203: An Admissions Blog

Elm City Eats: Bentara

76 Orange Street

You can definitely walk here from the Law School, but I have a rule that when it’s below 40 degrees I drive.  So we drove.

www.bentara.com

Malaysian cuisine

-Popia (Spring rolls)

-Beef Nasi Goreng (fried rice)

-Mee Hoon Goreng (fried rice noodles)

-Other stuff that I can’t remember

I have already determined that my review of this place is sure to be disputed – whichever way it goes.  I have now eaten here three times, in groups of three, six, and eight and nearly every time, half of the group has loved loved loved the food, and half of the group has vociferously detested it.  I am somewhere in the middle.

I like the ambiance.  The tables are spaced well apart, the place is tastefully decorated.  It’s modern Malaysian-centric with natural colors and nice wooden tables.  At dinner time it feels very cozy and intimate.  But loud.  There is no sound-proofing.  At dinner time in particular, you might have to shout at your companions to carry a conversation. 

The first time I went was for dinner and I found both the experience and the food charming.  Perhaps it was the glass of wine with dinner that made it such an enjoyable experience and, coincidentally, explains why I don’t remember what we ordered.  But, I remember liking the food and thinking I’d definitely go there again.  The second and third times were for lunch with large groups.  Lunch is a great time to come with a group of people because the place is practically empty, the service quick, and you can be in and out with a gourmet meal in an hour.

The spring rolls are unanimously great.  They’re vegetarian and come with hot sauce, and you can appreciate the difference between Bentara’s spring rolls versus the egg rolls you’d get at Panda Express.  They’re light and not too oily (despite being deep fried).

The first time I went there for lunch, I ordered Mee Hoon Goreng.  Mental note for any of you who plan on going to Bentara – order your food MILD!  This is one of those places where you can specify the hotness of your food, or so you think.  Mild still has a little kick, and medium practically blew the mouth off of one of my friends.  While the meal tasted good, it made me feel queasy afterward and I was subsequently hesitant to go there again.  Others in my group ordered the Two Soy either with tofu or with chicken.  The Two Soy looked delicious – sweet and salty soy sauces with slivered onions, green beans and green peppers.  But again, this got mixed reviews and was overly salty for some of us.  Others get this all the time and swear by it!

The second time I went there for lunch I ordered Beef Nasi Goreng thinking, hey, it’s fried rice!  You can’t go wrong with rice! In the end, it tasted good (enough) but I think I’ve decided that maybe I just don’t have a palate for Malaysian food …  I love most of the other Asian cuisines – Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and even “Asian Fusion” on occasion, but Bentara has a very distinctive taste and you’ve got to really want that taste in your mouth for the rest of the day.

One of the best attributes of Bentara is that it is super vegetarian and vegan friendly.  Nearly every dish can be ordered with tofu or completely sans any form of protein or meat.  I am personally a big fan of red meat, hence all the beef dishes above, but at least this aspect of their menu seems to suit everyone.  The desserts were likewise a hit – Molten Chocolate Torte and Bentara’s Banana Split.  Both got wolfed down in a second and looked delicious, complete with the whipped cream and ice cream on top.  But … is a Molten Chocolate Torte part of Malaysian cuisine?  Just wondering.  At least the Banana Split was stuffed into spring rolls.

I realize that at this point, the review may not evenly relay both the good and the bad of Bentara.  While my personal opinion is pretty much “eh …it’s okay”, I do know people who rave about the place and even like to have their birthday lunches there.  I have heard Bentara referred to as “one of the best restaurants in New Haven.”  So there.  Check it out for yourself. 

The Billion-Minute Mile

Dear Asha,

One of the things that is supposed to be great at YLS is the lack of traditional grades and class rankings.  However, I've heard from students at other schools that getting an "H" [Honors] matters as much at Yale as getting an "A" at another school, and that therefore Yale is just as stressful and competitive as any other law school.  In particular, I've heard that you need all Hs to get a top job.  Is there any truth to this?

S.B.

