Boston U, Washington U, UC Davis Forum

[ilost]

Hi everyone. I know ranking is pretty important and a lot of people here think that subt14 schools are not worth it, but between Boston U, Washington U, and UC Davis what would be the best pick for me?

I want to eventually practice in CA, but UC Davis is the lowest ranked out of the three at 28. However, Boston U is out of state and is 22nd, 6 places ahead of Davis. Would this difference in rank warrant choosing Boston U over UC Davis? When I say I want to practice in California, I mean either the Bay Area or SoCal.

Between Washington U and Boston U, I prefer the Boston U location, but would WashU help more in job placement?

..and since I'm here, does anyone have a good guess at where UCI will end up in all of this?

Thanks

[oscodasa]

Hi everyone. I know ranking is pretty important and a lot of people here think that subt14 schools are not worth it, but between Boston U, Washington U, and UC Davis what would be the best pick for me?

I want to eventually practice in CA, but UC Davis is the lowest ranked out of the three at 28. However, Boston U is out of state and is 22nd, 6 places ahead of Davis. Would this difference in rank warrant choosing Boston U over UC Davis? When I say I want to practice in California, I mean either the Bay Area or SoCal.

Between Washington U and Boston U, I prefer the Boston U location, but would WashU help more in job placement?

..and since I'm here, does anyone have a good guess at where UCI will end up in all of this?

Thanks

Are you from CA or do you have ties there?

[bergg007]

Hi everyone. I know ranking is pretty important and a lot of people here think that subt14 schools are not worth it, but between Boston U, Washington U, and UC Davis what would be the best pick for me?

I want to eventually practice in CA, but UC Davis is the lowest ranked out of the three at 28. However, Boston U is out of state and is 22nd, 6 places ahead of Davis. Would this difference in rank warrant choosing Boston U over UC Davis? When I say I want to practice in California, I mean either the Bay Area or SoCal.

Between Washington U and Boston U, I prefer the Boston U location, but would WashU help more in job placement?

..and since I'm here, does anyone have a good guess at where UCI will end up in all of this?

Thanks

Best choice is UC Davis for sure, Davis is in the Bay Area, depending on how you define Bay Area,(it used to be a satellite campus for Berkeley). Nobody in CA has ever heard of Boston University(Boston College maybe), and no one has heard of WUSTL either. I'm from there, so I'm mostly speaking of Lay Prestige. UC DAvis is the best school in Northern California(outside of Stanford in Palo Alto and Berkeley), but placing in so Cal will be tough because UCLA, USC,are all better schools(tons of berkeley and Stanford grads go down south too), and Loyola, U San Diego, and Pepperdine are all right there. Davis is lucky because it is higher ranked than the next closest ranked school is Hastings and Davis has a better rep. Santa Clara isn't even in the picture.


Why do you think you want to work in CA? San Francisco and SoCal are two totally different places. Are you from CA? It's hard for people who aren't from SF to adjust to it and SoCal is pretty close to hell.

[ilost]

Sorry. I should have specified. I am originally from the bay area and would like to eventually return. I've been to SoCal on several occasions and also really like the area.

Also, I understand that in terms of lay prestige Davis would sound better than BU or WUSTL, but if we were to think of it like that then Hastings would be better than Davis, according to people that I've talked to that do not know the rankings. Do law firms go by lay prestige or do they actually look at the rank?

Thanks

[bergg007]

I'm From the Bay area too an i had never heard of Hastings and I have heard that their placement isn't the best. But Davis has a strong presence in SF and of course in Sacramento. WUSTL and BU are far away and so finding jobs will be way more difficult. I don't think that 6 places and 9 places in the rankings won't make up for the thousands of miles and all the extra work you'll have to put in to find a job. Your applications would be better spent targeting other schools in CA. Hit up hastings, and depending on your numbers maybe UCLA. I'd avoid USC, but that's personal bias.


What are your numbers and softs and stuff?

[concurrent fork]

If you know you want to practice in CA, you should absolutely go to school in CA unless you have options at T10 schools. USNWR Ranking in the 20-35 range is virtually meaningless. These are all regional schools that place the majority of their graduates in local markets.

Insert rant re: USNWR leading people to apply on the other coast due to "ranking" of regional peer schools

[krad]

Hi everyone. I know ranking is pretty important and a lot of people here think that subt14 schools are not worth it, but between Boston U, Washington U, and UC Davis what would be the best pick for me?

I want to eventually practice in CA, but UC Davis is the lowest ranked out of the three at 28. However, Boston U is out of state and is 22nd, 6 places ahead of Davis. Would this difference in rank warrant choosing Boston U over UC Davis? When I say I want to practice in California, I mean either the Bay Area or SoCal.

Between Washington U and Boston U, I prefer the Boston U location, but would WashU help more in job placement?

..and since I'm here, does anyone have a good guess at where UCI will end up in all of this?

Thanks

Thanks for asking this, I was very interested to hear peoples' thoughts. I'm originally from FL but spent 5 years in SoCal at school and working after school. I'm looking at similar schools, but would also ultimately like to practice in CA (or posssssibly CO).

