Top Law Schools

Yes, this is pretentious, and yes, I am incredibly shocked/grateful at how the cycle played out. I have a favorite, but thought I'd see what the public consensus is.

WL'd at Yale, would probably take it if it came through before mid-July or so (lol). Want to practice in California, specifically San Francisco. Firm route is okay with me.

Have a SO with a nice paying job, so COL loans would be minimal; undergrad loans are smallish. Turned down Ruby because we didn't think Chicago was a good fit.

Have at it.

Oh cool one of these threads

If you want biglaw in California, I think this should be a financial decision between Stanford and Columbia. Both can get you to California (obviously Stanford is better in this regard), but there's 120k of a difference between the schools.

Does your SO have a preference for where he/she wants to live? If he/she is not relocating with you, where will he/she be working? Long distance is really, really rough. If SO lives in the bay area, I think this becomes a decision between Stanford and Berkeley.

Edit- Also, you say that "firm route is ok for you", but that doesn't sound like you're really big on the idea of biglaw. Is there something else you aspire to do with your law degree?

Your life is so good right now. Pick Berkeley. It's fun and young and will give you that extra connection to Cali.

For what it's worth I voted retake.

For you, seems like [ Stanford > Harvard ] and [ Berkeley > Columbia/NYU/Mich ]

Berkeley + 100k v. Stanford? I think that's a personal call.

Edit:Also voted retest.

Doorkeeper wrote:If you want biglaw in California, I think this should be a financial decision between Stanford and Columbia. Both can get you to California (obviously Stanford is better in this regard), but there's 120k of a difference between the schools.

Does your SO have a preference for where he/she wants to live? If he/she is not relocating with you, where will he/she be working? Long distance is really, really rough. If SO lives in the bay area, I think this becomes a decision between Stanford and Berkeley.

Edit- Also, you say that "firm route is ok for you", but that doesn't sound like you're really big on the idea of biglaw. Is there something else you aspire to do with your law degree?

Agreed. If you wan big law I'd say Hamilton no question. If you want something else like a clerkship or prestigious pi etc I'd go stanford. You literally could not go wrong.

polkij333 wrote:For you, seems like [ Stanford > Harvard ] and [ Berkeley > Columbia/NYU/Mich ]

Berkeley + 100k v. Stanford? I think that's a personal call.

Edit:Also voted retest.

+1. I voted Berkeley b/c you'll be able to get Big Law in San Fran out of there w/o much difficulty and be debt free.

If you want biglaw in California, I think this should be a financial decision between Stanford and Columbia

Lol wut? OP wants to be in SF. How do you take a free Berkeley JD out of this equation?

Also, congrats OP. You had about as good a cycle as one can hope for. Well done.

Shaggier1 wrote:

If you want biglaw in California, I think this should be a financial decision between Stanford and Columbia

Lol wut? OP wants to be in SF. How do you take a free Berkeley JD out of this equation?

Also, congrats OP. You had about as good a cycle as one can hope for. Well done.

My hunch is that a Columbia Hamilton > Berkeley for getting biglaw in CA considering the prestige of Columbia and the less competition coming from your classmates. I'd be open to seeing data that proves otherwise.

My hunch is that a Columbia Hamilton > Berkeley for getting biglaw in CA considering the prestige of Columbia and the less competition coming from your classmates. I'd be open to seeing data that proves otherwise.

This may be true for LA, but even then the difference would be marginal, at best (assuming equal grades, of course). SF is a very insular market, though, and I would be surprised to see your claim true there. It is tough to beat Berkeley for SF.

Doorkeeper wrote:

Shaggier1 wrote:

If you want biglaw in California, I think this should be a financial decision between Stanford and Columbia

Lol wut? OP wants to be in SF. How do you take a free Berkeley JD out of this equation?

Also, congrats OP. You had about as good a cycle as one can hope for. Well done.

My hunch is that a Columbia Hamilton > Berkeley for getting biglaw in CA considering the prestige of Columbia and the less competition coming from your classmates. I'd be open to seeing data that proves otherwise.

Burden of proof is on you here. The benefits of being in the target market instead of 3000 miles away are obvious. The "prestige" argument is much more nebulous.

Nelson wrote:

Doorkeeper wrote:

Shaggier1 wrote:

If you want biglaw in California, I think this should be a financial decision between Stanford and Columbia

Lol wut? OP wants to be in SF. How do you take a free Berkeley JD out of this equation?

