Top Law Schools

So it's time to decide and I'm hoping the collective wisdom of TLS can share their thoughts on the schools I'm considering which will hopefully better inform my decision.

Firstly, let me put it on the record that debt is not an issue, so scholarships/CoA/CoL are irrelevant. Please note "retake" and "don't go" are not options; just assume if you can these are the schools that I want to go to, I just need help narrowing the choice down to one and that's where I'm hoping everyone else can come in with insights into the student life, teaching quality, comfort, happiness, bar passage and other that would help me differentiate the schools.

As for a bit of context, I have zero interest in biglaw/business/IP. My main interest is in criminal law, I think I would probably quite like to work in the DA/County prosecutor's office, and my ideal location for work is somewhere in Northern California. I'm not looking for a glamorous 6-figure salary, nor do I insist on being in San Francisco or its immediate surroundings, but somewhere that is as close as possible.

Hastings because it's closest to where I want to live and work, UW because it's the highest ranked, or Davis because it's an (un?)happy compromise between the two?

onionskin wrote:So it's time to decide and I'm hoping the collective wisdom of TLS can share their thoughts on the schools I'm considering which will hopefully better inform my decision.

Firstly, let me put it on the record that debt is not an issue, so scholarships/CoA/CoL are irrelevant. Please note "retake" and "don't go" are not options; just assume if you can these are the schools that I want to go to, I just need help narrowing the choice down to one and that's where I'm hoping everyone else can come in with insights into the student life, teaching quality, comfort, happiness, bar passage and other that would help me differentiate the schools.

As for a bit of context, I have zero interest in biglaw/business/IP. My main interest is in criminal law, I think I would probably quite like to work in the DA/County prosecutor's office, and my ideal location for work is somewhere in Northern California. I'm not looking for a glamorous 6-figure salary, nor do I insist on being in San Francisco or its immediate surroundings, but somewhere that is as close as possible.

Hastings because it's closest to where I want to live and work, UW because it's the highest ranked, or Davis because it's an (un?)happy compromise between the two?

Ranking doesn't matter, so take UW off the list. I would go with UCH here since it blows to live in Davis.

How is debt not an issue? I would love to go to Hastings, but I'm flipping out over the debt. You should attend school where you want to work. Let us know what you decide.

Heart says Hastings, head says UW for prestige (it's a psychological thing) and what I assume is a much better job market (basically all of WA and OR with no real schools to compete with). Does anyone know what it is like to move sideways into the CA legal market (again DA etc) from another state?

I should probably add that going to Hastings would involve staying at home (no rent) and lots of family/social support nearby. I have never lived in nor been to Seattle. I don't know how much those things matter for law school.

As for debt, well. I'll leave that up to your imaginations. At the end of the day all I really want is an honest breakdown of differences between these three schools to help me make a choice, not discouragement or a lesson in responsible financial planning.

Tally so far:
Ranking doesn't matter = 1
Go to school where you want to work = 1

Any more?

UW

Don't know if this will help, but for anyone considering Hastings, if you go to YouTube and search for "law school diary 1" you will come across a whole series of videos by a girl who recently graduated from Hastings named Shawn. Good for getting a sense of what it's really like.

ChampagnePapi wrote:

onionskin wrote:So it's time to decide and I'm hoping the collective wisdom of TLS can share their thoughts on the schools I'm considering which will hopefully better inform my decision.

Firstly, let me put it on the record that debt is not an issue, so scholarships/CoA/CoL are irrelevant. Please note "retake" and "don't go" are not options; just assume if you can these are the schools that I want to go to, I just need help narrowing the choice down to one and that's where I'm hoping everyone else can come in with insights into the student life, teaching quality, comfort, happiness, bar passage and other that would help me differentiate the schools.

As for a bit of context, I have zero interest in biglaw/business/IP. My main interest is in criminal law, I think I would probably quite like to work in the DA/County prosecutor's office, and my ideal location for work is somewhere in Northern California. I'm not looking for a glamorous 6-figure salary, nor do I insist on being in San Francisco or its immediate surroundings, but somewhere that is as close as possible.

Hastings because it's closest to where I want to live and work, UW because it's the highest ranked, or Davis because it's an (un?)happy compromise between the two?

Ranking doesn't matter, so take UW off the list. I would go with UCH here since it blows to live in Davis.

