USC v. Cornell Want to be in CA after graduation Forum

[Curry]

I think this is pretty solid advice: "If you want the best job on graduation period, then go to Cornell. If you want a job in SoCal after graduation, go to USC."

Disagree.
If you want the best chance at a job by a fairly substantial margin, then go to Cornell. If all you care about is a slightly better chance at a job in SoCal, go to USC.

[Hannibal]

I think this is pretty solid advice: "If you want the best job on graduation period, then go to Cornell. If you want a job in SoCal after graduation, go to USC."

Disagree.
If you want the best chance at a job by a fairly substantial margin, then go to Cornell. If all you care about is a slightly better chance at a job in SoCal, go to USC.

This is the exact same message but with a clear language bias towards Cornell.

[lisjjen]

I think this is pretty solid advice: "If you want the best job on graduation period, then go to Cornell. If you want a job in SoCal after graduation, go to USC."

Disagree.
If you want the best chance at a job by a fairly substantial margin, then go to Cornell. If all you care about is a slightly better chance at a job in SoCal, go to USC.

This is the exact same message but with a clear language bias towards Cornell.

No wonder you got a 174.

[cornellbeez]

From the mouth of a hiring partner at White and Case who went to Berkeley: "Compared to NYU, Columbia, Mich, UVA, and obviously Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, Berkeley is TTT"

LA office? I met some interesting W&C partners from the NY office.

[Curry]

From the mouth of a hiring partner at White and Case who went to Berkeley: "Compared to NYU, Columbia, Mich, UVA, and obviously Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, Berkeley is TTT"

LA office? I met some interesting W&C partners from the NY office.

Yup. La office.

[midwestrocks]

Odysseus is from Ithaca. He beat the Trojans.

Cornell ftw.

[Horchata]

Odysseus is from Ithaca. He beat the Trojans.

Cornell ftw.

lol

[ocuviper]

bumping for usefullness of thread. i noticed that others are facing a similar situation this year.

OP, where did you end up going and if you had to decide all over again would you have chosen differently?

[lobolawyer]

USC. Stay in Southern Cal, meet attorneys, go to mixers in LA to meet more attorneys, get a job, profit $$$$$.

0L foolishness.

Unless you are related to hiring partners or marrying one's child, "mixing" with attorneys won't get you a job.

I'd go to Cornell, because having a job outside of California > unemployed in CA. I think outside of IP, the CA legal market is going to decline even more in the coming years.

Not true. I golfed with a friend from my school at an alumni event and my friend hit it off with an attorney from an NLJ250, where, coincidentally my friend had applied. He got offered for 2L summer and ultimately got the job. During the summer a person on the recruiting committee told him that the partner we golfed with really pushed for him. My friend also has stellar grades and LR, and 99/100 this probably wouldn't happen, but don't underestimate the power of networking. This is a relationships based profession.

[horrorbusiness]

well this made for an interesting read, thanks for the bump. i'm deciding between UCLA v Cornell, but i assume USC and UCLA are peers enough for this to be relevant.

[rotel]

Also worth considering is the fact that firms have cut down classes from 25 SAs to 12 SAs, and the brunt of this has frequently been born by great-but-not-exceptional (sorry, non-T14 seemed like a stupid descriptor) local schools like USC that place largely in their market. Whereas pre-ITE USC/UCLA might have accounted for 12-14 students, with 1-2 Loyola/Pepperdine and 9-12 T14ers, many of these firms have tried to keep ties with T14 schools and continued to hire 1-2 students at T14s where they normally recruit. It's much easier for firms to reduce 12-14 USC/UCLA students in a SA class down to 5-7 USC/UCLA students in order to maintain some relationship with these T14 schools. For this reason alone, a school that places in a wide spread of markets can be helpful, and a smaller class size may help as well.

I read some of the first page so I apologize if someone else brought this up, but seasonal affective disorder is a real thing to be aware of for anyone moving to a northern school from a sunny location. If you've only lived in southern california, it would really really suck to find out that you were affected by SAD when you are trying to gear up for your second semester of 1L. 90% of people probably think this post is stupid melodrama, but as someone who moved north for undergrad and who had problems with this, I can assure you that the 10% chance that this will affect you is worth thinking about.

All of my responses assumed staying in SoCal was your top priority. If you want the best job on graduation period, then go to Cornell. If you want a job in SoCal after graduation, go to USC.

Just three important points to keep close in mind.

[ocuviper]

Does anybody the extent to which USC's employment info is accurate or misleading?

[woeisme]

Well if you're set on California then this is a tough call. If you have connections to California (e.g., if you have family there, have lived there before, can demonstrate roots in CA on your resume), I'd take Cornell. If not, then USC is a better guarantee of ending up in CA.

Oops.. this thread is oooold. Ha!