Top Law Schools

Let's put cost out of the equation.

Comparing solely on:

1. BigLaw Employability in its respective region compared to its competitor schools.
2. Overall Employment Rate upon graduation (assuming No Ties at either school - I'm from California)
3. Median Salary for fresh grads (Private Sector)
4. Name Value/Brand Portability
5. Campus aesthetics (I care about this)
6. Competition among students (the less the better)


Which one wins?

CPAlawHopefu wrote:Let's put cost out of the equation.

Comparing solely on:

1. BigLaw Employability in its respective region compared to its competitor schools.
2. Overall Employment Rate upon graduation (assuming No Ties at either school - I'm from California)
3. Median Salary for fresh grads (Private Sector)
4. Name Value/Brand Portability
5. Campus aesthetics (I care about this)
6. Competition among students (the less the better)


Which one wins?

1 through 3 can be found through employment data and LST.
4- depends on the specific region.UIUC would carry more weight in the Midwest, UNC in the Southeast.
5- completely subjective. What is appealing to one eye, may not be to another eye.
6- This is could potentially be answered by a current student or recent alum, however it would be anecdotal.

1. 29% at UIUC, 25% UNC (biglaw + fed clerkships)
2. 64% at UIUC, 68% UNC (non-school funded, long term, full time, bar passage jobs)
3. Probably won't get a meaningful figure here due to the lack of consistent reporting from grads. Like everywhere else, expect something like 40-60K small law and 120-160K biglaw.
4. Probably the same. Their JDs will be well respected in-state and out, but portability outside of IL/NC will be relatively low.
5. Don't konw
6. Don't know

Re #1, UNC does pretty well with in-state "biglaw," but NC biglaw is pretty tough to get, speaking as one at an NC Law school with no NC ties. If you don't have any ties to the region or good grades, biglaw will be difficult. Also biglaw here generally pays less than biglaw in Chicago (120s/130s vs. 160). Cost of living is better most places, but just FYI.

Basically, you probably shouldn't go to either without ties and a strong desire to work in that state. If not, pick which state you'd rather live in.

The stuff you care about either doesn't matter or doesn't apply to these schools, and the stuff you don't care about matters a lot.

You need to make a pretty big shift in priorities and focus before law school can remotely start making sense.

If you want big law, go to a T14. Don't go to random regional schools in areas you don't have ties to unless you have a super strong/reason to do so. Medians aren't necessarily all that representative of anything. Neither has portability and whatever you mean by brand doesn't really matter. The campus and the students don't really matter that much, if anything it should be way, way down the list of considerations (such as getting the job you want in the place you want for an appropriate price).