Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt Forum

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snapdragon

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Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by snapdragon » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:31 am

So I'm working on my school list, and I'm having trouble either choosing or discarding any of these four PA schools. I have a 3.1 / 167 and would like $$. All of these schools seem like good, enjoyable options to me, but I feel neither passionately or dreadful about any of them. I can see myself cheerfully settling in Philly, Pittsburgh or... uh... wherever Penn State grads work (I'm attracted to Penn State's rabid UG alumni and good "name" around the mid Atlantic/ New England area but that is a good question I guess... where the heck does Penn State place?).

Essentially I'm looking for your opinions on which of these schools is best - best being defined as most likely to give me $$, best employment, and an atmosphere/campus of fairly friendly people, none of whom are actively trying to murder me. Biased opinions are quite welcome.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by Aberzombie1892 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:36 am

I suggest removing Penn State and Pitt from the four.

Step 1 - remove Penn State and Pitt from the list
Step 2 - apply to Temple and Villanova
Step 3 - apply to any other school in the region you want (within reason, of course)
Step 4 - ??????
Step 5 - Profit off of a cheap education at Temple/Villanova or sticker price at a higher ranked school.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by thisguy456 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:37 am

snapdragon wrote:So I'm working on my school list, and I'm having trouble either choosing or discarding any of these four PA schools. I have a 3.1 / 167 and would like $$. All of these schools seem like good, enjoyable options to me, but I feel neither passionately or dreadful about any of them. I can see myself cheerfully settling in Philly, Pittsburgh or... uh... wherever Penn State grads work (I'm attracted to Penn State's rabid UG alumni and good "name" around the mid Atlantic/ New England area but that is a good question I guess... where the heck does Penn State place?).

Essentially I'm looking for your opinions on which of these schools is best - best being defined as most likely to give me $$, best employment, and an atmosphere/campus of fairly friendly people, none of whom are actively trying to murder me. Biased opinions are quite welcome.
Pitt = Pittsburgh
Temple/Villanova = Philly/Jersey/Delaware
Penn State = Central PA (think Harrisburg)

You're correct in that Penn State does have a rabid UG alumni base, but I don't know if that extends to the law school.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by snapdragon » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:39 am

Aberzombie1892 wrote:I suggest removing Penn State and Pitt from the four.

Step 1 - remove Penn State and Pitt from the list
Step 2 - apply to Temple and Villanova
Step 3 - apply to any other school in the region you want (within reason, of course)
Step 4 - ??????
Step 5 - Profit off of a cheap education at Temple/Villanova or sticker price at a higher ranked school.
Wait, don't I also have to disregard females (or maybe males, since I am female) and acquire currency?

Thanks for the tip - but why remove Penn State and Pitt? Not worth it? Not likely to give $$? Campus full of active murderers?

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by champ33 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:32 am

Penn State doesn't grant more than 20,000/yr in merit scholarships - that leaves you a large chunk to pay for.
Pitt also only gives about 16-18/yr absolute max - if you're in-state that's not too bad and your stats would get you close to the max.
Temple will grant enough to make it like a full ride, and I'd guess you have a decent shot to get near that.
Villanova as far as I know grants full scholarships.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by AJRESQ » Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:07 pm

They're all good schools. The Pennsylvania legal market isn't that bad. PA is a HUGE state. My two cents...

There is no difference between Temple and Villanova if you want to practice in Philly. The local Philly firms recruit from both schools, plus Rutgers. Between the two, I would choose Temple Law for two reasons: 1) their career services office is dynamo. 2) It's way cheaper than Villanova. The downside is you'll be living in the city or taking the R-5 to get to class. (Full disclosure: I am a Temple law grad, Villanova UG. I owe more in UG student loans than law school!). Temple's campus isn't in a great area. It's not terrible, as the actual campus is nice, but it's surrounded by the ghetto. Villanova has a beautiful campus, but it's very expensive to live on the main line plus attend Villanova. You have to have a car. The typical student at Villanova is affluent, conservative (federalist society is big), etc. Temple is more liberal. Temple also seems to have a pipline into the Philly District Attorney if that's what you want to do.