False. As someone who lives in Davis at this very moment, it's awesome. Fantastic town, great vibe, nice people. With that said, at UCH if you have Col paid for than go there. Likely, you'll have a hard time cracking into the DA office out of any of these three.

I thought most DA offices were filled with TTT and TTTT grads.

Since debt isn't an issue, Hastings. But be aware that DA is gonna be tough. CA is broke (though this should change once the economy gets better), and SF has massive financial issues, so DA hiring in SF County is down.

That said, hope to see you there this fall!

Micdiddy wrote:

ChampagnePapi wrote:

onionskin wrote:So it's time to decide and I'm hoping the collective wisdom of TLS can share their thoughts on the schools I'm considering which will hopefully better inform my decision.

Firstly, let me put it on the record that debt is not an issue, so scholarships/CoA/CoL are irrelevant. Please note "retake" and "don't go" are not options; just assume if you can these are the schools that I want to go to, I just need help narrowing the choice down to one and that's where I'm hoping everyone else can come in with insights into the student life, teaching quality, comfort, happiness, bar passage and other that would help me differentiate the schools.

As for a bit of context, I have zero interest in biglaw/business/IP. My main interest is in criminal law, I think I would probably quite like to work in the DA/County prosecutor's office, and my ideal location for work is somewhere in Northern California. I'm not looking for a glamorous 6-figure salary, nor do I insist on being in San Francisco or its immediate surroundings, but somewhere that is as close as possible.

Hastings because it's closest to where I want to live and work, UW because it's the highest ranked, or Davis because it's an (un?)happy compromise between the two?

Ranking doesn't matter, so take UW off the list. I would go with UCH here since it blows to live in Davis.

False. As someone who lives in Davis at this very moment, it's awesome. Fantastic town, great vibe, nice people. With that said, at UCH if you have Col paid for than go there. Likely, you'll have a hard time cracking into the DA office out of any of these three.

Lol what exactly is the "great vibe" in Davis? The farmers markets and bicycles? Give me a break, we are grad students and grown men, that shit don't matter anymore.

And OP there is no prestige associated with going to UW.

I don't like UC Davis, but the town of Davis ain't so bad. Better than living in polluted L.A.

Dr. Dre wrote:I don't like UC Davis, but the town of Davis ain't so bad. Better than living in polluted L.A.

Its hard to generalize because LA is so diverse. There are obviously many parts of LA that are worse than Davis

No all of L.A is lame. It's like a third world country: you got these super rich people and very poor people.

Dr. Dre wrote:No all of L.A is lame. It's like a third world country: you got these super rich people and very poor people.

lol this is true but the rich parts are still fun

ChampagnePapi wrote:

Dr. Dre wrote:I don't like UC Davis, but the town of Davis ain't so bad. Better than living in polluted L.A.

Its hard to generalize because LA is so diverse. There are obviously many parts of LA that are worse than Davis

I would say the great vibe is the young culture, night-life and college town atmosphere. I have no idea what being grad students and grown ups has to do with it, you can prefer to act like your "above" it if you want, but I don't think it's something that can be reasonably generalized to "we should all grow up."
Davis is awesome, obviously some people don't like it, so whatever, to each his own.

Micdiddy wrote:

ChampagnePapi wrote:

Dr. Dre wrote:I don't like UC Davis, but the town of Davis ain't so bad. Better than living in polluted L.A.

Its hard to generalize because LA is so diverse. There are obviously many parts of LA that are worse than Davis

I would say the great vibe is the young culture, night-life and college town atmosphere. I have no idea what being grad students and grown ups has to do with it, you can prefer to act like your "above" it if you want, but I don't think it's something that can be reasonably generalized to "we should all grow up."
Davis is awesome, obviously some people don't like it, so whatever, to each his own.

So you went to Davis for undergrad?

Have you ever lived in a real place for an extended period as an adult?

jbagelboy wrote:

Dr. Dre wrote:No all of L.A is lame. It's like a third world country: you got these super rich people and very poor people.

lol this is true but the rich parts are still fun

it's not even true...

ChampagnePapi wrote:

Micdiddy wrote:

ChampagnePapi wrote:

Dr. Dre wrote:I don't like UC Davis, but the town of Davis ain't so bad. Better than living in polluted L.A.