Dear S.B.,

I did an informal poll of my classmates from YLS and the reasons they chose to go to Yale.  Two words always made the top of the list: No. Grades.  To us, these words symbolized freedom to pursue interests beyond the classroom, learning for the sake of learning, not having success come at the expense of your classmates, and, as legendary YLS Dean Guido Calabresi put it, finally "getting off the treadmill."  How is it that, all of a sudden, Yale has been Swift-Boated for one of its top strengths?

Before I go into the reasons that your sources' information is suspect, I think it would be helpful to understand how and why Yale's current grading structure evolved (courtesy of Guido himself!).

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (i.e., circa the mid 50s), Yale Law School had a grading system which evaluated students' performance as "Excellent," "Good," and "Satisfactory."  Although not grades in the traditional sense, these marks were assigned a value that allowed students to be ranked.  The result was, among a very small group of highly accomplished people, a stratified system which fulfilled the egos of a few people at the top while creating, for the vast majority of the students, an enormous amount of anxiety.  In fact, for many students who were used to being at the top academically, the designation of being at the bottom (or even the middle) -- a designation which in turn affected the course of the rest of their legal career -- was not only depressing, but encouraged them to simply "turn off" for the rest of their time in law school.

In the late 60s the students, being the rebellious baby boomers they were, organized against The Man, which in this case was the grading system.  Specifically, the students felt that the grading and ranking systems created false pressure and were not conducive to a learning envioronment.  Now, there were students who were in favor of the status quo (read: the few egos at the top), but the majority of students advocated the abolition of grades altogether, to be replaced by a system of Credit/Fail.

The question was, if this system were adopted, how would employers on the outside react in their hiring practices?  So they went to the employers themselves -- partners in law firms and judges -- and asked them.  The answers were not very promising.  Some employers said they would simply hire all the Yalies who applied, then fire the ones they felt performed the worst.  Others indicated that they would hire students based on "how presentable" they appeared (wink wink).  Others said that they would use objective criteria like the LSAT, and some said they would come up with their own tests.  This course of action, then, seemed worse than having grades.

The dilemma was thus how to create a system that had enough of a grade "hook" -- something that gave the appearance of relative performance -- but no more than was needed to satisfy the evaulative purposes of future employers.  In other words, the goal was to discourage employers from substituting their own system of evaluation, but to also avoid creating distinctions among students that were not real.  It was here that the current system of Honors/Pass/Low Pass/Fail (and no class rank), was born, and it has lasted longer than any other grading system used at Yale.

Now, to the effect of Yale's system in practice.  So, in your first term, all of your classes are simply Pass/Fail.  As I recall Dean Koh explaining to my Civil Procedure class, "You will take a final exam, and you will pass.  If you don't pass, you will take the exam again.  And you will pass.  In other words, you will pass."  Does everyone still study their butts off?  Yes.  Do the students still stress out the first term?  Yes.  Do they all really pass?  Yes.  Does everyone at that point finally chill out?  Yes.

Beginning in your second term, you are evaulated under the H/P/LP/F system. I spoke with the Registar, keeper of all Yale grades and transcripts since the beginning of time (and hence the most powerful person here), who told me that Fs are almost unheard of, and LPs are "absolutely rare."  This means that almost all grades awarded at Yale are Hs and Ps (there is no curve so the number of each is up to each professor).  The Registrar further informed me that only about 1 or 2 students graduate each year with straight Honors (though one year she saw a spike of about 4 students).  Out of a class of 189 students, that's about 1-2%, max, of the class (to put it into perspective, that would mean about 100 people -- out of roughly 7,000 graduates -- since the system was adopted).  Finally, she advised that it is equally rare for a student to graduate from YLS with all Ps.  In other words, the vast majority of Yale graduates have a trancript littered with Hs, Ps, and CRs (given for first term classes and things like journals, reading groups, etc.).