As for Pitt, do you want to live in Pittsburgh or Western PA? If so, Pitt is a good school. It's affordable. They have a good football team. Pittsburgh is picking up as a city, but I have to be honest, I don't know much about the legal market out west. There are a lot of banks in Pittsburgh.

Dickinson is also a good school. Most of the Dickinson grads I know practice in the Carslile, Lancaster, and Central / Western PA markets. If you don't mind rural Pennsylvania, the market isn't that saturated out that way. Consider this -- there is pretty much one law school for all of Central PA. However, you don't really get the "rabid alumni" base from Dickinson. The law school isn't at State College, and I'm pretty sure it's still part of Dickinson College but Penn State just bought it out. I know a few Dickinson grads who practice here in Philly.

So, in summary, go where you want to practice. I'm preferential to the Philadelphia area. I'd go to Temple again if I had to do it over.

Some conjecture: My buddy got in state tuition at Rutgers, but went Temple because it was the "better" school. We were talking about what we would do differently, and he says he would have saved the money and gone to Rutgers. There's no difference between Nova, TU, and Rutgers. A few years out and debt is more important than almost anything.
Last edited by AJRESQ on Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by pohboydomer » Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:15 pm

AJRESQ wrote:The law school isn't at State College, and I'm pretty sure it's still part of Dickinson College but Penn State just bought it out.
This automatically proves you don't know what you're talking about.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by AJRESQ » Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:17 pm

pohboydomer wrote:
AJRESQ wrote:The law school isn't at State College, and I'm pretty sure it's still part of Dickinson College but Penn State just bought it out.
This automatically proves you don't know what you're talking about.
Did they open up a new one at State College? Look, I've been out for a little while so things might have changed. When I was in school, Dickinson Law was located in Carslile.

Edit: So it appears they did. I had no idea. Don't have any opinion on that one way or another. PSU is a fun place to hang out, but I have no idea how the legal market is out there.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by snapdragon » Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:44 pm

Thanks for all the advice so far.. especially about Penn State's tuition/scholarships. I doubt they'd give me their highest merit award, and I'll hopefully have instate tuition at UConn ($20k / year). I'm so-so on staying in CT short or long term, but I can't see myself taking any of the PA schools at much high cost than UConn. It looks like Temple is my best bet cost wise, and maybe Villanova or Pitt.

I'm fine with Philly, it's a nice compromise of something a bit different from CT but no so far from family or friends. I'd visit Pitt first - I have a very close friend out there and have heard good things about the city, but in theory, I have no problem with it. I have no idea about the great middle mass of Pennsylvania, but I'm generally kindly disposed towards it. I'm a bit of a country girl at heart, so rural/not so urban is not a concern for me.

again thanks for the insight. Further is always welcome. I like the sounds of these schools from what I have read, but I want to get a better idea of the reality of both them and the PA market.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by xsoldier1911 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:16 pm

I chose Penn State over Temple, Villanova, and Drexel for a few reasons. They only offer $20G max, but I will be living in Carlisle for under $400 a month, that makes up for the difference. Carlisle is a very peaceful town, not as many distractions. It is only 20 miles from the state capital so there are many state and federal government externships available. The section size at Penn State is the smallest in the state, 45 (I counted only 35 students in the class I sat in on), 60 for Temple, 78 for Drexel, 82 for Pitt, 102 for Villanova. I also love the classrooms at Penn State, the $130 million was well spent, it is very technologically impressive.
Last edited by xsoldier1911 on Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by Aberzombie1892 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:26 pm

*
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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by Aberzombie1892 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:26 pm

snapdragon wrote:
Aberzombie1892 wrote:I suggest removing Penn State and Pitt from the four.

Step 1 - remove Penn State and Pitt from the list
Step 2 - apply to Temple and Villanova
Step 3 - apply to any other school in the region you want (within reason, of course)
Step 4 - ??????
Step 5 - Profit off of a cheap education at Temple/Villanova or sticker price at a higher ranked school.
Wait, don't I also have to disregard females (or maybe males, since I am female) and acquire currency?

Thanks for the tip - but why remove Penn State and Pitt? Not worth it? Not likely to give $$? Campus full of active murderers?
haha. How could I forget disregard (fe)males?

