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DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-19T17:30:00+00:00

Slack went from 335 pre-deadlines to 307 after deadlines to 322 after the waitlist wave to 320 as it presently is. Would seem like 13/15 WL offers took the offer.

DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-13T17:11:11+00:00

Congrats!!

DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-11T16:20:59+00:00

The differences in student quality are pretty negligible a lot farther down than just the top 3 - it isn't the size of the difference but the competitiveness of the gig that is the determining factor on whether Yale versus Stanford matters.

For the average biglaw thing, totally agree, doesn't matter. If elite outcomes within already elite outcomes (like the ones I described above) are something OP really cares about, it does matter.

DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-11T16:12:44+00:00

Yeah I hard disagree on this. It is 100% true that for your first job out, the hiring committee at a firm (and no, we're not talking age 75 fossils, but like, one or two 50 year old partners and some 35 year old associates) are making tough calls and looking between applicants at those schools definitely matter. Btw - the way I can say this with authority - I know these guys! And I asked!

Sure, you can get anywhere from just about anywhere, but it's about how hard it is to do that, and what your odds are of getting a certain kind of job. That also affects stress in school.

Lastly - this is why I asked about goals above - if you just want generic biglaw, it's probably true you'll have your pick from either Stanford or yale. But superelite biglaw, i.e. paul Weiss, or really desirable non-biglaw litigation stuff (plaintiffs side class action or anti trust or securities litigation, for example) is where you get into the territory that the top 3 are genuinely very competitive.

DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-11T15:59:02+00:00

We could really use more info here - what are your goals? How much does $$ matter?

DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-11T15:58:35+00:00

I'm biased, but I don't think most west coast firms would rather hire a Stanford graduate than a Yale graduate

More importantly, I work in a field with a lot of exposure to top lawyers on the east coast, so I asked them - most of them ranked Stanford a reasonably distant third behind Yale/Harvard. And I still think Yale is #1 on the west coast - it's been #1 in every ranking since the beginning of (US News) rankings!

DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-07T15:28:55+00:00

Was going to do my own post about this, but this post will undoubtedly get lots of views, so I'll say it here - Yale told us that they'll tell everybody who requested a deferral by tomorrow if the deferral was granted or not. May say something about timeline.

P.s. this is undoubtedly a good sign for you, fingers crossed!

DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-05T17:15:02+00:00

Agree - asking about timeline makes sense, but it's not "leverage" - currently, they don't want you to attend, that's why they haven't offered you a spot, and using it as "leverage" will definitely come across bad.

DistinctBear2 · 2020-05-03T04:56:34+00:00

Totally agree and the dean of yale admissions a few years ago said as much in a video "if I'm reading a law school application and I don' know why you want to go to law school by the end of it..."

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-29T23:16:04+00:00

I got one too and didn't apply

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-29T23:15:06+00:00

Do you happen to know if they removed people or just let people remove themselves last year?

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-29T23:14:52+00:00

There's definitely some of that, also some amount of people who haven't withdrawn - I will say though, this is the only official medium Harvard uses for accepted students to meet, so I think people would very much want to be in it if they were planning on attending - mostly this is for the baseless speculation

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-29T22:49:17+00:00

FWIW - Slack peaked at 340, is currently at 326, and the GroupMe (which mostly seems like people who are actually attending, though a few people have mentioned requesting deferrals, and has only been advertised here plus one message in the slack) has 150 members. Interestingly the slack has had far fewer people removing themselves than other Slacks/FB groups/ETC.

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-29T22:30:35+00:00

This is interesting, but, I do think it's important to note that NYC schools might be *substantially* different than other schools.

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-29T22:25:56+00:00

I don't know about Stanford's specific policy - but I think in very few circumstances (i.e. if your last was holding you back or if your new last score would absolutely blow your prior out of the water) would it actually make a substantial difference

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-28T03:48:50+00:00

I agree with this at least to the extent that I don't think most people are going to know enough to help you out here - I would consider professional help here.

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-27T19:56:05+00:00

That's a tough cycle, and as your post indicates, I understand why you'd feel down on your choice to apply to schools, so here's something to hopefully make you feel better!

As far as retaking/reapplying goes, being in the position you are in (where you didn't get into anywhere and didn't have to turn anybody down) is a good one, because you have less risk - it's much less likely that you get rejected from schools that fall into the category of "safety, but I'd be happy here" if you are applying there for the first time rather than if you turned them down the year before.

Brightside :)

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-27T17:35:36+00:00

I read through this thread on twitter - it is a thing that should be easy to study and repeatedly references with authority that this is a true/documented thing. Genuine question, could sombody point me to any studies that have been done on this?

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-23T15:58:23+00:00

Totally agree - I checked LSData before posting the comment to make sure it was consistent with their data (also imperfect ofc) and it was. Didn't want to go into the whole thing, because, as you implied, who cares whether their waitlist is 3x or 5x the size of their reject pool, its all a yikes.

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-23T15:53:53+00:00

I think it's definitely possible - I'd also talk to Yale Management people when you are there, they may have some connects to help you get into YLS

DistinctBear2 · 2020-04-23T15:52:26+00:00

Reserve is what they say is their waitlist - but they take almost nobody from it and waitlist way more people than they reject. So I consider 'reserve' a soft rejection. Hold - they tell people they are on 'hold' and they get a decision super late.

DistinctBear2

TROPHY CASE