Top Law Schools

Which law school should I choose- Denver or Santa Clara? Denver's ranked #77, Santa Clara #84. Both are private schools in areas with fairly good employment prospects. Denver seems like the safer choice- though living in the silicon valley and possibly working with or for a top tech company would be pretty sweet. I'm offered $7500 at Santa Clara which basically puts them at the same price. I have employment lined up in another state if I don't land a job in one of these cities. Thanks!

Santa Clara's employment prospects are bleak. I'd go DU if these are your choices.

Are Santa Clara's employment prospects bleak because of their proximity to Stanford, Berkeley, etc or do you think its just not a good law school in general?

I think it's hard to get a job in that area generally and SCU is pretty low on the totem pole. SLS, UCB, Hastings, Davis and other T14 grads will all have priority on those jobs.

Do you have a hard science background?

What kind of employment do you have lined up? I think it would be crazy to go to any of these schools if you already have a decent job waiting for you.

The DU degree is well-known throughout the Rocky Mountain states. Except for Colorado, those states are not generally over-lawyered. But if you do pick DU, you shouldn't plan on making your career outside of the Intermountain West.

I might be overly optimistic about finding a job but I think the economy will improve quite a bit by the time we graduate and that people who can network and seek out opportunities won't have a problem finding interesting and profitable positions. It seems like Santa Clara would be riskier because of the competition in finding jobs and just the number of attorneys in California in general...but it could possibly lead to a really interesting career being situated in the Silicon Valley and whatnot. Both campuses are nice but I think the weather in California would be hard to beat. I guess I'll just have to visit.

I don't have a hard science background but tech firms need more than just patent attorneys so it seems like it wouldn't be impossible to find a position helping to set up start ups, working on tax or regulatory issues, copyright/trademark, etc.. As far as having employment, I meant that I have the fallback of employment in my home town in case there isn't anything else- accident/injury, criminal defense, and tax are a few of the possibilities.

por2al wrote:I might be overly optimistic about finding a job but I think the economy will improve quite a bit by the time we graduate and that people who can network and seek out opportunities won't have a problem finding interesting and profitable positions. It seems like Santa Clara would be riskier because of the competition in finding jobs and just the number of attorneys in California in general...but it could possibly lead to a really interesting career being situated in the Silicon Valley and whatnot. Both campuses are nice but I think the weather in California would be hard to beat. I guess I'll just have to visit.

I don't have a hard science background but tech firms need more than just patent attorneys so it seems like it wouldn't be impossible to find a position helping to set up start ups, working on tax or regulatory issues, copyright/trademark, etc.. As far as having employment, I meant that I have the fallback of employment in my home town in case there isn't anything else- accident/injury, criminal defense, and tax are a few of the possibilities.

Yes.. the 200K educated guess/gamble.

I think that EVEN IF the economy improves, you will not find "gainful employment" from either of these schools. At best, you will be able to stay ahead of your debt, but it will be long and painful to pay it back; and at worse, you will never be able to pay it back and will be doomed to a life of extreme poverty.

Geez you people act like its end of days sometimes. I could already return to my current job and pay it off in a few years. I have a third saved up and paid already. Thanks for the forecast though omniscient tls debt counselor.

scammedhard wrote:

por2al wrote:I think that EVEN IF the economy improves, you will not find "gainful employment" from either of these schools. At best, you will be able to stay ahead of your debt, but it will be long and painful to pay it back; and at worse, you will never be able to pay it back and will be doomed to a life of extreme poverty.

You know you would probably be more successful in arguing your schtick here if you weren't so ridiculous.

por2al wrote:Geez you people act like its end of days sometimes. I could already return to my current job and pay it off in a few years. I have a third saved up and paid already. Thanks for the forecast though omniscient tls debt counselor.

Um - haven't you seen the billboards? It is end of days! This Saturday actually.

Quite frankly, DU is the best bet because it has way better employment prospects. Also, I have lived in Boulder my whole life and spend quite a bit of time in Denver and the weather is fine here most of the year. Only January-March is rough. And the bar scene here owns so you don't even have to be outside during the winter.

Here bro, check this out:

http://i.imgur.com/Eu7q9.jpg

it's posted in this same forum (stickied at the top).