If the overwhelming majority of Yale Law grads have very similar transcripts, how do we account for the fact that 50% of each graduating class get clerkships, or that 13% of each class get jobs in academia, and that practically everyone gets the law firm job of their choice?  The answer is: the grades just don't seem to matter that much.  Really.  Since nothing you accomplish at YLS is linked to them -- things like being on the Law Journal or becoming a director of a clinic or becoming a research assistant -- they are really not that useful.  At the same time, the fact that students are liberated from obsessing about grades and rankings allows them to tailor their law school path in such a way as to make themselves as attractive as possible to precisely the type of job they want to have.  In other words, if a student wants to work in a law firm, there's no presure to join the Law Journal to "prove" that she is at the top of the class -- the student can instead become involved in the Center for the Study for Corporate Law, making her stand out in a unique way to law firm employers.  Similarly, a student who really wants to do immigration law can exchange hours spent worrying about acing an exam for time on a client or in the courtroom through a clinic, gaining invaluable experience for a future career.  And for aspiring academicians, a P doesn't matter when you've had a chance to coauthor an article with a professor, or even publish one of your own papers, before you graduate.  In addition, all students get to know professors personally (you kind of can't help it, if you actually show up for class), which allows for detailed references regarding your performance and abilities.  As a result, the people doing the hiring have much more information on which to evaluate your potential than they would with grades alone.

I can understand how difficult it is for students at other schools -- particularly large ones -- to wrap their minds around the idea that grades don't matter.  To be honest, I think this tells you a lot more about what life is like there than it does about Yale.  That is, if you are in a place where professors are not particularly accessible, and where the markers of "success" are inextricably bound to grades, and where the sheer size demands that students be differentiated by rankings (since there are simply many more people competing for the same things), then grades become the most meaningful symbols of your law school career -- which probably explains why students at these schools spend more time thinking and talking about Yale grades than the Yalies do!

In conclusion: the Yale system was created by students.  If, sometime in the last 40-ish years, it had become a liability for them, presumably it would have been changed again.  But since it hasn't, ask the Yale students themselves what they think.  You can find them next to the treadmills, relaxing.

On the Campaign Trail

As you might imagine, YLS students are a politically active group.  Nothing makes this political involvement more apparent than an election year.  It's impossible to walk down the hallways of YLS without seeing posters or overhearing conversations reminding you that it's primary season.  Students are working for all of the major campaigns in varying capacities, from knocking on doors to managing state-wide campaign efforts.  Yale Law Democrats and Yale Law Republicans, as well as other student groups, have sponsored a variety of election-related events and activities this year.

For two roommates, Addisu Demissie '08 and Adam Goldfarb '09, political involvement has had an unusual personal twist.  Adam and Addisu, one campaigning for Clinton, the other for Obama, recently shared their thoughts on the race and experiences on the campaign trail with the Yale Daily News.  You can read the story here.

Rebels With a Cause

This past weekend hundreds of law students, legal practitioners, and community activists from around the country descended on Yale Law School for the 14th Annual Rebellious Lawyering Conference.  The entirely student-run conference, one of the largest of its kind, brings together individuals committed to serving the public interest to discuss innovative, progressive approaches to law and social change.

The Rebellious Lawyering Conference, better known at Yale as Reblaw, was started in 1994 by two then-current students who wanted to create a symposium for other students interested in pursuing public interest career paths.  Not only does Reblaw serve as fertile ground for the exchange of ideas and information, it provides a sense of community for public interest-minded students who face the temptations of traditional big-law practice. 

There is no particular theme for each year’s Reblaw: many different topics are discussed.  To give you a sense of the diversity of Reblaw’s offerings, here are the titles of just a few of this year’s panels and workshops:  Emerging Issues In Environmental Justice Advocacy, Human Rights and Corporate Accountability in the Global Economy, The Ongoing Struggle for Minority Ballot Access, and Reforming the Judicial Appointment Process.  A complete list of the sessions offered at Reblaw 2008 and 2007 can be found here.

