Top Law Schools

So I'm looking at Duke with 15k a year, Vandy with 25k a year plus a summer stipend, and GULC at sticker. Debt isn't really an issue, as my parents have graciously agreed to pay all costs, but I included the offers for comparative purposes. I'm a Nashville native, but I'm not entirely sure where I want to practice yet. Interests would be Politics/Clerkships/Big Law in that order. Duke is obviously the best school, but GULC's location in DC is superb, and it would allow me to continue expanding my existing network there.

For me, it basically comes down to DC's location versus Duke's program versus Vandy's Nashville ties. Kind of curious for everyone else's input, particularly in Duke's ability to forge connections in DC.

Thanks for the help.

wildcat69410 wrote:So I'm looking at Duke with 15k a year, Vandy with 25k a year plus a summer stipend, and GULC at sticker. Debt isn't really an issue, as my parents have graciously agreed to pay all costs, but I included the offers for comparative purposes. I'm a Nashville native, but I'm not entirely sure where I want to practice yet. Interests would be Politics/Clerkships/Big Law in that order. Duke is obviously the best school, but GULC's location in DC is superb, and it would allow me to continue expanding my existing network there.

For me, it basically comes down to DC's location versus Duke's program versus Vandy's Nashville ties. Kind of curious for everyone else's input, particularly in Duke's ability to forge connections in DC.

Thanks for the help.

Duke is excellent for DC (even has a Duke in DC program). So, I would do either Duke or Vandy in this case.

Duke has the best clerkship placement and the best biglaw placement out of the three. It also has the Duke in DC program that allows you to spend a semester in DC working for an organization. Thus, after 1L, you could spend almost half your time in DC if you are able to land DC summer gigs both summers.

Also, if all you are interested in is politics and forging connections in DC, why don't you simply move to DC and do so? You don't need to be in law school to do that. HTH.

GULC is not even an option here..

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I'll add that you shouldn't bank on getting a firm job in Nashville even though you're a native -- I speak from experience. If you want a biglaw job, you should pick Duke.

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IMO, it's between Duke and Duke. I chose Duke, but I can certainly see arguments for Duke.

NoodleyOne wrote:IMO, it's between Duke and Duke. I chose Duke, but I can certainly see arguments for Duke.

Haha, there seems to be a pretty severe slant against GULC on these boards. I feel like I rarely see arguments in favor of Georgetown in any situation. Is it their size? LST's score reports suggest Duke sends a higher percentage of their students to Big Law and Federal Clerkship placements, but if Georgetown's class size is over twice the size of Duke's, wouldn't that mean GULC is sending a larger number of students towards both of those vocations?

I guess I'm saying that I get that Duke is likely the better program, but I'm a little surprised about how clear-cut of a choice everyone is making it to be.

wildcat69410 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:IMO, it's between Duke and Duke. I chose Duke, but I can certainly see arguments for Duke.

Haha, there seems to be a pretty severe slant against GULC on these boards. I feel like I rarely see arguments in favor of Georgetown in any situation. Is it their size? LST's score reports suggest Duke sends a higher percentage of their students to Big Law and Federal Clerkship placements, but if Georgetown's class size is over twice the size of Duke's, wouldn't that mean GULC is sending a larger number of students towards both of those vocations?

I guess I'm saying that I get that Duke is likely the better program, but I'm a little surprised about how clear-cut of a choice everyone is making it to be.

Why is the raw number remotely relevant??? It's all about any given student's chances at those outcomes.

WokeUpInACar wrote:

wildcat69410 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:IMO, it's between Duke and Duke. I chose Duke, but I can certainly see arguments for Duke.

Haha, there seems to be a pretty severe slant against GULC on these boards. I feel like I rarely see arguments in favor of Georgetown in any situation. Is it their size? LST's score reports suggest Duke sends a higher percentage of their students to Big Law and Federal Clerkship placements, but if Georgetown's class size is over twice the size of Duke's, wouldn't that mean GULC is sending a larger number of students towards both of those vocations?

I guess I'm saying that I get that Duke is likely the better program, but I'm a little surprised about how clear-cut of a choice everyone is making it to be.

Why is the raw number remotely relevant??? It's all about any given student's chances at those outcomes.

I guess I'm questioning whether or not GULC has the capacity to send its students to a greater number of Big Law firms or Clerkships (not necessarily substantiated by the LST data, just a question I'm raising). In other words, is Duke's higher placement numbers influenced by its smaller class size? Or does it legitimately provide a clearly superior education and job placement program to GULC?

Again, I totally get the idea that Duke is the superior program. I'm just surprised that the verdict has been so one-sided so far given GULC's relative proximity to Duke in the rankings.

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wildcat69410 wrote:

WokeUpInACar wrote:

wildcat69410 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:IMO, it's between Duke and Duke. I chose Duke, but I can certainly see arguments for Duke.

Haha, there seems to be a pretty severe slant against GULC on these boards. I feel like I rarely see arguments in favor of Georgetown in any situation. Is it their size? LST's score reports suggest Duke sends a higher percentage of their students to Big Law and Federal Clerkship placements, but if Georgetown's class size is over twice the size of Duke's, wouldn't that mean GULC is sending a larger number of students towards both of those vocations?

I guess I'm saying that I get that Duke is likely the better program, but I'm a little surprised about how clear-cut of a choice everyone is making it to be.

