Top Law Schools

I understand that the two biggest questions for those in at the high T-14s are

1. Am I gunning for a unicorn job?
2. Am I willing to take on a ton of debt?

When those are resolved, what questions should I be asking?

I've got

3. Grading system
4. Ability to take classes outside of law school

Ironically, Spivey just wrote a blog about the exact process students use to choose their law school here. Might be a good place to start, but I'd say location and the alumni network of the school would be the next two: you want to enjoy where you're going to be and you want a strong network to fall back on post-school.

I'll second that location is the next most important thing to consider (by a pretty large margin, I think).

The grading system is not that important, since even schools with HH's and P's and whatnot still rank students in some way and you still need to do well relative to your peers to get the fanciest jobs. (If you are going to take the way a school grades into account, you should look at whether legal writing is graded or not. Graded legal writing is gross.)

Taking classes outside school can be good for people with certain career paths and gaps in pre-law school education, but that's probably part of the larger consideration of the programs offered by the school, the breadth of the course offerings available, the quality of the professors, the clinics, etc.

most of this is about degree, decisions aren't binary. the "unicorn jobs" aren't available at one school and not another. they are slightly more viable for a limited slice of the class at one school than a similarly limited slice at another. the delta in debt has to remain consistent with the actual delta in opportunity (which is usually negligible within a range of schools).

k5220 wrote:I'll second that location is the next most important thing to consider (by a pretty large margin, I think).

The grading system is not that important, since even schools with HH's and P's and whatnot still rank students in some way and you still need to do well relative to your peers to get the fanciest jobs. (If you are going to take the way a school grades into account, you should look at whether legal writing is graded or not. Graded legal writing is gross.)

Taking classes outside school can be good for people with certain career paths and gaps in pre-law school education, but that's probably part of the larger consideration of the programs offered by the school, the breadth of the course offerings available, the quality of the professors, the clinics, etc.

Stanford and Yale don't rank their students in any way.

abl wrote:

k5220 wrote:I'll second that location is the next most important thing to consider (by a pretty large margin, I think).

The grading system is not that important, since even schools with HH's and P's and whatnot still rank students in some way and you still need to do well relative to your peers to get the fanciest jobs. (If you are going to take the way a school grades into account, you should look at whether legal writing is graded or not. Graded legal writing is gross.)

Taking classes outside school can be good for people with certain career paths and gaps in pre-law school education, but that's probably part of the larger consideration of the programs offered by the school, the breadth of the course offerings available, the quality of the professors, the clinics, etc.

Stanford and Yale don't rank their students in any way.

Yeah, and Penn doesn't give GPAs!!!

all schools rank, they just don't admit it.

Fred Norris wrote:I understand that the two biggest questions for those in at the high T-14s are

1. Am I gunning for a unicorn job?
2. Am I willing to take on a ton of debt?

When those are resolved, what questions should I be asking?

I've got

3. Grading system
4. Ability to take classes outside of law school

The schools that allow you unicorn jobs are almost exactly coterminous with the ones that have mushy grade systems. This is not a coincidence. So those are not two separate questions.
Taking classes outside of the law school is nice but shouldn't be even a small part of your decision.
Fit is more important than everything except debt/jobs and you don't mention it.

In order of importance:

1. Cost
2. Employment Score
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3. Location
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4. Access to "unicorn-e" jobs
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5. Graded vs. Ungraded LRW