BU, W&M, Wake, Cardozo, Uconn Forum

[bigkahuna2020]

B

I disagree with this. Unless you are going to a T-14, your law school pedigree doesn't matter much once you've been practicing law for any substantial amount of time. The fact that BU is ranked higher than Uconn is simply not going to matter to a practicing attorney looking to lateral to another job. This may be a factor if it was BU and an unranked 2nd tier school, but the difference between BU and Uconn just isn't that big once you get a few years out of law school.

The rankings are relatively good at establishing initial job prospects/starting salary if you look at them broadly, i.e. a T14 student is more likely to get a prestigious, high paying job than a 15-40 school. In the same manner, a 15-40 student is more likely to get a prestigious, high paying job than a 41-100 student. Certain jobs require T-14 (or inside connections or stellar law school performance), but it is just not true that such jobs are open to BU students and not Uconn students.

Are you kidding me? Have you seen the most recent NLJ250 placement statistics?

Have you ever learned how to read?

No real desire for BigLaw, more looking toward debt aversion but decent job prospects.

[BCLS]

B

I disagree with this. Unless you are going to a T-14, your law school pedigree doesn't matter much once you've been practicing law for any substantial amount of time. The fact that BU is ranked higher than Uconn is simply not going to matter to a practicing attorney looking to lateral to another job. This may be a factor if it was BU and an unranked 2nd tier school, but the difference between BU and Uconn just isn't that big once you get a few years out of law school.

The rankings are relatively good at establishing initial job prospects/starting salary if you look at them broadly, i.e. a T14 student is more likely to get a prestigious, high paying job than a 15-40 school. In the same manner, a 15-40 student is more likely to get a prestigious, high paying job than a 41-100 student. Certain jobs require T-14 (or inside connections or stellar law school performance), but it is just not true that such jobs are open to BU students and not Uconn students.

Are you kidding me? Have you seen the most recent NLJ250 placement statistics?

Have you ever learned how to read?

No real desire for BigLaw, more looking toward debt aversion but decent job prospects.

NLJ does not equal big law. Also, I wasn't responding to OP.

[AP-375]

Given your stated debt aversion, I'm really surprised at how many votes are being cast for expensive sticker price schools in very expensive cities. There is a gigantic difference between $130k + urban living costs and $24k + rural living costs, (like maybe, idk, say, $100k+). If debt aversion is your main concern, I don't understand why you'd even consider those places that might run you $200k (or why anyone else would recommend them in this situation).

[mcgillgrad10]

Since making the post, I pretty much have in my head Uconn as my choice. I'm still waiting on hearing from BC, and BU is getting back to me before the deposit deadline about a scholarship. I am visiting William and Mary this weekend, and will see if it blows me away to make me choose that over Uconn. Appreciate everyone's input regardless.

[Mattalones]

Since making the post, I pretty much have in my head Uconn as my choice. I'm still waiting on hearing from BC, and BU is getting back to me before the deposit deadline about a scholarship. I am visiting William and Mary this weekend, and will see if it blows me away to make me choose that over Uconn. Appreciate everyone's input regardless.

If you're not planing on getting a job that pays high anyway, why not go to the best school you can. If you make enough to pay off the debt in 10 years, you will. If you don't and you do PI, then it'll be forgiven in ten years any way. The only way you'd screw yourself is if you do neither high paying nor PI work.

[alumniguy]

B

Are you kidding me? Have you seen the most recent NLJ250 placement statistics?

BCLS - my post was in response to your comment regarding the best "long term options." I stand by my position that after practicing for 5-10 years, most firms simply won't care whether a lateral hire went to law school at BU or Uconn. It is going to be about your performance and experience as a practicing lawyer. There isn't a big enough gap between BU and Uconn to justify a comparison. Again, if it was BU and an unranked school, that may be a factor (but even then I don't think so).

If you were referring to the most options right out of law school, then I would agree. HOWEVER, this shouldn't be the sole concern. As the OP is concerned about debt (and I would argue that ALL prospective students should be concerned about debt in today's legal market), paying sticker at BU isn't worth it - especially as the OP is not sure he/she is even interested in biglaw. I can tell you that if anyone doesn't think they are interested in biglaw as a prospective law student, then they probably won't last more than a few years in biglaw because the time demands are just too big.

I agree wholeheartedly that NLJ250 includes non-biglaw firms, but BU's placement percentage is most likely heavily skewed towards biglaw firms (who incidentally hire many more grads than smaller firms). I would be curious to see stats on students obtaining non-biglaw NLJ250 jobs - I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of BU's students are getting biglaw jobs as opposed to these non-biglaw jobs. That is just conjecture on my part though.

[mcgillgrad10]

Not to bring a topic back from the dead but I received notification from Uconn of a 20k scholarship good for my first year, essentially canceling out first year tuition making that option seem even stronger now given everything else and no cost of living expenses associated with CT.

still waiting to hear from BU about scholarships and hearing anything from BC, but otherwise this decision process almost feels done.

[Slevin Kelevra 2011]

Anyone who says the NLJ250 is not biglaw has no idea what they are talking about. lol.

[alumniguy]

Anyone who says the NLJ250 is not biglaw has no idea what they are talking about. lol.

The NLJ250 includes a lot of diversity in location and starting salary. Firms that have 150+ attorneys may be "big," but that doesn't mean that they work on traditional "biglaw" type deals or pay their attorney's the same rates as "biglaw" firms.

Look at the list, but IMHO no firm located/headquartered in Syracuse, New York or Charleston, West Virginia is biglaw. Yes they may be one of the 250 largest firms, but these firms start at $70k to $90k. I think you will agree that this salary is definitely not the salary traditionally associated with "biglaw" (even taking CoL into calculation).

[Mattalones]

Most BU kids who are getting firm jobs in biglaw are working at local places like Ropes & Gray or Holland and Knight in Boston.