In addition to the numerous panels and workshops, Reblaw attendees have opportunities to network with their fellow students and colleagues and with the panelists, many of them leading practitioners at community organizations, public interest law firms, law schools, and in the government.  Discussions at the sessions continue as casual conversation during the many breaks and meals, as well as at Friday’s happy hour and the parties held both nights of the conference.  A list of panelists and a schedule of events can be found at the Reblaw website.

Reblaw is traditionally held the last weekend of February, so mark your calendar now and check out the Reblaw website in December for registration information.
 

For Californians …

… or anyone else who thinks that proximity to the beach is an important factor in deciding which law school to attend ...

Okay, so I know it’s not the same, and maybe not quite as nice, but we do have beaches out here!  New Haven is on the Connecticut coast and the surrounding areas offer several venues for getting your feet wet.  The beaches in East Haven are particularly close (about a ten minute drive from YLS) though I am partial to Hammonasset State Park about 20 minutes up I-95. 

East Haven (on Cosey Beach Avenue) has a little food shack and restaurant, The Sandpiper, where you can get fish and chips and then just walk across the street to the beach.  Not as populated as Hammonasset, this beach is quite peaceful and is a calming place to reflect, take a study break, or gather seashells.  Whenever I have visitors in town from landlocked states they insist on going to this beach, if just to dip their feet in the water.

Hammonasset is a State Park, so it’s not free (about ten bucks to park), but it is a bit nicer.  It is super picturesque and green and you can go running or on a nature hike – you can even go camping!  From the shore you have a nice view of the Long Island Sound and can watch the sailboats floating around.  This is more of a lay-out-on-a-beach-towel-and-catch-some-rays type of beach and, in the summer, they pull out the grill so that you can buy drinks and hot dogs and make a day of it.

In addition to these beaches, Yale also has its own Yacht Club!  Located in nearby Branford, it is home to the Yale Sailing Team but also offers a summer program and sailing lessons for those of us affiliated with Yale.

If these options still don’t appease you, you can always just drive a couple hours to the Hamptons or to Cape Cod if you want a more posh weekend getaway.

The Y-Train is Still in the Station

Dear Asha,

Is it too late to apply to Yale Law School?  Will I still have a chance to get in if I apply now?

C.J.

Dear C.J.,

No, it is not too late to apply, and yes, you still have a chance.

First, our application deadline isn't until February 15, so you still have plenty of time to put your application together.

Second, as I've mentioned in a previous post, we have a unique admissions review system in which students are admitted in roughly equal numbers throughout the admissions season.  In other words, although our admissions process is "rolling" in the sense that we give offers on an ongoing basis, your chances of admission remain roughly the same regardless of when you apply in the season.  We do not fill the class until we have read all of the applications in the pool, so there is no way you can apply "too late."

So get to work and submit your application if you are interested in YLS -- we promise to give your application a thorough review!

--Asha

Please submit questions to 203blog@yale.edu.

Elm City Eats: Seafood and … Did I hear you right? … Cheese?!?!

The Blue Pearl

130 Court Street @ Orange Street

About a 5 block walk from the Law School

Location and décor: Downtown, but on a relatively quiet (dare I say deserted) street.  Inside, the restaurant looks like an uber mod nursery – all blue and pink and white (ugh).  And yet the furniture is modern white plastic and leather, no armrests on the couches, very loungy.  “The Shining” was playing on the TV screens behind the bar.  For a Thursday night, it was awfully empty inside.

Items Sampled:

-Savory fondue (artichoke, parmesan, and crème fraiche)

-French fries

-Wine and champagne (of course)

So I have to admit, I was skeptical of this place whose signature seemed to be seafood and cheese.  I don’t know, something about the idea of dipping a jumbo prawn into a vat of blue cheese just sounded wrong.  But, after scanning the menu, I found lots of items that sounded good – steak, salads, macaroni and cheese, fondue and french fries.  (Halfway through our meal, we overheard the bartender talking about how much she wanted the macaroni and cheese so I’ll have to try that next time.)

