Top Law Schools

Plain & simple.

With the exception of this whole "job" argument, which I get...

But if one is looking to go into public service and isn't so interested in the salaries, figures, prestige...

Then does a ranking matter other than for that stuff?

Sure it sounds better and impresses people and perhaps opens up a couple (or a lot) more opportunities, but I guess I'm thinking that you can still accomplish the same things with or w/o a t14 degree, or even tier 1 or tier 2 degree.

Yes - but depends on the public service.

If you mean federal government, then prestige matters a ton.
- state government, it matters, but local bottom wrung schools are ok (i.e., Suffolk)
- big non-profits like the ACLU, it matters a ton.
- legal-aid work, it matters in getting a Skadden or Ameri fellowship, which is one of the few few ways to get one of these jobs.
- public defenders, if federal then it matters a ton, if in a city (Boston/NY) it matters a ton, if in backwater Alabama, it matters less.

All in all, it matters. The problem is trying to distinguish yourself from your peers who will be looking to go into the same type of jobs, and theres not many of those jobs out there.

Better school = better LRAP = lower cost going into PI

Worthwhile public interest can be harder to get than BigLaw.

The government and other PI entities are no different than biglaw in the sense that their success is boosted if they have a bunch of t14 grads on staff. The general public cares about prestige and it is easier to sell your specific PI office as one that is doing good for the community if it is stocked with lawyers who could have taken the biglaw route but instead chose to help people.

it may matter, but if there is a law school in the specific city where you want to work, that school would be a wise choice for networking and other reasons. If you have just a vague region where you want to work, then rankings would become probably need to be taken into consideration. Also, it doesnt make much sense to go to school far away from your targeted working area ( ex. go to ucla when you want to work in minneapolis).

generally you have to come up with your own formula to determine what schools you want to apply to:
think about cost
likelihood of getting accepted
cost of living in the area
location ( family, significatn others etc)
if you know what type of law you want, that schools reputation
other factors that are relevant to you.

BU2013 wrote:Worthwhile public interest can be harder to get than BigLaw.

+1. I got 2 biglaw offers, and shut out of federal government work. V20 is less competitive than a lot of federal agencies.

Are you really sure you want to go all in for PI? You should probably consider the possibility that you will either be shut out of PI, or desire to work for $$ for a few years to pay off your debt.

does anything else even matter?

hipstermafia wrote:does anything else even matter?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAsA00-5KoI

does law school even matter, i mean there's ton of pi work you can do without even going

Unfortunately, rankings DO matter almost no matter what you think you might want to do with your degree. It's all about keeping options open.

By "rankings" I mean top 3 schools, then top 14, then the rest of T1 then maybe second tier. I'm not really sure that T2 vs. T3 vs. T4 matters very much at all. I hate like the very devil to admit this but these days if it isn't T14, you probably shouldn't go.

I went to a T2 state school at a time when doing so made financial sense. It doesn't make sense anymore and I would not do the same thing today.