Agreed... it s like a poor man s vandy.....JCougar wrote:I know all 0Ls only want to hear about jobs, but 1Ls really have no idea until they go through OCI themselves.
But I can say that the list of firms that still OCI here after the economic crash come from all around the nation. WUSTL is more national than it gets credit for. It doesn't get as many national firms as the T14, but if you go here and you do reasonably well (top 33%) you will have a shot (it's definitely not guaranteed ITE) in any region of the country you want, provided you can convince firms that you have a reason to want to stay there. There's still a handful of NY firms, DC firms, CA firms, and TX firms to chose from. There's even multiple firms from OR, WA, FL, ATL, and Boston. There's two from CO, quite a few from Milwaukee, and then there's a handful of midlaw firms from the more medium-sized cities around the southern Midwest...a lot from KY, IN, TN, etc. And of course there's a bunch from Chicago.
But you have to do well, and you can't slack off.
With that said, life here is pretty enjoyable, and St. Louis is really cheap for as big of a city as it is. And the campus is absolutely beautiful. People here (both at WUSTL and the city in general) are noticeably super-friendly, and the chicks around town think WUSTL is like Harvard or something. It's pretty easy to get some numbers if you go to WUSTL law. I'd much rather be here (if you simply count the city alone) than in South Bend, Urbana-Champaign, Iowa City, Nashville, Charlottesville, Durham, Ithaca, Atlanta, etc. It's not a booming cosmopolitan metropolis, but it holds its own in having fun things to do: TONS of museums, Forest Park (right next to campus), three major professional sports teams (well, two and a half, considering the Rams), some beautiful theaters, and enough of a nightlife to keep a law student busy and not bored. You could also double your living expenses by living in DC, Chicago, NY, LA, etc...but you should be asking yourself, "Is it really worth it to take out an extra $10,000 in loans per year to live in a city like that while I am a law student?" For some people, it might be.
Job-prospect-wise, though, it's pretty comparable with the other schools ranked between 19 and 25. It's more similar to this group than it is to the group ranked 15-18, although WUSTL is more national than the other, similarly-ranked Midwestern schools like Minnesota and Illinois. But it's a pretty nice place to live.
The only thing that is a negative is that the numbers are ucla/vandy quality, but the placement of biglaw/midlaw as a whole is below schools like bu/bc/fordham....
Worst of both worlds. There is stiff competition, yet there is also a lack of acknowledgement from the overall legal community.