Hillbilly Elegy

because Supreme Court justice Sonia
Sotomayor had been a member. But I
didn’t know why. I didn’t even know
what the Journal did. The entire process
was a black box, and no one I knew had
the key.
There were official channels of
information. But they telegraphed
conflicting messages. Yale prides itself
on being a low-stress, noncompetitive
law school. Unfortunately, that ethos
sometimes manifests itself in confused
messaging. No one seemed to know what
value the credential actually held. We
were told that the Journal was a huge
career boost but that it wasn’t that
important, that we shouldn’t stress about