Regional vs. national law schools Forum

[ilikebaseball]

Yes, the lower T14 destroys 15-20 in clerkship odds. No, you should NOT be considering UT, WUSTL, and UCLA if you want to clerk and/or practice law in Florida.

Someone from the dirty will have to chime in re: Vandy.

Yeah I'd like to hear some input from law grads that work in GA or FL, or law students that went/go to Vandy, since it's in the same region...almost

why not just get a full ride from a school that DOES place well in Ga or FL? I know Vandy's a great school and all, but you'll have a ton of debt to pay off when, instead, you could just be totally sure and go to a school that places well? FSU or something idk I havent looked.

[GMasters5]

You should be focusing all your energy on studying for the LSAT. Your goals are too nebulous and vague for anyone to give you specific advice. Your GPA is high enough that if you post a school-choosing thread with something like the scenario described above, you will be met with a chorus of RETAKE!

I'm asking vague questions because I want vague responses tbh. I just want to know general info about Lower T14 vs. T15-20 disparities and the chance of getting a clerkship from a lower ranked school

There is a difference of 10%+ in biglaw+clerkship placement between the T13 and T15-20. You can go look at the numbers at Law School Transparency.

One year is also not too early to start studying for the LSAT. You should consider taking a diagnostic test to see how far you are from your goal. Some people here have studied for up to a year to reach their goals while others have done it in a few weeks/months. A diagnostic will give you a better idea of how long you need to study so you can avoid the retaking process.

Do you really think I should start studying heavily now? Or should I just continue reading a lot and working on my grades? I mean, I do practice questions every now and then, and the only section that really trips me up is LG, but that's because I've never studied for it at all

[baal hadad]

I can't really speak for any of the other schools, but UT is definitely regional. By far, the best school in Texas. But as far as like New York, Boston, LA etc it doesnt place well

Thanks! When I chance myself on mylsn those are the schools where I seem to have the best shot at getting substantial scholarships. I'm trying to go to law school without much debt, but I'm also trying to set myself up for the best chance at clerking or going back to where I'm from to practice. Do you think that would be a possiblity going to UT?

I mean, I'm sure its possible. I know of a UT law school grad thats in Tampa right now. But its unlikely without connections. Sure, UT is better than any school in the florida/ georgia area, but its not a T14. If you want national placement, its T14. I'm sure firms would be impressed that you're a UT grad, but if you go to UT then the best chance of you working back to where you wanna work would be to network and stuff. If you wanna work in Georgia or Florida, then you should go to the schools that place best in florida or T14. If you wanna work in Texas, then by all means UT should be where you go.

No one really cares about UT in fl

[ilikebaseball]

edit:mispost

[cron1834]

Yes, the lower T14 destroys 15-20 in clerkship odds.

Wut go look at the fed clerk stats

http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/ ... ulc/texas/

You're wrong but making a decision on the low probability of a temp job is stupid anyway

Fair enough re: fedclerk data, but are you actually disputing that Cornell is vastly superior in placement power to WUSTL/UCLA/et al? Or that UT is an r.tard move for FL? Remember, this dude wants to work in FL/GA, and most clerks move into biglaw after a year anyway. So ...

[baal hadad]

Yes, the lower T14 destroys 15-20 in clerkship odds.

Wut go look at the fed clerk stats

http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/ ... ulc/texas/

You're wrong but making a decision on the low probability of a temp job is stupid anyway

Fair enough re: fedclerk data, but are you actually disputing that Cornell is vastly superior in placement power to WUSTL/UCLA/et al? Or that UT is an r.tard move for FL? Remember, this dude wants to work in FL/GA, and most clerks move into biglaw after a year anyway. So ...

