Top Law Schools

Hi all, TLS has been invaluable during my LSAT prep and application process. I would really appreciate any insight (I'm pretty torn between my options).

The schools you are considering:
Michigan (Total COA) = $45,000
Northwestern (Total COA) = $53,000

I'm still waiting on final scholarship information from Penn and Duke, and waiting on decisions from NYU and Columbia.

How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings?
I will be splitting the total cost with my parents.

Other considerations:
I have two years of not especially impressive WE. From my understanding, Michigan has better PI/Gov placement while Northwestern places better into Biglaw. I think I would be happy in both Ann Arbor and Chicago.

My goals (I'm from SF):
1. SF PI/Gov/legal services
2. SF Biglaw
3. Asia Biglaw

While I would really prefer PI/Gov/legal services, my main concern is securing any legal job after graduating.

Thanks!

No applications to Berkeley or Stanford?

And what's your LSAT/UGPA?

I don't think either of these schools will have a significant advantage over the other in terms of your goals. Visit each and go where you like it better.

Since I imagine SF placement is low and close to the same @ both, the better question is would you be more comfortable with NY or Chi as your fallback market?

Shortterm12 wrote:Hi all, TLS has been invaluable during my LSAT prep and application process. I would really appreciate any insight (I'm pretty torn between my options).

The schools you are considering:
Michigan (Total COA) = $45,000
Northwestern (Total COA) = $53,000

I'm still waiting on final scholarship information from Penn and Duke, and waiting on decisions from NYU and Columbia.

How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings?
I will be splitting the total cost with my parents.

Other considerations:
I have two years of not especially impressive WE. From my understanding, Michigan has better PI/Gov placement while Northwestern places better into Biglaw. I think I would be happy in both Ann Arbor and Chicago.

My goals (I'm from SF):
1. SF PI/Gov/legal services
2. SF Biglaw
3. Asia Biglaw

While I would really prefer PI/Gov/legal services, my main concern is securing any legal job after graduating.

Thanks!

Did you hear from Berk? If you got into Berk and the COA were close that would be your best bet for SF outside of S. NU probably is a slightly safer bet for big law, but since COA is similar between the two I would just pick the school you like more

transferror wrote:Since I imagine SF placement is low and close to the same @ both, the better question is would you be more comfortable with NY or Chi as your fallback market?

I don't know if that would change the equation either, since NU and Mich would probably be able to get OP into Chicago and NY at about the same rate.

They would be able to get OP into NYC at close the same rate, but Mich is 18% vs. just under 15% for NU. But for Chi, NU is almost 40% Illinois (I realize some of this isn't biglaw or even Chicago) vs. 12.6% for Mich.

And actually, it looks like NU has a 10.5% Cali placement, which is surprisingly high. UM wasn't even listed, but it said 46% of employment was in unknown locations. UM's website says they've placed 75 grads in CA firms from class of 09-12. I guess that's comparable to ≈ 10%.

They're both going to place about the same percent in CA (10-15 percent each year). Visit both schools and figure out which you like better. They've got very different atmospheres. NU is in the middle of Chicago. Michigan is on Michigan's campus. It's unlikely stats are going to make this decision easier. Most of them are just noise.

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Between the two I would go NU. Seems to have better biglaw placement overall and neither would really be better for SF. Also NU gives you the an increased shot at Chicago as another market. Although be aware it's not a given, especially without ties.

Hapalawyer wrote:
I guess the only reason I am concerned with statistics is because NU seems to be placing quite a bit better in Biglaw, which could definitely be self-selection but I'm not sure.

Any other comments would be appreciated, thanks all!

I wouldn't worry too much about the big law placement difference. It's what, 10 percentage points? A big chunk of that is likely to be selection bias. There aren't any large firm in Detroit to speak of (a few over 100, but none far above that), and there are a good number of people who come to Michigan and want to stay in the state. The reality is that getting a biglaw job is going to be tough if you're at the bottom of either school, but if you're generally in the middle of the class, it shouldn't be too much of an issue, and if you're higher than that, you're set.

Especially in two years when the class size downshift and the grade curve bump have an impact, the stats for Michigan are likely to jump.

Neither of these gives you a realistic chance at sf biglaw. Retake.

Choose whichever you prefer. Failing that, flip a coin.

Michigan has pretty decent/strong PI placement and pretty decent California placement. The Cali placement is basically a wash, but I don't understand why all of these bros are saying you should lean on biglaw placement when your first choice is PI, which Michigan does a lot better than NU.

Do you speak any Asian languages? It's far from a guarantee, but I was actually shocked by how many people who spoke / spent time in Asia were incredibly successful at landing Asian biglaw through OCI (Mich). No reason to assume it isn't the same at NU, but I was just impressed that it was a realistic option given standard TLS wisdom.