Anyway, those two schools (Pitt and Penn State) don't give out a lot of scholarships and they are generally considered to be inferior to Temple and Villanova (in terms of job prospects).

Considering your numbers, those two schools should over you a fair amount of money. If only your GPA was right above the 25th percentile for those two schools....(you would be golden, as far as scholarships go).

Are there any other schools that you are considering?

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by sdv » Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:46 pm

I'm from Pittsburgh (living there now) and went to school in Philly, so having been all over the state here are my impressions:

1. in terms of prestige and quality of education, I'd say all these schools are pretty much the same. They place great in their regions, the principal difference being that Pitt owns Pittsburgh (Duquesne gets the scraps), while the Philly market has several similar schools competing for the same spots, and it's more firm dependent (some like Temple, some like Nova, some like Rutgers, etc).

2. Pittsburgh is amazing. It has the sports, restaurants, entertainment, culture, etc of a city 3 times its size, but much less of the congestion problems of a larger city. Downtown is also beautiful and there's plenty of places where young adults can go to live and have fun if that's what you want to do. It's my absolute favorite place. With that said, the legal market is very insular and suddenly getting worse - there are, according to local lawyers, more lawyers per capita here than any other city in the country, and lawyers are starting to get laid off because lots of company headquarters aren't located here anymore. I'm sure you would like Pittsburgh if you moved here, but there's not much mobility out of the city if you want to work elsewhere. Also, I know some people who have survived without cars here, but it's not recommended as the public transportation leaves much to be desired.

3. I also really like Philadelphia and loved my time there - there's no one school that dominates the region, so you're much freer to choose which school fits you the best if this is where you want to practice. I had heard that the legal market was absolutely decimated, much more so than Pittsburgh because it's more "on the pulse" in terms of the national economy whereas Pittsburgh is somewhat more isolated from national trends. Not many Penn grads stay in Philly to practice (most want to go to ny, at least they did when I was in UG), but, as Philly is a bigger city, you're going to have more T14 grads poaching jobs from local schools.

4. The sentiment that Penn State places in central PA only is totally wrong. It definitely suffers from not being located in an urban market, but you're going to have the best luck in terms of placing on both sides of the state equally from there, as Penn State grads are prominent in both cities.

I'm aware none of that actually answered your question, just gave a bit of context. I will say that I've never heard of anyone going to Pitt with the intention to transfer, it's pretty much understood that your goal is to practice law in Pittsburgh if you go there, and it's the best place to be for that. Temple can be more of a stepping stone sort of school, based on some of the people I know who went there for a year and transferred to better schools. I personally think Nova is a bit of a rip-off, as COL can be expensive for a legal education that's definitely not superior to any of these other schools.

Conclusion: I'd go wherever was cheapest and gave you the best feel, as all of these schools are similarly prestigious and have similar placement stats, the caveat being if you were set on Pittsburgh (which it doesn't sound like you are) go to Pitt.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by manbearwig » Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:02 pm

xsoldier1911 wrote:I chose Penn State over Temple, Villanova, and Drexel for a few reasons. They only offer $20G max, but I will be living in Carlisle for under $400 a month, that makes up for the difference. Carlisle is a very peaceful town, not as many distractions. It is only 20 miles from the state capital so there are many state and federal government externships available. The section size at Penn State is the smallest in the state, 45 (I counted only 35 students in the class I sat in on), 60 for Temple, 78 for Drexel, 82 for Pitt, 102 for Villanova. I also love the classrooms at Penn State, the $130 million was well spent, it is very technologically impressive.
Just another thing to realize about Penn State/Carlisle, is that if you do go to that campus, "peaceful town" means almost no night life whatsoever. There are like only three or four worthwhile bars in the whole town, and they're going to be packed with Dickinson College seniors every weekend. There really is not a lot to do around the area, except for maybe driving to Harrisburg (a sketchy ass city with like two streets worth of things to do).

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by snapdragon » Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:52 pm

Aberzombie1892 wrote:
snapdragon wrote:
Aberzombie1892 wrote:I suggest removing Penn State and Pitt from the four.

