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Hey guys. I've been perusing the site for a while and I'm just wondering about Vanderbilt. I've gotten the impression that many seem to think that outside the t14 Vandy is the way to go. I'm really new to all this law school research and have just begun to look at law school transparency. Correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't LST show BC and BU to outplace Vandy in the NLJ250? In fact, it seems like BC and BU do very well for themselves. Should I be looking at other figures that show Vandy to be superior? Thanks for the help. I love the site.

let me first say that I like vanderbilt a lot too. the school has definite appeal for many reasons.

taking numbers and chance for admission out of the equation, I think the best answer to your question is determined by where you want to work. plain and simple.

vanderbilt is a powerhouse in the south, and BU and the like will probably place better in the northeast.

how hard would it be to get a job in DC, DC, Boston, Chicago, or CA coming out of Vandy you think?

I'm not sure, but it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to go to Vandy if you want to practice in Boston
Unless you can get into HYS you should go to school where you want to practice.

Howbout NYC? Do Vandy or BU/BC do better?

As far as firms, take into account that there are many very well respected Southern firms (even firms that are tops in some Southern markets) that don't make the NLJ250 list. So the list doesn't really tell the complete story. Also, historically, Vandy has done quite a bit better than BC/BU. You have to remember that c/o 2010 was a fucked up hiring season (people bid on firms and got offers from firms before the economy crashed). This hurt many people who got summer SAs in the South who later got no-offered more than their Northern counterparts.

Vandy's been doing pretty well in NYC as of late, but it's no Cornell obviously.

Neatrends wrote:how hard would it be to get a job in DC, DC, Boston, Chicago, or CA coming out of Vandy you think?

People get jobs in all those markets. But in terms of whether you should go to Vandy or Cornell/UCLA/USC/BC/BU/GW it depends largely on where you want to end up the most and what money you get from schools in those regions. Assuming you even have ties to all those places, there are really only a few schools that will do well in ALL of those places.

Email Vandy and ask them for a list of where the class of 2011 got jobs. I'm sure they will be happy to provide.

edited for clarity

Grizz wrote: You have to remember that 2010 was a fucked up hiring season (people bid on firms and got offers from firms before the economy crashed).

Maybe I'm just retarded but when in 2010 did the economy crash? I thought it had just been a fucked up hiring season after the 08 crash and then its been shitty since.

I've only got ties to NYC so from the looks of it going to school around here is my best bet unless I attend school somewhere where the market isn't super insular.

Do you how hard it is to break into the Chicago market assuming your only ties are having attended law school there?

Neatrends wrote:

Grizz wrote: You have to remember that 2010 was a fucked up hiring season (people bid on firms and got offers from firms before the economy crashed).

Maybe I'm just retarded but when in 2010 did the economy crash? I thought it had just been a fucked up hiring season after the 08 crash and then its been shitty since.

Sorry, c/o 2010. My bad. Latest NLJ250 are for class of 2010, who did OCI in 2008 largely pre-crash.

Grizz wrote:As far as firms, take into account that there are many very well respected Southern firms (even firms that are tops in some Southern markets) that don't make the NLJ250 list. So the list doesn't really tell the complete story. Also, historically, Vandy has done quite a bit better than BC/BU. You have to remember that 2010 was a fucked up hiring season (people bid on firms and got offers from firms before the economy crashed). This hurt many people who got summer SAs in the South who later got no-offered more than their Northern counterparts.

Vandy's been doing pretty well in NYC as of late, but it's no Cornell obviously.

Neatrends wrote:how hard would it be to get a job in DC, DC, Boston, Chicago, or CA coming out of Vandy you think?

People get jobs in all those markets. But in terms of whether you should go to Vandy or Cornell/UCLA/USC/BC/BU/GW it depends largely on where you want to end up the most and what money you get from schools in those regions. Assuming you even have ties to all those places, there are really only a few schools that will do well in ALL of those places.

Email Vandy and ask them for a list of where the class of 2011 got jobs. I'm sure they will be happy to provide.

I second basically all of this. It's pretty much right on.

If you want to practice in Boston, then BC/BU might make sense (although I don't really know anything about either BC or BU). But outside of (possibly) Boston, I would think that Vandy is going to do more for you. To be honest, though, it's really hard to know how much difference it would make in NYC if you went to BC or Vandy--there are just too many variables at play. If you want to work anywhere outside of the Northeast, Vanderbilt is probably going to carry a little more weight in legal circles. But again, your career prospects have so much to do with your background (geographically, professionally, and academically) and where you want to end up (geographically and professionally) that it is really pretty difficult to make generalizations about different schools.