Top Law Schools

Assuming money is not a factor, at what class rank levels are the employment outcomes differentiated between CC and SH?

I am under the assumption (and correct me if I'm wrong) that outcomes are about the same at median. Both will probably get you V100 somewhere, but not much else. Perhaps portability increases from SH?

At the bottom 10-20% is where SH outperform CC. At SH you can still get Biglaw, where you may be shut out at CC.

But what about the top 10-20%? Is it only academia and clerkship odds that increase at SH. And how substantially do they increase? What are the other benefits at being top of your class at SH as opposed to CC?

what's a cc

Im guessing Stanford Harvard (SH) versus Columbia Chicago (CC)

Big Law opportunities that come with top 10% at Columbia are pretty much exactly the same as those at that level from H/S. Obviously those schools have the advantage when it comes to clerkships/PI/academia, and maybe even in portability. But, seeing as NYC is THE place for big law, there really isn't anything surpassing Columbia when it comes to working there. As you said, HS grads from further down the ladder have opportunities that CCs at that level won't, but once you get into the top quarter the difference in big law is negligible.

I suspect that community college graduates have better outcomes than seton hall grads.

The median salary for the 65% of Seton Hall grads who do manage to get JD-required employment is $43K a year. I know high school dropouts who make that.

Bildungsroman wrote:I suspect that community college graduates have better outcomes than seton hall grads.

Tcr

Bildungsroman wrote:I suspect that community college graduates have better outcomes than seton hall grads.

I have always wondered if admin. from all of these TTT's come on TLS and see how everyone trashes their school.

Sorry for the confusing language. I eliminated Y and N because they aren't in my considerations at this time. Y especially might change the answer to my question as well so I left it off.

Besides Big Law, any advantages of being top 10-20% at SH instead of CC? What other opportunities are out there?

Can employers even tell you're top 10% at S?

is it really that hard to spell out stanford, yale, columbia, harvard, northwestern and cornell

cooldude87 wrote:is it really that hard to spell out stanford, yale, columbia, harvard, northwestern and cornell

n00b

Bildungsroman wrote:I suspect that community college graduates have better outcomes than seton hall grads.

cooldude87 wrote:is it really that hard to spell out stanford, yale, columbia, harvard, northwestern NYU and cornell Chicago

FTFY

cooldude87 wrote:is it really that hard to spell out stanford, yale, columbia, harvard, northwestern and cornell

notsureifserious.jpg

I'm going to guess excellent trolling.

lawsearcher wrote:Assuming money is not a factor, at what class rank levels are the employment outcomes differentiated between CC and SH?

I am under the assumption (and correct me if I'm wrong) that outcomes are about the same at median. Both will probably get you V100 somewhere, but not much else. Perhaps portability increases from SH?

At the bottom 10-20% is where SH outperform CC. At SH you can still get Biglaw, where you may be shut out at CC.

But what about the top 10-20%? Is it only academia and clerkship odds that increase at SH. And how substantially do they increase? What are the other benefits at being top of your class at SH as opposed to CC?

I'll take a quick stab, though you'd be better off asking actual students of these schools.

First of all, I really doubt median Stanford/Harvard kids only get random V100s. Median HYS grades is very likely sufficient (though not a guarantee) for V10 and DC firms, so if you care about that kind of stuff, that's a pretty significant difference. Outside of clerkships (which are a really big deal if you can get them), being toward the top of your class probably makes it easier to get DC or other tough markets at HS. Even in the NYC V10 the cutoffs are probably a little lower at HS than even Columbia (say top 33% rather than top 15-20% as a random guess). Again, I can't confirm that, but I'd imagine it's the case. Since the HS grades are less concrete, the cutoffs may also be more fluid than for Columbia or Chicago kids.
Finally, if you want to do PI, the difference is pretty huge. HYS grads have a much easier time getting attractive PI gigs than anyone else.

If your goal is NYC biglaw, no, there probably aren't substantial differences between top 10% at CC and at SH. SH should give you more geographic flexibility to go to the most competitive markets (DC / SF -- NYC is not the most competitive market), will give you a better shot at clerkships (which will help your biglaw career) and at prestigious PI and government, and will give you a better shot at academia. There probably is also some lifelong additional cachet that comes with SH versus CC, although I suspect it's minimal from a professional standpoint. It's also probably less stressful getting NYC biglaw from SH versus CC -- there's much less competition, as the top students at SH are generally not gunning for NYC biglaw (whereas the top students at Columbia, at least, more often are). That could lead to more options, although I suspect that your outcome will be very similar.