especially are generally smaller, but they're still perfectly fine (or at least, the ones I've been in are). You'll miss out on a little by not being in Munger, just because SO MANY of the 1Ls live there, but it can also be nice to get away from seeing the same group of people allllll the time. And saving money is always great!



I'm not Stig, but I'll take a gander. I'm a little unclear--do you mean she'll be living on campus with you but trying to work in San Jose? That's a heck of a commute. It's not much better than trying to work in SF, honestly, and I'm sure there are a lot more jobs there. The CalTrain is the nearest train to campus, although the stop is actually in Palo Alto (not walkable from the law school/campus), so you have to take the shuttle to get there. I live about ten miles closer to campus than San Jose and the one time I took the train, it took me about an hour to get to campus (I live maybe a ten-minute walk from the stop on my end). I would guess her commute would be an hour 15 or an hour and a half on the train to San Jose. And by comparison, CalTrain to say, downtown SF, is only like 1:45 to two hours. The buses are fine and run fairly often, but it would take forever to cover that kind of distance on the bus (I guess there could be some kind of express bus that I'm not aware of, but it's probably not faster than the train). Cars really are your best option for long distances, although for shorter distances, a ton of people ride bikes, so that's something. Sorry I don't have better news! You may have better luck trying to live partway between campus and wherever she ends up working, like Mountain View or Sunnyvale if she works in San Jose.

I lived in Rains 1L year, and I really liked it. Being around the rest of the 1L class is nice, but the fact that Munger is 98% filled with law and business students does get old after awhile, and I met a ton of other grad students in Rains. Also the cost differential is insane -- I actually would have continued in Rains if my roommates hadn't wanted to move to Munger.

Thanks for the advice. I assumed it would be quicker to get to San Jose. We were planning on living on campus together. You are right, there are more options in SF. What kind of time does it take to drive to SF from Stanford? Thanks again.

I have a friend who lives in the Mission, and it takes her, I think, 40 minutes to an hour to get to school during rush hour, on the 280. It really depends on where in SF you're looking at, and what time of day. I haven't done the drive during rush hour myself though. I bet you the housing office and admission office could give you great info about commute times.

I was looking around the website at Stanford and was impressed by the info they had about applying for clerkships. Can any current students at Stanford give some info about experiences with getting clerkships from Stanford? Does the small class size present a good advantage and is the career service office as impressive as the website makes it seem?

Also, I'm really excited to visit, but the ASW isn't until late April - is it always this late? In past years did you feel pressured to make a decision so quickly after a visit or at that point was it much easier? (Since most tuition deposits are due May 1st.)

Thanks so much, you guys have given awesome and very helpful information so far!

can't really speak much to clerkships given that most of us are only 1Ls, but with regard to ASW - it was that late last year. i don't think that's much, much later than other schools, but i believe that SLS and Boalt time theirs so that kids coming from the east coast can make both in a weekend should they choose (I did both last year).

it still leaves plenty of time to decide, so long as you don't have a ton of problems making decisions. if you do, flip a coin - it works.

Thank you again, I deeply appreciate the advice.

I think some 2/3Ls should weigh in on this!



I may have said this earlier, but by the end of April you will be so sick of thinking about where you want to go to law school that it won't be that hard to make a decision after visiting! As long as you don't try to overanalyze it with nit-picky numbers and weighing a percentage of a clerkship here versus at another school, and just go by what place you think you'll like more/fit in better at/enjoy for three years, it shouldn't be too hard! (Even if you do decide to go to yale or harvard instead of stanford.)

Reasons for (rising) clerkship numbers probably go something like this, but I'm a 1L and can't speak to career services' role:

(a) Small class size/ease of getting faculty support
(b) Strength of (accessible!) faculty in the relevant areas
(c) Dominance of the West (see 9th circuit numbers)
(d) Forgiving grading system
(e) Strength of clinics and centers, e.g., http://www.law.stanford.edu/program/cli ... itigation/ http://www.law.stanford.edu/program/centers/conlaw/

Can somebody explain to me how the clinical programs work? i.e. do SLS students interested in participating in a clinic do one throughout their law school career, or can they participate in more than one clinic throughout their 3 years? The website isn't clear.

I was going through the site, and apparently one clinic takes 6 credits, and you are only allowed to have 12 clinic hours. So I would guess two during your three years? I am not 100% sure, but I am having a phone conversation with a faculty member tomorrow, and this is something I wanted to ask.

Yup, you can take two clinics (but you can't do a clinic as a 1L, which I think is true everywhere). You could even do two clinics and half an externship (for school credit), or one clinic and one externship.

And in case you're curious, you do get grades for a clinic--three separate grades for each quarter that you do one. Although the categories they make up for the grades are sort of meaningless--my ConLaw professor, who runs the SCOTUS clinic, says generally they'll try and make it so everyone gets a 2-1 split (either 2 H's and 1 P or 2P's and 1 H), unless they do really badly or really fantastically.

When can you expect to hear from Stanford about whether you qualify for financial aid? I have already submitted my docs

Also did anyone of you turn down full ride elsewhere for Stanford? Do you think S is worth it?

Random: Is it difficult to get around i.e. mall, grocery store, restaurant, without a car?

