Top Law Schools

One thing, for the life of me, that I cannot understand is the USNWR rankings. Cardozo-Yeshiva is ranked a full ~20 places below OSU. I am on hold at dozo and was admitted to OSU earlier. At lawschoolnumbers I see the median applicant for Cardozo (http://cardozo.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats) however, is way higher than for OSU (http://osu.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats). Why is this so? If Cardozo has better students why in the world is its ranking so low? I eventually want to practice patent law in california, so i know neither school is an excellent prospect in this situation, but I want to figure out where I should go to have the best chance (assuming I get off the hold at cardozo). thanks for your help guys!

Somewhere in California

What the silver surfer voltron thing above said. Neither shcool is a good idea for all that money and your goals...so says I!

thanks guys, I was under the impression that for patent law where you got your degree from did not matter as much, but I guess with the current job market that still does come into play

Fordham

lostjake wrote:Fordham

waitlisted @fordham, will continue to write them loci's in vain hope

I don't have the rankings in front of me, but I believe OSU beats out Cardozo on peer assessment and lawyer/judge assessment, which accounts for a large part of the rankings. For patent law, where you went to undergrad and what you studied are very important. For example, if you have a BSE from Stanford or Carnegie-Mellon, it probably doesn't matter as much where you attended law school. If you have a BA from a liberal arts college, then your law school becomes more important.

rodewan wrote:If Cardozo has better students why in the world is its ranking so low?

Most of the NY law schools have slightly higher numbers than their placement quality (Fordham, Cardozo, Brooklyn, etc). I believe Cardozo is in the top 35 if you sort by median LSAT and then median GPA. A lot of New Yorkers simply refuse to go elsewhere.

If you have a BSEE, avoid the legal market and get a job as an engineer.

Hastings, Davis or Irvine is the answer to this conundrum. You're crazy if you go to Cardozo or OSU if you want CA. If you got WLed at Fordham, you must have decent enough numbers to try for one of the UCs.

FuManChusco wrote:Hastings, Davis or Irvine is the answer to this conundrum. You're crazy if you go to Cardozo or OSU if you want CA. If you got WLed at Fordham, you must have decent enough numbers to try for one of the UCs.

This... Pepperdine, USD, Loyola, Santa Clara would also be better for California than OSU and 'dozo

Davis/Hastings/Irvine.. as people have said before.
Ohio State has a much higher peer rating than Cardozo which explains a lot.

yeah i originally preferred davis and hastings as well. unfortunately i have already been rejected from both of them . My background is a BS in Chemical Engineering from jhu. at this point, should i just go with osu then or retake the lsat for a third time in june/oct and apply for next year?

rodewan wrote:yeah i originally preferred davis and hastings as well. unfortunately i have already been rejected from both of them . My background is a BS in Chemical Engineering from jhu. at this point, should i just go with osu then or retake the lsat for a third time in june/oct and apply for next year?

Retake the LSAT if you want CA, or go to a lower ranked CA school with a scholly.

bump...would like to see what others think, if i ultimately want cali should I retake and reapply or go with osu for patent law since i have an undergrad in chem and biomolec eng from jhu?

rodewan wrote:bump...would like to see what others think, if i ultimately want cali should I retake and reapply or go with osu for patent law since i have an undergrad in chem and biomolec eng from jhu?

Waterman and I have over 2k posts, our word is law. If you want CA, go to a CA school.

If you want CA then the obvious choice is to retake and reapply. Even the lesser schools in CA (Santa Clara, Loyola, etc) are going to be a better shot than OSU or Cardozo, IMO.

Spend now till October studying for the LSAT. Take the LSAT in October. Apply immediately after you get your score so your app is in early. Depending on your stats and what you get on the LSAT I would say you should probably be aiming for UCI, UCD, UCH, with other CA schools as backups.