Tulane vs. Wake Forest Forum

[RSN_M3]

I have a dilemma picking between the schools.

Job Prospects:
Some publications show that Wake has better Big Law placement, others show that Tulane fares better. I guess that's a tie.

Placement:
I know for a fact that post-graduation, I don't want to work in either Winston-Salem or New Orleans. It seems that Tulane provides a better opportunity to work in states like Texas and California. So the edge goes to Tulane here, I think.

Tuition:
The schools are equally priced with Tulane's scholarship, so that's another tie.

Cost of Living:
Wake.

Location:
Wake.

Class size:
Tulane. I want a larger class and I'm not a fan of the Socratic method.

Lay Prestige:
Wake has a higher overall ranking 40 vs. 45, but in terms of lay prestige, Tulane wins in my eyes. Could that be because I'm from Texas?


I'm 50/50 and have a few days. What say you guys?

[highdraws]

I understand job prospects being an important issue, it's probably the most important thing to me. But, other than that I don't the feeling that you're very excited about one or the other or are thinking about which school/city you would like to spend the next 3 years living in. Did you visit both schools? Is your gut telling you one over the other?
I voted for Tulane because I got in and was pretty close to going but ended up really being impressed with another school. Personally, I'd love to spend three years in New Orleans.

[vendetta2]

Wake.

[RSN_M3]

I understand job prospects being an important issue, it's probably the most important thing to me. But, other than that I don't the feeling that you're very excited about one or the other or are thinking about which school/city you would like to spend the next 3 years living in. Did you visit both schools? Is your gut telling you one over the other?
I voted for Tulane because I got in and was pretty close to going but ended up really being impressed with another school. Personally, I'd love to spend three years in New Orleans.

I'm still waiting on UT, but that's a low probability. I'm excited about getting in to both law schools, but not their locations. That said, I know Tulane places most of their graduates OOS.

I'm also on hold at SMU and waiting on UC Davis. Anyone consider those as viable alternatives?

[keg411]

If you want to work in Texas, you really want UT/SMU/UH. Law is regional. But given your two choices (since you are WL'd at UT and on "hold" at SMU; what about UH?), I'd say Tulane probably has more placement in TX than Wake since it's about 6 hours from Houston -- but you would have to research that for yourself.

What about scholarships/$$$ from the two schools? What kind of cost of attendance are you looking at?

[RSN_M3]

If you want to work in Texas, you really want UT/SMU/UH. Law is regional. But given your two choices (since you are WL'd at UT and on "hold" at SMU; what about UH?), I'd say Tulane probably has more placement in TX than Wake since it's about 6 hours from Houston -- but you would have to research that for yourself.

What about scholarships/$$$ from the two schools? What kind of cost of attendance are you looking at?

I'm on hold at UT and SMU and waitlisted at UH. I don't necessarily need to work in Texas, but I definitely don't want to work in LA or NC.

SMU, Tulane and WF are all ranked fairly close to eachother, but in terms of lay prestige, Tulane seems to be a clear favorite.

Tuition wise, WF and Tulane will be the same, and I'm prepared to shoulder the cost of attendance at either school.

[keemos]

If you want to work in Texas, you really want UT/SMU/UH. Law is regional. But given your two choices (since you are WL'd at UT and on "hold" at SMU; what about UH?), I'd say Tulane probably has more placement in TX than Wake since it's about 6 hours from Houston -- but you would have to research that for yourself.

What about scholarships/$$$ from the two schools? What kind of cost of attendance are you looking at?

I'm on hold at UT and SMU and waitlisted at UH. I don't necessarily need to work in Texas, but I definitely don't want to work in LA or NC.

SMU, Tulane and WF are all ranked fairly close to eachother, but in terms of lay prestige, Tulane seems to be a clear favorite.

Tuition wise, WF and Tulane will be the same, and I'm prepared to shoulder the cost of attendance at either school.

I may be deciding between these two in the end as well. I think your UH wait list might be a YP so you might want to try and get in there off the waitlist if you want to work in Texas

[keg411]

If you want to work in Texas, you really want UT/SMU/UH. Law is regional. But given your two choices (since you are WL'd at UT and on "hold" at SMU; what about UH?), I'd say Tulane probably has more placement in TX than Wake since it's about 6 hours from Houston -- but you would have to research that for yourself.

