Top Law Schools

It has come down to these three schools for me and i will really appreciate what TLS has to say about this.

I really want bigLaw and it doesnt really matter what city i get it in. I have some solid years of work experience
and i am interested in International Law and Business Law. I owe about 30k from my previous degrees but i am
not too concerned about the debt. Which of these schools do i have the best chance of getting bigLaw from.

Pls don't tell me to go to a T-14. I applied to only one and didn't get in.

letsgo wrote:It has come down to these three schools for me and i will really appreciate what TLS has to say about this.

I really want bigLaw and it doesnt really matter what city i get it in. I have some solid years of work experience
and i am interested in International Law and Business Law. I owe about 30k from my previous degrees but i am
not too concerned about the debt. Which of these schools do i have the best chance of getting bigLaw from.

Pls don't tell me to go to a T-14. I applied to only one and didn't get in.

Are you in-state for any of these schools?

And have you tried negotiating?

I think Illinois is the best for big law, but I'm not sure the difference in prospects is worth the cost difference. More info needed...

If your only consideration is the likelihood of getting biglaw, then its Illinois, but you already know that.

But if you would only be satisfied with Biglaw?

A. You need to go to a T14, probably a T10, sorry.

B. Failing that, you need to take the full ride at Iowa so you can go do something else if you fail.

Iowa doesn't have dramatically worse Biglaw prospects than Illinois.

They're all really close together in terms of biglaw placement. However, if you want to be nitpicky Illinois>Minnesota>Iowa.
I'd go with Illinois or Iowa- depending on whether you want to take out loans.

romothesavior wrote:

letsgo wrote:It has come down to these three schools for me and i will really appreciate what TLS has to say about this.

I really want bigLaw and it doesnt really matter what city i get it in. I have some solid years of work experience
and i am interested in International Law and Business Law. I owe about 30k from my previous degrees but i am
not too concerned about the debt. Which of these schools do i have the best chance of getting bigLaw from.

Pls don't tell me to go to a T-14. I applied to only one and didn't get in.

Are you in-state for any of these schools?

And have you tried negotiating?

I think Illinois is the best for big law, but I'm not sure the difference in prospects is worth the cost difference. More info needed...

Yes, i tried and this seems to be the final cost.

Well, for some reason some of my friends i talked to at Iowa were not so enthusiastic about the place. Plus
reading some post around here, it seems like some people really don't like the place.

Dr. Strangelove wrote:They're all really close together in terms of biglaw placement. However, if you want to be nitpicky Illinois>Minnesota>Iowa.
I'd go with Illinois or Iowa- depending on whether you want to take out loans.

I agree totally... I voted UIUC because you said you wanted BigLaw, but also agree with Mr. Rose above in that the numbers are not dramatically different (1 in 4 for UIUC and 1 in 5 for Iowa, approx.).

Illinois.

Minneapolis>Urbana Champaign>Iowa City

/UMN trolling

DerrickRose wrote:If your only consideration is the likelihood of getting biglaw, then its Illinois, but you already know that.

But if you would only be satisfied with Biglaw?

A. You need to go to a T14, probably a T10, sorry.

B. Failing that, you need to take the full ride at Iowa so you can go do something else if you fail.

Iowa doesn't have dramatically worse Biglaw prospects than Illinois.

Does being an URM(AA) matter at all here.

bump

letsgo wrote: Does being an URM(AA) matter at all here.

I know URM helps for securing summer employment, but in terms of a real, honest to goodness job, I have no idea.

I wouldn't imagine it makes a difference as between schools though.

Personally, I'd go with the full scholly in this situation. i'm guessing they all place pretty similar into biglaw (i.e. not very good) so I'd take the money and run.

As a current UIUC student and future Iowa student, I can only offer this one piece of unbiased advice - don't go to Minnesota.

In all seriousness, I pretty much agree with what everyone else has said - UIUC is the best for biglaw, but not by much and it still isn't great, so you should probably go with the best value, which would be Iowa.

Any choice other than Illinois is an LR fail. If you will not settle for anything less than biglaw, then fuck the debt load and go to the best school you can get into with the best percentage chance at scoring a biglaw job. Personally I don't see it as a tragedy to graduate from Iowa with minimal debt and take a $60k/year starting job, but you obviously don't want that.

If biglaw is so important to you that attaining it dominates all other considerations, then you need to slow your roll and seriously consider redoing your cycle. If biglaw were the only choice for me, then I would not settle for less than Penn. If you think it is possible to bump your LSAT by 3 or 4 points, retake and reapply. The difference could probably get you an ED at CCNBP.

Good luck.

letsgo wrote:It has come down to these three schools for me and i will really appreciate what TLS has to say about this.

I really want bigLaw and it doesnt really matter what city i get it in. I have some solid years of work experience
and i am interested in International Law and Business Law. I owe about 30k from my previous degrees but i am
not too concerned about the debt. Which of these schools do i have the best chance of getting bigLaw from.

Pls don't tell me to go to a T-14. I applied to only one and didn't get in.

