The $42,000 All-You-Can-Eat Buffet
Most of you are aware of Yale Law School’s reputation as one of the world’s premier educational institutions. You’re familiar with some of our amazing faculty, our reputation for cutting-edge legal scholarship, our leadership role in the legal community, and the high quality of life we afford our students. However, little known outside of the Yale Law School community, we hold another, unofficial distinction as the world’s most expensive all-you-can-eat buffet.
Let me explain how this unique buffet works. Our diners, let’s call them “students,” pay us a one-time door charge, we’ll refer to this as “tuition,” for eight months of non-stop feasting, known by some as an “academic year,” at our restaurant, “Yale Law School” in the vernacular. The price for this one-of-a-kind dining experience: $42,000.
Our buffet mainly consists of four stations: talks and workshops, student organization meetings, social gatherings, and “The Table of Plenty.”
Talks and Workshops
Food is a recurring theme at the School’s many talks, workshops, and colloquia. Most events scheduled close to noon will provide lunch. Evening events will frequently include dinner or be followed by a reception featuring hors d’oeuvres and drinks. A quick look at the calendar and my email shows at least 15 events in the past week that served food. Participate in heated discussions on current events or analyze the most recent theories in constitutional law while enjoying bagels with Barak or coffee with Kofi.
Cuisine most likely to be served: pizza, sandwiches, and wraps.
Student Organization Meetings
After filling up on all of those meals at the talks and workshops, it’s doubtful you’ll be hungry. However, in case you missed a meal or are still finding yourself a bit peckish, the student organizations are around to fill the void – in your stomach. Most student orgs meet weekly, usually in the evening. They feature stimulating conversation, opportunities to catch up with classmates who share your same interests, and ample quantities of food. Since most students belong to several orgs, it’s easy to see how these meetings can provide dinner all week long.
Cuisine most likely to be served: pizza, Thai, and Indian.
Social Gatherings
At some point in the term, you’re going to get tired of pizza (blasphemous in New Haven), wraps, Thai, and Indian. Thankfully, the School hosts purely social gatherings on a regular basis with slightly different cuisine than you’ll find at the talks, workshops, and student org meetings. For example, each Friday the Dean’s Office sponsors happy hour in the Dining Hall with free food, wine, and beer. The menu changes each week, but you’ll often find items like spicy buffalo wings, cheese and vegetable trays, and clam chowder. The Student Affairs Office also sponsors three or four events each term with really nice food. This term they hosted a gelato party with real Italian gelato, a wine and cheese tasting led by a local importer of fine wines and cheeses, and a sushi night during which 2400 pieces of sushi and sashimi were eaten (inhaled?) in 30 minutes.
Cuisine most likely to be served: nicer than you’re going to get at a talk, workshop, or org meeting.
The Table of Plenty
Some of you may be familiar with The Table. The Table is a nondescript, wooden table situated in the center of the School’s main hallway. Located at the building’s main architectural nexus, it’s –the– meeting spot for the Law School community. At lunch, and especially at dinner, The Table also becomes the central repository for much of the food remaining from the many talks, workshops, and student org meetings. Even if you didn’t attend one of these events, or didn’t like what they were serving, you can usually find a meal waiting for you at The Table.
Cuisine most likely to be served: leftovers. Hey, beggars can’t be choosers.
Not included in the four “buffet stations” above are other occasions for feasting. Pub crawls, dinners with faculty at their homes, and homemade baked goods during exam period are some of the more notable opportunities. One of our first-year students blogs about his buffet experiences in our Student Perspectives Blog.
Although not a piece of advice offered by our Financial Aid Office, enterprising students find ways to make the most of their buffet privileges. It is quite easy for a student to eat almost all of his or her meals during the week at the Law School, dramatically reducing the food component of a standard student budget. So, when that tuition bill arrives in your e-mail, remember that $42,000 a year is not only buying you a world-class legal education, it’s your check for the most expensive buffet on the planet.