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160/3.48

I'd love to be in Northern California for school, but don't plan to spend the rest of my life there. Right now I'm interested in immigration/international law.

Any opinions on where I should apply. I'm considering USF, but it sounds like if I leave the region it's not a great for name recognition.

Any other ideas for me?

kdickey05 wrote:160/3.48

I'd love to be in Northern California for school, but don't plan to spend the rest of my life there. Right now I'm interested in immigration/international law.

Any opinions on where I should apply. I'm considering USF, but it sounds like if I leave the region it's not a great for name recognition.

Any other ideas for me?

I'd say Santa Clara, but if you don't want to stay in nor cal afterward, you might want to reconsider..unless you plan on going somewhere else within CA

Where do you want/plan to be after law school?

With 160/3.48, mobility is going to be less possible. In Northern California, you're looking at Santa Clara, USF and McGeorge, all regional schools. Hastings and Davis would offer more mobility within California but would be a reach with those numbers. I would say your best bet would be to study in the region in which you hope to practice or retake the LSAT.

I don't really know where I see myself after school.

UCInfo, is your opinion about my numbers and mobility regarding Northern California specifically, or is that how you look at it nationally?

I'd guess that your numbers can get you into strong regional schools anywhere in the country. But unless you have unusual softs or are an underrepresented minority, not T14 or T20 schools, which are the ones that have more national mobility.

If you graduate from one of the regional Northern California schools, it's most likely that you would end up finding a job nearby. Santa Clara would feed into the Bay Area and McGeorge into Sacramento. But you could always get a job elsewhere after working a few years in those markets.

It's not that easy moving to a different state to practice once you start working as an attorney because you have to be licensed in every state you practice in, so that's something you should consider. If you can pass the bar exam in New York for example, you can practice in a couple other states because you can transfer the bar. However, most lawyers end up practicing for the rest of their lives in the first state they pass the bar exam in (and some test for multiple bar exams at the same time, i.e. NYC and DC), because it's hard to familiarize yourself with multiple states' laws. This is just something to consider before you pick a very regional school to attend. If you go to USF you will most likely get stuck practicing in Northern California for the rest of your life, so you should figure out where you want to practice first or retake the LSAT and apply for the top 14 if you want real mobility.

kdickey05 wrote:I don't really know where I see myself after school.

UCInfo, is your opinion about my numbers and mobility regarding Northern California specifically, or is that how you look at it nationally?

I have very similar numbers and have applied to those schools mentioned. The difference is that this is the place I want to stay in (I live here already), so it works out.


If you want a degree that will make it relatively easy to get a job elsewhere, you are kinda screwed with these numbers (I'm here with ya). That is, at least right out of law school, I'm sure mobility can be attained after a number of years in successful practice (well, maybe...I have no idea).

Anyhow, there are some schools in your number range that will probably serve a larger geographic region, but my guess it's gonna be somewhere in the mid-west or back east (as there is either less clustering of schools/markets, or more cluster and recognition from one city to another). This is pretty speculative on my part, though.


It's time to sit down and take a hard think about what your needs are on geography. The Bay Area is amazing - San Francisco, San Jose, Silicon Valley, the coast, Sonoma/Napa wine county, then a few hours from Tahoe, and a few hours from Yosemite. There are a lot of cool, young places to live (SF, some of Oakland), but also a ton of suburbs and variants as your tastes determine.

If you can't stand committing to one region for more than 6ish years, then you will want to think about retaking (I personally hate this advice as it assumes everyone can score a 170+, which they can't).

Or, just recognize that it's not all about the place, and you'll set down roots and be reasonably happy in most places. It's more what you make of it, especially in an area with so many options.

I'm from San Diego and I'm definitely a strong northern California advocate after going to undergraduate here and now working for about 2 years. Unless you need dry, burning hot summers you can find pretty much anything you want in the Bay Area (well, Sacramento does have some hot summers).


Edit: Sorry for the hate: I forgot to include Oakland and Berkeley as cities in the bay area.

fortissimo wrote:It's not that easy moving to a different state to practice once you start working as an attorney because you have to be licensed in every state you practice in, so that's something you should consider. If you can pass the bar exam in New York for example, you can practice in a couple other states because you can transfer the bar. However, most lawyers end up practicing for the rest of their lives in the first state they pass the bar exam in (and some test for multiple bar exams at the same time, i.e. NYC and DC), because it's hard to familiarize yourself with multiple states' laws. This is just something to consider before you pick a very regional school to attend. If you go to USF you will most likely get stuck practicing in Northern California for the rest of your life, so you should figure out where you want to practice first or retake the LSAT and apply for the top 14 if you want real mobility.

Isn't California one of the bars that a fair amount of other states accept?

Anyhow, I would imagine USF would lead you to a bay area job restriction for a few years, but I can't imagine that if you are successful in your job after a handful of years that you couldn't make it to SD or LA or something. It may not be easy, but I don't think it'd be impossible.

Great Satchmo wrote:Unless you need dry, burning hot summers you can find pretty much anything you want in the Bay Area (well, Sacramento does have some hot summers).

Or real winters and mountains closer than 4 hours away. After living in different states, I think the state is alright, but some states that really deserve kudos include CO, OR, and WA.

Great Satchmo wrote: Isn't California one of the bars that a fair amount of other states accept?

I don't know. You're going to have to check this up. I only really looked at New York because it's the one I am considering taking. It isn't solely about the bar exam as different jurisdictions follow different common law variations and their legislatures pass different statutes.

fortissimo wrote:

Great Satchmo wrote:Unless you need dry, burning hot summers you can find pretty much anything you want in the Bay Area (well, Sacramento does have some hot summers).

Or real winters and mountains closer than 4 hours away. After living in different states, I think the state is alright, but some states that really deserve kudos include CO, OR, and WA.

Great Satchmo wrote: Isn't California one of the bars that a fair amount of other states accept?

I don't know. You're going to have to check this up. I only really looked at New York because it's the one I am considering taking. It isn't solely about the bar exam as different jurisdictions follow different common law variations and their legislatures pass different statutes.

Haha, I mean...proximity would be cool, but 3-4 hours to Tahoe (including gambling on the Nevada side ) isn't a terrible situation to be in.

I'm not going to argue that California is the best state out there, but I do think places like the general Bay Area are one of the handful of places in the country that fulfill a lot of wants and most people could be happy in (except cost of living, but whatever).