I think the problem is not that you aren't going to a T-14, but rather the problem is that you are looking at these specific schools when your goal is BigLaw, specifically international or corporate work. Look, Chicago has a few good firms, but none of these schools are going to give you more than a 20% shot, if that, of getting into a V50 or even V100 firm. You should really be looking at USC/UCLA, BC/BU, GW and Fordham. These schools are not really as selective as the public schools you mentioned, but your chances of getting a position at a top law firm increase significantly from one of these schools.

You should focus on the NLJ rankings, rather than USNews to see what schools are putting people in the type of work you want to do. If you want International work, you aren't going to get much of that in the midwest, unless you consider Canada international (It is, but I don't think that is what you meant). Corporate work is everywhere, but if you want high end corporate work, there are a few Chicago firms that do it, but there are significantly more firms in Boston/NYC/DC/LA/SF markets that do this type of work for major clients.

MN and Iowa are fairly even in terms of BigLaw placement at roughly 19% while UIUC is 26.7% (NLJ 250 firms).

If you just want biglaw go to UIUC. If you want to balance value vs. career prospects i'd say Iowa although whether or not GPA requirements kick in may change this...

Plus, Iowa seems to be very international-friendly. At least that's what their website says...

TCS wrote:Any choice other than Illinois is an LR fail. If you will not settle for anything less than biglaw, then fuck the debt load and go to the best school you can get into with the best percentage chance at scoring a biglaw job. Personally I don't see it as a tragedy to graduate from Iowa with minimal debt and take a $60k/year starting job, but you obviously don't want that.

If biglaw is so important to you that attaining it dominates all other considerations, then you need to slow your roll and seriously consider redoing your cycle. If biglaw were the only choice for me, then I would not settle for less than Penn. If you think it is possible to bump your LSAT by 3 or 4 points, retake and reapply. The difference could probably get you an ED at CCNBP.

Good luck.

You wouldn't settle for less than Penn? Meaning you wouldn't go to NW, which is number 1 in NLJ placement? Or Michigan or Virginia, which place higher in NLJ 250 than Penn? Or Duke, which is within 1% of Penn in NLJ placement?

But back to OP... are there any strings on your Iowa schollies? I know sometimes they have strings attached, so you may want to check on that.

romothesavior wrote:

TCS wrote:Any choice other than Illinois is an LR fail. If you will not settle for anything less than biglaw, then fuck the debt load and go to the best school you can get into with the best percentage chance at scoring a biglaw job. Personally I don't see it as a tragedy to graduate from Iowa with minimal debt and take a $60k/year starting job, but you obviously don't want that.

If biglaw is so important to you that attaining it dominates all other considerations, then you need to slow your roll and seriously consider redoing your cycle. If biglaw were the only choice for me, then I would not settle for less than Penn. If you think it is possible to bump your LSAT by 3 or 4 points, retake and reapply. The difference could probably get you an ED at CCNBP.

Good luck.

You wouldn't settle for less than Penn? Meaning you wouldn't go to NW, which is number 1 in NLJ placement? Or Michigan or Virginia, which place higher in NLJ 250 than Penn? Or Duke, which is within 1% of Penn in NLJ placement?

But back to OP... are there any strings on your Iowa schollies? I know sometimes they have strings attached, so you may want to check on that.

No Strings attached. Actually declined the offer yesterday so now it is looking a lot like Illinois. Maybe i made the wrong decision declining it but i just didnt feel too good about the school.

romothesavior wrote:

TCS wrote:Any choice other than Illinois is an LR fail. If you will not settle for anything less than biglaw, then fuck the debt load and go to the best school you can get into with the best percentage chance at scoring a biglaw job. Personally I don't see it as a tragedy to graduate from Iowa with minimal debt and take a $60k/year starting job, but you obviously don't want that.

If biglaw is so important to you that attaining it dominates all other considerations, then you need to slow your roll and seriously consider redoing your cycle. If biglaw were the only choice for me, then I would not settle for less than Penn. If you think it is possible to bump your LSAT by 3 or 4 points, retake and reapply. The difference could probably get you an ED at CCNBP.

Good luck.

You wouldn't settle for less than Penn? Meaning you wouldn't go to NW, which is number 1 in NLJ placement? Or Michigan or Virginia, which place higher in NLJ 250 than Penn? Or Duke, which is within 1% of Penn in NLJ placement?

But back to OP... are there any strings on your Iowa schollies? I know sometimes they have strings attached, so you may want to check on that.

Why does everyone say NW? It's NU, dammit. And you're right about the NLJ; I'm not. Apparently I made up numbers in my head or something.

Slimpee wrote:MN and Iowa are fairly even in terms of BigLaw placement at roughly 19% while UIUC is 26.7% (NLJ 250 firms).

These are very old-economy numbers.

At all three of these schools, you should bank on not getting biglaw. Between 75% and 85% of the class at each of these schools is not getting biglaw ITE. You should go to whichever school puts you in the best shape for working for $60,000/year. In your case, that is Iowa.

JCougar wrote:At all three of these schools, you should bank on not getting biglaw. Between 75% and 85% of the class at each of these schools is not getting biglaw ITE. You should go to whichever school puts you in the best shape for working for $60,000/year. In your case, that is Iowa.

Well, i will take a leap of faith. Iowa just isnt a place for me. Great school though