In the end, I picked a “savory fondue” (as opposed to the surf and turf fondue or the sweet fondues) of artichoke, parmesan, and crème fraiche.  Provided for my fondue-rific dipping pleasure: carrots, cucumber, chunks of bread, crackers, broccoli, grapes, and apples with fennel.  Armed with my little fondue spear, I dug in.

Though it looked like a stomach ache waiting to happen, the fondue was surprisingly light and the chunks of artichoke really broke up the cheesiness of it all.  Okay, so as expected, the chunks of bread and crackers dipped in cheese tasted good.  I think the problem came when someone thought that cucumbers or carrots dipped in boiling cheese would be a good idea.  We decided that fondue really hinges on the porousness of the food you’re dipping.  Bread, porous, good.  Crackers, porous, good.  Broccoli, well, everyone can appreciate broccoli and cheese.  But cucumbers and cheese?  The hot cheese just slips and slides right off the cucumber.  Same with the carrots.  And, cucumbers and hot cheese just sounds, well, about as appealing as the jumbo prawn and blue cheese that I had envisioned before.

The grapes, I confess, I ate all by themselves.  But I think the real winner of the night was the apples sprinkled with fennel.  The fondue adhered well, and it was a surprisingly good combination.  Overall, I’d say the savory fondue thing was a hit.  Remember – just stick to the porous foods!

The french fries were good, not steak cut, but not too thin.  Served very hot with a side of ketchup and garlic mayo (which we didn’t try).  I hear that the best side for french fries is champagne.

If you’re not all fondue-d out, you can try a sweet fondue for dessert.  They had everything from s’mores fondue to white chocolate to espresso.  Personally, by that point, I was leaning toward the key lime pie or the strawberry shortcake.

The service was good, friendly, and quick and it was a comfortable, loungy place to chat.  The fondue thing is fun, and if nothing else, good for laughs and entertainment!

The 250-Word Albatross

Dear Asha,

I know the deadline to apply to YLS is approaching, but I can't seem to figure out what to write about for my 250-word essay.  I'm not sure what the Admissions Committee is looking for.  Help!

S.B.

Dear S.B.,

Sigh.  The 250-word essay.  I remember putting off my Yale Law School application because of the 250, too (good thing that applying late to YLS doesn't affect your chances of admission!). 

The 250 word essay, in case you haven't checked out our application, is an essay on any subject of your choice, which the Admissions Committee uses "to evaluate an applicant's writing, reasoning, and editing skills."  In other words, this is your first exercise as a potential lawyer: say something meaningful in a limited space, and make it good.  You'll be asked to do this repeatedly in the future: law school papers have page limits, and there are judges who will throw out motions or briefs that exceed their word number guidelines.  Being persuasive and concise is the quintessestial lawyerly skill, and we want to see that you have it.

Honestly, though, the 250-word essay is really a gimme.  It gives you a second bite at the personal statement -- after all, given all of your goals, interests, opinions, accomplishments, backgrounds, and hobbies (just to name a few aspects of yourselves), you couldn't have possibly covered everything important about who you are in a two-page personal statement.  So the 250 is a chance for you to explore something you care about that might have ended up on the cutting room floor in writing your personal statement.  Maybe it's a policy argument.  Maybe it's a piece about a hobby or passion of yours.  Maybe it's a personal anecdote.  There's not much you can't write about.

In fact, there are tons of "Dos" in writing the 250, and just a few "Don'ts."  So it might be more helpful if I list the five major mistakes people make in writing their 250s and you can avoid them, thereby increasing your success rate exponentially.  These mistakes are:

 1.  Not Keeping Your Essay at 250 Words or Less.  Yes, it seems like it would be obvious that a 250-word essay should be, well, 250 words.  I'm not sure why people choose to ignore this.  Because they think what they have to say is so special that the limit doesn't apply?  They didn't read the instructions?  They don't know how to use the word counter on their computer?  Not clear.  Look.  It's an excercise.  The faculty who came up with this application requirement a billion years ago do not like to be mocked.  Do I or the faculty reading your application actually count the words?  Maybe -- do you want to take the chance?  Bottom line:  Don't go over 250 words.  If what you have to say is longer, edit it.  And yes, definite and indefinite articles and prepositions count.

