Tulane v. University of Washington Forum

[tennisking88]

OP: You present two distinct issues here: one personal & one professional. The answer to each issue is obvious; if you want the relationship to continue, then Tulane is the better choice; if you want the best career options, then the University of Washington is the better choice.

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

Well UW moved up to 20 in the rankings, while TTTulane fell out of the top 50. I think we know the correct answer here.

I'm just going to hope you are kidding. It is really not that obvious though..

[flem]

Well UW moved up to 20 in the rankings, while TTTulane fell out of the top 50. I think we know the correct answer here.

I'm just going to hope you are kidding. It is really not that obvious though..

I figured you'd know by now that rankings are what really matters, bro.

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

Well UW moved up to 20 in the rankings, while TTTulane fell out of the top 50. I think we know the correct answer here.

I'm just going to hope you are kidding. It is really not that obvious though..

I figured you'd know by now that rankings are what really matters, bro.

Ok now I know you are kidding. Thanks!

[cinephile]

Definitely a bit of fear after no one on this boards thinks long distance work, and, in addition, we'd be doing law school AND med school.

This is why I think long distance is actually better. You'll both be too busy to see much of each other anyway. Not everyone can make it work, but I know lots of couples who have.

This is retarded. Anyone who has ever been in a long distance relationship will tell you it's far worse than being in an actual relationship, to the point where it's not even a relationship, just a series of temporary flings. Being in a long distance relationship for 3+ years is unheard of. But this is a law school forum not a relationship advice forum.

Thanks for the kind words. I have done a multi-year long distance relationship with a boyfriend overseas, and from my experience it was a lot easier and made my life less stressful. There's no pressure to take time off your studies to spend time together because he's not in the country. While it didn't work out for me in the long term, I've seen a lot of my friends end up marrying their foreign boyfriends after spending a couple years apart in a long distance relationship. It works out for some people, but like I said, it's not for everybody.

[Aberzombie1892]

It's a lot closer than some people on this forum believe it is. Outside the T14, Tulane, WashU, Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt (and to a slightly lesser extent Emory) are unique in that most of their alumni are not in the same state that the law school is geographically located in. That's relevant because these schools do not necessarily follow the regionality approach of most of the other non-t14s, because all of those other schools have the vast majority of their alumni instate. The geographic location of the alumni is very important, as alumni of a particular school are the individuals most likely to hire from the school. This leads to a slightly different approach to comparing these schools to other law schools.

OP, in your case, U of Washington would be the best choice if you wanted to work in the state of Washington. It has the vast majority of its alumni there, and I imagine everyone in Seattle who does OCI does it there. Tulane does okay there (I know a few people going back), and if you are interested in Tulane for the purpose of returning to Washington state, you should talk to professionals in the market (those from third party schools, Washington alumni there, and Tulane alumni there) and hear their opinions about Tulane vs. Washington as they would be the ones hiring you there.

Also, for the purpose of comparing Tulane to Washington, the class of 2010 employment stats are strikingly similar:

Tulane:
% in law firms: 52.1%
25th-75th% private sector salaries: $75,000-$145,000
% reporting salary: 50%

Washington:
% in law firms: 43.2%
25th-75th% private sector salaries: $60,000-$120,000
% reporting salary: 62%

As you can see, both schools have salaries representing ~27% of the total class after working out reporting numbers and percent of graduates in firms. So that's essentially a wash (pun fully intended).

If you want to work in the midwest and west, Washington would likely be the better choice, as it would be a fair assumption that the vast majority of its alumni are in that region. Tulane, on the other hand, would be stronger for south (east and west) and east (coast and north). I know you don't know where you want to be after graduation, but you have to make a choice.

Other posters will likely disagree with me, but I feel as though the above analysis is probably the most straightforward take on the two schools that you will probably get.

[chup]

If you want to end up on the west coast then I would drop Tulane. While Hastings would be the best for CA, it's just too expensive to be worth considering. That leaves UW. If you were paying for CoL then I would say that UW is still too expensive, but with 12k+in-state+living at home, I think UW becomes reasonable.

+1

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

It's a lot closer than some people on this forum believe it is. Outside the T14, Tulane, WashU, Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt (and to a slightly lesser extent Emory) are unique in that most of their alumni are not in the same state that the law school is geographically located in.

Unless you mean WUSTL. Damn I can see how this is going to get weird for the UW trolls.

+1 to your point by the way, although the employment numbers I looked at seemed to give the nod to UW. Maybe I wasn't squinting hard enough or something similar.

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

OP: Call up some Tulane grads that work in Seattle and ask them what you should do. I bet they will be really nice and tell you what they think.

I mean, there are OU grads that work in Florida, but I'm sure if some okie called them up and said something to the extent of "OU or UF for employment in Florida" they wouldn't hesitate to say UF. Some people are portable on their own-- magnetic personality, they genuinely like people and thus get along well with people, they love to network, they don't have kids, etc. For the vast, vast majority of grads outside the T14, the first time their future employer hears of or sees them they will be looking them in the face, not at their resume.

Will be impossible to network in Seattle from Tulane. If you aren't the very top of your class, you won't even get interviews at firms/judges in Washington state through resume dumps, etc. Are you going to fly up there all the time to attend the local bar associations events?

[trober]

I have a friend who is a 2L at Tulane and landed a job at dla piper in Century City (Los Angeles) for this summer. However, he went to UCLA, is born and bred southern California, and flew back a load of times, from what I heard, during the semester. The man cemented himself there and made it very clear he was intent on returning home. To top that all off, he's really motivated and smart. Generalities aside, he did a lot of leg work and his 1L job was also clerking in LA. So, if that's what you want, I think at Tulane you're going to have to work for it.

