URM imposter syndrome

I think people in law school are naturally competitive, but not in a way that leads to racism. No one discusses their LSAT. There is no way to escape systemic racism anywhere, but most top law schools attract smart people and many smart people tend to be less racist and sexist than society as a whole. Unless you get great money, I would probably stay away from a place like University of Chicago that attracts the folks that seem to be less enlightened (prof who uses n word for shock value and does not even see the racism of his hypothetical, regardless of language; broader school philosophy that denies the historically verifiable accuracy of demand-side economics). There also seems to be a problem with sexism at Harvard where female students are so underrepresented at the top of the class that they had to review whether to keep the summa cum laude etc. designation. Harvard has blind grading, but this disproportionate underrepresentation if high-achieving women is not true at any other law school. They speculate that the way women are treated in class by profs (and by their male peers) reduces their confidence and makes it more difficult for them to thrive. Yale alum Brett Kavanaugh taught there until recently, but they also have amazing legends like Lawrence Tribe. UVA is a bit Southern for my tastes. Duke is not really Southern in the same way, so it isn’t a bad choice if you don’t mind being around really good looking people who are pretty sure they are better than everyone. Yale, Stanford, Penn, Columbia, and NYU are all amazingly inclusive and have strong communities.

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