What about scholarships/$$$ from the two schools? What kind of cost of attendance are you looking at?

I'm on hold at UT and SMU and waitlisted at UH. I don't necessarily need to work in Texas, but I definitely don't want to work in LA or NC.

SMU, Tulane and WF are all ranked fairly close to eachother, but in terms of lay prestige, Tulane seems to be a clear favorite.

Tuition wise, WF and Tulane will be the same, and I'm prepared to shoulder the cost of attendance at either school.

I'm WL'd at Houston and waiting for SMU, so I feel your pain there. However, if you DEFINITELY don't want Louisiana/North Carolina, you should pick another school (not Wake or Tulane), just in case you can't get back to one of your home markets and the best employment options are in markets closer to your law school.

[GordonGekko]

According to a friend of mine who graduated from Tulane in 2009, their employment numbers are going to be crap. The New Orleans market still hasn't recovered from Katrina and the CSO had a wretched time placing people out of state once the bottom fell out. She was top quarter...still unemployed nine months later.

Go with Wake.

[highdraws]

I may be missing something, so forgive me in advance, but where exactly do you want to work? I think you hinted at Texas and California. I'm just a bit confused as to why you would apply to two mostly regional schools if you didn't want to work in the states in which they're located. In order to get out of NC or Louisiana, I'd guess that you'd either have to place really high in your class and/or have connections elsewhere. I've actually been told that that is the explanation behind Tulane's oos placement. Not necessarily that a Tulane degree has shockingly good portability, but that a lot of those students that get jobs oos are oos students to begin with and are simply going back to where they have connections. That may be untrue, but it's what I've been told.
Have you been accepted into any other schools that are in states you would like to work, or just Wake and Tulane?

[kalvano]

I'm also on hold at SMU and waiting on UC Davis. Anyone consider those as viable alternatives?

Yes. It sounds like you want to be in Texas.

Do everything possible to get in to SMU or UofH.

Barring that, i voted for Wake since I don't like Louisiana, have been told by many attorneys in the Dallas area that Wake grads are favorably looked-upon, and just generally liked Wake.

I think a lot of people here vastly underestimate the prestige of Wake. Everyone, and I mean everyone, from lawyer to regular Joe has had nothing but good things to say about Wake. And I live 1100 miles away.

[Nicholasnickynic]

FWIW (which is probably about nothing) Wake lay prestige in mid-Atlantic (va, nc, sc, dc, md)>>>> tulane.

[Nicholasnickynic]

If you don't want to work in NC/Va/Ga then do not go to wake. You can get placed in other states in the southeast, but I'd only go to wake if I would like to work in one of those areas.

I'd imagine with tulane, they'd really only have significant presence in New Orleans?

[Grizz]

Do NOT under any circumstances take lay prestige into account. Lay people don't give you jobs, lawyers do, so lay prestige is a pretty worthless attribute.

[heeltar]

Class size:
Tulane. I want a larger class and I'm not a fan of the Socratic method.

Is Tulane known for not being as Socratic as other schools? I've never heard this before.

[gwuorbust]

Class size:
Tulane. I want a larger class and I'm not a fan of the Socratic method.

Is Tulane known for not being as Socratic as other schools? I've never heard this before.

yeah, at the ASW I know they said they use the Socratic method, idt there is any getting away from that.

but yeah from talking to ppl at Tulane they have been destroyed ITE.

and while I may attend TTTulane if I do not get off GWU WL, my thoughts on Tulane are this. Tulane was essentially the school that 'filled the cracks' of the t-20 schools. grads would go all over the place b/c firms would be willing to hire a few outsiders when they couldn't get enf of the best graduates. however, now that you have got ppl from the t-14 begging for any job, there is no need to 'fill the cracks' per se. therefore, Tulane is left holding the bag.

[kalvano]

You don't want to practice or live in either area where the schools are, so you're already starting with a big handicap.

Most likely, you're going to have to live wherever you went to school for at least a little while.

So either learn to love W-S or Louisiana, or find another school to go to.

[erniesto]

It's a shame you're wasting your GPA on such a low LSAT score. Neither of these schools are smart nor good choices for you.