Top Law Schools

corvettekid wrote:2 years work experience as a Design Engineer.

I don't have any school dept... only my car which isn't too bad. $ is a big factor for me, and I could retake, but that doesn't ensure I'll do better. I have a 167, I could probably get a 170 or very low 170's but anything above that would just be luck.

I don't really want to wait another year, unless it will greatly improve my job prospects... I've looked at profiles of people that have recently gotten jobs at the big patent firms in the city and it seems like a lot of them are from Kent, Depaul, and even some from JM... so those places are still hiring from Chicago schools.

So it is a hard decision to make, why pay sticker for a better school and end up with the same job if I can go to a lower ranked school for much less money? Of course I will never know this information as I can't do both

Also, I plan on passing the Patent Bar before I attend law school, so I was thinking if I was in the city I could work part time in the city during my 2L and 3L to help me get my foot in the door after graduation, this is something I can't really do at a school not in Chicago

fatduck wrote:

corvettekid wrote:2 years work experience as a Design Engineer.

I don't have any school dept... only my car which isn't too bad. $ is a big factor for me, and I could retake, but that doesn't ensure I'll do better. I have a 167, I could probably get a 170 or very low 170's but anything above that would just be luck.

I don't really want to wait another year, unless it will greatly improve my job prospects... I've looked at profiles of people that have recently gotten jobs at the big patent firms in the city and it seems like a lot of them are from Kent, Depaul, and even some from JM... so those places are still hiring from Chicago schools.

So it is a hard decision to make, why pay sticker for a better school and end up with the same job if I can go to a lower ranked school for much less money? Of course I will never know this information as I can't do both

Also, I plan on passing the Patent Bar before I attend law school, so I was thinking if I was in the city I could work part time in the city during my 2L and 3L to help me get my foot in the door after graduation, this is something I can't really do at a school not in Chicago

also, did you apply to wustl? some people have got almost full rides there with numbers like 168/3.74, 167/3.8, etc. if you applied early you might get significant $ there even without increasing your lsat score.

there's no doubt that big firms hire from lower-ranked schools, but they're by and large hiring the very top students there (or students with firm connections). at a school like northwestern or chicago you can get those jobs with a much lower class rank, which might make it a safer option.

i wouldn't count on working part-time while attending LS full-time. i really don't think that's all that common.

Drake014 wrote:I have a friend at Berk who works part time in patents, but he had the job before he started law school. His employer simply agreed to cut down on the hours. I don't know how easy it is to get hired part time in this job market otherwise. What's the OP's GPA?

fatduck wrote:

Drake014 wrote:I have a friend at Berk who works part time in patents, but he had the job before he started law school. His employer simply agreed to cut down on the hours. I don't know how easy it is to get hired part time in this job market otherwise. What's the OP's GPA?

yea i suppose it's possible, but getting hired as a patent agent period is pretty damn hard right now.

167/3.78 from another thread

corvettekid wrote:Sadly, no I did not apply to WUSTL. Working full time and trying to finish up my thesis made the application process lag a bit. I didn't get apps in until mid January which hurt me a bit I think.

3.75 (3.78 LSDAS) Undergrad
3.93 (4.0 LSDAS) Graduate

helloperson wrote:Also keep in mind that having the hard science background means it matters less what school you go to than it does for 99% of everyone else on these forums and law students in general.

corvettekid wrote:

helloperson wrote:Also keep in mind that having the hard science background means it matters less what school you go to than it does for 99% of everyone else on these forums and law students in general.

Yeah, I hear that, but then I hear that even with the hard science it will still be an uphill battle looking for jobs in Chicago coming out of a Chicago school other than Northwestern or U of Chicago.

Does anyone know if scholarship money can change year to year based on performance? It seems kinda stupid to me that you are locked into a scholarship amount which can greatly be affected by how early in the cycle you apply... which was my fault, but still kind of annoying to see people with worse stats than me pulling large scholarship numbers. Not saying that they may not have other factors that helped them out, but still. I feel I had very strong soft factors as I was extremely involved as an Undergrad.