Vandy or Tulane Forum

[drywallr]

10k a year at Vandy, 25k a year at Tulane. I'm in New Orleans now. Is 15k+uprooting worth the additional cost of going to nashville? I need opinions, I don't have too long to decide.

[dpk711]

Where do you want to work. If it's anywhere other than LA then Vandy is TCR.

[duckmoney]

Even in New Orleans, Vandy is TCR. You'll have a MUCH better chance at snagging the best LA firm jobs with a Vandy degree. Only a handful of Vandy grads come back to New Orleans. EVERYONE at Tulane will be competing against one another for these jobs. Unless Tulane ups your scholarship to a full ride with no stipulations, go to Vandy.

[dpk711]

Even in New Orleans, Vandy is TCR. You'll have a MUCH better chance at snagging the best LA firm jobs with a Vandy degree. Only a handful of Vandy grads come back to New Orleans. EVERYONE at Tulane will be competing against one another for these jobs. Unless Tulane ups your scholarship to a full ride with no stipulations, go to Vandy.

Where is the evidence for this? Also, you have to take into account that OP would be paying significantly less at a very good regional school.

[drywallr]

Is TCR "The Correct Response"? I'm not familiar with the acronym.

[dpk711]

Is TCR "The Correct Response"? I'm not familiar with the acronym.

"the credited response", OP where do you want to end up after law school?

[duckmoney]

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Vandy's salaries are MUCH higher than Tulane's, and a much greater fraction of students have jobs / report salaries.

Tulane is a fine regional school, but given that OP has the option of a great superregional school (In Vandy's case, the Southeast) at a marginally greater expense, he would be much more valuable to firms at the better school. I promise you that a given firm in New Orleans has a lower GPA cutoff at Vandy than they do at Tulane.

OP, you could land your dream job from Tulane, and at a lower cost. You just have a much better shot of landing it from Vandy.

[drywallr]

I'm not sure. I love New Orleans, and I've been here 4 years now but.. I'm open to new things and new possibilities. I don't want to limit myself to the city because I think I'd ultimately end up in an existential crisis. Also, I don't want to get attached to something that might blow away next hurricane season haha.

[dpk711]

If you're not sure then Vandy is unequivocally TCR.

[Straw_Mandible]

Dude, Vandy. Without question. Tulane would be a serious mistake, even for way more than 25k. There is no argument here. /thread

[uzpakalis]

Vandy for shizzle

[jenesaislaw]

Going to go along with the crowd here. Vandy people from Alabama and Louisiana do really well down in NOLA. (I think after living there for four years, you qualify.)

[cucullu]

I don't know that I agree with everyone here.

If you decide you want New Orleans, OP, here are my thoughts:

Truth be told, New Orleans is a very difficult market to crack. The top firms are good, but it's still a mid-sized market, so there aren't that many big firms, and all of them are taking smaller classes of summer clerks each year. A good mix of THOSE clerks are coming from even higher ranked schools than Vandy. Frankly, to get your foot in the door you need to be law review at Tulane, Loyola, or LSU, or probably top 10%, MAYBE 20% at Vandy.

That said, I'd say law review at Tulane, top of the class at Loyola/LSU... those actually have an edge over a median Vandy kid. New Orleans is REALLY regional and local about their hiring, which makes sense considering that that is where most of the partners doing the hiring went to school. And to the earlier poster, four years in NOLA does not make you a local or give you enough "connection" to swing coming back from out of state.

This is a tough call either way, but if you want NOLA, I say take the money at Tulane and dedicate yourself to seriously kicking ass. If you want to go anywhere else, Vandy is TCR.

[jenesaislaw]

I don't know that I agree with everyone here.

If you decide you want New Orleans, OP, here are my thoughts:

Truth be told, New Orleans is a very difficult market to crack. The top firms are good, but it's still a mid-sized market, so there aren't that many big firms, and all of them are taking smaller classes of summer clerks each year. A good mix of THOSE clerks are coming from even higher ranked schools than Vandy. Frankly, to get your foot in the door you need to be law review at Tulane, Loyola, or LSU, or probably top 10%, MAYBE 20% at Vandy.