Also, congrats OP. You had about as good a cycle as one can hope for. Well done.

My hunch is that a Columbia Hamilton > Berkeley for getting biglaw in CA considering the prestige of Columbia and the less competition coming from your classmates. I'd be open to seeing data that proves otherwise.

Burden of proof is on you here. The benefits of being in the target market instead of 3000 miles away are obvious. The "prestige" argument is much more nebulous.

Fair. I don't know of anywhere that has "target market hired / target market applied" data, which would be the best comparison here.

Well, I'd suggest that Boalt is the best location in the Bay Area, has a great student body and is free. If you're talented enough to be in this situation you're going to do fine wherever you go. All of these schools are fantastic, but the freedom of no debt is what I would go with given everything else good about Boalt.

This is a decision between Boalt and SLS, since you want to be here in the Bay. Neither is a bad decision. As an SLS 2L, I think Boalt for $65k (COL) is a completely rational choice over SLS at $200k debt. Congrats

People hate Berkeley on TLS for some reason. Don't go to New York over a Bay Area school if you want to live and work in the Bay Area. Stanford if you don't mind the debt (seems like it'd be something around $100-125k, which is pretty damn good for a SLS degree), otherwise Berkeley.

Personally I would go to Berkeley because free is good and I'd rather put that cash in the bank rather than piss it away on loans over the first three years of my legal career.

Obviously retest. Yale or bust.

I voted Stanford but Berkeley also makes sense in this situation. Not sure why'd you go out east if you want to work in the Bay Area. Since the two big Bay schools have covered the basic range of choices I think it comes down a personal decision between B and SLS that turns on your comfort with debt, where you'd prefer to study for three years, and whether you might want some of the elite options SLS opens up.

There is no wrong choice between the two. Congrats on the great options.

BERKELEY. FOR. FREE! Dude, even the Stanford kids agree the difference between the schools isn't worth that much.

IMO it comes down to Stanford (because it's clearly better than HLS for Bay Area) and Boalt (because it's probably similar to CLS for Bay Area, better than Mich and NYU).

Then it's all about risk v. reward. Would you pay an extra 150K to go from 70% big law chances to 100%? That's more personal.

.

Berkeley is only sometimes a T10, which makes it solidly a T14. I'm all for scholarship over prestige, but you are talking about two schools which compete for jobs in the same primary city with significant employment outcome differences on average. I'm actually surprised it is as close as it is.

EdgarWinter wrote:4 full rides to T10s and T6s and people still say OP should pay for Stanford. Geez. I'd take Berkeley for free. Or anywhere for free. Or wherever your SO wants to be. Whichever you want really. This is hard to screw up. (Pay for Stanford if you want to ofc, but personally I wouldn't).

Also, if 4 different admissions committees were willing to give somebody $150,000 (give or take a few tens of thousands lol) then I'm pretty sure this person is probably awesome enough to not have to worry overmuch about finding a firm job from Berkeley before graduation. Let's not take our merely mortal fears and cast them upon the OP.

So EdgarWinter would be willing to go to Florida Coastal for free?

Anyway, I voted for Berkeley; Stanford was a close second, though.

we've seen schools in the top 14 screw up with their career services. Michigan.


I would trust Stanford would not be like that. I would not trust Berkley. I'd go with Stanford.


Honestly, this is a 1% problem though. Enjoy your models and bottles.

Doorkeeper wrote:

Shaggier1 wrote:

If you want biglaw in California, I think this should be a financial decision between Stanford and Columbia

Lol wut? OP wants to be in SF. How do you take a free Berkeley JD out of this equation?

Also, congrats OP. You had about as good a cycle as one can hope for. Well done.

My hunch is that a Columbia Hamilton > Berkeley for getting biglaw in CA considering the prestige of Columbia and the less competition coming from your classmates. I'd be open to seeing data that proves otherwise.

This hasn't been true. Berkeley is great for Biglaw in CA. Columbia will make it easier to get Biglaw in CA than Berkeley due to the relatively few number of Columbia people gunning for CA, but high grades at Berkeley will get you a better CA firm than high grades at Columbia. This is especially true for tech-business firms because Berkeley's gigantic IP crew has trailblased at these firms, and these are generally the firms that are actually hiring right now in CA.