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Hello All,

I want your opinion on these three schools, Gonzaga v. Willamette v. Thomas Jefferson?

Thanks!!

telly808 wrote:Hello All,

I want your opinion on these three schools, Gonzaga v. Willamette v. Thomas Jefferson?

Thanks!!

None is worth going to at full price. (My personal, un-objective opinion of all three.)

telly808 wrote:Hello All,

I want your opinion on these three schools, Gonzaga v. Willamette v. Thomas Jefferson?

Thanks!!

My first piece of advice is to tell us your career goals, the region you want to practice in, and if you have any scholarships, because otherwise we're sort of just blundering around.

Thanks rad law and patrick! Right now the region I'm most interested in practicing is the West Coast (California, Washington, & Oregon) with focus on Real Estate and/or Corporate Law. I've been accepted to all three schools with some money, Gonzaga (5k), Willamette (5k), and Thomas Jefferson (10k). I want to know how are job prospects after attending these schools. I probably will start off in litigation to gain some trial experience, either Prosecuter's or DA, then move on to private practice. Again, thank you for your comments.

telly808 wrote:Thanks rad law and patrick! Right now the region I'm most interested in practicing is the West Coast (California, Washington, & Oregon) with focus on Real Estate and/or Corporate Law. I've been accepted to all three schools with some money, Gonzaga (5k), Willamette (5k), and Thomas Jefferson (10k). I want to know how are job prospects after attending these schools. I probably will start off in litigation to gain some trial experience, either Prosecuter's or DA, then move on to private practice. Again, thank you for your comments.

1) With those law schools, you need to figure out what region you want to be in, with a little more specificity than "West Coast." Hate to break it to you, but with all of the stellar law schools in the UC System, plus Stanford and USC, neither Willamette nor Gonzaga is going to travel well to California. Thomas Jefferson is not going to travel particularly well even as close as Northern Cali or Arizona. It's for sure going to be tough to land a job in Washington with a TJ Law degree. Not saying you can't, just that it's tough. It's statistically possible to get a job on the East Coast from 'Zaga, but unwise to plan on doing so. The same logic applies with similar force to trying to get a job in Seattle with a degree from Thomas Jefferson.

My suggestion: if you want SoCal (maybe even limiting it to San Diego), go with TJ. If you want eastern Washington, go to 'Zaga. For western WA, consider applying to Seattle U. If you want Oregon, go to Willamette.

2) As for your career path (and you'll probably learn this later), don't box yourself in with picking out a specialty before you even take your 1L classes. It's good that you're realistic about going the government route straight out of law school; not everyone lands a firm gig straight out. I would advise just going into law school with an open mind until you get your bearings, though.

Also (and this is petty, but often misunderstood), DA=prosecutor. Prosecutor is a broad category, of which there are many different types (ADA, US Attorney, Dept. of Justice, JAG, etc.). Further, no one starts out as a DA, you start out as an assistant DA.

HTH and good luck with your decision!

Again, Thank you for the reply. I'm sorry about the confusion but what I meant by "DA" was a defense attorney with the public defender's office.

telly808 wrote:Again, Thank you for the reply. I'm sorry about the confusion but what I meant by "DA" was a defense attorney with the public defender's office.

Aha, my mistake.