YALE LAW vs HARVARD LAW

jonri
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:17:05 +0000

While NYU is very good in tax, reality in my world–YMMV–is that you’ll still need a LLM in tax if you want to be a tax partner at a top BIGLAW firm. So, it makes more sense to go to Harvard and get a LLM in tax at NYU. I don’t think going to NYU over Harvard for jurisprudence makes any sense at all, at least if the cost is the same.

Oh, and as far as I know, every year, some folks who get 11s in the file review are admitted to Yale. It’s not necessary to get a 12, though the majority of those admitted do. As far as I know–I may be out of date–there’s never been a year in which there were enough 12s to fill the class.

From what I have seen, Yale is more likely to admit “stories” than Harvard is–folks who have good but not outstanding (in this context ) numbers but have interesting life stories–the guy who went to prison and then to Brown, for example. He got the laws of the state of Rhode Island changed so that ex-cons can vote there and represented himself and successfully avoided being deported after his release from prison. (I haven’t a clue what his LSAT was. Nor do I know whether he was admitted to Harvard Law. I just mean that he’s the kind of “story” that Yale is more likely to admit.) Someone who spent a number of years in a federal pen definitely brings a different perspective!

But for the plain old “vanilla” law school applicant, it’s highly probable that if you get into Yale you’ll get into Harvard.