No I'm not disputing that go back and read what I posted

[ilikebaseball]

seriously though, am i missing something in the op? If you wanna work in GA or FL, why not just go to UF, FSU, or a top Georgia school and work your ass off? You'll have no debt and you'll be at the school where the firms in your area mainly hire from. This, opposed to being at Vandy where you definitely will have debt and you'll be a considerable distance away from the areas you like (I guess not ATL, but you get the point)

[baal hadad]

seriously though, am i missing something in the op? If you wanna work in GA or FL, why not just go to UF, FSU, or a top Georgia school and work your ass off? You'll have no debt and you'll be at the school where the firms in your area mainly hire from. This, opposed to being at Vandy where you definitely will have debt and you'll be a considerable distance away from the areas you like (I guess not ATL, but you get the point)

Vandy is great for fl firms if you're from fl

But not if you're not already from fl/have serious ties

[ilikebaseball]

seriously though, am i missing something in the op? If you wanna work in GA or FL, why not just go to UF, FSU, or a top Georgia school and work your ass off? You'll have no debt and you'll be at the school where the firms in your area mainly hire from. This, opposed to being at Vandy where you definitely will have debt and you'll be a considerable distance away from the areas you like (I guess not ATL, but you get the point)

Vandy is great for fl firms if you're from fl

But not if you're not already from fl/have serious ties

Would it not be wiser for OP to go to the best school in FL (if he's from there) and have little or no debt? He's gonna have 50 k or more to pay off from Vandy. Much better school, but worth that?

Either way, he's gonna have connections in FL. Might as well be close to the area and have less to pay off.

[GMasters5]

Clerkship chances: yes, you can get a clerkship coming from UT, Vandy, UCLA, or WUSTL. But as with many kinds of employment, you will generally need to be ranked more highly in the class to get something from these schools than from the T14 (though less highly than at less influential regional schools - say, SMU, Emory, Davis, or the like). However, clerkship hiring is also fairly idiosyncratic. Some judges want high grades + pedigree, some judges want high grades from a wider range of schools, some judges will take note of something else in your application entirely and hire for that, some judges will hire whoever their buddy profs at the local law school tell them to hire, etc. There are probably Texas judges who will always take a UT grad over T14 grads. But then, there are also probably South Texas alum judges who will always hire out of South Texas. That doesn't make it good odds to go to South Texas.

Look at Law School Transparency and compare clerkship numbers.

But also keep in mind that a clerking is generally a one- or maybe two-year gig on the way to some kind of permanent legal career. You want to go to the right school for the career. There's an argument to be made that most people are far better off graduating law school debt-free (or at least tuition-debt-free) without clerking than they are taking on $250K debt and clerking, for instance.

Thanks! I just feel like clerking a good experience to start your career, especially if you're close to debt free and can actually pay off loans. Could you expand more on the argument about not clerking if you're debt free?

[cron1834]

Yes, the lower T14 destroys 15-20 in clerkship odds.

Wut go look at the fed clerk stats

http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/ ... ulc/texas/

You're wrong but making a decision on the low probability of a temp job is stupid anyway

Fair enough re: fedclerk data, but are you actually disputing that Cornell is vastly superior in placement power to WUSTL/UCLA/et al? Or that UT is an r.tard move for FL? Remember, this dude wants to work in FL/GA, and most clerks move into biglaw after a year anyway. So ...

No I'm not disputing that go back and read what I posted

Not until you use proper punctuation.

[baal hadad]

seriously though, am i missing something in the op? If you wanna work in GA or FL, why not just go to UF, FSU, or a top Georgia school and work your ass off? You'll have no debt and you'll be at the school where the firms in your area mainly hire from. This, opposed to being at Vandy where you definitely will have debt and you'll be a considerable distance away from the areas you like (I guess not ATL, but you get the point)

Vandy is great for fl firms if you're from fl

But not if you're not already from fl/have serious ties

Would it not be wiser for OP to go to the best school in FL (if he's from there) and have little or no debt? He's gonna have 50 k or more to pay off from Vandy. Much better school, but worth that?

He's not from fl

If I were OP id just study for the LSAT and reevaluate later

None of this matters if OP poops out a 153

[GMasters5]

seriously though, am i missing something in the op? If you wanna work in GA or FL, why not just go to UF, FSU, or a top Georgia school and work your ass off? You'll have no debt and you'll be at the school where the firms in your area mainly hire from. This, opposed to being at Vandy where you definitely will have debt and you'll be a considerable distance away from the areas you like (I guess not ATL, but you get the point)

Vandy is great for fl firms if you're from fl

But not if you're not already from fl/have serious ties

Well my main goal is clerking, so top GA/FL schools wouldn't be ideal

[runinthefront]

.

[runinthefront]

.