That said, I'd say law review at Tulane, top of the class at Loyola/LSU... those actually have an edge over a median Vandy kid. New Orleans is REALLY regional and local about their hiring, which makes sense considering that that is where most of the partners doing the hiring went to school. And to the earlier poster, four years in NOLA does not make you a local or give you enough "connection" to swing coming back from out of state.

This is a tough call either way, but if you want NOLA, I say take the money at Tulane and dedicate yourself to seriously kicking ass. If you want to go anywhere else, Vandy is TCR.

Where are you getting that the top 10% (or "MAYBE 20%") is necessary to crack these firms from Vandy? It is demonstrably false for the Class of 2011 at the very least.

Otherwise, real sound advice telling OP to go to Tulane and to work hard and get on law review. I'm sure the rest of the class won't be.

[aliarrow]

Yeah... go to Vandy.

[gjr8891]

Are you wanting to get into Maritime Law? Go to Tulane. Anything else? Go to Vandy.

Two great schools to choose from, and a great problem to have. Good luck deciding.

[aliarrow]

Are you wanting to get into Maritime Law? Go to Tulane. Anything else? Go to Vandy.

Two great schools to choose from, and a great problem to have. Good luck deciding.

Uh... wut?

[gjr8891]

Are you wanting to get into Maritime Law? Go to Tulane. Anything else? Go to Vandy.

Two great schools to choose from, and a great problem to have. Good luck deciding.

Uh... wut?

Tulane's Maritime Law program is badass, but overall, Vanderbilt is better law school.

"Wut" other way can I word it for you?

[TheFactor]

If you choose Tulane, please don't do it because of their "badass Maritime Law program" lol.

[cucullu]

I don't know that I agree with everyone here.

If you decide you want New Orleans, OP, here are my thoughts:

Truth be told, New Orleans is a very difficult market to crack. The top firms are good, but it's still a mid-sized market, so there aren't that many big firms, and all of them are taking smaller classes of summer clerks each year. A good mix of THOSE clerks are coming from even higher ranked schools than Vandy. Frankly, to get your foot in the door you need to be law review at Tulane, Loyola, or LSU, or probably top 10%, MAYBE 20% at Vandy.

That said, I'd say law review at Tulane, top of the class at Loyola/LSU... those actually have an edge over a median Vandy kid. New Orleans is REALLY regional and local about their hiring, which makes sense considering that that is where most of the partners doing the hiring went to school. And to the earlier poster, four years in NOLA does not make you a local or give you enough "connection" to swing coming back from out of state.

This is a tough call either way, but if you want NOLA, I say take the money at Tulane and dedicate yourself to seriously kicking ass. If you want to go anywhere else, Vandy is TCR.

Where are you getting that the top 10% (or "MAYBE 20%") is necessary to crack these firms from Vandy? It is demonstrably false for the Class of 2011 at the very least.

Otherwise, real sound advice telling OP to go to Tulane and to work hard and get on law review. I'm sure the rest of the class won't be.

Your first question is fair, as that statement is really just based on my own anecdotal impression, and I failed to give that disclaimer when I made it. That clarified, my impression comes from working at one of the top firms in New Orleans and seeing who is getting summer clerkships. How are you backing up your broad claim that my impression is "demonstrably false"? Do you have a source for employment data disaggregated by city that we can use for non-anecdotal analysis?

I'm not trying to rag on Vandy. My goal was to give as much helpful insight as I could from what I've seen of hiring in New Orleans, and what I said was the same as what I would have told a friend asking me for my advice or opinion about how to get a job here. There are I think two NOLA law firms at Vandy's OCI. Not the best odds.

Feel free to be sarcastic about Tulane Law Review, but that's where firms down here are hiring from. My point wasn't that gunning for LR at Tulane was somehow an easy option or sure bet. My point is that it's really hard to get a job here, period. It's not easy to be top 10 or even top 30% at Vandy, and it's not easy to be LR at Tulane, and it's not easy to get into a higher ranked school to begin with. So, whatever. There's not a "safe" choice here.

[privatemf]

Please remember that New Orleans was ranked as one of the top ten dead cities in the US and normally places that go through this devastation do not give a lot of opportunity. I am in the New Orleans area as well, and what I have found is that it is big in "in breding" you hae to be in the in crowd. Van sounds great is a place that I think I would like to attend.

[drylo]

I don't know that I agree with everyone here.