Why is the raw number remotely relevant??? It's all about any given student's chances at those outcomes.

I guess I'm questioning whether or not GULC has the capacity to send its students to a greater number of Big Law firms or Clerkships (not necessarily substantiated by the LST data, just a question I'm raising). In other words, is Duke's higher placement numbers influenced by its smaller class size? Or does it legitimately provide a clearly superior education and job placement program to GULC?

Again, I totally get the idea that Duke is the superior program. I'm just surprised that the verdict has been so one-sided so far given GULC's relative proximity to Duke in the rankings.

Rankings are shit. Your chance at getting a (good) job are what's important, and at Duke your chances are better than at GULC.

Why are people voting for GULC? It's not that I hate GULC or anything but it's clearly not the first choice in this situation.

wildcat69410 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:IMO, it's between Duke and Duke. I chose Duke, but I can certainly see arguments for Duke.

Haha, there seems to be a pretty severe slant against GULC on these boards. I feel like I rarely see arguments in favor of Georgetown in any situation. Is it their size? LST's score reports suggest Duke sends a higher percentage of their students to Big Law and Federal Clerkship placements, but if Georgetown's class size is over twice the size of Duke's, wouldn't that mean GULC is sending a larger number of students towards both of those vocations?

I guess I'm saying that I get that Duke is likely the better program, but I'm a little surprised about how clear-cut of a choice everyone is making it to be.

This is why lawyers aren't usually asked to do math. If my state school takes in 20k undergrads and sends 5k of them off to good jobs while the other 15k are working as check-out cashiers and mcdonald's fry cooks, that doesn't make it better than the private school that takes in 2k students and sends 1800 of them off to good jobs.

wildcat69410 wrote:

WokeUpInACar wrote:

wildcat69410 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:IMO, it's between Duke and Duke. I chose Duke, but I can certainly see arguments for Duke.

Haha, there seems to be a pretty severe slant against GULC on these boards. I feel like I rarely see arguments in favor of Georgetown in any situation. Is it their size? LST's score reports suggest Duke sends a higher percentage of their students to Big Law and Federal Clerkship placements, but if Georgetown's class size is over twice the size of Duke's, wouldn't that mean GULC is sending a larger number of students towards both of those vocations?

I guess I'm saying that I get that Duke is likely the better program, but I'm a little surprised about how clear-cut of a choice everyone is making it to be.

Why is the raw number remotely relevant??? It's all about any given student's chances at those outcomes.

I guess I'm questioning whether or not GULC has the capacity to send its students to a greater number of Big Law firms or Clerkships (not necessarily substantiated by the LST data, just a question I'm raising). In other words, is Duke's higher placement numbers influenced by its smaller class size? Or does it legitimately provide a clearly superior education and job placement program to GULC?

Again, I totally get the idea that Duke is the superior program. I'm just surprised that the verdict has been so one-sided so far given GULC's relative proximity to Duke in the rankings.

GULC gets major hate on these boards because of their lackluster placement/employment data. Even Cornell which has more lax entrance medians than GULC and is also at the bottom of the T14 places much better. From an overall standpoint Berk/UVA on down to Cornell are fairly similar and decisions between them should be based primarily on location and financial aid. GULC, likely at least in part due to their enormous size, does significantly worse.

I mean it's still a good school overall and can be a good decision depending on the circumstance imo. But there is zero reason ever to attend GULC over a significantly superior school with more aid (Duke).

wildcat69410 wrote:

WokeUpInACar wrote:

wildcat69410 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:IMO, it's between Duke and Duke. I chose Duke, but I can certainly see arguments for Duke.

Haha, there seems to be a pretty severe slant against GULC on these boards. I feel like I rarely see arguments in favor of Georgetown in any situation. Is it their size? LST's score reports suggest Duke sends a higher percentage of their students to Big Law and Federal Clerkship placements, but if Georgetown's class size is over twice the size of Duke's, wouldn't that mean GULC is sending a larger number of students towards both of those vocations?

I guess I'm saying that I get that Duke is likely the better program, but I'm a little surprised about how clear-cut of a choice everyone is making it to be.

Why is the raw number remotely relevant??? It's all about any given student's chances at those outcomes.

I guess I'm questioning whether or not GULC has the capacity to send its students to a greater number of Big Law firms or Clerkships (not necessarily substantiated by the LST data, just a question I'm raising). In other words, is Duke's higher placement numbers influenced by its smaller class size? Or does it legitimately provide a clearly superior education and job placement program to GULC?

Again, I totally get the idea that Duke is the superior program. I'm just surprised that the verdict has been so one-sided so far given GULC's relative proximity to Duke in the rankings.

Who the hell cares if it is the result of a smaller class size or of superior instruction? Law school is not to teach you things, it is to find a job.

If you want to live in DC and go into politics why do you have to spend 250K of your parents money to buy a degree that is not a sure fire ticket to what you want? Why not ask your parents for 75K to live on in DC and just get a job with a senator or something? I think you're just as likely (if not more so) to get what you want but tons of money will be saved in the process.

If you want to be a lawyer then I think Duke is a no brainer.

I would say Vandy for southern markets, Duke for all others. Sucks, but the best thing you can do is make an attempt to figure out where you want to be before you choose.

Who the hell cares if it is the result of a smaller class size or of superior instruction? Law school is not to teach you things, it is to find a job.

At least you are honest.