Top Law Schools

Really want to live/work in either CA, OR, WA or CO. Originally from Texas. Strong legal connections in Los Angeles (cousin is a partner and head of entertainment law at a big firm).

Location is very important...definitely want West coast (or Colorado). Not okay with winding up in the Midwest or SE.

Are WUSTL/Emory strong enough to override the regional advantages of L&C and Loyola?

Still waiting on Davis, USC, UW and Colorado. Acceptances at any of those would make this easy. Money is not too much of an issue either; I will not be taking out loans to pay for school. I do not, however, want to waste money unnecessarily.

Thanks for your help...I'm very conflicted.

I would only go to Davis, USC, CU or UW in your situation, and I'm not sure any of those are worth sticker ITE.

Basically WUSTL/Emory are bad decisions if you want west coast and refuse to be stuck in their respective regions. Loyola and LC aren't worth it ever imho.

Stips on your Loyola scholly?

If you're okay with burning through your savings and then making smalllaw money then I'd say take either Loyola or one of the other schools you are waiting on.

Definitely do not take Emory/WUSTL.

OP: Don't even consider Loyola or Lewis & Clark to be regional schools, they are local schools. Loyola places in L.A. and LC places in and around Portland. I voted for Wustl. It is a significantly better school than your other options, and it is a more portable degree than TLSers give it credit for. Given that you already have Cali connections, you should be fine. However I agree with previous poster that any of the following would serve you better: USC, Davis, UW, Hastings.

Edit: or CU, didn't notice your interest in Colorado.

Yeah, I agree any of those 4 would be preferrable to my other options. I'm pretty sure I'm fucked at USC and UW, tho (low GPA). Let's hope CU or UCD works out (or that I get off the WL at Hastings).

In the event that I don't get into any of those, would you go WUSTL? My cousin said she can't promise me anything, but that she knows TONS of attys in LA and can introduce me to lots of ppl. I figure worst case scenario, I get out of WUSTL w/ a solid degree and try my hand with my connections in LA.

I also have guaranteed work in Texas, but it's in Dallas which sucksssss

and, yes, Loyola has a top 1/3 stip which I'm scared of.

Also, what is the reasoning behind choosing Emory? Other than the fact that it would be more expensive (like I said, this isn't a HUGE issue...), I would much rather spend 3 years in ATL than STL. Especially if they have more or less the same shot at getting me a job on the West coast.

crit_racer wrote:Yeah, I agree any of those 4 would be preferrable to my other options. I'm pretty sure I'm fucked at USC and UW, tho (low GPA). Let's hope CU or UCD works out (or that I get off the WL at Hastings).

In the event that I don't get into any of those, would you go WUSTL? My cousin said she can't promise me anything, but that she knows TONS of attys in LA and can introduce me to lots of ppl. I figure worst case scenario, I get out of WUSTL w/ a solid degree and try my hand with my connections in LA.

I also have guaranteed work in Texas, but it's in Dallas which sucksssss

and, yes, Loyola has a top 1/3 stip which I'm scared of.

Definitely no loyola then! WUSTL is a nice degree to have and the $$ is right. I'm just worried you'll strike out in CA since a WUSTL degree doesn't travel to the west well and then be stuck in a region you don't want. If you can live with that, it's probably your best option. The pending schools to the west are the obvious correct choice though.

crit_racer wrote:Yeah, I agree any of those 4 would be preferrable to my other options. I'm pretty sure I'm fucked at USC and UW, tho (low GPA). Let's hope CU or UCD works out (or that I get off the WL at Hastings).

In the event that I don't get into any of those, would you go WUSTL? My cousin said she can't promise me anything, but that she knows TONS of attys in LA and can introduce me to lots of ppl. I figure worst case scenario, I get out of WUSTL w/ a solid degree and try my hand with my connections in LA.

I also have guaranteed work in Texas, but it's in Dallas which sucksssss

and, yes, Loyola has a top 1/3 stip which I'm scared of.