I'm currently a 2L at UW. I'm also from southern California and only moved up here for law school. While I am not intending to practice (at all), I've heard that UW is oddly portable in CA. But it completely depends on what you want to do. We have some great professors who have a Bay Area presence (private sector), so there's that. I've heard our dean is doing a lot of hustling and we have a pretty good alumni network down there.

As with anything, you just have to put in the leg work. As much as I sometimes loathe law school, if you're going to go, and it seems like you're damned sure you want to, I'd say UW (of course I'm biased), because there's a great quality of life here and the school is collegial and it is RARE to see any manifestations of harmful gunning.

[seatown12]

Also, for the purpose of comparing Tulane to Washington, the class of 2010 employment stats are strikingly similar:

Tulane:
% in law firms: 52.1%
25th-75th% private sector salaries: $75,000-$145,000
% reporting salary: 50%

Washington:
% in law firms: 43.2%
25th-75th% private sector salaries: $60,000-$120,000
% reporting salary: 62%

Those are percentages of grads who are employed, and 88.6% of UW's class was employed at graduation compared to only 42.9% of Tulane's. At 9 months 12% of Tulane's class was still unemployed compared to only 4% of UW's (that's right--there were slightly more UW grads employed at graduation than Tulane grads employed after 9 months).

My point this whole time has been that UW runs the Seattle job market, whereas Tulane doesn't really control any market. The safest/best plan of action for OP is to go to UW and get a job in Seattle. This is coming from a person who is from Seattle but has never attended UW at any point.

[splitbrain]

Easy choice: UW.

This would have been harder if OP was older, married, maybe with children...

[PDaddy]

OP: You present two distinct issues here: one personal & one professional. The answer to each issue is obvious; if you want the relationship to continue, then Tulane is the better choice; if you want the best career options, then the University of Washington is the better choice.

Only if you overwhelmingly prefer the Seattle market should you go to UW. If you want to keep your options open, go to Tulane. It's really that simple.

Tulane lags behind UW only in access to the Seattle market - which is still very penetrable for Tulane grads, btw - and maybe the Pacific Northwest region. Insofar as job opportunities nationally are concerned, Tulane grads own UW grads everywhere else. Neither school has ever been appropriately ranked, so forget rankings. Both should be perenial top-25 schools, as should a couple of others (like Hastings and Davis).

Even though Tulane is not dominant in any market, it is considered to be more "national" than any school outside of the T14 not named Howard or possibly N.D. or Vanderbilt. The only thing that Keeps Tulane from getting into the top-25 is refusal to game the rankings by hoarding GPA/LSAT's - which it could easily do. The school turns out top grads year after year (with prestigious jobs all over the country), so do not listen to anyone who touts UW over Tulane. Tulane Law offers a greater variety of courses and places grads in NY, California, Texas, D.C., Georgia, FL, etc. UW doesn't.

As far as having things to do, you will love NOLA, but I would concede that Seattle is a superior place in which to settle down and raise children.

[PDaddy]

No, interestingly enough I'm on this forum for law school advice, not relationship advice. My question is essentially whether the significant rankings difference will make it impossible for me to achieve the same jobs at Tulane that I would have at UW. Currently I'm interested in intellectual property, entertainment law and constitutional law, but obviously this could change. I was simply listing my pro/con list so all information is present.

Ranking or not, Tulane is the same prestigious school it always has been. Tulane is superior for entertainment and sports law and is one of just three schools with a certification in sports law.

As for ranking, it will be back around top-40 in no time, despite the recent two-year slide. The same employers will be hiring Tulane grads, and they will still place all over the country. Tulane gave you the money, and you have a boyfriend starting law school there in the fall. This is a no-brainer to me: Tulane! Remember, the rankings are cyclical. Hastings was once a top-25 school, and UW was ranked #47 not too long ago and struggled to return back to the top-30. Now it's top-20. Do you know what that means? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! Rankings should not guide your decision unless you are talking about T14 or so versus #20-50.

If you want to get an LL.M at a higher ranked school (like GULC or Cornell), do that.

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

No, interestingly enough I'm on this forum for law school advice, not relationship advice. My question is essentially whether the significant rankings difference will make it impossible for me to achieve the same jobs at Tulane that I would have at UW. Currently I'm interested in intellectual property, entertainment law and constitutional law, but obviously this could change. I was simply listing my pro/con list so all information is present.

Ranking or not, Tulane is the same prestigious school it always has been. Tulane is superior for entertainment and sports law and is one of just three schools with a certification in sports law.

As for ranking, it will be back around top-40 in no time, despite the recent two-year slide. The same employers will be hiring Tulane grads, and they will still place all over the country. Tulane gave you the money, and you have a boyfriend starting law school there in the fall. This is a no-brainer to me: Tulane! Remember, the rankings are cyclical. Hastings was once a top-25 school, and UW was ranked #47 not too long ago and struggled to return back to the top-30. Now it's top-20. Do you know what that means? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! Rankings should not guide your decision unless you are talking about T14 or so versus #20-50.

If you want to get an LL.M at a higher ranked school (like GULC or Cornell), do that.

Outstanding trolling. 176

[Teoeo]

OP: You present two distinct issues here: one personal & one professional. The answer to each issue is obvious; if you want the relationship to continue, then Tulane is the better choice; if you want the best career options, then the University of Washington is the better choice.

Dead on. UW is much better for your career goals and Tulane is better for personal goals. Decide if you want to marry thsi guy.

[R86]

[cdelgado]

This thread delivers.