Penn vs Columbia Employment Prospects Forum

[Michigan1442]

Everywhere I look, Penn's recent employment #s > Columbia's in terms of biglaw/fed clerkships...I have been accepted to both, and TLS cw seems to point me towards Columbia, but the numbers don't lie...not to mention Penn has a smaller class size and lower COL...so wouldn't it make more sense to go to Penn? Am I missing something here?

[BigZuck]

Relevant: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=206299

[Michigan1442]

I don't necessarily mean for me personally. I guess I am just wondering what the advantage of going to Columbia over Penn would be, assuming biglaw as a goal and no significant scholarships at play...other than being a T6, what does Columbia have to offer that Penn doesn't?

[BigZuck]

Oh, this is a hypo? Then just utilize the search function.

[jselson]

I don't necessarily mean for me personally. I guess I am just wondering what the advantage of going to Columbia over Penn would be, assuming biglaw as a goal and no significant scholarships at play...other than being a T6, what does Columbia have to offer that Penn doesn't?

Columbia students generally get more prestigious biglaw, while Penn folks are spread out over a wider range of biglaw firms, and some do Philadelphia biglaw.

At equal cost and NYC biglaw as a goal, Columbia is the clear winner between the two.

[Tiago Splitter]

Columbia places better into the most elite corporate firms. If that's not a big deal to you, and it probably shouldn't be, then Penn is a great option. At the same price just pick the location you prefer. Penn will probably give someone with a Columbia acceptance at least a small scholarship which makes it the easy choice.

[Michigan1442]

This is what I was wondering. Thanks. I was just surprised to see Penn's employment numbers being better than Columbia's, seeing that Columbia is the T6...but it makes sense that Columbia places into more prestigious biglaw. Whether or not the prestige of the biglaw firm actually matters is another question, but there are already threads on that debate. Going to try to choose based off of fit and $, although not gonna lie, it'd be hard to turn down Columbia.

[cotiger]

First of all, looking at a single year's worth of data is not something to draw hard and fast conclusions from. If you look at the average of the past three years, it's Columbia 73.4% vs. Penn 71.3%. Not really much of a difference, but it's inaccurate to say that Penn has better employment stats than Columbia.

Second, as previously noted, Columbia's biglaw distribution is more heavily weighed towards firms of 500+, while Penn has more of the 100-499 variety. No idea about the level of importance of this, but it is a difference.

Lastly, those who do not do biglaw/clerkships at Columbia often go into PI/Gov positions (12.6% vs 5.9% at Penn). These positions tend not to be just biglaw fallback options but are rather people on a totally different track. Penn, on the other hand, has more of their non-biglaw people end up in undesirable outcomes of being underemployed or in firms of 2-49 people (10.6% vs 6.8% at Columbia).

There's not a gigantic difference between the two, but Columbia does have an advantage.

[smaug_]

Columbia places better into the most elite corporate firms. If that's not a big deal to you, and it probably shouldn't be, then Penn is a great option. At the same price just pick the location you prefer. Penn will probably give someone with a Columbia acceptance at least a small scholarship which makes it the easy choice.

+1 unless Columbia throws you some aid randomly which case you're back to location preference.

[BigZuck]

This is what I was wondering. Thanks. I was just surprised to see Penn's employment numbers being better than Columbia's, seeing that Columbia is the T6...but it makes sense that Columbia places into more prestigious biglaw. Whether or not the prestige of the biglaw firm actually matters is another question, but there are already threads on that debate. Going to try to choose based off of fit and $, although not gonna lie, it'd be hard to turn down Columbia.

So this is not a hypo? I'm really confused.

In a vacuum Columbia is slightly better but there are tons of reasons to choose one over the other and no one can give you hard and fast answers without any context.

If Columbia would be hard to turn down just because of prestige or "It's Columbia" or whatever and that's what you care about then I agree, I would much rather be associated with a third world country than the Penn State football team.