Top Law Schools

Hypothetically, how do you decide between going into a school on a full scholarship and going into a higher ranked school with no scholarship. Since LSAT is suppose to be somewhat of a reflection of how you will perform in law school, would it make since to go to like a t-2 school on a full ride where your LSAT is >95%? Theroteically you should finish in he top 5% to 15% and lock the best job offers from the school. Or what it be wiser to go to a t-1 law school where you fall about average to below average LSAT wise and have to take almost 100k in loans. According to your LSAT you should finish in the middle half of the pack and take what jobs are left after everyone else gobbles up the other ones. Can you take that t-1 JD back to the t-2 schools market and grab the top jobs?? How many spots in the ranking do you think it takes to matter?? Does a top 10% at a t-2 say ranked 80 with a full ride = a t-1 top 50% ranked 40th with little to no scholly? Does t-1 top 5% ranked 20 no scholly = a t-2 top 5% ranked 60th with full scholly?

Hey don't take this personally, but are your numbers in your profile accurate? Because if they are I'm not seeing how any of the above may occur....

doug_7506 wrote:Hypothetically, how do you decide between going into a school on a full scholarship and going into a higher ranked school with no scholarship. Since LSAT is suppose to be somewhat of a reflection of how you will perform in law school, would it make since to go to like a t-2 school on a full ride where your LSAT is >95%? Theroteically you should finish in he top 5% to 15% and lock the best job offers from the school. Or what it be wiser to go to a t-1 law school where you fall about average to below average LSAT wise and have to take almost 100k in loans. According to your LSAT you should finish in the middle half of the pack and take what jobs are left after everyone else gobbles up the other ones. Can you take that t-1 JD back to the t-2 schools market and grab the top jobs?? How many spots in the ranking do you think it takes to matter?? Does a top 10% at a t-2 say ranked 80 with a full ride = a t-1 top 50% ranked 40th with little to no scholly? Does t-1 top 5% ranked 20 no scholly = a t-2 top 5% ranked 60th with full scholly?

You make getting law review/top of the class way to easy just because you have a higher LSAT score than other students.

edit: And I don't feel like doing the math for it, but I feel pretty confident in saying that even if you have an LSAT score higher than 95% of the other students, you're still statistically more likely to end up outside of the top 15% than you are to end up in it.

Also, your LSAT does not predict where you will end up. The correlation is less than 50% thereby making it a poor predictor.

RPK34 wrote:

doug_7506 wrote:Hypothetically, how do you decide between going into a school on a full scholarship and going into a higher ranked school with no scholarship. Since LSAT is suppose to be somewhat of a reflection of how you will perform in law school, would it make since to go to like a t-2 school on a full ride where your LSAT is >95%? Theroteically you should finish in he top 5% to 15% and lock the best job offers from the school. Or what it be wiser to go to a t-1 law school where you fall about average to below average LSAT wise and have to take almost 100k in loans. According to your LSAT you should finish in the middle half of the pack and take what jobs are left after everyone else gobbles up the other ones. Can you take that t-1 JD back to the t-2 schools market and grab the top jobs?? How many spots in the ranking do you think it takes to matter?? Does a top 10% at a t-2 say ranked 80 with a full ride = a t-1 top 50% ranked 40th with little to no scholly? Does t-1 top 5% ranked 20 no scholly = a t-2 top 5% ranked 60th with full scholly?

You make getting law review/top of the class way to easy just because you have a higher LSAT score than other students.

edit: And I don't feel like doing the math for it, but I feel pretty confident in saying that even if you have an LSAT score higher than 95% of the other students, you're still statistically more likely to end up outside of the top 15% than you are to end up in it.

Actually, I just did the math and I'd say there's about an 85% chance of it

stratocophic wrote:

RPK34 wrote:

doug_7506 wrote:Hypothetically, how do you decide between going into a school on a full scholarship and going into a higher ranked school with no scholarship. Since LSAT is suppose to be somewhat of a reflection of how you will perform in law school, would it make since to go to like a t-2 school on a full ride where your LSAT is >95%? Theroteically you should finish in he top 5% to 15% and lock the best job offers from the school. Or what it be wiser to go to a t-1 law school where you fall about average to below average LSAT wise and have to take almost 100k in loans. According to your LSAT you should finish in the middle half of the pack and take what jobs are left after everyone else gobbles up the other ones. Can you take that t-1 JD back to the t-2 schools market and grab the top jobs?? How many spots in the ranking do you think it takes to matter?? Does a top 10% at a t-2 say ranked 80 with a full ride = a t-1 top 50% ranked 40th with little to no scholly? Does t-1 top 5% ranked 20 no scholly = a t-2 top 5% ranked 60th with full scholly?

