Top Law Schools

Would you rather go to a law school with a better rank, or one that focuses on a specialty area you are interested in?

Also, when you attend law school, must you choose a concentration/ join an 'academic center?'

Better rank, by far. If you attend a law school based on specialty and change your specialty later on, you're screwed.

Also, you don't need to choose a concentration.

Specialty rankings are, by and large, worthless. You won't get hired or get any prestige from them.

Better rank. And then the exact opposite is true when picking firms.

Bosque wrote:Better rank. And then the exact opposite is true when picking firms.

You want the lowest ranked firm?

kalvano wrote:Specialty rankings are, by and large, worthless. You won't get hired or get any prestige from them.

USNews ranking is more important, however there's a point at which you can attend a better specialty school to your advantage. For example, Vermont has a great Enviro law program. Might be worth it to go there instead of something like Gonzaga - especially if you can get $ from VT

Now if we're talking American U v. VT that's a different story.

Rocketman11 wrote:

kalvano wrote:Specialty rankings are, by and large, worthless. You won't get hired or get any prestige from them.

USNews ranking is more important, however there's a point at which you can attend a better specialty school to your advantage. For example, Vermont has a great Enviro law program. Might be worth it to go there instead of something like Gonzaga - especially if you can get $ from VT

Now if we're talking American U v. VT that's a different story.

Elaborate please.

gdane5 wrote:

Rocketman11 wrote:

kalvano wrote:Specialty rankings are, by and large, worthless. You won't get hired or get any prestige from them.

USNews ranking is more important, however there's a point at which you can attend a better specialty school to your advantage. For example, Vermont has a great Enviro law program. Might be worth it to go there instead of something like Gonzaga - especially if you can get $ from VT

Now if we're talking American U v. VT that's a different story.

Elaborate please.

Gonzaga and VT are more or less equally ranked. Gonzaga is what like 98 and VT is T3. A "worse" school technically but your job prospects will be similar so may as well get the boost from the specialty. American is 45 or something, so that's quite a leap to a T3 just for a specialty.

Rocketman11 wrote:
Gonzaga and VT are more or less equally ranked. Gonzaga is what like 98 and VT is T3. A "worse" school technically but your job prospects will be similar so may as well get the boost from the specialty. American is 45 or something, so that's quite a leap to a T3 just for a specialty.

Thats what I thought you meant.

JazzOne wrote:

Bosque wrote:Better rank. And then the exact opposite is true when picking firms.

You want the lowest ranked firm?

No. The choice presented by the OP was "a law school with a better rank" or "one that focuses on a specialty area you are interested in". So in this case, the opposite of a better ranked firm would be a firm that is strong in your specialty.

Rocketman11 wrote:

gdane5 wrote:

Rocketman11 wrote:

kalvano wrote:Specialty rankings are, by and large, worthless. You won't get hired or get any prestige from them.

USNews ranking is more important, however there's a point at which you can attend a better specialty school to your advantage. For example, Vermont has a great Enviro law program. Might be worth it to go there instead of something like Gonzaga - especially if you can get $ from VT

Now if we're talking American U v. VT that's a different story.

Elaborate please.

Gonzaga and VT are more or less equally ranked. Gonzaga is what like 98 and VT is T3. A "worse" school technically but your job prospects will be similar so may as well get the boost from the specialty. American is 45 or something, so that's quite a leap to a T3 just for a specialty.

I agree in principle, but I think American is a bad example. American is in an incredibly saturated market with a lot of competition above it. If I knew I wanted environmental law, and I did not want to practice in DC, I would probably pick Vermont over American.

Rank, no question. Specialties will almost never improve your odds of landing a job in that niche of law.

Bosque wrote:

JazzOne wrote:

Bosque wrote:Better rank. And then the exact opposite is true when picking firms.

You want the lowest ranked firm?

No. The choice presented by the OP was "a law school with a better rank" or "one that focuses on a specialty area you are interested in". So in this case, the opposite of a better ranked firm would be a firm that is strong in your specialty.

I know. I was just razzing you.

Like everyone else here, I'll throw in my two cents and say RANKINGS matter, specialties don't.

But, an aside - at least from my perspective as a 2L, I don't understand why specialty 'rankings' have any meaning.

Suppose you want to do 'Environmental Law.' How many classes in environmental law are you really going to take? I'll give a following example to make my point.

Your 1st year, you'll have required classes, maybe an elective or 2. Second year - yes, you'll take a couple of environmental law classes, but you'll still be taking a lot of general classes. Why? If you want to do Environmental law - it'd probably be helpful to have: Evidence, Federal Courts, Administrative Law, Corporations, Statutory Interpretation among others. You'll also want to have some general legal background courses: Income Tax, Trusts & Estates, etc. Plus, you'll have some sort of Ethics or Professional Responsibility class.

My point is this - you're probably not going to take but some many classes in your 'specialty' area.

JazzOne wrote:

Bosque wrote:

JazzOne wrote:

Bosque wrote:Better rank. And then the exact opposite is true when picking firms.

You want the lowest ranked firm?

No. The choice presented by the OP was "a law school with a better rank" or "one that focuses on a specialty area you are interested in". So in this case, the opposite of a better ranked firm would be a firm that is strong in your specialty.

I know. I was just razzing you.

I know. I was just being a humorless jerk.