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I have a fully scholly to the above stated school. Would this be a logical choice if I wanted to practice public interest in the Minneapolis region or is the region so crowded that this would not be a logical option. I have graduated top 15% of my class in high school and undergrad so I'm almost positive I'll fall in the competitive range in Law School (Someones going to state you cannot compare these percentages to law school success and I understand that... that is what the LSAT is for). On a side note, I have no ties to the region yet love the city and have visited quite frequently.

Also please do not tell me to search the forum. I have searched the forum about UST and the fact that the legal market is drastically makes a post from two years ago about the above stated institution only break the fold of the question.

I will appreciate any input into the issue so all comments are welcome both postive and negative.

WithoutMe wrote:I have graduated top 15% of my class in high school and undergrad so I'm almost positive I'll fall in the competitive range in Law School (Someones going to state you cannot compare these percentages to law school success and I understand that... that is what the LSAT is for).

um what?

The general feeling I get in the Twin Cities is that the pecking order goes: U of M, William and Mitchell, Saint Thomas, and then Hamline. That being said there is some fairly strong evidence that the top grads from Saint Thomas do better than the top grads from William and Mitchell. Just to clarify, when I mean top grads I mean the top 10 or 15 in the class, not the top 10%.

As far as anecdotal evidence goes I know more unemployed Saint Thomas grads then unemployed William and Mitchel graduates. However, take that with a grain of salt as I attend Saint Thomas' undergrad. Saint Thomas has been fairly aggressive in snatching up professors and giving out more and larger scholarships than any other institution in Minnesota.

This is probably beyond the scope of your post, but its general knowledge now that the U of M's instate tuition is going to be on the rise. That and they might scale back a bit on scholarships as the Minnesota university system is going to be taking a big hit from whatever budget ends up getting passed as the Republicans currently control both houses in the legislature here.

ThomasMN wrote:The general feeling I get in the Twin Cities is that the pecking order goes: U of M, William and Mitchell, Saint Thomas, and then Hamline. That being said there is some fairly strong evidence that the top grads from Saint Thomas do better than the top grads from William and Mitchell. Just to clarify, when I mean top grads I mean the top 10 or 15 in the class, not the top 10%.

As far as anecdotal evidence goes I know more unemployed Saint Thomas grads then unemployed William and Mitchel graduates. However, take that with a grain of salt as I attend Saint Thomas' undergrad. Saint Thomas has been fairly aggressive in snatching up professors and giving out more and larger scholarships than any other institution in Minnesota.

This is probably beyond the scope of your post, but its general knowledge now that the U of M's instate tuition is going to be on the rise. That and they might scale back a bit on scholarships as the Minnesota university system is going to be taking a big hit from whatever budget ends up getting passed as the Republicans currently control both houses in the legislature here.

Thanks for your quick response. In terms of my own researching on the issue, I have also heard/read the same thing you stated that top grads from UST are getting better jobs at least in the top percentage but the flipside is William Mitchell is producing more practicing attorneys. Certainly, however, many of the majority of top grads do not give public interest a fleeting and rather go to private practice. Someone, once stated that the top 40% of student have a shot at public interest from UST because of its mission. This should of course be taken with a grain of salt.

In terms of personally knowing more unemployed St Thomas grads are we talking 20-30 or 4-8 individuals. Indeed this makes me hesitant but the ability to graduate debt free makes me still inquire. My other question for you is did these individuals go into UST with intent to practice public interest. Indeed when one is unemployed one sends and interviews all over and I am sure many of the individuals you spoke of applied for public interest jobs. The reason I ask if they went into UST with the intention of practicing public interest is that many interviewers can determine an individual’s drive and commitment to community; indeed one must have this drive to practice public interest. The interviewer will therefore know whether the said interviewer is just looking for legal work or actually committed out of the gate to public interest.

On a side note I was unaware that the U is increasing tuition this may indeed be helpful if I do decide to attend UST and to my dismay feel it is not worth my time may try to transfer to the U.

To be frank, Public interest does not pay much, or at least not enough to offset $100K in debt for law school. Therefore, if you have a full-ride to a regional school such as UST and want to remain in MN during public interest work, then it seems like a good bet.

If for whatever reason you decide to go into private practice, it will be hard to get a biglaw position from UST. Smaller firms should be no problem though.

I am also really curious about this. I was offered a large scholly at UST which, if I pay for my tuition with loans not considering COL, I would graduate with about 30k debt. As UST is putting out money for schollys and professors it makes me wonder if it will establish itself more and more in years to come and that although rankings for schools so far down this list don't really matter, but if when/if UST will break into a T2. Sorry not really trying to highjack your thread, but does anyone think a UST degree would allow someone to eventually move into a neighboring state such as North Dakota or eventually perhaps Montana, or would this be an uwise choice?