If you decide you want New Orleans, OP, here are my thoughts:

Truth be told, New Orleans is a very difficult market to crack. The top firms are good, but it's still a mid-sized market, so there aren't that many big firms, and all of them are taking smaller classes of summer clerks each year. A good mix of THOSE clerks are coming from even higher ranked schools than Vandy. Frankly, to get your foot in the door you need to be law review at Tulane, Loyola, or LSU, or probably top 10%, MAYBE 20% at Vandy.

That said, I'd say law review at Tulane, top of the class at Loyola/LSU... those actually have an edge over a median Vandy kid. New Orleans is REALLY regional and local about their hiring, which makes sense considering that that is where most of the partners doing the hiring went to school. And to the earlier poster, four years in NOLA does not make you a local or give you enough "connection" to swing coming back from out of state.

This is a tough call either way, but if you want NOLA, I say take the money at Tulane and dedicate yourself to seriously kicking ass. If you want to go anywhere else, Vandy is TCR.

Where are you getting that the top 10% (or "MAYBE 20%") is necessary to crack these firms from Vandy? It is demonstrably false for the Class of 2011 at the very least.

Otherwise, real sound advice telling OP to go to Tulane and to work hard and get on law review. I'm sure the rest of the class won't be.

Your first question is fair, as that statement is really just based on my own anecdotal impression, and I failed to give that disclaimer when I made it. That clarified, my impression comes from working at one of the top firms in New Orleans and seeing who is getting summer clerkships. How are you backing up your broad claim that my impression is "demonstrably false"? Do you have a source for employment data disaggregated by city that we can use for non-anecdotal analysis?

I'm not trying to rag on Vandy. My goal was to give as much helpful insight as I could from what I've seen of hiring in New Orleans, and what I said was the same as what I would have told a friend asking me for my advice or opinion about how to get a job here. There are I think two NOLA law firms at Vandy's OCI. Not the best odds.

Feel free to be sarcastic about Tulane Law Review, but that's where firms down here are hiring from. My point wasn't that gunning for LR at Tulane was somehow an easy option or sure bet. My point is that it's really hard to get a job here, period. It's not easy to be top 10 or even top 30% at Vandy, and it's not easy to be LR at Tulane, and it's not easy to get into a higher ranked school to begin with. So, whatever. There's not a "safe" choice here.

Ha this back-and-forth is awesome. For the record, I'm going to put my money on jenesaislaw when it comes to knowing employment statistics

That being said, I respect your opinion, having worked at a NOLA firm. I think we could all probably agree that in a city like NOLA, the top NLJ250-like firms are not going to be hiring a whole lot of people. As such, there is probably no truly predictable method to the madness. I think it is preposterous to say that you have to be top 10% at Vandy to get a job in NOLA, but that does not necessarily mean that you will definitely get a good NOLA job just because you are top 30% at Vandy. However, I think we can also agree that if OP is going to be Law Review somewhere, he would be better off on Vanderbilt Law Review than Tulane Law Review. And if he's not on Law Review, he would be better off at Vandy than Tulane, especially if he wants to get out of LA. (In fact, if you really want out of LA, this isn't much of a question, in my opinion.) So the question is just whether he should pay to go to Vandy. It sounds to me like he kind of wants to, but inertia might keep him in NOLA. Just my interpretation.

Also, I am pretty surprised that you think living in NOLA for four years is not enough of a tie. If it is college years, then I can understand that maybe, but if it is post-college, I think firms in even the most provincial cities would be willing to talk.

[jenesaislaw]

I know the GPAs of people who are going to NOLA from Vandy for the Class of 2011 (or could have accepted their offer for post-grad employment, but declined). I don't want to say more about them, because that is not fair to them, but neither were top 10 or top 20%.

Drylo's post is spot-on. And I would add to his skepticism about NOLA firms and four years being insufficient. As I implied in my first post, one of the people working there is not from there but still from the deep south. She had a demonstrated love for the city and played this up in her interviews. Still, I think it'd be really important for OP to work there 1L summer (for free or otherwise) to cement OP's narrative.

And if NOLA is anything like Nashville, going to Tulane if the four years aren't enough probably won't be of much help.

[Stringer Bell]

For 2009 20% at Tulane made over 85k and 40+% at Vandy made over 118k. Vandy.

[Jack Smirks]

Vandy. /thread