Mich (148k) Vs Duke (140k) Vs Texas (78k) Vs Other Forum

[09042014]

The difference between Duke and Texas for Texas placement is that 1L offers go out to Duke students before first semester grades are released while for UT hiring isn't done until a few weeks into second semester. This gives Texans at Duke a huge advantage, since you can possibly be below median and still score a 1L SA (which likely will turn into a 2L SA and so on).

Since you're IP, though, this whole discussion is moot. Grades are pretty much irrelevant for IP hiring. Maybe you can reach out to people on the IP journal at UT to see if they can give you more specific info.

Grades for IP aren't really irrelevant, especially if he wants patent lit as he said. Top lit firms absolutely care. But I'm guessing he'll do fine even with below average grades. I'm not sure how valuable BS physics is for patent prosecution, but I'd imagine the 4.0 there really helps. I think he'd probably find some kind of prosecution job from UT even with shit grades.

When OP is making 160K in Dallas or Houston with only 80K in debt, he'll be styling on my ass for sure.

[Blessedassurance]

Out of all V&E's offices in the state of Texas, there are exactly 2 students from Duke who graduated after 2009. One of them is fluent in mandarin.

http://www.velaw.com/lawyers/lawyersear ... p=&id=1134

Out of Baker Botts' offices in the state of texas (houston, austin, dallas), there are exactly 7 duke graduates who graduated after 2009 (that means for the years 2010 through 2012). A lot of those 7 graduated with very good grades. One girl graduated top 5%.

you're probably better off going to duke, mainly because it will/might make you relatively more competitive for other markets. however, people on this site like to throw around "advice" which is mainly based on absolutely nothing but a hunch. this is compounded by oL's and others merely repeating what others have said. conduct your own research and rely on facts more than opinions.

note i: the above excludes people who copped tx biglaw but went somewhere else but there is no reliable way to capture that information.

note ii: i'm not telling you to go to texas., or duke for that matter

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Out of all V&E's offices in the state of Texas, there are exactly 2 students from Duke who graduated after 2009. One of them is fluent in mandarin.

http://www.velaw.com/lawyers/lawyersear ... p=&id=1134

Out of Baker Botts' offices in the state of texas (houston, austin, dallas), there are exactly 7 duke graduates who graduated after 2009 (that means for the years 2010 through 2012). A lot of those 7 graduated with very good grades. One girl graduated top 5%.

you're probably better off going to duke, mainly because it will/might make you relatively more competitive for other markets. however, people on this site like to throw around "advice" which is mainly based on absolutely nothing but a hunch. this is compounded by oL's and others merely repeating what others have said. conduct your own research and rely on facts more than opinions.

note i: the above excludes people who copped tx biglaw but went somewhere else but there is no reliable way to capture that information.

note ii: i'm not telling you to go to texas., or duke for that matter

Just giving numbers of graduates in various TX offices isn't very helpful, especially for class of 2010 and 2011. I told OP that if he wants to work in TX choose UT with less debt, but I feel pretty comfortable stating that most TX firms will go deeper into Duke's class than UT's class. This is based on conversations I had with people on hiring committees about UVA and other top schools in general, and the backgrounds of other SAs I was around from other schools. Of course I can't provide hard data of this, but I think the only way to get this sort of info would be to talk to hiring partners from all the different TX firms. All that said, I don't think that trade-off is worth 60K, but that's just my personal opinion.

[Blessedassurance]

Just giving numbers of graduates in various TX offices isn't very helpful, especially for class of 2010 and 2011. I told OP that if he wants to work in TX choose UT with less debt, but I feel pretty comfortable stating that most TX firms will go deeper into Duke's class than UT's class. This is based on conversations I had with people on hiring committees about UVA and other top schools in general, and the backgrounds of other SAs I was around from other schools. Of course I can't provide hard data of this, but I think the only way to get this sort of info would be to talk to hiring partners from all the different TX firms. All that said, I don't think that trade-off is worth 60K, but that's just my personal opinion.

how is your "anecdote" more relevant than facts on the firms' own websites, and what do you mean by "especially 2010 and 2011"? ignoring the fact that relying on pre-2007 stats is not very informative, i posted entire numbers so one can sift through. in fact, v&e has 16 people working there who graduated from duke period, including partners, and independent of year of graduation, in the entire world, not just texas.

individuals on hiring committees may have told you one thing, and the truth of their assertion is not being doubted, but the hiring committee also almost always assures the applicants they reject that their credentials were quite impressive, and wish them luck in their legal career.

[BigZuck]

Of all large firms that hire Duke grads, Baker Botts hires the 4th highest percentage.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Just giving numbers of graduates in various TX offices isn't very helpful, especially for class of 2010 and 2011. I told OP that if he wants to work in TX choose UT with less debt, but I feel pretty comfortable stating that most TX firms will go deeper into Duke's class than UT's class. This is based on conversations I had with people on hiring committees about UVA and other top schools in general, and the backgrounds of other SAs I was around from other schools. Of course I can't provide hard data of this, but I think the only way to get this sort of info would be to talk to hiring partners from all the different TX firms. All that said, I don't think that trade-off is worth 60K, but that's just my personal opinion.

how is your "anecdote" more relevant than facts on the firms' own websites, and what do you mean by "especially 2010 and 2011"? ignoring the fact that relying on pre-2007 stats is not very informative, i posted entire numbers so one can sift through. in fact, v&e has 16 people working there who graduated from duke period, including partners, and independent of year of graduation, in the entire world, not just texas.

individuals on hiring committees may have told you one thing, and the truth of their assertion is not being doubted, but the hiring committee also almost always assures the applicants they reject that their credentials were quite impressive, and wish them luck in their legal career.

Because your facts don't provide any sort of useful context--like how many Duke students wanted to work at those TX firms and did those Duke students ends up at other top TX firms? And 2010 and 2011 aren't very helpful data points for current legal hiring since 2010 was the no-offer class and 2011 was the barely-hiring class.

The individuals on hiring committees I talked to were either 1) before law school--so they had little incentive to sell me a certain story or 2) an SA firm--so their incentive would probably be to tell me how great UT is, not that they go deeper at T14 schools.

[Aawaldrop]

Just want to thank everyone for their input. I have decided I will be attending Duke and have sent my deposit!

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Just want to thank everyone for their input. I have decided I will be attending Duke and have sent my deposit!

But the correct answer was UT! (I kid...sort of.)

In any case, congrats and best of luck at Duke.

[BigZuck]

Just want to thank everyone for their input. I have decided I will be attending Duke and have sent my deposit!

But the correct answer was UT! (I kid...sort of.)

In any case, congrats and best of luck at Duke.

+1 on the congrats. Our choices were very similar and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little jelly of your decision. Good luck!

[Aawaldrop]

Just want to thank everyone for their input. I have decided I will be attending Duke and have sent my deposit!

But the correct answer was UT! (I kid...sort of.)

In any case, congrats and best of luck at Duke.

+1 on the congrats. Our choices were very similar and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little jelly of your decision. Good luck!

Thanks there was a lot that went into the decision but immediately after I realized I made the right decision for me.