Top Law Schools

Choose the school/area in which you'd enjoy living for the next three years. Enjoy it. You can make plenty of money with a degree from anywhere, if that's a concern.

too old for this sh* wrote:

Nicholasnickynic wrote: You are right, pedigree does not ensure competence to practice. However it gives you a chance. Bad/non-existant pedigree ensures you will never even have a chance to work at a good law firm.

Unless you are planning to go solo. In which case, good luck. But theres no such thing as working your way through the firm world. If you don't get a big law job out of law school, which requires a prestgeios school, u never will get a job there.

Not everyone has ANY desire to go BigLaw or to ANY firm with more than a few attorneys. As to solo, I could probably do that from the get go based on the reputation I already possess...one of the perks that comes with real world experience that includes work as a consultant, expert witness and oh yeah, the occasional request to conduct sessions at CLE events. But interestingly enough, that real world experience gets overlooked by schools because of their tunnel-vision focus on numbers.

As I have noted on more than one occasion during my time on the boards, at least in the area of post-conviction work, prospective clients rarely care (much less ask) about pedigree. They want results. They want someone competent. They tend NOT to want pretentious.

You realize that you in no way refuted anything that I said? I said that if you plan on going solo, then it will be different. I also said that you can never work your way up. Both of these things are still true, taking your comments into account. So I'm not sure what exactly you are trying to do, other than bitch about how life is unfair.

VictrixRapax wrote:Choose the school/area in which you'd enjoy living for the next three years. Enjoy it. You can make plenty of money with a degree from anywhere, if that's a concern.

I vehemently disagree with every part of this post.

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:Choose the school/area in which you'd enjoy living for the next three years. Enjoy it. You can make plenty of money with a degree from anywhere, if that's a concern.

I vehemently disagree with every part of this post.

Okay. Care to explain?

VictrixRapax wrote:

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:Choose the school/area in which you'd enjoy living for the next three years. Enjoy it. You can make plenty of money with a degree from anywhere, if that's a concern.

I vehemently disagree with every part of this post.

Okay. Care to explain?

Law school is a professional school, not vacation for the next three years school. You're not going to enjoy it, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either a) lying or b) sadistic, IMO. Now, if that statement you meant "choose the school/area in which you'd like to work after graduation," then I could maybe get behind that. But that's a drastically different statement than what you wrote.

You are by no means guaranteed to make plenty of money with a degree from "anywhere." Do I really need to explain that one?

Further, it's a huge concern if OP is considering taking out loans for sticker price at either law school mentioned in the poll. To tell someone, essentially, "money is no object" is not only wrong, but goes against everything TLS has come to stand for.

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:Choose the school/area in which you'd enjoy living for the next three years. Enjoy it. You can make plenty of money with a degree from anywhere, if that's a concern.

I vehemently disagree with every part of this post.

Okay. Care to explain?

Law school is a professional school, not vacation for the next three years school. You're not going to enjoy it, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either a) lying or b) sadistic, IMO. Now, if that statement you meant "choose the school/area in which you'd like to work after graduation," then I could maybe get behind that. But that's a drastically different statement than what you wrote.

You are by no means guaranteed to make plenty of money with a degree from "anywhere." Do I really need to explain that one?

Further, it's a huge concern if OP is considering taking out loans for sticker price at either law school mentioned in the poll. To tell someone, essentially, "money is no object" is not only wrong, but goes against everything TLS has come to stand for.

All depends. My advice is enjoy it, and I'm sticking by it. Winners make the money. Losers bitch and moan about stats and tiers and firms.

VictrixRapax wrote:All depends. My advice is enjoy it, and I'm sticking by it. Winners make the money. Losers bitch and moan about stats and tiers and firms.

Then we agree to disagree.

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:All depends. My advice is enjoy it, and I'm sticking by it. Winners make the money. Losers bitch and moan about stats and tiers and firms.

Then we agree to disagree.

My friend who graduated from a state law school but is lighting cigars with $100 bills disagrees with you, too.

VictrixRapax wrote:

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:All depends. My advice is enjoy it, and I'm sticking by it. Winners make the money. Losers bitch and moan about stats and tiers and firms.

Then we agree to disagree.

My friend who graduated from a state law school but is lighting cigars with $100 bills disagrees with you, too.

Yay exceptions that still don't disprove the rule!

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:All depends. My advice is enjoy it, and I'm sticking by it. Winners make the money. Losers bitch and moan about stats and tiers and firms.

Then we agree to disagree.

My friend who graduated from a state law school but is lighting cigars with $100 bills disagrees with you, too.

Yay exceptions that still don't disprove the rule!

Winners are few and far between.

patrickd139 wrote:

Patrick, just curious, which school would you say places best for Tulsa between OU and TU?

gbpackerbacker wrote:

patrickd139 wrote:

Patrick, just curious, which school would you say places best for Tulsa between OU and TU?

In quality of jobs (which I define as mo' money and mo' prestige) OU, hands down. In quantity of students placed in Tulsa, probably Tulsa, but that has little to do with which places best, and more to do with self-selection.

