Texas vs. Northwestern Forum

[Mr. Somebody]

Are you dead-set on Texas Biglaw, or would you be willing to move to another major city, at least for the short term?

I would think your absolute chance at landing Biglaw anywhere would be significantly higher at NU.

the preference is as follows:

1. Texas big law
2. any job in texas making more than $100K
3. big law other places
4. jobs other places making more than 100K
5. any kind of legal employment in texas
6. any kind of legal employment elsewhere

what is giving me pause is the new nlj percentages - nu at 52% and texas at 21%. otherwise i'd go to texas no contest. what do the other 80% at texas do?! is there a large number of firms who just aren't njl 250 in texas that are paying decent private sector salaries?

I must be alone in seeing NU as a strong choice here, given these preferences.

If you go to UT and you miss out on #1, your chances of getting #2 are very low because of bimodal salary distribution. #3 will be harder at UT because its more of a regional school. #4 is unlikely for the same reason as #2. So you're most likely scenario if you don't get #1 is #'s 5 and 6. At NU you'd have a lot more options if you don't get TX biglaw and you'd be better positioned to pay off your debt. At UT, you miss out and great, you're still in Texas but you're screwed financially. Obviously money would change this equation. Also I'm not so sure it's harder to get TX biglaw from NU given your super strong ties to Texas. Those are my two cents

[CanadianWolf]

Most probably view this decision as one between two very strong choices for OP, not that one is clearly superior to the other in light of OP's goal to work in Texas biglaw.

[rinkrat19]

I don't think either is a bad choice, but it could be boiled down to which of these situations you'd rather be in, in case the best-case scenario (Texas biglaw) doesn't happen.

1. Miss biglaw, but stay in Texas
2. Get biglaw, but not in Texas

[bk1]

I think this is pretty close. If you really wanted to stay in TX then I'd say UT, but your preferences seem to say that for you: biglaw > TX. If TX biglaw >>>> NYC/Chi biglaw, I would say UT. But since it doesn't seem to be be, I would lean NU.

[Nobody]

It's worth remembering that you effectively have like a 17,000/year scholarship at Texas because of in-state.

I also just unexpectedly got into Texas and I really don't know how to handle it. The worst part is that everyone looks at me like I'm crazy when I mention that I'm even just still thinking about going to Penn or Michigan.

[emkay625]

I should also add that my husband already has a job lined up if I choose Texas. This is not the case for NU. This is a secondary consideration, though.

[ucbkenn]

Stay in Texas. Tuition is cheaper and you'll make connections by going to school here. I work at a medium sized firm in fort worth right now and all the attorneys have told me to go to UT if I want to end up in Texas. I'm not sure that's where I want to end up, but it sounds like you're positive you want to stay here. Plus your husband won't have to worry about finding a job in Chicago.

So excited that you got in! It seemed like you wanted UT bad!

[09042014]

While I can't know how Texas law firms look at Northwestern students compared to Texas ones, I do know that competition for spots at Texas firms is very low at NU because not a lot of people look to that market. On the other hand, Texas big law is a lot more competitive at Texas. To the extent that firms have made an investment in coming to OCI at NU and want to hire a few NU grads, it may be easier to get a callback and offer coming from NU.

I got interviews at all the Texas firms bidding them in the 30s. And people with connections cleaned up from what I can tell. But if you have connections they basically say LOL NO in the interview. The callback medians for Texas firms are pretty low (probably the lowest of any city).

But if you are 100% Texas, I'd go there just based on debt load.

I don't know enough about UT placement to tell you which is better.

[Stanford4Me]

Texas lawl firms are going to want to know why you made this decision. Make it easy on yourself. Stay in Texas.

I picked out this quote because I don't want OP to read too much into it.

From Texas, went to school in Texas, got a 1L SA in Texas, going back to that firm, working in Texas post-grad......at law school in New York.


If you have connections to Texas, firms will understand that you didn't want to spend your entire life in Texas. When I was asked why I left, I simply explained that I spent all my childhood and early adulthood in Texas, knew I wanted to work there long term, acknowledged that NYU offered amazing opportunities and wanted to the chance to experience something different. Didn't have a problem with it.

The Texas market is odd. Obviously UT reigns supreme in Texas firms, but from my experience a lot of the actual BigLaw firms are start to recruit more and more from T14 schools (was told by multiple hiring partners in Dallas about this trend). I feel like that makes it a more difficult decision. At UT you're competing with all of your other classmates to pretty much stay in Texas, whereas if you go to a T14 you have the advantage of having the "name recognition" (not that UT isn't a great school) along with smaller competition at your school (though not sure exactly how much of a benefit that is). Just some things to think about.

Don't want to make an overly long post, so PM me if you have any other questions.

[IAFG]

While I can't know how Texas law firms look at Northwestern students compared to Texas ones, I do know that competition for spots at Texas firms is very low at NU because not a lot of people look to that market. On the other hand, Texas big law is a lot more competitive at Texas. To the extent that firms have made an investment in coming to OCI at NU and want to hire a few NU grads, it may be easier to get a callback and offer coming from NU.

I got interviews at all the Texas firms bidding them in the 30s. And people with connections cleaned up from what I can tell. But if you have connections they basically say LOL NO in the interview. The callback medians for Texas firms are pretty low (probably the lowest of any city).

But if you are 100% Texas, I'd go there just based on debt load.

I don't know enough about UT placement to tell you which is better.

I know someone with bottom 1/4 grades but TX ties has TX midlaw from NU. One data point, but I am under the impression bottom 1/2 at UT is just boned?

[crumpetsandtea]

Honestly in your situation I think UT would be the better choice. Other factors to consider - cost factor of moving to and living in Chicago for 3 years, instate UT tuition vs NU outofstate tuition. Plus, I do think your husband having a job in Texas is a compelling factor, and I think your chances at aid from UT are much higher than NU.

Of course, this is just me speculating, so. (:

[Richie Tenenbaum]

I know someone with bottom 1/4 grades but TX ties has TX midlaw from NU. One data point, but I am under the impression bottom 1/2 at UT is just boned?

Most everyone I know who wanted a 2L summer firm job got it, and I know plenty of people who are doing split summers. But I fully admit that the sample group I'm drawing from has a lot of people with strong grades. I do know a decent amount of people who I think are around median (maybe below?) who have biglaw. While I have no doubt that there is a grade range where things get really dicey (and that the "screwed" range is bigger than it is at NU), I really don't think it's bottom 1/2.

OP- I would choose UT in your position, but obviously I'm biased. I love it here and don't regret choosing UT over higher ranked schools. But I will say that if you want to absolutely maximize your chances at biglaw then NU might be the better choice. If things go wrong grade-wise, you'll have more wiggle room at NU than at UT to try and get biglaw (though if absolute disaster happens and you miss out on biglaw at NU, then that just sucks). Your best case scenario seems better at UT though (biglaw job, less debt, etc.).