Top Law Schools

Fine men and women of TLS. I would like your input.

Landscape:

Duke - $66.7K total scholarship
Mich- $66.7K total scholarship
Northwestern: $90k total shcolarship

Career goals:

Clerking = Biglaw > Cinnabon Guy

Preferences:

From CA with strong LA ties. Ideally I would like to make it back here, but landing a good job overall is more important than landing LA which is why USC with 100k is off the table. Duke has been placing better overall as of late, but Mich is still putting up respectable numbers and seems like it will make getting back to CA easier (citing: placement precedent, alumni base, number of CA firms at OCI). Visited Mich and loved it. Debating visiting Duke contingent partly upon TLS consensus.

That is all. Fire away.

ETA: Negotiations also forthcoming

ETAAA: NU at 90k

megagnarley wrote:Fine men and women of TLS. I would like your input.

Landscape:

Duke - $66.7K total scholarship
Mich- $66.7K total scholarship

Career goals:

Clerking = Biglaw > Cinnabon Guy

Preferences:

From CA with strong LA ties. Ideally I would like to make it back here, but landing a good job overall is more important than landing LA which is why USC with 100k is off the table. Duke has been placing better overall as of late, but Mich is still putting up respectable numbers and seems like it will make getting back to CA easier (citing: placement precedent, alumni base, number of CA firms at OCI). Visited Mich and loved it. Debating visiting Duke contingent partly upon TLS consensus.

That is all. Fire away.

ETA: Negotiations also forthcoming

Since the two options are so similar, I would definitely recommend visiting Duke since you're pretty much choosing between QOL at this point. With that being said I think Duke and Michigan offer fairly different, although both awesome, options in that regard.

IMO pick whichever school you feel more comfortable at, unless you really want to get back to Cali in which case you should pick Michigan for the reasons you already cited.

Are these your only T14 options? No Berkeley or Northwestern?

Duke. Outperforming Michigan in employment numbers and better weather.

Idk but whichever one you choose I'll take the other

visit Duke next week, and get back to us with your reactions.

Samara wrote:Are these your only T14 options? No Berkeley or Northwestern?

Northwestern is in but I'm not sure with how much $$. I'd somewhat prefer not to love in a big city during school.

Also, in regards to cold weather, I don't mind one bit.

Duke gives out a re-reimbursement for visiting over ASW. Go visit and then decide. I did hear that Michigan places better than Duke in CA but it is on my list of things to verify for myself as well.

Go to wherever you are the most comfortable. They are close enough in numbers for it to be a purely personal decision, though Duke might be slightly better.

curious66 wrote:Duke gives out a re-reimbursement for visiting over ASW. Go visit and then decide. I did hear that Michigan places better than Duke in CA but it is on my list of things to verify for myself as well.

They do but its only $350 and the cost of the trip is closer to $700 total.

Might have to just swallow the cost.

Seems like consensus is that it's just a 'quality of life' question.

From what I've heard, Michigan has better portability back to LA, while Duke has somewhat better biglaw numbers on the east coast.

Since you want to return to LA, I'd say Michigan.

jbagelboy wrote:From what I've heard, Michigan has better portability back to LA, while Duke has somewhat better biglaw numbers on the east coast.

Since you want to return to LA, I'd say Michigan.

I'm not sure this is true. The biglaw numbers are very different. Michigan is strong for PI but Duke is significantly ahead in biglaw placement, enough to justify going to Duke for law school.

Go to whichever you like more. At equal cost, they are peer schools. Duke's got better placement overall but MI probably places better in CA so I consider it a wash.

One word: Duke
You'll thank yourself as you enjoy the weather.

mr.hands wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:From what I've heard, Michigan has better portability back to LA, while Duke has somewhat better biglaw numbers on the east coast.

Since you want to return to LA, I'd say Michigan.

I'm not sure this is true. The biglaw numbers are very different. Michigan is strong for PI but Duke is significantly ahead in biglaw placement, enough to justify going to Duke for law school.

If Mich is appreciably stronger for PI than couldn't you assume there is an appreciable difference in people who self select into PI making the % difference in Biglaw placement ability less significant?

rickgrimes69 wrote:Go to whichever you like more. At equal cost, they are peer schools. Duke's got better placement overall but MI probably places better in CA so I consider it a wash.

jbagelboy wrote:From what I've heard, Michigan has better portability back to LA, while Duke has somewhat better biglaw numbers on the east coast.

Since you want to return to LA, I'd say Michigan.

This seems to be the slight majority consensus.

FWIW, after looking at both as well, Michigans LRAP appears markedly stronger.

Not a game changer, but certainly worth noting.

StylinNProfilin wrote:Duke. Outperforming Michigan in employment numbers and much better weather.

Credited.

Renne Walker wrote:

StylinNProfilin wrote:Duke. Outperforming Michigan in employment numbers and much better weather.

Credited.

Truth. Without a doubt.

But as stated previously, weather is a non-issue.

Voted Duke as well because of superior placement recently. Michigan is a great school but I think their class size hurts them. Duke knows what it is doing with that tiny class. I would also think that the fact that you are competing with less classmates (in sheer number volume, not neccessarily percentage) could potentially give you a leg up for CA big law. Large firms like school diversity from what I understand and Duke grads are relatively rare. But if significantly more firms go to Michigan OCI versus Duke OCI then maybe Michigan is easily the better choice for CA big law.

BigZuck wrote:Voted Duke as well because of superior placement recently. Michigan is a great school but I think their class size hurts them. Duke knows what it is doing with that tiny class. I would also think that the fact that you are competing with less classmates (in sheer number volume, not neccessarily percentage) could potentially give you a leg up for CA big law. Large firms like school diversity from what I understand and Duke grads are relatively rare. But if significantly more firms go to Michigan OCI versus Duke OCI then maybe Michigan is easily the better choice for CA big law.

I agree small class has educational advantages, but the "small class = less competition" is not necessarily credited for employment. Look at Harvard and Columbia. Larger class = larger alumni network, which nets the benefits of less on-campus grind. As an LA native, the last sentence is true of the region, and in addition, attorneys here have Michigan in their orbit since there are grads practicing, whereas despite Duke's elite name recognition, there's just not as much of a network.

megagnarley wrote:FWIW, after looking at both as well, Michigans LRAP appears markedly stronger.

Not a game changer, but certainly worth noting.

This would push me toward mich, knowing what I know now.

Anything change if I now throw in Northwestern with 90k?

megagnarley wrote:Anything change if I now throw in Northwestern with 90k?

NU and don't look back

COA might end up being similar though, since NU's tuition is significantly more expensive, and COL is probably like 5K a year higher maybe?

I would take NU over D and M for CA big law. Or, big law period.