However, the statistics show that differences may not be all that great. While in the first year after graduation, a much larger percentage of Yale's class serves as one-year clerks for judges, by the second year out of school, a large majority of each school's graduates are working in law firms.

While YLS may claim among its graduates the famous political duo of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chmura notes that HLS has a large number of graduates at the top of national politics. Two cabinet members, 10 U.S. senators and nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as five of the nine members of the Supreme Court, are graduates of HLS.

In addition, Harvard has loan forgiveness programs for students going into the lower paid public service law fields. This value of this program was increased this year.

One Harvard student says he believes the prevalence of student interest in corporate law firms is a phenomenon endemic of all major law schools.

"Harvard Law School is dominated by corporate mentality," says Freimann.

"I think that's true at all leading law schools," he continues.

So, while magazines like U.S. News & World Report may emphasize the differences between the two law schools, academics and students say they are subtle, if they exist at all.

Yale may be ahead in one ranking, but Harvard is certainly not far behind.