2.  Writing the 250-Word Essay about Writing a 250-Word Essay.  There are always a couple of hundred applicants each year who think they are pret-ty clever.  So they write an essay which will go something like, "So I have to write a 250-word essay.  Actually, now I have written 20 words so it's actually a 230-word essay!  Wait, make that a 224-word essay!"  And it will go on in this vein, subtracting numbers until the applicant has managed to write 250 words about absolutely nothing.

3.  Giving 250 Words in Stream-of-Consciousness Prose.  So, another couple of hundred people think that they can just barf out everything they didn't mention in their personal statement, putting a period after 250 words.  As in, "I obtained my black belt at age 15.  I like to sleep with my window open.  My cat has fleas.  I can bake an awesome apple pie."  And so on.  OK.  So I indicated above that the 250 is an opportunity for you to talk about things you may not have mentioned in your personal statement.  BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO INCORPORATE THEM INTO A COHERENT ESSAY.  We are not asking for 250 words' worth of random facts about yourself.  Remember: "writing, reasoning, and editing skills."  This type of essay gets an F in all categories.

NOTE:  I have never seen anyone using tactic 2 or 3 be admitted. 

4.  Not Proofreading Their Essay.  Somehow, it seems, the 250-word essay is really prone to grammatical and typographical errors.  Probably because people are putting it off till the last minute, therefore not going over it with a fine-toothed comb as they have done with their personal statement (though those sometimes have issues as well).  Please ask someone to read your essay.  There are things that spell-checker will not catch, but are still wrong.  For example, "peek" vs. "peak," "Untied" vs. "United," "affect" vs. "effect," you get my point.  Again, remember that this is a lawyerly exercise, and no one wants a sloppy lawyer.

5.  Using the 250-Word Essay as an Addendum, or a "Why Yale?" Essay.  This is not as egregious as the first four, but I mention it because I really think people who take this route lose an opportunity.  First, you can add an addendum -- about the C you got in Calculus, or the alarm that was going off during the LSAT -- in addition to the required essays.  The 250 doesn't preclude that (just keep it brief).  Second, a listing of the courses or programs at Yale which intrigue you is nice, and shows that you've researched the school, but doesn't really add to the Admission Committee's knowledge about you (they already know Yale's courses and programs are great, they teach them!).  You should really try to take advantage of the 250 to showcase your writing ability, and pursue a topic other than an explanation of the components of the application or a list of things that caught your fancy on our website.  We want to find out more about what makes you tick!

I hope that the above pitfalls are helpful in guiding you in what not to do, and therefore in pointing you in the direction of what to do.  The 250-word essay is rarely a dealmaker or breaker.  Mostly, it offers the Admissions Committee a window into some small snippet of who you are, carefully and thoughtfully condensed into a few short, but meaningful, paragraphs.  Think this isn't possible?  Remember that the Gettysburg Address is only 272 words -- 22 words short (or long) of being the ultimate Yale 250.

Asha

Please submit questions to 203blog@yale.edu.

Red Sox Nation - Yale Law School Chapter

To the outside observer Yale Law School is probably not the most likely of stops on a Boston Red Sox post-World Championship thank you tour.  But when the Red Sox visited Connecticut last Friday, they made sure to stop by to thank their rabidly loyal YLS fan base.  At a small event held in the Dining Hall, only open to the YLS community, Red Sox president, CEO, and YLS alum, Larry Lucchino, proudly showed off their last two World Championship trophies and thanked their many YLS supporters.  Head of Yale Law School’s chapter of the Red Sox Nation, Dean Harold Koh, offered enthusiastic greetings to the Red Sox entourage.  Students, faculty, and staff had the opportunity to pose with the trophies and meet with mascot Wally the Green Monster and pitcher and Yale College alum Craig Breslow.

