The University of Idaho v. Notre Dame Forum

[pancakes3]

I will definitely admit to being irrationally pro-ND, and I will also admit my experience may not be at all representative. But almost every (legal employment) interview I did involved talking about ND football, college football more generally, the person's nephew who went to ND, the brutal South Bend winters, etc. People know enough about ND to chat about it, which isn't the case for less famous schools.

With all due respect, this is weak - even for anecdotal evidence.

[BigZuck]

I will definitely admit to being irrationally pro-ND, and I will also admit my experience may not be at all representative. But almost every (legal employment) interview I did involved talking about ND football, college football more generally, the person's nephew who went to ND, the brutal South Bend winters, etc. People know enough about ND to chat about it, which isn't the case for less famous schools.

With all due respect, this is weak - even for anecdotal evidence.

I mean, I go to a really famous sports school and done probably about 40 job interviews so far and college sports was never even brought up once. Ever. That's primarily big law/OCI interviews though so maybe a different beast. ND also sounds like its own monster.

I know that ND just as a university has a rabid following, my uncle couldn't believe I didn't apply there for law school but that I was interested in schools like Cornell or WUSTL. However, it still really surprises me that lawyers and people who do legal hiring would be more interested in people from ND than a school like Chicago (unless maybe they themselves were ND grads ). Not saying you guys are wrong, I believe you, I'm just surprised is all.

[superpatton]

I just wanted to provide a little perspective on regional schools, such as Idaho, because I am from a very similar regional market, and I have lived in Idaho before. First off, as far as cost of living expenses go, I'm not saying the schools estimates are wrong, but if you're paying close to 10k a year in room and board you are doing it wrong. I have friends in Idaho that live room/board/travel/misc. expenses for well under 10k a year, so those numbers might be a little bit exaggerated. This is all purely anecdotal, but if you play it smart you should be well under their cost of living estimates.

Also, as far as jobs in these markets go, most t14 are roughly equivalent to the regional flagship in the local's minds.
I recall going to a pre-law forum with a bunch of local lawyers and asking them how they viewed prestige of law schools when making hiring decisions. The lead guy said something to the effect of please don't go into tons of debt for a big name law school if you want to work here. Nobody here views any school any better than (insert regional flagship here), we went there, all of our colleagues went there, and we hire from there.
At this point one of the other guys piped up about a local lawyer who went to a T6, and all of the forum members had a chuckle about him before saying that out here T6 is no better than (insert regional flagship here). I know this is just one example, but if you are really serious about working in a small state like Idaho, strongly consider their regional flagship school first, and realize that there are only so many jobs to go around.