Only if you're really into biking. Though there is a big and ridiculously nice mall right on campus - http://www.simon.com/mall/landing/841/

Many students do two (different) clinics. The quarter system allows the clinics to be the only thing you are doing. So the quarter(s) you do clinic(s), you do not take other classes (hence, the 3 2-credit "grades").

I turned down full rides at Northwestern and UTexas, and I'm sure I probably could have gotten substantial money at at least a couple other schools (I didn't apply to most of the T14 for personal reasons).

Here's the thing: if you're good enough to get in to Stanford, you're almost certainly good enough to have multiple full ride offers. So basically everyone here has turned down full rides. And I don't know anyone who regrets it--although if you were to regret it, it would obviously only be after graduation, when you have to start paying it off. But I don't think the loans end up being a problem for anyone. If you want big law, you can get it from Stanford, no matter where you are in the class--everyone who does OCI gets multiple offers, even with straight Ps. If you're making $160,000, paying off loans is not the end of the world, and you've bought yourself certainty of GOOD employment. And if you want to do PI, Stanford has a very generous and flexible LRAP (second only to Yale's in my opinion, since Yale's allows you to qualify even if not working a legal job), so then you may not have to pay off your loans at all. So either way the money doesn't end up being an issue. And Stanford's LRAP is great because you can go in and out--i.e. do public interest for a couple years and qualify, then go work at a firm and don't qualify, then go back to PI and qualify again.

In terms of getting around, there are lots of people here without cars. With a bike and the Stanford shuttles, it's easy enough to get to the mall, grocery store, etc. It's a bit harder to get outside the immediate vicinity of Stanford/Palo Alto (although the train to SanFran is definitely doable if you have the time). But do keep in mind that it's nice weather all the time, which makes taking public transit/biking a lot more pleasant than in places where it's cold/rainy/gross.

I heard in the first week of April. Some people heard earlier, some heard later. I submitted mine in early February.



Yes. Yes.

As juliachild-ish mentioned, it is fair to assume that students at HYS schools turned down full rides elsewhere. I'd imagine perhaps less so at SLS than HLS or YLS because their LSAT numbers are slightly higher, and there seems to be a strong correlation between high numbers and named scholarships at other schools. If you have concerns about the choice, I'd suggest asking Dean Deal. I had a conversation with her last year and it was very helpful.

I absolutely think SLS is worth it. I would guess YLS is worth it, but HLS might be a little trickier to justify. I say this because of the ease of which students at smaller schools can get high paying jobs, because there is less competition (aka the ability to be confident in your ability to pay it back without taking a job you don't want). My mentor, an HLS alum, was really helpful in reminding me that I will be spending three years out of my life at a law school, and make friends and connections that last my entire life. A couple hundred thousand dollars seems like a lot of money now, but compared to the amount of money we make and spend over our lifetime, it is a drop in the bucket. He suggested that I go with my gut, and choose a school I felt most comfortable with and happy at when visiting. He is still grateful that he is plugged into his network even 10 years out of school. I don't know anyone who doesn't think it is worth every penny. When exams and grading time rolls around at SLS, we are very grateful to know that they don't independently determine our future. Disregarding all the other incredible benefits of the SLS experience, I might pay $50k per year to not be stressed about competing intensely with all my classmates.

Life is short. Don't waste it at a school that doesn't make you happy simply for the sake of money.



Having a car makes life much easier, for sure. You can go where you want, when you want. Yet, it is possible to get by without one. I lived without one for over a month in the beginning of the semester, and again at the beginning of this quarter, and it was doable. Borrowing from friends and using car-renting programs (of which there are a ton, because they are pretty hot in Silicon Valley right now) make it easy. Also, the law school library has bikes which you can rent to take to Trader Joe's, which is a 10 min bike ride away.

Thank you so much for your responses! I'm really leaning towards Stanford.

No problem!

I also neglected to mention that it is worth thinking about how that named scholarship impacts your experience at a school. I was at an ASW, and we had a table of people who were awarded the named scholarship, and the current students talked about how much of an advantage it was, and that they got special treatment from the administration. To me, it really pushed me away from accepting it. At SLS, everyone is treated as equals, and we all have the same access to awesome faculty and administrators. No one is excluded from opportunities because they didn't have a higher LSAT score than a different handful of people.

^Hmmmmm, thanks, that's definitely something to consider. It's looking as if my top two are Stanford and NYU, providing I get the scholly at NYU, and it seems that the NYU and Stanford experiences are vastly different, so I'm really trying to make sure that I choose the best fit for me.

Another question, do you know roughly how many students are at stanford law straight from undergrad? I ask because I'm straight from undergrad, and it seems most at stanford have a couple years of work experience.

Sorry if I have so many questions , but stanford seems to be one of the few top law schools that doesnt seem to have many threads/replies on this forum.

I happen to have looked this up recently:

Class of 2013

Students with an advanced degree: 34%
Percentage of students who come to law school:

Directly from college: 24%
1-2 years after college: 42%
3 or more years after college: 34%

About what I expected. thanks!

Hey, would any Stanford students be so kind as to share any Lawrence Lessig Contracts exams with a Harvard 1L? We have none in our exam bank, but rumor has it there are some in Stanford's.

Thanks!

Chumba45wumba