Thinking about applying to Yale's LLM program in 2-3 years. Need some advice on what I should do between now and then to get in and whether it's even worth it.

First a little background. After a rough freshman year start, graduated cum laude (3.5 GPA) from UCLA then went to 3rd tier law school so I could graduate in 2 years and start practicing. Parents have a successful firm so at the time all I wanted to do was get the degree, pass the bar and start working. Anyway, school set a mandatory 2.0 curve and on top of that never studied. Ended up with 2.45 in the middle of my class. Did public interest advocacy work for foster kids in school, trying to get them adequate medical care. Became increasingly interested in medicine and ended up getting post-doctoral fellowship in developmental neurobiology at Yale Child Study Center. At the same time completed post-bacc program at Yale University (3.5 GPA) and was recently accepted to Yale Medical School.

Anyway, half the med school class takes an extra year to get an MPH or other masters degree and apparently once your in their med school, it's pretty easy to get into one of their other graduate programs. However, I doubt anyone has ever tried an LLM from the med school especially with a less than stellar law school career.

Even though I have primarily worked in basic science research for the past few years, I also have a fellowship at the Yale's center for child development and social policy which has a lot of ties to the law school and I've chaired 2 ABA/YLD committees on health law and children and the law. Also pretty close to getting an appointment with the state commision on disability law. So I have remained somewhat active in law/policy.

If I did go for the LLM it wouldn't be until my 4th year in med school so I've got 3 years to build up my legal record before applying. I'm thinking about taking a class at the law school and getting a good mentor there. Also maybe getting invovled in Yale Health Law Journal which is Yale Law publication with ties to the med school. Is there anything else I should do and do you think I have a shot.

Another question - should I even spend the time doing this. I'm going to med school to be a practicing clinical physician - not a lawyer. However I still have an interest in child health care policy. I'm also interested in politics and figure it can't hurt to have a Yale law degree (especially given that almost every president or presidential candidate in the past 20 years either went to Yale undergrad or Yale law. But I also don't want to be perceived as the professional student and worry about putting too many letters after my last name (MD, JD, LLM). I've also heard about other MDs with JDs who practice medicine who do a fair amount of expert testimony and I'm pretty sure that having Yale Med and Law degrees would make me more hireable than just Yale Med and some no-name JD. Finally, I know the Yale LLM requires plan to teach and I truly would like to do some adjunt teaching later in career.

So does anyone have any thoughts/advice?

Forgot to mention, also licensed in CA, NV, CT and NY and won Jessup Moot Court compeition, summer intern at US District Court and president of law school's public interest committee.

Your CV and background are so unorthodox that it feels difficult to give any advice.

I think your plan of taking a few courses at the law school and fostering ties with the journal sound very promising. That's the way to go.

All in all your career path sounds so interesting that I wouldn't be surprised if the school would accept you. You have lots of credentials, interesting plans, and extraordinary interdisciplinary profile. But the best way to get more detailed opinions and views is to contact the law school as you're planning to do.

Best,

Toni

you'd need a deep commitment to a scholarly career, but that's not enough. when applying for yale, you may well be competing with someone who's already a phd candidate or even a law professor elsewhere. all in all you'll need a lot of luck!

what is yale or harvard looking for in students. I mean good marks are probably not enough. what extra qualities do you have to bring?