Plenty of West Coast kids at WashU, and I've heard we had 15-16 West Coast firms here for OCI last year (in addition to at least one off-campus interview program in Cali). Connections definitely work in your favor, and that stipulated scholarship is definitely no bueno. Not saying WashU's TCR because a UC school would definitely be better, but I don't think it's nearly as bad a choice as the 0Ls are making it out to be.

stratocophic wrote:

crit_racer wrote:Yeah, I agree any of those 4 would be preferrable to my other options. I'm pretty sure I'm fucked at USC and UW, tho (low GPA). Let's hope CU or UCD works out (or that I get off the WL at Hastings).

In the event that I don't get into any of those, would you go WUSTL? My cousin said she can't promise me anything, but that she knows TONS of attys in LA and can introduce me to lots of ppl. I figure worst case scenario, I get out of WUSTL w/ a solid degree and try my hand with my connections in LA.

I also have guaranteed work in Texas, but it's in Dallas which sucksssss

and, yes, Loyola has a top 1/3 stip which I'm scared of.

Plenty of West Coast kids at WashU, and I've heard we had 15-16 West Coast firms here for OCI last year (in addition to at least one off-campus interview program in Cali). Connections definitely work in your favor, and that stipulated scholarship is definitely no bueno. Not saying WashU's TCR because a UC school would definitely be better, but I don't think it's nearly as bad a choice as the 0Ls are making it out to be.

Yeah, plus with the money I save going to WUSTL, I could afford to bartend or work some random job for a little while while I look for work in LA/SF/Portland/Denver/Seattle. Of course, that's assuming ITE has another 3 years staying power. May be fine if things get beter (though i'm certainly not banking on it)

Yeah, the chances we'll still be talking about ITE when we do OCI in a year and a half is pretty small.

I think Wustl > Emory in terms of portability. Emory keeps getting hammered on OCI while Wustl has remained relatively stable. If you can count on your connections I bet you'd be fine either way, but IMO Wustl is the safer bet even at equal cost.

Hannibal wrote:Yeah, the chances we'll still be talking about ITE when we do OCI in a year and a half is pretty small.

This very well could be true. I'm in the camp where wustl isn't the best decision, but it is certainly doable because of the $$.

Cade McNown wrote:I think Wustl > Emory in terms of portability. Emory keeps getting hammered on OCI while Wustl has remained relatively stable. If you can count on your connections I bet you'd be fine either way, but IMO Wustl is the safer bet even at equal cost.

Emory actually recovered decently. They got killed in '09 but their '10 placement stats were pretty much par for the course. WUSTL is still the better choice because of the $$ though.

FuManChusco wrote:

Hannibal wrote:Yeah, the chances we'll still be talking about ITE when we do OCI in a year and a half is pretty small.

This very well could be true. I'm in the camp where wustl isn't the best decision, but it is certainly doable because of the $$.

Cade McNown wrote:I think Wustl > Emory in terms of portability. Emory keeps getting hammered on OCI while Wustl has remained relatively stable. If you can count on your connections I bet you'd be fine either way, but IMO Wustl is the safer bet even at equal cost.

Emory actually recovered decently. They got killed in '09 but their '10 placement stats were pretty much par for the course. WUSTL is still the better choice because of the $$ though.

Next 2 years will be the acid test. Atlanta got absolutely pwned in the mid/later stages of ITE and Emory had a depressingly low # of employers at OCI last year.

So is there an appreciable difference b/w Emory and WUSTL's placement on the West coast? Anyone from the area care to testify as to general name recognition?

I saw a list of the CA firms doing OCI at WUSTL and it was pretty impressive. Don't know about Emory, though. I could maybe negotiate the Emory scholly a little bit and go there if the two are going to be more or less equals on the West coast.

http://www.law.emory.edu/career-service ... iting.html

If you really want to be in CA, neither WUSTL nor Emory are going to get you there on their own. Great grades, serious connections, will help. But if you're at median, or even 1/3, at either of these schools, and don't have personal connections, you're going to have a tough time getting a biglaw job in CA.

krillas wrote:http://www.law.emory.edu/career-service ... iting.html

If you really want to be in CA, neither WUSTL nor Emory are going to get you there on their own. Great grades, serious connections, will help. But if you're at median, or even 1/3, at either of these schools, and don't have personal connections, you're going to have a tough time getting a biglaw job in CA.

