Northwestern vs. Georgetown Forum

[Dignan]

Yeah, but what if you want to work in, say, Seattle/Portland/San Fran? GULC should place out there, right?

Sure. I live and work in California, and there seem to be a lot of GULC grads out here. I'd be surprised if a Northwestern grad has an advantage over a GULC grad on the west coast. For west coast placement opportunities, my sense is that DCNG are at roughly the same level.

[A'nold]

Yeah, but what if you want to work in, say, Seattle/Portland/San Fran? GULC should place out there, right?

Sure. I live and work in California, and there seem to be a lot of GULC grads out here. I'd be surprised if a Northwestern grad has an advantage over a GULC grad on the west coast. For west coast placement opportunities, my sense is that DCNG are at roughly the same level.

Cool. Hopefully I'll get to make a choice b/w some of those schools.

[apper123]

Hijack time.

Here's the thing: GULC is the "lowest" of the t14, but it is still a t14, which means it is one of 14 truly national schools. According to some on this thread, it is like D.C. or bust.[

I think that's almost backwards. GULC is a national law school. It's arguably more of a national school than NU.

GULC's main problem is that is can't place well enough in its home market. As others have pointed out, GULC is a huge law school with a ton of grads. Many of those grads are trying to find jobs in a home market that is also targeted by the top grads of every T10 school. And there's another huge law school in DC (GW) that is ranked not far below GULC.

NU, by contrast, is a relatively small school that is located in a less competitive (but still desirable) legal job market. I think it's considerably easier for a median NU grad to find a job in Chicago than it is for a median GULC grad to find a job in DC. To the extent that NU is a better bet for law school than GULC, it's largely due to the schools' respective regional job markets. I don't think that national reach or reputation is much of a factor.

How significantly do you think a GULC grad who wanted BigLaw in a primary market but didn't care which one would increase his odds if he made all his OCI bids in Chicago/LA/NY/Philly rather than DC? What about if he targeted only BigLaw firms in secondary markets (McGuire Woods in Richmond, for example) that had ties to DC where he eventually wanted to work?

This hypothetical GULC grad couldn't possibly be me, btw, it's just a "friend"...

[A'nold]

That's kind of what I was wondering too. It seems like GULC grads flood D.C. and NYC, but what if you want like San Fran? I mean, would a top 1/3 GULC student on the border for D.C. biglaw land a position w/ ease on the West Coast due to less competition from the same school and for diversity points w/ firms? I always hear stories on here about certain geographic areas wishing more, say, Berkelely students like NYC.

[apper123]

That's kind of what I was wondering too. It seems like GULC grads flood D.C. and NYC, but what if you want like San Fran? I mean, would a top 1/3 GULC student on the border for D.C. biglaw land a position w/ ease on the West Coast due to less competition from the same school and for diversity points w/ firms? I always hear stories on here about certain geographic areas wishing more, say, Berkelely students like NYC.

I heard GULC kids did really well in NY at OCI last year, and a lot of the kids that struck out concentrated on DC. This was just random TLS rumor/conjecture, so take it for what its worth.

[Dignan]

How significantly do you think a GULC grad who wanted BigLaw in a primary market but didn't care which one would increase his odds if he made all his OCI bids in Chicago/LA/NY/Philly rather than DC? What about if he targeted only BigLaw firms in secondary markets (McGuire Woods in Richmond, for example) that had ties to DC where he eventually wanted to work?

This hypothetical GULC grad couldn't possibly be me, btw, it's just a "friend"...

I'm no expert on the topic, but my guess is that your "friend" should make OCI bids in Chicago/LA/NY/Philly and DC. I strongly advise your friend to talk to GULC 3Ls who made it through the OCI/SA grinder.

By the way, I dug up this chart that breaks down the top firms in each major market. GULC does quite well. Even if you were to adjust for class size, GULC looks like a competitive national school:

http://www.calvin.edu/admin/csr/student ... w/data.htm

[apper123]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice.

I'm definitely going to bid on all the big firms in the (secondary) market of the school I'm transferring from. I figure if anyone is going to care about how I did at my old school, it'll be them.

[NayBoer]

Yeah, but what if you want to work in, say, Seattle/Portland/San Fran? GULC should place out there, right?

The problem with NALP reporting statistics is that it uses regions, and LA and Seattle are in the same region. But for the Pacific region, NALP says GULC placed 7.9%, Cornell 9.5%, NU 9.8%, Duke 13.79%. Duke is known for having a high number of CA students. Penn and UVA fall between Duke and GULC; Mich places over 17% Pacific. Unfortunately, you can't tell how many are in LA, SF, San Jose, Seattle, etc.

The problem is not that Georgetown is not national. The problem is getting into biglaw with so many other students to compete against.