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I think a lot of it had to do with the professors - many were simply leading scholars in their field - which didn't necessarily make them great teachers - but they were more interested in theory than practice
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<p>Very true. Again, another reason to sit in on classes. ;)</p>
<p>Check out Princeton Review's rankings (yes, rankings - sorry) of "Professors Rock, Legally Speaking" and "Best Overall Academic Experience." That might give you another place to start.</p>
<p>Think about DC schools - very easy to intern during the summer or do an externship with politicians.</p>
<p>I think the idea of internships or summer work in DC is great, but I'm kind of gunning for HYS which I assume would put me in a position to get the same kind of opportunities in DC over the summer as, say, Georgetown - an excellent school, but not the same as HYS</p>
<p>HYS will give you every opportunity in the world. </p>
<p>If I'm not mistaken though, they all take a long time to give answers on their applications. Nothing wrong with spending the extra $70 to apply to Georgetown and have an acceptance by the middle of December to a phenomenal school. It will make waiting on HYS a lot easier. </p>
<p>If you did well on the LSAT, you'll get a lot of fee waivers. Use them! I found that I did better admissions-wise at schools which gave me fee waivers than similarly-ranked ones which did not. Likewise, merit aid is good. Anything you can do to give yourself more options come March and April is good - trust me on this one.</p>
<p>karlaspice-
ok, again this is based on how things were close to 25 years ago - look into it to see how things work now.
but - doing this type of work over the summer - yes, going to HYS may provide opportunities to do so -- but they will also provide the opportunities for summer internships at large firms who will recruit early in the year for summer interns. whereas govt internships, etc. are more likely to be on a later in the year schedule. if you are determined to get this type of job, you will have to do more of the legwork (some may come to the school, but certainly not to the extent the firms will) -the firms will come to campus looking for summer interns and I know many students who didn't hold out, but rather went along with the Fall recruitment push to get their summer jobs.
yes, some did end up at government jobs for the summer - but you really have to be determined and make it happen. and quite honestly, unless you are living at home, it can get expensive renting a place to live for the summer - law firm jobs make it easier to live in other cities for the summer.
Also - you simply cannot count on getting in to HYS - no one - no matter what their grades, scores, experience, etc can. You can't plan your entire career, law school strategy on going to one of those schools. Gunning for HYS doesn't mean you can't also look into and apply to schools in the DC area which may also offer an alternate route to where you want to end up.</p>
<p>An update for the 2004-05 1L year:
Government jobs have 1L deadlines before a lot of the firms did -usually mid-December, and NALP doesn't let us contact employers until 01 December. If I'm not mistaken, some of the government deadlines for 2L summer ('06) are towards the end of July - again, very early. As DC is the closest real city to my school, we do have a lot of gov't recruiting going on... so I can't say what it is like at other schools. There are government and public interest job fairs around as well.</p>
<p>Then again, an alum requested applications for an internship in his department in Congress sometime in April.</p>
<p>Karla - since you have been good about doing research (thanks! Always more fun to give advice to people who aren't like "Tell me everything I need to know because I don't want to do anything for myself."), here's more: look up recruiting schedules for some gov't internships you might be interested in.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, alums can be a great source of work. You've already found a list of where a lot of politicians went - so that can be useful again. The final thing is that, with politics, you might want to really look at schools which match your ideology, or a school whose ideology 20 years ago matches yours. That's a lot less improtant for those with firm jobs, but, with politics, it'll make networking easier. So - find out percentage of students in the Federalist Society (although HLS is an exception, as the fed soc was started there), the American Constitutional Society (much newer than Fed Soc, so don't worry if a school doesn't have one yet), how active both groups are, and if a lot of students go for Heritage Foundation or similar internships during the summer. </p>
<p>Whew! Done for now. :)</p>
<p>"NALP doesn't let us contact employers until 01 December"</p>
<p>That's for 1L's? I don't recall how things worked back then for 1L's - though we did wait longer as a practical matter since most places weren't interested in 1L's until they knew what they were getting in terms of 2L's, I'm not sure about whether there were rules or not back then on this. And more people did use their first summer to try out gov't jobs.</p>
<p>I was thinking more about 2L's in my prior comment - does that still start right off the bat in the fall?</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I did do a little research and I was surprised at the number of government internships available. I doubt I would receive need-based aid and I know merit aid is hard to come by so I figure, given my future debt, that I will probably have to succomb to the pressure of the firm for at least a year and/or a summer but hopefully no more.</p>
<p>As for gunning for HYS - you guys are absolutely right. Those schools are notoriously hard to get into and are black boxes when it comes to admissions. The reason I feel like I have a real shot there is that my GPA is well above the medium GPA at those schools, my practice LSAT schools are above the median and at times above the 75th percentile there (hopefully, with some more practice, this will translate into a real LSAT score). Also, I come from a top ten undergrad school and I know I have better numbers than those of my classmates who were admitted to those schools. I also wrote a honors thesis in history that is going to be published in an academic journal, have some academic prizes, have some interesting extra curriculars, and have fluency in a non-European language. I also will have completed a masters degree at a well known British university in political economy by the time I attend law school. Plus, I wrote a personal statement I'm very happy with. </p>
<p>I know none of this guarantees admission and I'd be VERY happy going to UPenn or Georgetown, but I still think I have a real shot. Just out of curiosity though, does going to a school like UPenn (my second choice after HYS) lead to similar opportunities that HYS does? Thanks</p>
<p>"my GPA is well above the medium GPA at those schools, my practice LSAT schools are above the median and at times above the 75th percentile there"</p>
<p>please remember - all this tells you is the make-up of the kids who got in. it tells you nothing about the kids who were rejected - many of them probably also fell within the school's "median." if you really want a handle on your chances, you don't just want to know that people with your stats got in, you want to know what percent of those applying with your stats got in. I've seen a lot of kids fall into this trap when it come to college admissions and I can only assume the same is true for law school admissions.</p>
<p>my guess is that HYS can fill their classes several times over with people with comparable stats to their admitted classes - what you never know is why they may take one person and not another with those same outstanding stats. Don't set yourself up for disappointment - apply because you certainly can't get in if you don't apply and your stats say you are not being foolish in thinking you have a shot - but remember, at best you have a shot (because at best that's all anyone has). Plan your applications accordingly.</p>
<p>Currently, NALP guidelines state that 1Ls may not even talk to Career Services before 01 November, and may not contact employers until 01 December. While a lot of people do gov't work or public interest, quite a few try for firm jobs, and the interviewing for those goes from February until April.</p>
<p>As for 2Ls - the fall? That's what, September? Not anymore! My first interview is in July! (This really confuses non-legal types - I said that I'm interviewing at the end of the month, and they say, "For what?")</p>