Step 1 - remove Penn State and Pitt from the list
Step 2 - apply to Temple and Villanova
Step 3 - apply to any other school in the region you want (within reason, of course)
Step 4 - ??????
Step 5 - Profit off of a cheap education at Temple/Villanova or sticker price at a higher ranked school.
Wait, don't I also have to disregard females (or maybe males, since I am female) and acquire currency?

Thanks for the tip - but why remove Penn State and Pitt? Not worth it? Not likely to give $$? Campus full of active murderers?
haha. How could I forget disregard (fe)males?

Anyway, those two schools (Pitt and Penn State) don't give out a lot of scholarships and they are generally considered to be inferior to Temple and Villanova (in terms of job prospects).

Considering your numbers, those two schools should over you a fair amount of money. If only your GPA was right above the 25th percentile for those two schools....(you would be golden, as far as scholarships go).

Are there any other schools that you are considering?
Yes, my school list is a massive beast. It's at 20 schools with everything from Suffolk to WUSTL.

That's why I'm trying to narrow it down a bit... my GPA is pretty crap so I'm going with the strategy of throw stuff out there and see what sticks. The four PA schools are in my "It looks like I should get in and hopefully get decent money" category. Right now, I'm hoping that Wake Forest, UIUC, Washington & Lee or William & Mary decides to take me and give me enough money that I can sleep at night. In my wildest dreams, BC would also accept me and give some kind of aid/scholarship.

However, I feel pretty excited about the approaching cycle. I think I have a strong chance at UConn, and even with no aid, that's $20k / year + probably $13k COL. I'd really like to leave CT, at least for a few years, but I don't know if that like translates to wanting to take on tens of thousands of dollars of extra debt. At the very least, I really hope I get in there so I have a financially reasonable school that I feel good about in my back pocket. But, if I got enough at Villanova or Temple to make it cheaper/comparable to UConn, they'd be a strong contender - Philly is a bit more of an interesting market than Hartford.

My plan of action is to apply early everywhere. I think so far from this list I'm definitely keeping Villanova and Temple on, with an option for Pittsburgh and a fainter option for Penn State.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by pohboydomer » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:07 pm

manbearwig wrote:
xsoldier1911 wrote:I chose Penn State over Temple, Villanova, and Drexel for a few reasons. They only offer $20G max, but I will be living in Carlisle for under $400 a month, that makes up for the difference. Carlisle is a very peaceful town, not as many distractions. It is only 20 miles from the state capital so there are many state and federal government externships available. The section size at Penn State is the smallest in the state, 45 (I counted only 35 students in the class I sat in on), 60 for Temple, 78 for Drexel, 82 for Pitt, 102 for Villanova. I also love the classrooms at Penn State, the $130 million was well spent, it is very technologically impressive.
Just another thing to realize about Penn State/Carlisle, is that if you do go to that campus, "peaceful town" means almost no night life whatsoever. There are like only three or four worthwhile bars in the whole town, and they're going to be packed with Dickinson College seniors every weekend. There really is not a lot to do around the area, except for maybe driving to Harrisburg (a sketchy ass city with like two streets worth of things to do).
And why in the world would you opt to live in greater Harrisburg when you could live on a Big Ten campus?

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by AJRESQ » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:13 pm

sdv wrote: 3. I also really like Philadelphia and loved my time there - there's no one school that dominates the region, so you're much freer to choose which school fits you the best if this is where you want to practice. I had heard that the legal market was absolutely decimated, much more so than Pittsburgh because it's more "on the pulse" in terms of the national economy whereas Pittsburgh is somewhat more isolated from national trends. Not many Penn grads stay in Philly to practice (most want to go to ny, at least they did when I was in UG), but, as Philly is a bigger city, you're going to have more T14 grads poaching jobs from local schools.
Good post. Just want to respond to one thing...

The Philly legal market is far from decimated. Wolf Block went under and there were massive layoffs at places like Dechert. However, places like Klehr Harrison, Obermayer, Cozen O'Conner, Klehr Harrison, Pepper Hamilton, Fox Rothschild, Montgomery McCracken -- all the places that are truly Philly biglaw (but considered to be a 'step below' places like Dechert by some) -- are doing fine. Buchanan Ingersoll and Archer Greiner have also been having more of a Philly presence lately. If biglaw is important to you.

