Aberzombie1892 wrote:
I agree. It's actually scary that people still are willing to throw $250K worth of savings/debt at a non-HYS T14 for around a 50% chance of big law, let alone when they have the option of attending a strong regional school at a more than reasonable price.
I think some people need to think about it in quantitative terms of desirable outcomes, so I am going to compare Emory to UVA, as the schools are in the same region and the OP stats make him/her competitive for acceptance into UVA via UVA's ED option. I'm actually going to make this simple: UVA places ~50% of the class in determinable desirable outcomes, while Emory places ~25% of the class in similar outcomes. If someone has the option of paying $50K for Emory, then they should only pay $100K for UVA as it is only worth about twice as much as Emory in terms of desirable outcomes. Maybe I'm missing something, but it escapes me that people would pay 3x+ more for a non-HYS T14 than a strong regional school like Emory. To me, it just doesn't make financial or even logical sense.
Honestly, it makes practically no sense. I could see if the OP had said his goal was NYC biglaw first choice and NYC PI second. But other than that the risks outweigh the rewards. The likelihood of missing biglaw and having 250K debt to show for it is far too high--particularly when you consider how bad that outcome is.
The other thing is the somewhat understandable mentality that 0Ls and first semester 1Ls have about grades: namely that they simply won't end up with below median grades. You'd be amazed at how many people think they won't end up below the median. Really, I've noticed that a lot of people seem to evaluate law school employment prospects from the perspective of simply assuming that, at worst, they will get median grades. I was actually talking with some 1Ls a few days ago and it was just remarkable how many of them were simply convinced that there's no way that they will land below the median. When you have that mentality hearing that below median students are highly unlikely to land biglaw at a top 14 makes the top 14 a lot more appealing than it should. Even at sticker debt. They think, well since median and above at a top 14 have a high chance of landing biglaw, and since I definitely won't land below median, it's top 14 no brainer--even at sticker.
albanach wrote:BruceWayne wrote:
Well the main reason is because none of the one's responding are 2 or 3Ls at top 14 schools.
Except for those of us who are?
You would fall into the group I referenced with the bolded.
BruceWayne wrote:Well the main reason is because none of the one's responding are 2 or 3Ls at top 14 schools. They are either 0Ls or 1Ls. Thus, they don't really know what they are talking about as far as legal employment is concerned. The main thing that they don't realize is that once you fall below median at any non HYS top 14, you lose almost all of the top 14 "magic". What I mean by that is you lose access to the jobs that care significantly about attending a top 14 (i.e. big law). What people who haven't gone through 2L interviewing and the post 1L job hunt don't realize is that once you fall below median most big firms really don't care where you go to school--they're not interested. Where school rank really comes into play is for the student who lands median or above. And for the few that do understand this they, understandably as students interested in law, don't realize that what this means is that at least 50% of the people attending a non HYS top 14 are in serious risk of missing biglaw after 1L.
Lawquacious wrote:Come back when you have the options dood remains my opinion. But I would lean toward T14 if you can get partial schollys there, or T10 without scholly, unless you are set on ATL.[/quo
This is scary. There is no difference between employment prospects based on a top 10 vs. top 14 demarcation. Really, even the top 6 demarcation is mostly a TLS creation. Top 6 is only relevant in the sense that the higher ranked NYC located vault firms will hire substantially more from above median at Columbia, Chicago, and NYU than they will from the schools ranked below. For students below the median those firms don't seem to really differentiate between non HYS top 14s--they're not interested if you're below the median period. And there is no difference in how non NYC firms hire from CCN vs. the lower ranked top 14s. If they see below median from any non HYS top 14 they generally auto reject the applicant.