One of the two trophies was making its second visit to YLS.  The Red Sox visited the Law School for a small victory rally after their 2004 World Championship win.  When the Red Sox win their next Championship, I’m sure we’ll be welcoming back the 2004 trophy for a third time.  Until then, you can view a video and photos of their recent visit and a video of their 2004 YLS rally.

YLS alum Bharat Ramamurti, Sox pitcher and Yale College alum Craig Breslow, Wally the Green Monster, Dean Harold Koh, and Red Sox president, CEO, and YLS alum Larry Lucchino, pose with the 2004 and 2007 World Championship trophies.

The Great Outdoors - Sleeping Giant State Park

Sleeping Giant State Park
http://www.sgpa.org/

If you are the kind of outdoorsman who likes hiking as long as you have marked trails, a restroom close by, and a path cleared of poison ivy, Sleeping Giant State Park is for you!  Named for its likeness to a ginormous man sleeping on his back, Sleeping Giant State Park offers several wide, well marked trails of relatively short length (generally 2-3 miles).  The trails are well-shaded and offer a slow and steady incline.

On Saturdays, especially in the fall, the Park is a popular place for picnickers, for families who want to hike with their kids, for people who want to jog the trails with their dogs, and for couples who want to be romanced by 360 degree views of the New Haven region.

The Tower Path, probably the most traveled trail in the Park, is only 1.6 miles each way and leads you to a stone tower at the summit.  Stone Tower is a three story old stone building, which provides a view all the way to the ocean from its top level.

If you attend YLS, you are sure to visit Sleeping Giant at least twice: Dean Koh takes 1Ls there for a hike and picnic lunch during their first month of law school and then again during their 3L year to book-end their time here at Yale.

The Park is just a short drive from the Law School and great for dates, solo time, or even parental visits.  If you’re tired of the “city” or just need a study break, I recommend checking it out.

The 4-1-1 on Your G-P-A

Dear Asha,

I took one year off after undergrad and I'm currently in grad school.  Will my grades in grad school be weighted the same (or less or greater) than my undergraduate grades?

J.J.

 
Dear J.J.,

Apologies for the three-week hiatus from the blog: we've been busy in the Admissions Office processing your applications and reading them very carefully, so there was a good reason (though I have to admit I snuck in a few hours to catch The Biggest Loser finale last month -- will a woman ever win that show?)...

So grad school.  Generally speaking, your undergraduate grades will carry the most weight in your application.  Your graduate grades will be taken into account, but if anything they will be given as much or less weight than your undergrad grades.  This is for several reasons.  First, we need a common basis upon which to evaluate applicants and, since most of our applicants do not have advanced degrees but all have a college degree, the undergraduate GPA is the best point of comparison.  Second, the undergraduate GPA usually represents coursework over a span of four years, and usually across several disciplines, while a Masters is only for one or two years and in a very specific subject area (which is sometimes not very closely related to law).  Finally, I rely a lot on the LSDAS report to give me data, and the data they give me -- for example, the breakdown of individual grades by units, the percentile rank of your GPA compared to applicants from your own undergraduate institution for the last three years, and the percentage distribution of GPAs at your institution -- is based on your undergradate grades  (yes, we do look at all of that information!).

Honestly speaking, then, a stellar graduate transcript may not necessarily obviate the relevance of your undergrad GPA.  However, doing well in grad schools does tell us that you are capable of doing well in graduate level work, which is important in assessing your academic potential.   And you should not hesitate to provide a reference from a professor in grad school if there was a class in which you excelled or if you got to know a professor extremely well -- my comments above refer only to GPAs, not to the weight given to recommendations from grad school.

Happy New Year to you and all of our 203 readers!

--Asha

Please submit questions to 203blog@yale.edu.

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.” 

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.

