A Study of the Housing Patterns of Yale Law School Students

Abstract

In 1948, only about one-tenth of the law students lived in what we now term the law student ghetto. By 1997, more law students lived in this neighborhood than in any other - students in this neighborhood outnumbered students living in other off-campus neighborhoods by a margin of two-to-one, and they made up a simple majority of the enrollment. This paper examines the formation of this concentration. The evidence shows that the law student ghetto did no always exist in its current form, but rather that it is a product of housing developments of the last thirty years. This paper traces these developments. I discuss the demographic make-up of the student body, the housing distribution of the students, and events in New Haven or the wider world which affected either the demographics or the distribution. Because the Yale Law School is located in New Haven, this paper also examines the relationship between New Haven and Yale University, and the intertwined history of these two communities.