Its hard to generalize because LA is so diverse. There are obviously many parts of LA that are worse than Davis

I would say the great vibe is the young culture, night-life and college town atmosphere. I have no idea what being grad students and grown ups has to do with it, you can prefer to act like your "above" it if you want, but I don't think it's something that can be reasonably generalized to "we should all grow up."
Davis is awesome, obviously some people don't like it, so whatever, to each his own.

So you went to Davis for undergrad?

Have you ever lived in a real place for an extended period as an adult?

You're just gonna keep this going the whole thread? Fine, lets continue to be contentious about this one point, get it out of our systems.
I lived in Santa Barbara for a year and LA for two years. La was a total nightmare (for me).
When did you live in Davis? UG?

Dr. Dre wrote:No all of L.A is lame. It's like a third world country: you got these super rich people and very poor people.

You've clearly never been to Manhattan Beach

Jumping in on the great Davis debate that seems to have hijacked this thread. Don't really see what's wrong with going to a law school (or UG for that matter) that's out in the middle of nowhere. Some people aren't going to like it, some people are. MSU (like Davis) is in the middle of nowhere, and I loved being there for UG. Just because you aren't in a big city, doesn't mean QOL sucks.

+1 on Davis sucking. The whole Sacramento area is a wasteland of suck. I do think its the best option of these three. UW is out because of ties and I believe Davis has slightly outplaced Hastings in the past couple of years (all thought maybe that's not true, I'm on my phone and too lazy to look up the LST stats. I know both are terrible anyway). Plus I don't think I've ever heard of a recent Hastings student/grad that was happy with their choice. They all seem miserable. I do know at least one Davis grad who had fun there. That's something at least.

But as always the answer is none of the above. The OP tried to trick the hivemind into thinking the parents are rich and therefore maybe he/she might hear some favorable echoes from the chamber to validate a poor choice. Even if the OP's parents were light money on fire just to watch it burn rich I think all are poor choices just because more likely than not the OP will have wasted 3 years of their life and not have a legal job to show for it.

OP-Retake or don't go. If you want to work in CA then go to a T14 or UCLA/USC. You have a sweet deal with the rich parents. Don't waste their money, put it toward a degree that will at least give you more than a 50% chance of not wasting three years of your life.

UC Davis = shit school.

But whoah. What the hell is this about the town of Davis sucking? That place is pretty sick. I normally hate on California, but when it comes to Davis, that's the only place that keeps it real. ChampagnePapi is just jealous as fuck cause he/she lives in a polluted, crime infested, boring (like Irvine), cookie-cutter, city.

Davis is aight cuz Micdiddy went there for UG and he helped me out on some LSAT shit. I will no longer diss the U C of D.

Also OP, if cost really isn't an issue, then I'd go Davis. Hastings is pretty ghetto man. It's in SF, but it's in ghetto SF.

ManoftheHour wrote:Davis is aight cuz Micdiddy went there for UG and he helped me out on some LSAT shit. I will no longer diss the U C of D.

Also OP, if cost really isn't an issue, then I'd go Davis. Hastings is pretty ghetto man. It's in SF, but it's in ghetto SF.

But please continue to hit in the school itself (especially law school). Everyone has my blessing for that.

Dr. Dre wrote:UC Davis = shit school.

But whoah. What the hell is this about the town of Davis sucking? That place is pretty sick. I normally hate on California, but when it comes to Davis, that's the only place that keeps it real. ChampagnePapi is just jealous as fuck cause he/she lives in a polluted, crime infested, boring (like Irvine), cookie-cutter, city.

*dead*

Excuse me, what am I jealous of?

What school did you go to?

With how bitter you are about CA/UC I'm guessing you went to Merced or Riverside. I would hate California too if I went to those places.

Please take a screenshot of your transcript and show us where you went. Or better yet stay in the LSAT prep forum or you may end up having the same choices as the OP in a year.

Micdiddy wrote: You're just gonna keep this going the whole thread? Fine, lets continue to be contentious about this one point, get it out of our systems.
I lived in Santa Barbara for a year and LA for two years. La was a total nightmare (for me).
When did you live in Davis? UG?

Its relevant to the OP, he doesn't care about debt and job prospects are about equal so he wants to know about quality of life. I was just making sure you're not one of those people who never left Davis as an adult but rave about it anyways.