Lower ranking.....but in NYC Forum

[iaiava]

I'm 90% sure that I'm going to be part of Fordham's class of 2015. I have been accepted into much higher ranked schools but I think that the benefit of studying in NYC will give me a leg up on the competition when applying for summer associateships. Is it worth studying at a lower ranked school but that is in NYC?

[rad lulz]

I'm 90% sure that I'm going to be part of Fordham's class of 2015. I have been accepted into much higher ranked schools but I think that the benefit of studying in NYC will give me a leg up on the competition when applying for summer associateships. Is it worth studying at a lower ranked school but that is in NYC?

Impossible to say without knowing what schools and with what amt. or money

[iaiava]

Fordham, ND, UWSL

Money's about the same at all. 20k

[MrAnon]

of those schools you are right to take fordham

[JamMasterJ]

of those schools you are right to take fordham

this unless there are T14 options

[dingbat]

Fordham, ND, UWSL

Money's about the same at all. 20k

Don't get too caught up in the rankings.
You should really think in bands.
HYS
The rest of the T14 (can debatably be divided into 3 categories)
UT, UCLA, USC, Vandy
The rest of the T30 (with some exceptions)
Arguably, the rest of the T50
The rest of the ranked schools*
Everyone else*

*any school that has a lock on an insular market being generally better than lesser schools in bigger markets

Outside of the T14, you should not consider a school that is not in, or at least feeds into, your target market (inside the T14 this should still be a major consideration)

[duckmoney]

Fordham, ND, UWSL

Money's about the same at all. 20k

Don't get too caught up in the rankings.
You should really think in bands.
HYS
The rest of the T14 (can debatably be divided into 3 categories)
UT, UCLA, USC, Vandy
The rest of the T30 (with some exceptions)
Arguably, the rest of the T50
The rest of the ranked schools*
Everyone else*

*any school that has a lock on an insular market being generally better than lesser schools in bigger markets

Outside of the T14, you should not consider a school that is not in, or at least feeds into, your target market (inside the T14 this should still be a major consideration)

Mostly right, although I don't know if I would distinguish the T30 from T50 and ranked schools and unranked schools. After Vandy or so, schools are pretty much useless to go to without ties to their home markets. Some schools do better in terms of placement than their ranking suggests (Fordham, BC, BU come to mind), but this is mostly a function of strong placement into large, healthy markets.

Ex: If you are born and raised in NJ, and have never left the state, you would probably be better off going to Rutgers (ranked 80ish) than Alabama (ranked 30ish).

On the other hand, as a reflection of the disparate rankings, someone born in Alabama who goes to Bama will probably end up better off than someone from NJ who goes to Rutgers. But that doesn't mean the NJ kid would be better off going to Bama than Rutgers, because Birmingham firms won't want to hire him whereas Camden firms would if he went to Rutgers. Birmingham is just a bigger, stronger market than anywhere in NJ, which explains some of the ranking disparity.

[dingbat]

Duckmoney - my reason for distinguishing is because I'm very familiar with the NY market, and there's a clear difference between, say, Fordham (29), Brooklyn and Cardozo (50ish), then st John (90?) and finally Touro and NYLS (unranked)

I missed a few schools there, but you get my drift.
Many markets have several schools and a ranking difference of 15 places might be negligible (Rutgers vs Seton Hall), but changing bands is a bigger deal (eg Temple vs Villanova)

It's more like grading on a bell curve.
HYS is A+, T14 is A
T30 is a B+ and maybe 50 separates a B from a B- or a C+
Unranked schools might be a C- or a D (or even an F) depending in the school / market

There might not be a big difference between a B and a B+, but there's a noticeable step down to a C
Unfortunately, the rankings only tell part of the story, so it's not easy to separate out which should be, say, a B- and which a C+; it can be rather arbitrary

[duckmoney]

Duckmoney - my reason for distinguishing is because I'm very familiar with the NY market, and there's a clear difference between, say, Fordham (29), Brooklyn and Cardozo (50ish), then st John (90?) and finally Touro and NYLS (unranked)

I missed a few schools there, but you get my drift.
Many markets have several schools and a ranking difference of 15 places might be negligible (Rutgers vs Seton Hall), but changing bands is a bigger deal (eg Temple vs Villanova)

It's more like grading on a bell curve.
HYS is A+, T14 is A
T30 is a B+ and maybe 50 separates a B from a B- or a C+
Unranked schools might be a C- or a D (or even an F) depending in the school / market

There might not be a big difference between a B and a B+, but there's a noticeable step down to a C
Unfortunately, the rankings only tell part of the story, so it's not easy to separate out which should be, say, a B- and which a C+; it can be rather arbitrary

You're spot on for the NY market, and I think within a given market grading on a curve like that is fair. I think its difficult to grade meaningfully between markets, because outside of the T14 ties are very important in addition to the school. Going back to my example, Bama is objectively probably a B+ and Rutgers is probably a B-, but that's only for people with preexisting ties to those markets. Someone from Minnesota shouldn't say "Oh I'd rather go to a B+ school than a B- I should choose Bama over Rutgers." He would be a fool to go to either of those places. If he can't go to a T14 and break into a major market, or he has a super good reason to be somewhere different, then Minnesota schools (and maybe Chicago schools?) are his only good option.

NYC and probably DC are a bit of an outlier since lots of people want to be there without preexisting ties.

[gravityrides0]

lol this is in the wrong forum

[bk1]

Locked your other topic and put this one in the right forum. There is no need to make multiple topics for the same issue.