I too am leaning towards Davis unless I get into UCLA/USC (no brainer) or $$$ someplace comparable to Davis in an area that I could see myself living for a while.

From what I've read, UCI looks like it will become a rather competitive school down the road after its accreditation (and whatnot?). Are you applying there? I've thought about it but it just sounds risky and I'd rather attend a school that has some established clubs/journals, extracurricular groups...

Best of luck to you!

[jfb]

Maybe someone more knowledgeable on the topic can elaborate on this, but I have heard that for an east coast school, BU places very well in Cali for its rank and has a fairly large alumni network out there

[krad]

Maybe someone more knowledgeable on the topic can elaborate on this, but I have heard that for an east coast school, BU places very well in Cali for its rank and has a fairly large alumni network out there

I've heard this as well, hence my interest in BU (and the Boston area would be funnn), but the consensus seems to be to go to CA regardless ITE if it's where you want to end up... I'd love to hear more on this, though!

[Cupidity]

BU does well in CA, Davis only does well in CA.

How sure are you?

[concurrent fork]

BU does well in CA, Davis only does well in CA.

How sure are you?

Yes, because you will have equal prospects in CA coming from BU or UC Davis

There are several T30s in other regions that place a decent number of students in West Coast markets. This does not make them a better choice for someone who knows they want to practice in CA. However, if OP really wants to live in St. Louis or Boston for three years, this is probably the best time to do it before settling down.

[ilost]

I'm still not sure about UCI either. I also think it's too risky. Anyway, it seems like Davis would be the best choice if I wanted to stay in CA. Too bad I really don't like living in Davis. haha. Thanks for all the replies.

[20160810]

I made a substantially similar choice (picked UCD over BU and GW) due to wanting to practice in CA, and I will be working at a CA firm that does not interview at any of the other schools I mentioned. If you are 100% sure about practicing in CA, this isn't a very hard choice. If you're unclear on where you want to work, but just kinda think California might be nice, then I would recommend going to BU.

[buckilaw]

I made a substantially similar choice (picked UCD over BU and GW) due to wanting to practice in CA, and I will be working at a CA firm that does not interview at any of the other schools I mentioned. If you are 100% sure about practicing in CA, this isn't a very hard choice. If you're unclear on where you want to work, but just kinda think California might be nice, then I would recommend going to BU.

+1

[FuManChusco]

I made a substantially similar choice (picked UCD over BU and GW) due to wanting to practice in CA, and I will be working at a CA firm that does not interview at any of the other schools I mentioned. If you are 100% sure about practicing in CA, this isn't a very hard choice. If you're unclear on where you want to work, but just kinda think California might be nice, then I would recommend going to BU.

+1

[83947368]

.

[bergg007]

Best choice is UC Davis for sure, Davis is in the Bay Area, depending on how you define Bay Area,

Maybe it's nitpicking but this is the first time I've ever, EVER, heard someone call Davis the Bay Area. It's like what two hours from the Bay?

I only call it the bay because of it's old time connections with berkeley, being the same school and all, ohterwise yeah, too close to Sac to be the bay. It's got a strong prescence in the bay though.

and it's an hour from Oakland, and 40 mins from Vallejo, both in the bay area for sure so it's not that far at all.

[83947368]

.

[20160810]

Although Davis is close to the Bay Area (about 60 minutes from Berkeley/Oakland, add maybe another 20 for SF, depending on bridge traffic), it's not considered within the Bay Area. Davis is generally considered to be more or less a suburb of Sacramento (the drive from my apartment to Downtown Sac is about 10 minutes without traffic, 20 minutes with).

[bergg007]

Although Davis is close to the Bay Area (about 60 minutes from Berkeley/Oakland, add maybe another 20 for SF, depending on bridge traffic), it's not considered within the Bay Area. Davis is generally considered to be more or less a suburb of Sacramento (the drive from my apartment to Downtown Sac is about 10 minutes without traffic, 20 minutes with).

I understand that, i'm from the area. I was defining it loosely as i said in my original post. my main point was that at Davis you'll have great access to the Bay Area Legal market. Maybe i should have worded it even more obviously. Davis was a satellite campus for Berkeley and I was using that tie in to link davis to the Bay.

I didn't realize this would bother people so much. I was just saying it to stress the access to the market.

[soccerfreak]

If you want California, go to school in California. Regionalism means SO MUCH, even in the T14 outside of the T6. Wash U and BU are better schools, and can get you more nationally, but if you are sure you want California for a career, go there for school.

[FuManChusco]

If you want California, go to school in California. Regionalism means SO MUCH, even in the T14 outside of the T6. Wash U and BU are better schools, and can get you more nationally, but if you are sure you want California for a career, go there for school.

Yeah, this might be a discussion if it was just BU vs. WUSTL. The obvious answer is davis for cali though.

[Informative]

It depends where you want to work.

If you want to work in Boston, go to BU.

If you want to work in Cali, go to Davis.

[romothesavior]

Get the rankings out of your head right now. They absolutely do not matter when talking about minor differences like these. If you want CA, go to Davis or another Cali school.