Is San Diego really that bad? Forum

[ScrabbleChamp]

I've just finished reading the law school profiles on this website, and I'm wondering if USD is really that bad... or does the person who wrote the profile really just have disdain for the school? There are several other schools ranked below USD that seem to have much more gleaming profiles. Am I missing something?

[Aberzombie1892]

Don't worry about what the profiles say. TLS.com says it makes sense to pay sticker price for Columbia, NYU, Cornell, and Fordham (to an extent).

What are your career goals? Even if you answer this question, there are many of variables that will factor in to whether or not you are successful. These include: undergraduate major, undergraduate connections, parental/family friend connections, prior work experience, during law school work experience, law school connections, etc.

[1ferret!]

Short answer: It depends.
Want to go big law in new york? Probably not the best school.
Want to work in San Diego, and not accepted to T14? Probably a fairly good school.

Seeing as how the local schools are all charging rates that approach USD's, not a bad option in comparison. Sure, not as much bang for your buck as UCLA, but if you got into UCLA you wouldn't be asking the question would you?

Lots of USD grads have decent jobs, but big firms tend to have small San Diego offices, so your chances of getting into them when some very good schools are turning out grads that wouldnt mind living in San Diego arent as great as they would be if you were coming from a more highly regarded school.

You can do well from USD, but it costs as much as much better schools, doesnt have very good reach, and works within a smallish legal market.

[20160810]

~$60,000/yr COA for some pretty slim pickings job-wise. SD is a big city, but there aren't a ton of firms in town, and the ones that do tend to hire from UCLA, USC, Davis and Hastings first.

There are T2 schools worth considering, and of them USD is probably close to the top of the list (though I'd be more excited about public ones with low tuition in isolated markets, e.g. UNM or UNLV). That said, it's still probably a dicey investment in this economy. I'd only attend with a VERY generous scholarship (probably close to full tuition).

[Informative]

It's not that big:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Un ... itan_areas

And the legal market is pretty small compared to cities even lower on the list.

[BeautifulSW]

"...though I'd be more excited about public ones with low tuition in isolated markets, e.g. UNM or UNLV..."

Exactly true.

[arhmcpo]

"...though I'd be more excited about public ones with low tuition in isolated markets, e.g. UNM or UNLV..."

Exactly true.

Going to such a school w/ the desire to work in San Diego - you would then have the pleasure of fighting for a job in SD's small legal market that hires T14-UCLA-USC-SD. Those cheap "Best Value" schools aren't the best value when the degree doesn't travel to your desired market. Assuming OP's interest is there beyond USD.

[1ferret!]

"...though I'd be more excited about public ones with low tuition in isolated markets, e.g. UNM or UNLV..."

Exactly true.

Going to such a school w/ the desire to work in San Diego - you would then have the pleasure of fighting for a job in SD's small legal market that hires T14-UCLA-USC-SD. Those cheap "Best Value" schools aren't the best value when the degree doesn't travel to your desired market. Assuming OP's interest is there beyond USD.

TITCR

[FlanAl]

It would be really great if someone working in a big law branch in San Diego could comment. When you look through the big firms pages here it is really hard to get a good idea of where the majority of new associates are from. For instance looking at Luce Forward, out of 134 at their san diego office about 20 of them are USD grads but only two hastings grads. Latham has 120 at their San Diego and their search function is pretty lame (I click on an attorney and it says he went to UT and then search UT for schools and I get no search results) but looking through it they seem to be kind of all over the place but mostly favor the t14. Procopio with 106 has about 30 USD grads. Gordon Rees with 97 seems to be totally dominated by California schools and USD shows up a lot. Cooley with 89 has 23 USD. dla piper seemed to be all over the place with some Pepperdine and Santa Clara grads a few USD and some Harvards too.

My searches were by no means scientific. According to alreadybored there are only 9 firms with more than 50 people in their San Diego offices. Not sure how reliable already bored is.

If any new big law associates or people who got summer gigs could comment on San Diego that would be great.

[FlanAl]

Also I really didn't see too much of UCLA represented. Guessing this is self selection?

[FlanAl]

bump in case any sd people are around today