Public Interest Law School Forum

[timbs4339]

0L here: from my own personal research I would go to northeastern (I'm interested in public interest as well). Northeastern provides a wide range of experience in various fields, which I prefer since I am interested in working in multiple fields (more interdisciplinary). Quite honestly right now you are asking a forum full of majority biglaw fanatics who like to induce collectivized freak outs. I suggest you should get into contact (phone or in person) with alumnis from each school who are working in your preferred field. That will get you more accurate information than elitist 0L advice and my useless obsessive research. Also check out northeastern's co-op program opportunities in California.

Do you know anything about the state of the public interest and government opportunities?

Why would you ask only a self-selected group of people who got whatever job they were hoping to get? Go ask some unemployed Northeastern students about their awesome co-op program or the school's public interest placement.

[cinephile]

0L here: from my own personal research I would go to northeastern (I'm interested in public interest as well). Northeastern provides a wide range of experience in various fields, which I prefer since I am interested in working in multiple fields (more interdisciplinary). Quite honestly right now you are asking a forum full of majority biglaw fanatics who like to induce collectivized freak outs. I suggest you should get into contact (phone or in person) with alumnis from each school who are working in your preferred field. That will get you more accurate information than elitist 0L advice and my useless obsessive research. Also check out northeastern's co-op program opportunities in California.

Do you know anything about the state of the public interest and government opportunities?

Why would you ask only a self-selected group of people who got whatever job they were hoping to get? Go ask some unemployed Northeastern students about their awesome co-op program or the school's public interest placement.

Seriously. Northeastern is not good AT ALL. Education yourself more thoroughly.

[Justin Genious]

TCR is no law school since the reasoning by some board members is all and any PI=fellowship.

[Ludo!]

TCR is no law school since the reasoning by some board members is all and any PI=fellowship.

I don't even know what this means

[20130312]

Stanford would be hard to get in, even with a higher LSAT score, but Berkeley, USC, UCLA with money all become available.

http://www.mylsn.info/6t6aag

Whoops, I read his numbers as 3.9/160. Carry on.

[stillwater]

0L here: from my own personal research I would go to northeastern (I'm interested in public interest as well). Northeastern provides a wide range of experience in various fields, which I prefer since I am interested in working in multiple fields (more interdisciplinary). Quite honestly right now you are asking a forum full of majority biglaw fanatics who like to induce collectivized freak outs. I suggest you should get into contact (phone or in person) with alumnis from each school who are working in your preferred field. That will get you more accurate information than elitist 0L advice and my useless obsessive research. Also check out northeastern's co-op program opportunities in California.

Do you know anything about the state of the public interest and government opportunities?

Why would you ask only a self-selected group of people who got whatever job they were hoping to get? Go ask some unemployed Northeastern students about their awesome co-op program or the school's public interest placement.

Seriously. Northeastern is not good AT ALL. Education yourself more thoroughly.

Northeastern is a shitmill.

[Yossarian79]

"Quite honestly right now you are asking a forum full of majority biglaw fanatics who like to induce collectivized freak outs."

Where instead, you can go to one of these crappy schools, fall deeply into debt and fail to get a job, and have an individualized freak out! Those are so much more fun...

[somewhatwayward]

Did you notice the last page or so of posts in which we were all jizzing about a public defender position available in Barrow, Alaska? I couldn't speak for anyone else but I for one was not entirely exaggerating, I am not completely uninterested in the prospect and I went into law school saying to myself "the one thing I don't want to be is a public defender, I don't have the fortitude for it" but after 3 months of unemployment (well 5 technically but I started the count after I finished the bar, not graduation because at least when I was studying for the bar I had something to do) it's honestly starting to sound pretty good...


Getting a job in law is hard and unlikely. Getting a stable job is considerably harder and unlikelier. Getting a job in the Federal Government is a pipe dream. According to usajobs.gov there are 158 jobs available in the country under the category "legal and claims examining". There are more than 158 law schools in the country, much less yearly law grads. I don't know if you meant to phrase it this way but I get the feeling like you feel like getting a job with the federal government would be settling for mediocrity somehow. Fuck you. I would literally suck a dick for a cushy federal government job and I'm not even joking about that. Women and gay dudes do it all the time (well not for jobs usually but you get my point), I'm so much better than them that I can't do it once and be set for life? If only I had that opportunity.

You don't know why exactly you want to go to law school, well let me help you answer that question, you want to go to law school because you don't know what else to do with your degree and law school seems like the obvious next thing to do. That's the reason I went too and now that I'm done with it and unemployed and overqualified for any vaguely decent mediocre office job that would pay off my $150k-ish debt I feel like I have to tell you that you're thinking about making a huge mistake, don't go you idiot

I didn't mean to come off so hateful and angry when I started writing this reply but fuck, every time I read a post about someone wanting to go to law school it just comes out, I'm sorry, I don't literally hate you, but I do hate the part of your brain that tricked you into thinking that law school is remotely a good idea right now.

Preach.

If I were on a hiring committee looking at kids who matriculated this year, with all the info out there, at schools like northeastern or American without named scholarships, I think I might just trash those kids' resumes for lack of common sense and good judgment. I'm only 1/4 kidding.

[DaleCooper]

If I were on a hiring committee looking at kids who matriculated this year, with all the info out there, at schools like northeastern or American without named scholarships, I think I might just trash those kids' resumes for lack of common sense and good judgment. I'm only 1/4 kidding.

This is apparently what is actually happening, according to a couple of (non-DOJ) federal attorneys I spoke to. Minus the named scholarship, even... they're literally just tossing out applications from non-T20 schools without even looking at them. They're not going to risk the ire of the Texas and GW mafias by going straight T14, but the American and Northeastern grads can hang it up.

Anyone who thinks PI/Gov is easier than BigLaw is crazy. I have the grades for BigLaw, but I'm doing my best to try and get PI/Gov because that's what I came here to do... I'm median at CCN, and even then it's far from guaranteed. It's more likely that I'll go BigLaw for a few years and try to lateral.

OP: My first score was a 162. Then I did PowerScore and got into the low-170s. There is no reason whatsoever to waste $200,000 and three years of your life when you can just study really hard for a few months and go to a school with some placement power.