tponmyshoe wrote:Let me start by saying that I am very new to this site. Alot of the topics discussed here are completely new to me. So I hope you take it easy on me if I come across as a bit "clueless".
I am going to be starting law school in about a month. I have always thought that I want to work in a DA's office as a prosecutor, or at least as a litigator of some sort (but, let's be honest, I'm sure I could change my mind over the next three years). So, like anyone, got good grades during my undergrad, took the LSAT, and did well for myself (practiced around 168-171, ended up with a 172 to go with a 4.0). When I started looking for schools, maybe I didn't do my due diligence, but I looked primarily at schools around where I'm from that were also pretty high in the rankings (at least I thought) that I hoped I could get a scholarship to. Long story short, I got into a T25 school with a full ride, and jumped at the chance, and was very happy with myself.
Just over the last few weeks I started looking at this and other sites. I have never learned about the T14 craze, etc. So you might imagine the anxiety I felt when I see so much "Top 10 school or bust talk", thinking that I am forgoing a ton of opportunities by going to a lower ranked school than I might have gotten into (even though I apparently made the mistake of thinking top 25 was pretty good hah).
So I decided to post for myself. What advice would you all (that know more about the process than me) would give to someone in my position? I have always believed that the student makes his/her education no matter what school they are at, but maybe that's not true in law school. I will say, even though I'm not sure exactly what BIGLAW is, I don't think I'm really targeting that. I want to do litigation work (I'm thinking criminal law, as I mentioned above), and maybe - I realize this is a total pipedream - become a judge eventually. Should I panic a month out and reconsider where I'm going to school? Or should I just relax and do my best and hope everything falls into place.
Thanks in advance for everything! All advice/opinions are welcome!
defer for a year and go to a top 5 school. yale and stanford are realistic reaches. harvard is a target school for you (50/50 shot at getting in). chicago and columbia are strong targets for you. just pick a safety school or two out of the other T14 schools. the most likely scenario is that you'll end up at chicago or columbia with a 60k-75k scholly. going to either chicago or columbia with a 50% scholly is way better than a full ride to a top 25 school.
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