Why isn't Georgetown ranked higher? Forum

[thecilent]

Dude. You need to relax.

[bk1]

Dude. You need to relax.

[Lovely Ludwig Van]

Dude. You need to relax.

Yeah I know. I don't want to get in like a protracted fight or anything, and I REALLY don't want to get banned from this site. But from a quick search of this girl's previous posts, she's got a history of writing these nonsensical, smartass responses to people who've asked sincere questions about law school. Aren't there supposed to be Mods who monitor this sort of behavior or at least try to curb it? I don't mind talking my own smack if that's what it comes down to.

[bk1]

The problem with your question is that the answer serves no purpose.

Something like, "Doesn't Georgetown have better placement power than its USNWR rank would indicate?" seems to be what you wanted answered, something that would actually matter, and the answer would be a resounding no.

[Lovely Ludwig Van]

The problem with your question is that the answer serves no purpose.

Something like, "Isn't Georgetown have better placement power than its USNWR rank would indicate?" seems to be what you wanted answered, something that would actually matter, and the answer would be a resounding no.

How does it "serve no purpose"? My intention in asking it was to find out about GULC's downsides, aside from its speciality rankings, lay prestige, and location (which I've heard multiple people say, DOES matter). In either case, I find it hard to believe that people lampoon 0L's for no reason other than the fact that they might've phrased their question a little funny.

[Ragged]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=108528

[bk1]

How does it "serve no purpose"? My intention in asking it was to find out about GULC's downsides, aside from its speciality rankings, lay prestige, and location (which I've heard multiple people say, DOES matter). In either case, I find it hard to believe that people lampoon 0L's for no reason other than the fact that they might've phrased their question a little funny.

Welcome to the internet, people will give you shit for anything.

Asking about its downsides is one thing, asking about them in relation to the ranking it gets in USNWR is whole other (useless) thing.

[Lovely Ludwig Van]

.

[thecilent]

How does it "serve no purpose"? My intention in asking it was to find out about GULC's downsides, aside from its speciality rankings, lay prestige, and location (which I've heard multiple people say, DOES matter). In either case, I find it hard to believe that people lampoon 0L's for no reason other than the fact that they might've phrased their question a little funny.

Welcome to the internet, people will give you shit for anything.

Asking about its downsides is one thing, asking about them in relation to the ranking it gets in USNWR is whole other (useless) thing.

Again, I fail to understand how asking about GULC's downside in relation to USNWR is "useless," especially when this entire site is based on USNWR. As far as people giving me shit for anything, I can totally dig that. Just don't blame me for giving shit back when I have to.

Lol

[Veyron]

Silly question, I know. But still, I would like to hear what people think. From USNWR, Georgetown is ranked first in clinical training, sixth in environmental law, seventh in healthcare law, third in international law, second in tax law, and fifth in trial advocacy. It has great lay prestige, famous faculty, and it's in the middle of bloody Washington DC for crying out loud. So how come it's only ranked 14th overall?

First of all, specialised rankings don't count for shit in the legal world. You'll get preference in any specialized field based on overall ranking only.

That being said, Georgetown suffers from (1) relatively recent accendancy - judges and older practitioners are often not familiar with its high ranking (2) piss poor biglaw placement, its really more of a school for people who want to go into government work. However, if you DO want to work on the hill or something, I could see picking Georgetown over any school but H and Y.

Thanks for the constructive response. That explains a lot. I had a feeling most of it came down to biglaw placement.

Probably not most of it - schools all fudge the numbers the same so there are spread among the T-14 is not very large (on paper, in reality it is). I think its more of a reputational issue. The faculty you mentioned as being awsome, they are. The only problem is that they aren't awsome scholars for the most part. Instead, Geogetown tends to place much more emphasis on hiring former high up Gvmt lawyers (former SGs and the like). Therefore, their "good" professors are often ajuncts who don't produce good scholarship but who did some pretty cool stuff IRL. I think this is the main place where the gap that you are percieving between quality and ranking comes in.

[NZA]

Oh hahahaaha! You took the trouble of doing it again! Just to spite me! OMG you are so fucking clever! What, did this make your day? Typing one-word responses to 0L applicants who are genuinely trying to seek info about what will probably be the biggest financial decision of their lives? God, you must be leading a reeeaalllllyyyy satisfying life. Hell, I hope to meet people like you when I go to law school.

This whole back-and-forth has actually been pretty hilarious.

+1 to all of you. Your jackassery has made me a happy man tonight.

[FuManChusco]

I barely read the thread. I'm not going to underline anything. I just came to say.....



lol

[Adjudicator]

Oh hahahaaha! You took the trouble of doing it again! Just to spite me! OMG you are so fucking clever! What, did this make your day? Typing one-word responses to 0L applicants who are genuinely trying to seek info about what will probably be the biggest financial decision of their lives? God, you must be leading a reeeaalllllyyyy satisfying life. Hell, I hope to meet people like you when I go to law school.

This whole back-and-forth has actually been pretty hilarious.

+1 to all of you. Your jackassery has made me a happy man tonight.