You make getting law review/top of the class way to easy just because you have a higher LSAT score than other students.

edit: And I don't feel like doing the math for it, but I feel pretty confident in saying that even if you have an LSAT score higher than 95% of the other students, you're still statistically more likely to end up outside of the top 15% than you are to end up in it.

Actually, I just did the math and I'd say there's about an 85% chance of it

I don't remember the exact numbers, but there's a correlation of about 23% between LSAT scores and law school rank. From this, you can calculate different percentages of the likelihood of falling in different percentile ranks at law school.

So no, there's not an 85% chance.

Aberzombie1892 wrote: Insular means at least the following markets:
Seattle, WA

Giving preference to?

if i was told correctly law school is all about the name. i was told to get into the highest ranked school as possible. that being said you better be in the top 50% if your going to pay $200k for law $chool

Aberzombie1892 wrote:Also, your LSAT does not predict where you will end up. The correlation is less than 50% thereby making it a poor predictor.

Because 153's end up in a school with other 153's, and 170's end up in classes with 170's. It's called range restriction.

Cmoss wrote:if i was told correctly law school is all about the name. i was told to get into the highest ranked school as possible. that being said you better be in the top 50% if your going to pay $200k for law $chool

I'd pay 200k for any class rank at Harvard - as long as I made law review.

Conversely, I would pay 200k for Yale. No ranking FTW?

Desert Fox wrote:

Aberzombie1892 wrote:Also, your LSAT does not predict where you will end up. The correlation is less than 50% thereby making it a poor predictor.

Because 153's end up in a school with other 153's, and 170's end up in classes with 170's. It's called range restriction.

I love you

ResolutePear wrote:

Cmoss wrote:if i was told correctly law school is all about the name. i was told to get into the highest ranked school as possible. that being said you better be in the top 50% if your going to pay $200k for law $chool

I'd pay 200k for any class rank at Harvard - as long as I made law review.

you might be right

There are over 9000 threads about this subject in which "big fish in a small pond" is pretty much resoundingly rejected.

rad law wrote:There are over 9000 threads about this subject in which "big fish in a small pond" is pretty much resoundingly rejected.

Isn't that the whole foundation of NorB?

kehoema2 wrote:Hey don't take this personally, but are your numbers in your profile accurate? Because if they are I'm not seeing how any of the above may occur....

161 was my retake score. I am not gunning for anything in the top 30, rank wise.

I was just wondering how people felt. Funny that it is split 50/50.

I know the LSAT is not a perfect indicator of rank but it can help give you an idea.

Big fish small pond would be great....



If you could guarantee you were top of class. Very smart people go to very dumb schools. I know people far smarter than I am at T4's who are there for personal reasons or because they bombed the LSAT.

I do not believe that the poll options reflect the full spectrum of potential outcomes.

Bildungsroman wrote:I do not believe that the poll options reflect the full spectrum of potential outcomes.

Just write in Chuck Norris.

ResolutePear wrote:

Bildungsroman wrote:I do not believe that the poll options reflect the full spectrum of potential outcomes.

Just write in Chuck Norris.

I vote for Bruce Bochy.

Something tells me OP will be a small fish in every pond.

Where is the option of big fish in big pond? Cuz that's what I'm planning on being...

Ragged wrote:Where is the option of big fish in big pond? Cuz that's what I'm planning on being...

I only swim in the ocean HTH

doug_7506 wrote:

kehoema2 wrote:Hey don't take this personally, but are your numbers in your profile accurate? Because if they are I'm not seeing how any of the above may occur....

161 was my retake score. I am not gunning for anything in the top 30, rank wise.

I was just wondering how people felt. Funny that it is split 50/50.

I know the LSAT is not a perfect indicator of rank but it can help give you an idea.

Nah. It really can't.

reasonable_man wrote:

doug_7506 wrote:

kehoema2 wrote:Hey don't take this personally, but are your numbers in your profile accurate? Because if they are I'm not seeing how any of the above may occur....

161 was my retake score. I am not gunning for anything in the top 30, rank wise.

I was just wondering how people felt. Funny that it is split 50/50.

I know the LSAT is not a perfect indicator of rank but it can help give you an idea.

Nah. It really can't.

Reasonable man knows whats up with trying to predict a single data point versus an average.

But yeah, as a general point, don't rely on your test score as a measure of your abilities. Wherever you go, just make sure you hustle like nobody's business once you get there.