You also have to keep in mind that you can find work in the Philly suburbs.

The Philadelphia market tends to be isolated from national trends. For instance, our property values never dropped that much because they weren't inflated to begin with. My house actually went up in value a little.

All that said, I know a few kids who are taking the bar this month -- all from different Philly T2 schools. None have jobs lined up, but I'm not sure if that will change once they get licensed. I couldn't accurately tell you how the market is for newly minted lawyers. I can tell you we have more business than we can handle right now. Many of the smaller firms are picking up work from the larger firms, as companies try and cut costs and begin to re-evaluate their relationships.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by pjo » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:21 pm

sdv is dead on, OP I hope you listen to him/her. If you don't care much about region then you shoudl definitely go to wherever you get the most money (which I think will be Temple). And contrary to aberzombie said, leave Pitt on your list if only to negotiate for more money from Villanova and Temple. I really wouldn't go to PSU if the other PA options are open for you. As its been said here, both Philly and Pittsburgh have become very insular with the onset of the recession. Firms from both cities used to recruit extensively from PSU but anymore they just stay home and recruit. Just look at the most recent hiring classes for the big firms in both cities. I'm not saying PSU is a bad school, bc it's not, it's just suffering from not being directly in a city (much the same that I think ND is suffering from a "top law school" stnadpoint, from what I've seen from their recent OCI stats). Another thing to remeber is that by going to school directly in a city you will be on the "in" in that city. Which means you will be the first to know about job openings, network opportunities and part time work/internships during the school year. All which are mor eimportant than anything ITE in my opinion.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by 03121202698008 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:25 pm

I am from Central PA and have extensive legal contacts there (my step-dad is a lawyer in York):
All of these schools are very regional

Best placement by region:
Pitt=Pitt
Central PA (Carlisle/Harrisburg/York/Lancaster): Penn State (Carlisle campus has better internship/externship opportunities)
Philly: Penn, Temple, Villanova (in that order)

Once you get out of those regions...your job chances fall greatly.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by 03121202698008 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:27 pm

pohboydomer wrote:
manbearwig wrote:
xsoldier1911 wrote:I chose Penn State over Temple, Villanova, and Drexel for a few reasons. They only offer $20G max, but I will be living in Carlisle for under $400 a month, that makes up for the difference. Carlisle is a very peaceful town, not as many distractions. It is only 20 miles from the state capital so there are many state and federal government externships available. The section size at Penn State is the smallest in the state, 45 (I counted only 35 students in the class I sat in on), 60 for Temple, 78 for Drexel, 82 for Pitt, 102 for Villanova. I also love the classrooms at Penn State, the $130 million was well spent, it is very technologically impressive.
Just another thing to realize about Penn State/Carlisle, is that if you do go to that campus, "peaceful town" means almost no night life whatsoever. There are like only three or four worthwhile bars in the whole town, and they're going to be packed with Dickinson College seniors every weekend. There really is not a lot to do around the area, except for maybe driving to Harrisburg (a sketchy ass city with like two streets worth of things to do).
And why in the world would you opt to live in greater Harrisburg when you could live on a Big Ten campus?
If you want clinics/internships/externships, the carlisle campus is where it's at.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by kk19131 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:32 pm

blowhard wrote:I am from Central PA and have extensive legal contacts there (my step-dad is a lawyer in York):
All of these schools are very regional

Best placement by region:
Pitt=Pitt
Central PA (Carlisle/Harrisburg/York/Lancaster): Penn State (Carlisle campus has better internship/externship opportunities)
Philly: Penn, Temple, Villanova (in that order)

Once you get out of those regions...your job chances fall greatly.

I don't know... in many circles Temples does better than Penn in Philly.

Many Penn grads leave Philly for New York, etc.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by pjo » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:48 pm

kk19131 wrote:
blowhard wrote:I am from Central PA and have extensive legal contacts there (my step-dad is a lawyer in York):
All of these schools are very regional

Best placement by region:
Pitt=Pitt
Central PA (Carlisle/Harrisburg/York/Lancaster): Penn State (Carlisle campus has better internship/externship opportunities)
Philly: Penn, Temple, Villanova (in that order)

Once you get out of those regions...your job chances fall greatly.