Just wondering, NZA... is your user-name pronounced "Nizza" like the RZA and the GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan?

[NZA]

Oh hahahaaha! You took the trouble of doing it again! Just to spite me! OMG you are so fucking clever! What, did this make your day? Typing one-word responses to 0L applicants who are genuinely trying to seek info about what will probably be the biggest financial decision of their lives? God, you must be leading a reeeaalllllyyyy satisfying life. Hell, I hope to meet people like you when I go to law school.

This whole back-and-forth has actually been pretty hilarious.

+1 to all of you. Your jackassery has made me a happy man tonight.

Just wondering, NZA... is your user-name pronounced "Nizza" like the RZA and the GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan?

It most definitely is. That's where the name comes from.

I also go by NZA necta, much like RZA recta.

[dresden doll]

Specialty rankings don't mean shit.

Lay prestige doesn't mean anything.

Everywhere has amazing faculty.

Being in DC is irrelevant.

Some of this reasoning is a bit off. Location actually plays a large part in the rankings--that's one of the main reasons why NYU is ranked so highly. On top of that, not every school has amazing faculty. NYU's faculty is one of the main reasons (if not the main reason) why they jumped into the top 6 of US News and stayed there. Berkeley's ranking is largely a result of their stellar faculty as well.

Location only plays a part insofar as it attracts better student body/faculty. For that matter, NYU has succeeded in part because lots of faculty 1) want to live in NYC and 2) have spouses with their own careers who need to be able to live where they can pursue those careers (so, typically large cities as opposed to Ann Arbor or C-ville).

In and of itself, being in NYC or DC means crap. Rankings don't award points for that alone.

Also, LOL at OP's reliance on specialty rankings. Who the hell cares what your school's ranked in bird law. If your job placement is only working out for an abysmally poor percentage of people, you're a TTT, plain and simple.

[2010trojan]

Oh hahahaaha! You took the trouble of doing it again! Just to spite me! OMG you are so fucking clever! What, did this make your day? Typing one-word responses to 0L applicants who are genuinely trying to seek info about what will probably be the biggest financial decision of their lives? God, you must be leading a reeeaalllllyyyy satisfying life. Hell, I hope to meet people like you when I go to law school.

i see your sarcasm there.....
funny thing is i'm not so sure i want to meet people like you in law school lol

i second whoever said you need to calm down

[whitman]

Agreed that you need to calm down, but, dude, I know what you mean. It's sad that any time you call someone out for being intentionally unhelpful, petty, or unnecessarily mocking, people respond with things like, "Have you ever BEEN to TLS?" or "Uh...is this your first time on the internet?" as if the rampant unhelpful snarkiness is excused simply because it's rampant. Some people seem actually proud by their usually stupid belligerence. It's bizarre, I know. Maybe it's some sort of internet or gamer nerd thing. It's a shame some people can't just answer a damn question or politely disagree, but I guess people are assholes in real life and on message boards. Also, I'm not talking about the stuff in this thread, this is just a side rant. A lot of people on here will spend unbelievable amounts of time providing information and advice simply because they're nice.

[magicman554]

I'm thongin' out.....

[FuManChusco]

Agreed that you need to calm down, but, dude, I know what you mean. It's sad that any time you call someone out for being intentionally unhelpful, petty, or unnecessarily mocking, people respond with things like, "Have you ever BEEN to TLS?" or "Uh...is this your first time on the internet?" as if the rampant unhelpful snarkiness is excused simply because it's rampant. Some people seem actually proud by their usually stupid belligerence. It's bizarre, I know. Maybe it's some sort of internet or gamer nerd thing. It's a shame some people can't just answer a damn question or politely disagree, but I guess people are assholes in real life and on message boards. Also, I'm not talking about the stuff in this thread, this is just a side rant. A lot of people on here will spend unbelievable amounts of time providing information and advice simply because they're nice.

[Ratchet Jackson]

Specialty rankings don't mean shit.

Lay prestige doesn't mean anything.

Everywhere has amazing faculty.

Being in DC is irrelevant.

Some of this reasoning is a bit off. Location actually plays a large part in the rankings--that's one of the main reasons why NYU is ranked so highly. On top of that, not every school has amazing faculty. NYU's faculty is one of the main reasons (if not the main reason) why they jumped into the top 6 of US News and stayed there. Berkeley's ranking is largely a result of their stellar faculty as well.

Location only plays a part insofar as it attracts better student body/faculty. For that matter, NYU has succeeded in part because lots of faculty 1) want to live in NYC and 2) have spouses with their own careers who need to be able to live where they can pursue those careers (so, typically large cities as opposed to Ann Arbor or C-ville).

In and of itself, being in NYC or DC means crap. Rankings don't award points for that alone.

Also, LOL at OP's reliance on specialty rankings. Who the hell cares what your school's ranked in bird law. If your job placement is only working out for an abysmally poor percentage of people, you're a TTT, plain and simple.

Truths. If Cornell and Fordham switched locations, Cornell would move up a bit, and Fordham would drop like a rock.

[Curry]

lol

[NU_Jet55]

Why isn't Georgetttown ranked lower?