I doubt he's gunning for biglaw considering he mentioned Loyola and L&C.

yeah, not gunning for big law. My connections are in big law, though, so I would take it but will def. not be restricting my job search to big law. Could be into PI or work for a small/mid size firm...really just want to be able to keep my options open for now, tho.

Cade McNown wrote:I think Wustl > Emory in terms of portability. Emory keeps getting hammered on OCI while Wustl has remained relatively stable. If you can count on your connections I bet you'd be fine either way, but IMO Wustl is the safer bet even at equal cost.

Not only is none of this true, you could in fact put a "negative" sign in front of the whole thing and it'd come out perfect.

Also, why not apply to more CA schools OP?

Mickey Quicknumbers wrote:

Cade McNown wrote:I think Wustl > Emory in terms of portability. Emory keeps getting hammered on OCI while Wustl has remained relatively stable. If you can count on your connections I bet you'd be fine either way, but IMO Wustl is the safer bet even at equal cost.

Not only is none of this true, you could in fact put a "negative" sign in front of the whole thing and it'd come out perfect.

lolwut? Are you gay for Emory or something? At equal cost WUSTL is clearly a better investment.

RockyIII wrote:

Mickey Quicknumbers wrote:

Cade McNown wrote:I think Wustl > Emory in terms of portability. Emory keeps getting hammered on OCI while Wustl has remained relatively stable. If you can count on your connections I bet you'd be fine either way, but IMO Wustl is the safer bet even at equal cost.

Not only is none of this true, you could in fact put a "negative" sign in front of the whole thing and it'd come out perfect.

lolwut? Are you gay for Emory or something? At equal cost WUSTL is clearly a better investment.

1. Who says Emory isn't a girl

2. As far as anyone knows anything about hiring, Emory has been humming along at just above 20% this entire time, Wustl has been fluctuating more, but really they're both within the margin of error of each other that you can't say one is hiring better than the other is.

3. Emory draws the entire southeast and New York, Wustl draws the entire midwest, to suggest that one is more portable than the other is just silly. The substantive difference between these schools is geographical preference.

crit_racer wrote:Are WUSTL/Emory strong enough to override the regional advantages of L&C and Loyola?

Not really.

I applied to every school on the West coast that I thought was decent and I had a shot at.

Did not apply to Boalt, UCLA or Stanford or any of the extremely low ranked schools but applied everywhere else.

Waiting on Davis and USC (lol), on the WL at Hastings. If either of those come through, it will be a no brainer for me.

Still extremely conflicted about this. Don't know how to feel about the 1/3 stip at Loyola. On the one hand, I feel confident I could stay in top 1/3, but on the other hand I don't know if I want to risk it. Danteshek's comment has me rethinking Loyola as it would give me the opportunity to pursue my LA connections during law school. Also, it's LA.

L&C has the advantage of being in a city that I'm in love with and also being kind of a hippy school, which I'm down with.

Agree that USC would be a no-brainer. I'm not sure the same holds true for Davis or Hastings, though. Rank matters, of course, but I do not think a Loyola grad is particularly disadvantaged in Los Angeles vis-a-vis a Davis or Hastings grad. Opinions differ on this, of course, and it may make a more significant difference with certain firms.

Ultimately, I think it makes sense to go to the school (within a certain range) that is closest to where your strongest ties are. Your ties are going to be crucial as you develop your law practice after you graduate.

Crit, sounds like you should go to L&C since you love Portland and ostensibly would like to practice there for a few years after you graduate.

I've heard L&C has "run out of money" this cycle, but that funds should clear up once the first deposit is due. If I'm able to get significant money there, it will be a tempting choice. Would love working there for a few years and would also be easier to transition to the LA market if I do want to pursue those connections.

It's also becoming clear that Loyola might have the edge on the LA market over pretty much every other school (except USC) that I'm considering. My cousin did say it's well respected in LA (and she's a partner for a snooty biglaw firm)

I'm really no closer to making up my mind.