I don't know... in many circles Temples does better than Penn in Philly.

Many Penn grads leave Philly for New York, etc.
yeah but thats just correlation. Just because not many Penn grads stay in Philly doesn't mean that Temple necessarily becomes the "better" school. Job stats just look that way because liek you said, not many Penn grads stay there.

and to the ppl talking about the "central PA market"...what is "central PA market"???? I mean carlisle, york and harrisburg don't exactly offer sizable firms or headquarters of companies at which one could do in-house. I mean I guess Vanguard Group is headquartered in Valley Forge, but still, let's not kid ourselves. The "central PA market" only consists of Elder Law/ T&E/personal injury.
Last edited by pjo on Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by 03121202698008 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:48 pm

kk19131 wrote:
blowhard wrote:I am from Central PA and have extensive legal contacts there (my step-dad is a lawyer in York):
All of these schools are very regional

Best placement by region:
Pitt=Pitt
Central PA (Carlisle/Harrisburg/York/Lancaster): Penn State (Carlisle campus has better internship/externship opportunities)
Philly: Penn, Temple, Villanova (in that order)

Once you get out of those regions...your job chances fall greatly.

I don't know... in many circles Temples does better than Penn in Philly.

Many Penn grads leave Philly for New York, etc.
Agreed...but that's self-selection. If they wanted to stay in Philly they would have top choice nearly anywhere in the city. Most leave though so Temple fills the void.

Once out of Philly though, Penn State dominates the hiring. Martindale is deceptive in this case because most of the Temple grads working in Harrisburg are older practicing attorneys who moved from Philly to the capital or who represent their firms in the Federal Court in Harrisburg. (Lancaster/York border is the dividing line.)

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by 03121202698008 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:52 pm

pjo wrote:
kk19131 wrote:
blowhard wrote:I am from Central PA and have extensive legal contacts there (my step-dad is a lawyer in York):
All of these schools are very regional

Best placement by region:
Pitt=Pitt
Central PA (Carlisle/Harrisburg/York/Lancaster): Penn State (Carlisle campus has better internship/externship opportunities)
Philly: Penn, Temple, Villanova (in that order)

Once you get out of those regions...your job chances fall greatly.

I don't know... in many circles Temples does better than Penn in Philly.

Many Penn grads leave Philly for New York, etc.
yeah but thats just correlation. Just because not many Penn grads stay in Philly doesn't mean that Temple necessarily becomes the "better" school. Job stats just look that way because liek you said, not many Penn grads stay there.

and to the ppl talking about the "central PA market"...what is "central PA market"???? I mean carlisle, york and harrisburg don't exactly offer sizable firms or headquarters of companies at which one could do in-house. I mean I guess Vanguard Group is headquartered in Valley Forge, but still, let's not kid ourselves. The "central PA market" only consists of elder law/ T&E/personal injury.
You have more transactional work in Central PA for sure. Real Estate, wills, etc but there is still a decent amount of corporate work. In Harrisburg there are a lot of defense contractors so there is a decent amount of practice there. In York, you have the HQ of York barbell and York air conditioner (intl company). You also have about 50 major industrial firms in York/'burg that make everything from fire trucks to the impellers used in hydro-electric dams. Starting salary isn't great and it definitely helps to have local help breaking into the market but most attorneys i know who have been practicing 5+ years are clearing $150k+ which is a good bit compared to cost of living in York. 'burg pays more of course.

In the 'burg, you also have the state capital so lots of political/legislative based work and solos who do freelance work for Philly firms as they need local rep.

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seespotrun

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Re: Penn State v. Temple v. Villanova v. Pitt

Post by seespotrun » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:55 pm

blowhard wrote:I am from Central PA and have extensive legal contacts there (my step-dad is a lawyer in York):
All of these schools are very regional

Best placement by region:
Pitt=Pitt
Central PA (Carlisle/Harrisburg/York/Lancaster): Penn State (Carlisle campus has better internship/externship opportunities)
Philly: Penn, Temple, Villanova (in that order)

Once you get out of those regions...your job chances fall greatly.
Eh, I think the placement differential between Temple and Villanova is negligible.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


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