Top Law Schools

Had a CB with a firm on the same day as a friend who goes to a school ranked about 10 spots higher. He got an offer 3 days later... I'm still waiting and it's onto a week. Probably a ding?

Firms are probably not making offers based on whether a school is ranked "10 spots higher" because firms don't care about US News. Firms do care about the reputation of the school and each student's relative success at that school, and firms will extend offers to the most sough-after candidates first.

So, no, your friend probably did not get an offer first because his school is ranked 10 spots higher than you. But it's possible (likely) that he received an offer first because the firm is more interested in him than you.

This does not mean you're dinged, though. Firms will usually extend offers to their top-choice candidates first, but they won't land them all and will likely have to extend more offers later. If they have 5 spots to fill, and offer their 5 most preferred candidates, one of them might choose to go somewhere else on Day 21 and the firm will extend an offer to someone else. (Of course, each firm is going to go about this process differently. Some firms will over-offer because they have a good estimate of what their yield will be. Others will be more careful and offer only the amount of slots they have until they fill them.)

Many firms will rank individual candidates, send out offers to the top of the list then wait to see how many accept before sending out more. It isn't exactly that are sending out offers to certain schools earlier, but school reputation probably weighed into the ranking of individual candidates.