Disclaimer: I don't have statistics to back that up, but it's been my anecdotal experience as an OU student that, given the choice between an OU student and a Tulsa student, large firms (by Oklahoma standards) will take the OU grad every day that ends with 'y.'

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:All depends. My advice is enjoy it, and I'm sticking by it. Winners make the money. Losers bitch and moan about stats and tiers and firms.

Then we agree to disagree.

My friend who graduated from a state law school but is lighting cigars with $100 bills disagrees with you, too.

Yay exceptions that still don't disprove the rule!

We don't even know if this is an exception. State school?

UVA? Michigan? UNC? UGA?

P.s. i know you know this, but patrick you are 300% correct.

VictrixRapax wrote:

patrickd139 wrote:

VictrixRapax wrote:All depends. My advice is enjoy it, and I'm sticking by it. Winners make the money. Losers bitch and moan about stats and tiers and firms.

Then we agree to disagree.

My friend who graduated from a state law school but is lighting cigars with $100 bills disagrees with you, too.

0L spotted. Enjoy your life of debt.

I'd go to Gonzaga.

Eastern Washington >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Oklahoma

Plus gonzaga places pretty well in eastern washington/idaho area, most UW and Seattle U grads don't venture across the mountains. If you want Seattle/Western washington though, Gonzaga isnt the place to go

p.s., a good 99% of people who go to law school never become rich enough to "light cigars with 100 dollar bills."

The only people with any chance are going to be what- big law-- which makes up like 5% of lawyers? And even then, you are going to have to make partner... lets say 10% of big law people, so 1/2 of 1 % of law grads. And p.s.- a partner has to be, among other things, a very hard worker, and very smart.

Someone that smart will not light 100 dollar bills.
Furthermore, somone who spent at least 7 years of his life literally earning every penny (paid by the hour for services, as opposed to a salary) is not going to be burning 100 dollar bills. Also, he's your friend?

I didn't know you were friends with 40 year olds who live in NYC?

romothesavior wrote:The Rise and Fall of a Law Student
1. Takes LSAT, does not study despite the test being the most important test they will ever take (save for maybe the bar, but that's debatable), gets 155
2. Looks into schools; YAY! There are some that will take me!
3. Finds TLS, is told how terrible the market and their school of choice is, accuses everyone of being an elitist, and blames jobless grads for "not networking/working hard enough"
4. Rationalizes their choice of law school:
-"I don't want to go into biglaw. I want to go into PI" (stupidly assumes that PI gigs are plentiful and easy to get, and that no tier 1 students want them)
-"Where you go to school doesn't matter, it is all about NETWORKING!"
-"I will work super duper hard!"
-"It is all just the economy, but it will get better!"
5. Crosses fingers that their 180k, 3-year investment at a TTT will pan out

*fast forward three years*

Oh shit...

Relevant.

+1

I have spent a fair amount of time in Eastern Washington. Note the initial capitals. E. Wash. is a totally different world from the Coast. Very Red, very conservative, pretty hardshell Baptist. Cold winters and hot summers. The place is exquisitely beautiful but I could never have made a life there. I was born and raised in the Puget Sound region which is everything E. Wash. Is not. Just be sure you know what you are getting into before you commit to the Dry Side.

imbored25 wrote:retake

No more of this. Absent come kind of elaboration, bombing on-topic threads with "retake" now earns temp bans.

I would take the pacific northwest over OK any day. You might also consider that Gonzaga has a summer study program. It will help you ease into law school and get an edge.

adude wrote:I would take the pacific northwest over OK any day. You might also consider that Gonzaga has a summer study program. It will help you ease into law school and get an edge.

This shouldn't be a significant consideration.

Depends on who is going to give you more money (with reasonable stipulations). I have been accepted to both but probably won't go to either even though I got a full scholarship from Tulsa and a half from Gonzaga. This is the case because when you go to a crappy.... I mean third tier law school you have a pretty slim chance of getting a good job, so you might as well minimize debt and go somewhere you don't mind living for the next 3 years.

I find it annoying how many people on this website say "T14 or bust"..... but the sad reality is that this is kinda true. I have friends from T14's (or better) who are having trouble finding "good" legal jobs. If people who are top 50% at a T10 are having trouble finding jobs, it must really suck for us TTT people. With that being said for me if I don't go to a Tier one school, it is full scholarship city Make sure the stipulations are realistic too (I have seen some very unreasonable stipulations offered to me).

I would say Gonzaga, but only with a significant scholly. At this point, like someone said before, its about debt minimization. It may be true that there is a possibility of landing a good job from Gonzaga but that is a huge gamble if you have a large debt burden. It would simply be way to stressful for me. I'm considering a few schools that are similiar to Gonzaga but only as cheap options in regions that I would like to stay in. This way if you work hard in school and happen not to land the job you were hoping for its not like having a mid-life crisis immediately after graduation when you try to find a way to pay back your loans.

I see that Gonzaga just dropped back into T3 status as of the 2011 rankings.

Too bad.