USC vs. WUSTL Forum

[NayBoer]

Yeah, all that strange geographical breakup ("east north central"?) seems ambiguous.

It's not ambiguous. The regions are defined by the US Census Bureau, and NALP reports employment prospects based on those regions.

[musicfor18]

Bump

[DerrickRose]

Bump

Quite possibly the biggest jump between two schools ranked one spot apart is USC to WUSTL. WUSTL is not a T20 is the colloquial sense of that word, USC is. This is not a complicated one.

Go to USC.

[09042014]

If I might add a personal anecdote: I wanted to get out of Champaign too. Went here for undergrad, all my friends were leaving after graduation, wanted a change of scenery.

Hey DRose, were you class of 09? I was class of 08. We might have had this convo before.

[DerrickRose]

If I might add a personal anecdote: I wanted to get out of Champaign too. Went here for undergrad, all my friends were leaving after graduation, wanted a change of scenery.

Hey DRose, were you class of 09? I was class of 08. We might have had this convo before.

Yeah, I was an 09. Feels like a decade ago right about now.

[pany1985]

The biggest problem with USC is that it's in such a crappy part of LA

[09042014]

I'd like to go for the best chance of obtaining a good job.

USC.

[papercranes]

The biggest problem with USC is that it's in such a crappy part of LA

So live in a nice part of LA. Get a car.

[musicfor18]

Any more thoughts?

[DerrickRose]

Any more thoughts?

Yeah, quit bumping this thread when it has been conclusively and universally settled that you shouldn't go to WUSTL

[NayBoer]

You prefer LA and USC has a better biglaw placement rate. Go there.

Also, if being #19 for four or five years in a row doesn't make a school a T20, then nothing does. If you meant T18, then say that. But T20 means WUSTL and at least one of: Minn/GWU/Emory.

[DerrickRose]

You prefer LA and USC has a better biglaw placement rate. Go there.

Also, if being #19 for four or five years in a row doesn't make a school a T20, then nothing does. If you meant T18, then say that. But T20 means WUSTL and at least one of: Minn/GWU/Emory.

False. T20 has a certain "regional superpower" connotation. The correct answer is that there are only 18 T20 schools.

[romothesavior]

You prefer LA and USC has a better biglaw placement rate. Go there.

Also, if being #19 for four or five years in a row doesn't make a school a T20, then nothing does. If you meant T18, then say that. But T20 means WUSTL and at least one of: Minn/GWU/Emory.

This.

On both accounts.

[NayBoer]

You prefer LA and USC has a better biglaw placement rate. Go there.

Also, if being #19 for four or five years in a row doesn't make a school a T20, then nothing does. If you meant T18, then say that. But T20 means WUSTL and at least one of: Minn/GWU/Emory.

False. T20 has a certain "regional superpower" connotation. The correct answer is that there are only 18 T20 schools.

Then call it T18. T20 means it's regularly in the top 20. Which WashU is.

There isn't a clear regional placement trend among 15-18. UCLA, USC and Texas all place disproportionately local. Vanderbilt places very widely, in a pattern closer to WUSTL. Just in terms of placement, WUSTL has more reach than a lot of schools ranked above it. Its limit is a lower biglaw rate, in part because St. Louis just doesn't have a large market. That's a valid reason not to go, but it doesn't make it not T20.

[Dr. Strangelove]

They're close. However, a smaller percentage of USC grads are unemployed. If that's your top concern.. USC>WUSTL.

[You Gotta Have Faith]

All that said, if you are Midwestern and choose to go to USC, you can use your Midwestern roots to catapult you back to the Midwest, and vice versa, if you're Californian and go to WUSTL, you can use your CA roots as an excuse to get back to CA. Firms in rougher economies are concerned about flight risk to some extent. And if you are actually from their region, they'll be more likely to think you will want to stay there, and consequently, stay with their firm for a number of years.

This is not a good plan.

I think firms, ITE, are less likely to have any interest in interviewing someone who is out of state when they have plenty of great candidates right on their doorsteps. Why would an LA firm bother with a WUSTL kid when they can have a UCLA or USC kid? The time, effort and expense to get the WUSTL kid is not worth it. Similarly, the midwest firms have no incentive to get a USC kid when they have a WUSTL kid. The whole "ties to the region" thing gets less important once you ARE ALREADY IN THE REGION.

Don't assume you'll do well enough out of either school to have firms even look at you.

So, say you pick USC. During 1L year you can volunteer in Los Angeles at one of the various PI places and make contacts. You don't need to move for 1L summer, and you work/intern/whatever 1L summer and make more local contacts. During your 2 and 3L years you can work part time, or continue to volunteer and get academic credit. You can follow some of Matties's suggestions for general networking. If you strike out at OCI, you have in place a great back up plan for a legal job. You won't get the same opportunity to do this if you go to a school in a region you don't intend on working in.

With regard to your getting firms to look at you part, you presumably mean Big Law. Firms of some sort will look at grads from either school. It happens every year.

Why would an LA firm bother with a WUSTL kid? If that WUSTL kid is from LA, well, it would make perfect sense then, wouldn't it? Why might a Midwestern firm bother with a USC kid? If that USC kid wants to get back to the Midwest. As far as firms "going out of their way" and "spending money"... if you mean BigLaw, that's just NOT an issue for them. They fly people to schools all over the friggin' country every single year to get a nice rounding out of their firm. Besides, plenty of kids are more than willing to travel themselves to a firm if they have a legitimate interview.

Now granted, there is certainly an edge to going to school in the region you want; I'm definitely not neglecting that. But the assumption that firms only recruit from the closest schools just isn't true. Sure, they recruit more from the local schools, but in any given firm that is decent sized, you will find a conglomeration of different types of grads.