What is the best school for practicing in Chicago? Forum

[cccZillo]

If we assume that Chicago, Northwestern and most of the rest of the T14 top the list, rank this list from best to worst, based on working in Chicago:

DePaul
Illinois
Indiana-Bloomington
Iowa
John Marshall (might as well include them all)
Kent
Loyola
WUStL
Wisconsin
Other?

Also, on a semi-unrelated note: How do people know how to answer this question? I know that's vague, but I feel like I could do an OK job ranking those schools based on how they place in Chicago, but I'd basically just be regurgitating what I hear here on TLS.

Is there a good source for this kind of info?

Thanks for the input everyone.

[im_blue]

Illinois
WUSTL
IUB / Iowa / Wisconsin
Kent / Loyola
DePaul
John Marshall

[ahduth]

Notre Dame amirite?

--LinkRemoved--

[cccZillo]

Ah yeah, Notre Dame. Silly omission, especially since I applied there.

[zILch]

From the biglaw partners, government workers, judges, and midlaw people I know it Chicago (I know a lot of people in the city) the list is like this:

Illinois
WUSTL/Notre Dame
.
.
.
Minnesota/Wisconsin
Indiana/Iowa
.
.
Loyola
DePaul
Kent
.
.
.
John Marshal


That's how they respect the schools. In terms of straight up jobs, the schools located in the city may be closer to the other big state schools by virtue of their ability to do more during the year and network more consistently.

[RVP11]

Notre Dame amirite?

--LinkRemoved--

That graph isn't saying ND placed more people than Illinois into NLJ250 firms in Chicago, though.

[nsideirish]

From the biglaw partners, government workers, judges, and midlaw people I know it Chicago (I know a lot of people in the city) the list is like this:

Illinois
WUSTL/Notre Dame
.
.
.
Minnesota/Wisconsin
Indiana/Iowa
.
.
Loyola
DePaul
Kent
.
.
.
John Marshal


That's how they respect the schools. In terms of straight up jobs, the schools located in the city may be closer to the other big state schools by virtue of their ability to do more during the year and network more consistently.

Excluding NW and UChicago, that sounds about right.

[beachbum]

Keep in mind that gainful employment in Chicago is gonna be tough for any of those schools (and harder for some than others). The WUSTL/IUC/ND tier is your best bet, but you're still gonna want to be top 20% to have a fighting chance.

[Chris_cpb]

From the biglaw partners, government workers, judges, and midlaw people I know it Chicago (I know a lot of people in the city) the list is like this:

Illinois
WUSTL/Notre Dame
.
.
.
Minnesota/Wisconsin
Indiana/Iowa
.
.
Loyola
DePaul
Kent
.
.
.
John Marshal


That's how they respect the schools. In terms of straight up jobs, the schools located in the city may be closer to the other big state schools by virtue of their ability to do more during the year and network more consistently.

Excluding NW and UChicago, that sounds about right.

Yeah this is what I've heard as well. UIUC has been called the Fordham of the Chicago market before. I chatted with someone about the third group here (minn/WI etc) and it didn't sound like chances would be good for getting a job in the Chi market at top 35%. That was just one person's opinion though.

[angiej]

If I can piggy back on OP's question - does it at all matter what type of work one wants to do in the city? For example, working in the State's Attorney's office. John Marshall alums makeup 1/5 of Illinois judges. Doesn't that count for something?