Notre Dame v. Chicago/Penn/UVA Forum

[JD116]

Is it much easier to place in the top 10 students at Notre Dame than to place in the top 10% at C/P/U? Trying to gauge best positioning for federal clerkship.

[cron1834]

[Mullens]

I agree with the poster above that this question is ridiculous, but I think it's hard to know why as a 0L. The difference between the quality of students at Notre Dame and the T14 is marginal at best. Your (completely unpredictable) ability to be good at law schools exams, which are really a skill and have little correlation to overall intelligence, is likely static. Therefore, any arguments of how it's easier to be in X% at one school and Y% at another school have little merit. This is especially true when the schools are similar in the rankings. At the extremes, this is more arguable, but not between schools similar in the rankings.

Ability to succeed on timed law school exams is impossible to know as a 0L. This reality doesn't hit most students until they get their first set of grades back, but it's the reason many people say you should assume median for outcomes. Wanting to get a federal clerkship is a strange goal to have as a 0L because I'd probably question how a 0L already knows they want to clerk. If that's how you're determined to make your decision, then you should just pick the school with the highest clerkship percentage/lowest cost.

[cron1834]

That is a good and accurate post.

[kalvano]

Is it much easier to place in the top 10 students at Notre Dame than to place in the top 10% at C/P/U? Trying to gauge best positioning for federal clerkship.

You're choosing your school based on the random odds of getting a temporary job? That seems like an odd choice.

[jbagelboy]

ND will not have the same concentration of very high achieving students as Chicago/Penn/UVA, but its impossible to predict how well you will perform on law school exams so you can't count on placing any higher in your class. Regardless, whatever unknown bump you receive in class rank at ND would be overwhelmingly negated by the superior placement power into positions such as federal clerkships at those national schools.