Reference This

The Owl Shop - Favorite Bar/Lounge of the Day

268 College Street
http://www.owlshopcigars.com/

If you’re looking for a movie-like, dimly lit lounge to kick back with a cigar and glass of whiskey on the rocks, The Owl Shop is the place for you!  Not one of those packed bars with scantily clad teenagers with fake IDs, The Owl Shop has a slightly older, more law school/young professionals kind of crowd.  And yes, you can smoke your cigar or cigarette or pipe of choice indoors (a plus for some of you during those New Haven winters). 

Complete with couches and lounge chairs, you can people-watch as others strut on down to more clubby venues; you can even play a game of chess!  The music was mellow and jazzy and the service was good.  It was nice not having to push my way to the bar through hordes of inebriated people.

Now, it’s possible that my affection for The Owl Shop is partly due to the fact that I had also gone to The Playwright that same weekend – and the two couldn’t be any more different. 

Crowds of sweaty people bumping into you on the dance floor?  Check.

Average age of 21?  Check.

People sloshing beer all over you?  Check.

Disco ball and ear-splitting hip-hop music?  Check.

Don’t get me wrong … I enjoy hip-hop and dancing and perhaps there was even a day when The Playwright would have been my type of scene.  But that day is not today, tomorrow, next month, or next year.  Today’s recommendation is The Owl Shop!

It's a Small World

Dear Asha:

Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. I'm interested in studying International Law, and am excited about YLS's course offerings. I did have some questions, which I'm hoping you might help with.  Does YLS allow its students to study abroad at foreign institutions as part of their legal training? Are there summer and/or semester-year long programs?  What do most students whose focus is international law do with their degrees? How do they serve?

Thanks,
D.R. Honolulu, HI

Dear D.R.,

OK, so right now I am so jealous that you are in Honolulu, because the weather here is starting to get pretty cold.  Not that that's a bad thing: Sarah will, no doubt, be giving you some insight into the many things you can do on cold and snowy days in New Haven, so stay tuned!

Now, to your question.  Yale does not offer a formal study abroad program during the academic year.  While this is popular at the undergraduate level and some law schools do allow this, our program currently emphasizes the fostering of a strong community for the three years you are here, and with all of the courses, activities, journals, and independent research opportunities we have, we think it's important that you are in residence for all six semesters in order to take advantage of your time here.

With that said, there are opportunities to go abroad, apart from an exchange with a foreign legal institution.  First, Yale offers the possibility of doing an Intensive Semester, which can involve spending a semester in a foreign country.  To do an Intensive Semester abroad, a student must have a very detailed research proposal which would be impossible to carry out while remaining in residence at the Law School, which must then be approved by the Faculty Committee on Special Courses of Study.  I should note that the bar for doing an Intensive Semester is very high, and only a few students are approved to do this each year.  Nevertheless, it is an option for those of you whose specialized interests may involve foreigh legal systems and research.

In addition, the Law School has region-specific programs that can involve going abroad over the summer or during the school year.  For example, the Middle East Legal Studies Seminar (MELSS) is an annual meeting bringing together students, academics, lawyers, and judges interested in Middle Eastern legal issues.  You can read more about last year's meeting, which took place in Athens, Greece, here.  In addition, the Law School sponsors a South America Linkage Program over the summer, in which Yale Law School students visit their student counterparts in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil -- the Yale students then host the South American students in New Haven the following spring.

Finally, the most common avenue for students to go abroad is during the summer.  The Law School's Schell Center for International Human Rights provides summer fellowships for students seeking to do human rights work over the summer: the fellowships cover travel costs, and are in addition to the Summer Public Interest Fellowships (SPIF) which cover living expenses for any student doing public interest work during the summer, both domestically and internationally.  Students have used this funding to work in countries such as Uganda, Thailand, Israel, and China, just to name a few.

As for what to do with a internationally-focused law degree from Yale, the answer is: just about anything.  Dean Harold Koh has made globalization a cornerstone of the Law School's future, and you'll find that almost any subject will have international implications.  Students from Yale go on to become (among other things) human rights activists, journalists, attorneys specializing in international financial transactions, and environmental lawyers...the world is your oyster!

-- Asha

Please submit questions to 203blog@law.yale.edu.