What is the most (lay) prestigious school in your area? Forum

[KBly]

I'd say one that people overestimate is William & Mary. It's a highly ranked undergrad, especially in Virginia (equal to UVa), so people assume it'll be one of the top law schools too. I feel like that's how a lot of lay people rank schools, they have a pretty good idea of how the undergrad ranks so just assume law school is the same rank. In most cases fairly accurate I guess, but not all the time.

[bjsesq]

Where I'm from:

WUSTL>Minnesota>>>>>>>>>>>>>Everything else

[tspence13]

In CO: (North Denver/Boulder specifically)

Stanford>HY>Berkeley>UCLA>CU>>>ASU, Utah, Arizona, Washington, LC, Oregon>DU>Wyoming

[bellamy]

In the Mormon community, there are tons of people that think BYU is just as good as any of the ivies.

Or that Univ of Chicago = Harvard

[PNW Noob]

Harvard>Yale/Stanford>Georgetown>Berkeley/UCLA>UW>Gonzaga>the rest

[crossarmant]

Here in Richmond, VA it seems like UVA / W&M / U of R all about tied in terms of prestige. Though all of the U of R grads stick together it seems. You get some W&L, Mason, GW folk here it but not in the same amounts as the other three and most around here don't think as highly, at least according to what I've seen.

Hell, half of the 3 big Richmond firms (MacguireWoods, LeClariRyan, and WilliamsMullen) are pretty much half U of R grads.

If we're talking Undergrad, I grew up in Roanoke so its was pretty much Virginia Tech > UVA > William & Mary > Everything except the Ivies.

[westinghouse60]

Well there's Duke but Duke grads/students are pretty uncommon, and a lot of them are from out of state and end up working out of state. And although UNC/Wake are ranked similarly (both for undergrad and law) UNC's size/success in basketball makes it by far the best known school "prestigious" school in my state. So although its known that its not as good as an Ivy, I'd have to tell people (with the exception of HY) that schools like CCNMVP are better, as ridiculous as that sounds. It's not that they wouldn't believe me, its just that most people would not have heard of them, or if they had, would know nothing about them.

[Kronk]

In CO: (North Denver/Boulder specifically)

Stanford>HY>Berkeley>UCLA>CU>>>ASU, Utah, Arizona, Washington, LC, Oregon>DU>Wyoming

I really disagree with the last half of this list. DU has a better rep than ASU, Utah, Arizona, UW, LC, & Oregon.

I'd say Stanford > HY > Berkeley > CU / UCLA & others in the T14 like Georgetown and Penn > DU > others.

[Sounder89]

In the Pacific Northwest, UW-Seattle (UG and law school) is the top regional school in terms of lay prestige. Not saying you can't get a good job in the NW from Seattle U, Willamette etc. but it depends more on how hard you hustle. The few Stanford grads who end up here basically run shit and get their pick of the top jobs, clerkships etc but they are pretty few and far between. Seattle is a relatively small market and anyone trying to practice there (who doesnt get into the t14) should definitely aim for UW.

[IronHBM]

I'm in New Jersey so there are pretty much only two law schools. Rutgers or Seton Hall. Many lay NJ folk assume that Rutgers is highly ranked and/or they're fanatical about the school.