Emma. wrote:pedestrian wrote:Theopliske8711 wrote:
I also think that the argument is kind of shitty. We go to a top law school so that we have the best chance of getting through the door. After getting through it, and working for several years, I doubt that it will be the degree that will define you at that point.
That is not the sort of thing that you can deduce from common sense. I have spoken with several biglaw associates and alums about their exit strategies. Overwhelmingly I hear that once you are in the door at
the firm your degree doesn't matter anymore... until you try to leave. Then suddenly your law school matters a great deal.
Is it rational? Maybe not. But there are also cases of lateral partners being evaluated based on their law school grades from 15 years ago. Sometimes these things don't make a lot of sense. You have to research how the market actually works, not how it should work in theory. I'm not saying that a Chicago grad won't be able to find a great job, I'm saying that it does matter at the margins even decades down the road where you went to school.
Is it work the additional debt? I think that rational minds can disagree. But it is flat out false that you just go to a firm and then nobody cares about law school anymore.
If your premise is that your choice of law school can matter down the line in your career that's almost certainly correct, at least with respect to schools that are far apart reputation-wise. But the extent anyone differentiates between Harvard and UChi/Columbia once you are out in practice and looking at exit options is either non-existent or so minimal that it surely isn't worth giving up a full ride for.
I think this comes back to what I said earlier or in another thread, which is that there's no demonstrable difference for partnership track or biglaw hiring, but for federal government or if it was YLS, academia, they could care.