[baal hadad]

seriously though, am i missing something in the op? If you wanna work in GA or FL, why not just go to UF, FSU, or a top Georgia school and work your ass off? You'll have no debt and you'll be at the school where the firms in your area mainly hire from. This, opposed to being at Vandy where you definitely will have debt and you'll be a considerable distance away from the areas you like (I guess not ATL, but you get the point)

Vandy is great for fl firms if you're from fl

But not if you're not already from fl/have serious ties

Well my main goal is clerking, so top GA/FL schools wouldn't be ideal

Clerking is a temp job dude

Pick another goal

[GMasters5]

Clerkship chances: yes, you can get a clerkship coming from UT, Vandy, UCLA, or WUSTL. But as with many kinds of employment, you will generally need to be ranked more highly in the class to get something from these schools than from the T14 (though less highly than at less influential regional schools - say, SMU, Emory, Davis, or the like). However, clerkship hiring is also fairly idiosyncratic. Some judges want high grades + pedigree, some judges want high grades from a wider range of schools, some judges will take note of something else in your application entirely and hire for that, some judges will hire whoever their buddy profs at the local law school tell them to hire, etc. There are probably Texas judges who will always take a UT grad over T14 grads. But then, there are also probably South Texas alum judges who will always hire out of South Texas. That doesn't make it good odds to go to South Texas.

Look at Law School Transparency and compare clerkship numbers.

But also keep in mind that a clerking is generally a one- or maybe two-year gig on the way to some kind of permanent legal career. You want to go to the right school for the career. There's an argument to be made that most people are far better off graduating law school debt-free (or at least tuition-debt-free) without clerking than they are taking on $250K debt and clerking, for instance.

Thanks! I just feel like clerking a good experience to start your career, especially if you're close to debt free and can actually pay off loans. Could you expand more on the argument about not clerking if you're debt free?

I don't think you understood the point of that post

No, I did. I was just asking about the last part of it

[ilikebaseball]

How can clerking be your main goal? Its one or two years man. You gotta think about your career

[GMasters5]

seriously though, am i missing something in the op? If you wanna work in GA or FL, why not just go to UF, FSU, or a top Georgia school and work your ass off? You'll have no debt and you'll be at the school where the firms in your area mainly hire from. This, opposed to being at Vandy where you definitely will have debt and you'll be a considerable distance away from the areas you like (I guess not ATL, but you get the point)

Vandy is great for fl firms if you're from fl

But not if you're not already from fl/have serious ties

Well my main goal is clerking, so top GA/FL schools wouldn't be ideal

Clerking is a temp job dude

Pick another goal

A cool temp job that I'd love to do for a year or two, which could lead me to a great job afterwards

[GMasters5]

How can clerking be your main goal? Its one or two years man. You gotta think about your career

I understand that. It's not like I'm going to clerk and then stop practicing law

[baal hadad]

It's not as simple as clerk -> get cool job

That's ridiculous

Pick an actual career goal

[runinthefront]

.

[GMasters5]

It's not as simple as clerk -> get cool job

That's ridiculous

Pick an actual career goal

I'm aware of that, but it's a great opportunity to do something that I've always wanted to do. Also, it allows you to start out practicing law with an experienced mentor and gain coonections that you otherwise wouldn't gain. Why are you being so negative anyways? I'm just trying to gain info tbh

[baal hadad]

It's not as simple as clerk -> get cool job

That's ridiculous

Pick an actual career goal

I'm aware of that, but it's a great opportunity to do something that I've always wanted to do. Also, it allows you to start out practicing law with an experienced mentor and gain coonections that you otherwise wouldn't gain. Why are you being so negative anyways? I'm just trying to gain info tbh

Most of the info about law schools these days is negative if you haven't noticed

Don't complain when the advice/info you want to hear isn't the advice/info you get

[GMasters5]

I don't think you understood the point of that post[/quote]



No, I did. I was just asking about the last part of it[/quote]

No, you didn't. The argument was that if you're stuck with the option of going to let's say, NYU at sticker, with a guaranteed clerkship vs. going to UCLA for free without clerking, the latter would probably be wiser for most people.

No one's making the argument that you shouldn't clerk if you're debt free. You missed the point of the hypothetical entirely[/quote]


Dude, I got the point of the post in its entirety. I was just wondering why someone wouldn't clerk if they finished say, UCLA law debt free, if that's what they wanted to do? I understand why you would think that I don't understand the post, but I was asking a completely different question