Vanderbilt vs. Strong Southern Regional Forum

(Rankings, Profiles, Tuition, Student Life, . . . )

Vandy or Regional?

Vandy with no/little $
8
21%
Strong Regional with $$
31
79%
 
Total votes: 39

badaboom61

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Re: Vanderbilt vs. Strong Southern Regional

Post by badaboom61 » Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:07 am

AT9 wrote:
badaboom61 wrote: Unfortunately, this basically means that you have "ties" to nowhere. Places are absurdly and unnecessarily parochial about hiring, especially summer associate hiring. You could still work your way into a few markets by going to law school near there. Your best bets are Bama --> Birmingham, FL/FSU --> Jax/Orlando/Tampa, Vandy --> Atlanta, maybe Birmingham, or T14 --> NYC/DC. I would avoid even UGA/Emory, and don't even bother thinking about SMU or W&M.

Southern markets are in the gutter in terms of hiring right now, possibly with the exception of Birmingham. Your best bet, if you can swing it, would be to (possibly retake and) get into a T14 school, go to a major market for a bit, then lateral back south if you don't like it. Hiring is just so low, and without any real ties to anywhere your best shot at gainful employment is a big firm in a big market, and the best way to get there is a top school.
Tell me about it. But why avoid UGA/Emory? I don't see why Bama-->Birmingham is a better bet than Emory/UGA-->Atlanta if price is similar. Seems like Alabama would be more insular than metro ATL. Also, why not SMU or W&M if I'm ok working in those markets? From what I hear from SMU people, ties are helpful but not critical in the major TX markets (where I have loose ties). Remember I do have a fall-back plan here, and I work closely with several firms in various parts throughout the country that could also be helpful with networking, so it's not the end of the world if I can't find a land something in the immediate region of the school. The only reason I'm not aiming to work with my current firm is that I don't think I want to do their type of work: product liability.
Pensacola, being "lower Alabama" and whatnot, will carry better to Birmingham than Atlanta, and Birmingham is a healthier market relative to its size. Not that Atlanta couldn't work, Birmingham is probably a safer bet, though.

Also, I would be very hesitant to try to break into Texas by going to SMU. Texas is probably more open than some places, but that's not necessarily saying much. Consider UT if you get in, but I wouldn't wager on a lesser school.

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AT9

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Re: Vanderbilt vs. Strong Southern Regional

Post by AT9 » Wed Nov 27, 2013 9:35 pm

I gotcha, and I see you're familiar with the lingo for this region. Pensacola definitely is Lower Alabama, Redneck Riviera, etc.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself now, as I haven't even heard from Bama. If I get $ at Vandy, it'll be awfully hard to turn down. Guess I should rule out Vandy at full tuition and come back in a couple months when I have all my cards on the table.

arklaw13

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Re: Vanderbilt vs. Strong Southern Regional

Post by arklaw13 » Wed Nov 27, 2013 11:59 pm

If you got in at Vandy this early, I would think you'd get a decent amount of money. Definitely not looking at sticker. That said, $150k is too much. $100k might still be too much. I'm a Vandy 1L and I wouldn't have gone here for $100k, but I suppose you'd really have to ask me in a few years what I would have paid for it in hindsight.

Vandy kids seem to do well in Atlanta, but you need pretty good grades for a shot at most of those firms. People with AL ties seem to do really well in Birmingham. I'm not sure what the grade cutoffs are like for those firms though. Because Vandy doesn't rank past 20%, it seems to be really hard to tell how people with median grades fare. People above top 20% do really well, but I don't know how well people between 20% and median do. Bottom half doesn't seem to do well at all from what I can tell in the stuff that CSO gives out. I can see plenty of 3Ls who didn't get firm jobs for their 2L summer, but I don't know how many of them were PI gunners (probably not many).

tl;dr: Law school is a pretty bad decision no matter where you go. I wouldn't take Vandy at $150k, but I wouldn't take any of those other schools for the listed prices either.

dixiecupdrinking

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Re: Vanderbilt vs. Strong Southern Regional

Post by dixiecupdrinking » Fri Nov 29, 2013 9:57 pm

I think you need to be thinking of Vandy as a "strong regional" school at this point. Would not go $150k in debt for it. I would do UGA of these options, but the important point is whatever you do, don't take out that much debt for Vandy.

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AT9

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Re: Vanderbilt vs. Strong Southern Regional

Post by AT9 » Sat Nov 30, 2013 11:46 am

Thanks again for the input. I put Vandy in a different category for the purposes of this thread because compared to the other schools I'm considering, it has much broader placement, but I know it's not on the level of most T14's.

To arklaw: why wouldn't you attend any of the other schools on my list at those prices? From what I can tell, UGA and FSU at those prices seem to be decent deals.

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rad lulz

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Re: Vanderbilt vs. Strong Southern Regional

Post by rad lulz » Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:12 pm

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Last edited by rad lulz on Sat Sep 10, 2016 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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AT9

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Re: Vanderbilt vs. Strong Southern Regional

Post by AT9 » Sat Nov 30, 2013 9:21 pm

rad lulz wrote:
AT9 wrote:Thanks again for the input. I put Vandy in a different category for the purposes of this thread because compared to the other schools I'm considering, it has much broader placement, but I know it's not on the level of most T14's.

To arklaw: why wouldn't you attend any of the other schools on my list at those prices? From what I can tell, UGA and FSU at those prices seem to be decent deals.
Vandy has "broad" placement too

The distinguishing strength of T14s isn't the ability to place "broadly"

It's the ability of large swathes of the class to get jobs at major market big law firms

Which Vandy has not done as good a job with since the economy crashed
Well, I was speaking geographically in reference to the "regional" term, but it's in a different league placement-wise as well. Here are the biglaw + fed clerkship numbers for schools I'm seriously interested in:

Duke (waitlist): 64%
Vandy: 39%

WUSTL: 26%
Emory (pending): 29%
Wake Forest: 19%
Alabama (pending): 17%
Georgia: 24%
SMU: 17%
William & Mary: 19%

But again, I know it's not on the level of T14s either, which is why I posed this question (and the resounding answer seems to be "NO" to Vandy at full tuition).

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