Top Law Schools

Just need to get a convo going. I have until 5pm to make up my mind. The waiting and retaking decision would break some hearts including mine, but if anyone has a compelling enough argument I'll listen. Also I want to practice in Cali, and get a degree thats recognized across the country particularly in DC. Im in the process of negotiating money so I will update this throughout the day.

thank you guys.

No way. Too much debt for too poor job prospects. Also Hastings has promised to jack up tuition next year by 15% and by 5% the two years after, so that money is essentially nothing.

jigglebottom wrote:Just need to get a convo going. I have until 5pm to make up my mind. The waiting and retaking decision would break some hearts including mine, but if anyone has a compelling enough argument I'll listen. Also I want to practice in Cali, and get a degree thats recognized across the country particularly in DC. Im in the process of negotiating money so I will update this throughout the day.

thank you guys.

no, just no. there is so much wrong with this if you think either of these schools can do that. try boalt breh

You already know the compelling reason for a retake - you need to get into better schools.
What are your current numbers and GPA?

Would be a horrible decision to attend either school at that price.

Retake, get in the 170s and hit up those splitter friendly T14s.

Agreed. It's never the answer anyone wants to hear, but you need to retake. Neither of those schools are worth it (even if you doubled those scholarships).

thanks. I thought people might have at least some good things to say about hastings.. but I guess its that bad. Is it mainly the fact that I'm paying near sticker?

Over 200k debt for a school that only places ~13% of its class into 101+ firms / fed clerkships and less than half the class getting long term, full-time bar required positions. That's pretty awful.

jigglebottom wrote:thanks. I thought people might have at least some good things to say about hastings.. but I guess its that bad. Is it mainly the fact that I'm paying near sticker?

Despite the "UC" brand, Hastings' job placement at present is little better than T2s like Santa Clara, USF, USD, Loyola. Check the most recent ABA data on lawschooltransparency.

Hastings USED to place about 1/3 of its classes in large and mid sized firms, but no longer. Now it's more like 10%. And the 45% FT, JD required placement rate is only slightly better than the 40% you'll see at T2s like McGeorge.

You seem to have high ambition. I think you should try again next year. If you want to be in DC, try to get into the PT at GWU or something. Your numbers probably arent that far off.

(I just graduated from Hastings)

Bronck wrote:Over 200k debt for a school that only places ~13% of its class into 101+ firms / fed clerkships and less than half the class getting long term, full-time bar required positions. That's pretty awful.

And trust me, Hastings is a competitive school. It will be a serious struggle to make the top 10%. Nearly half the class comes from Berkeley, the top public school in the US, with many more from other top UG's like Stanford, UCLA, and various other UC's.

There's a 90% chance you won't get a very good outcome from Hastings. There's almost a 60% chance that you'll get an awful outcome. Doesn't sound like a very good gamble of 200k and 3 years of your life does it?

jigglebottom wrote:Just need to get a convo going. I have until 5pm to make up my mind. The waiting and retaking decision would break some hearts including mine, but if anyone has a compelling enough argument I'll listen. Also I want to practice in Cali, and get a degree thats recognized across the country particularly in DC. Im in the process of negotiating money so I will update this throughout the day.

thank you guys.

I would take Hastings over Santa Clara any day. Santa Clara is desperate this year. One of the reasons I think they are so desperate is because of the poor choices their admissions department has made.

Best of luck either way.

As a Santa Clara 2L, I can tell you that you will not get recognized in DC. If you want to practice in CA, Hastings would be the better choice. About 20-25% of the Santa Clara 2Ls this year have an SA gig at a firm that has over 100+ employees (some even cracked V10). The rest are either working in-house, doing PI, or doing an unpaid gig.

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:As a Santa Clara 2L, I can tell you that you will not get recognized in DC. If you want to practice in CA, Hastings would be the better choice. About 20-25% of the Santa Clara 2Ls this year have an SA gig at a firm that has over 100+ employees (some even cracked V10). The rest are either working in-house, doing PI, or doing an unpaid gig.

Where is that stat from? That's a pretty solid number.

DwightSchruteFarms wrote: About 20-25% of the Santa Clara 2Ls this year have an SA gig at a firm that has over 100+ employees (some even cracked V10).

If this is accurate, and I suspect that it is not, then Santa Clara is nearly doubling the SA placement rate of Hastings.

It's a very rough estimate to be honest. Coming to think about, its probably lower. But I personally know close to 15 people that are working at large firms this summer. I'm assuming that I don't know everyone that has.

Let me re-state my previous statement: Maybe 10-15%.

Even in good years, Santa Clara has historically placed 5-10% of its classes in large firms. A large fraction of those are probably IP. I'd be thoroughly surprised if the 100+ firm hiring rate out of Santa Clara is anything higher than 5% at present.

Mick Haller wrote: I'd be thoroughly surprised if the 100+ firm hiring rate out of Santa Clara is anything higher than 5% at present.

That is probably not true. I agree I may have grossly overstated the figure in my previous post, but I am fairly confident that the figure lies at 10%

You need to also take into account many of the part-time students that are already working at large firms as an IP agent, etc.

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:It's a very rough estimate to be honest. Coming to think about, its probably lower. But I personally know close to 15 people that are working at large firms this summer. I'm assuming that I don't know everyone that has.

Let me re-state my previous statement: Maybe 10-15%.

what you are failing to consider is the sampling bias... by the same line of reasoning, i can assume you care about your schoolwork if you consult TLS, and assume you "personally know" more people whom share those same interests.

OP - if you just want to work in CA and would be happy at a smaller firm, you should consider the SoCal T2s like Loyola and USD. Both are fairly generous with scholarships, and both are better values in my opinion than either Hastings or Santa Clara.

Yes both LLS and USD place top 1/3 restrictions on their scholarships, but if you cannot make top 1/3 at those schools, you should be prepared to drop out.

If on the other hand, you have bigger ambitions and want to work in a prestigious firm or government job, you need to retake the LSAT.

you think USD is a better value than Hastings at around the same price?

jigglebottom wrote:you think USD is a better value than Hastings at around the same price?

University of San Diego? Even worse, probably

Bronck wrote:

jigglebottom wrote:you think USD is a better value than Hastings at around the same price?

University of San Diego? Even worse, probably

my bad i was responding to the previous poster above.

hastings is an amazing school, UC prestige and has always been tier 1 school, but probably not gonna get u to DC though

Jah'rakal wrote:hastings is an amazing school, UC prestige and has always been tier 1 school, but probably not gonna get u to DC though

Trololol. UC prestige? What does that even mean?