Thoughts on tiered system of top 50 Law Schools Forum

[BlendedUnicorn]

I mean I'm a little skeptical that your stated purpose is your real purpose due to your inclusion of 50 schools on the list.

E. but my substantive contribution is that regardless of employment outcomes I don't think gtown sees vandy et al as peer schools. Which doesn't mean that a much higher offer from one of those schools can't be used to negotiate with gtown (or any other t14 outside of his for that matter).

[lawschooltiers]

I mean I'm a little skeptical that your stated purpose is your real purpose due to your inclusion of 50 schools on the list.

E. but my substantive contribution is that regardless of employment outcomes I don't think gtown sees vandy et al as peer schools. Which doesn't mean that a much higher offer from one of those schools can't be used to negotiate with gtown (or any other t14 outside of his for that matter).

Got it, I felt Georgetown was a hard one to place and I honestly think their kind of right in between the Duke/NW/Cornell and Vandy/Texas/UCLA tiers.

Personally I am looking at school from 8 to the mid 30s. I applied to a ton of schools and have acceptances across the board which is why I made a list that included all of the schools I am looking at (decided to include all of the top 50 for completeness' sake). I am not very interested in taking on a lot of loans to go T14, which is why I am trying to figure out the non T-14 landscape in terms of getting the most scholarship money I can.

[vcap180]

Hello Everyone,

I made a Tiered ranking of law schools based on the top 50 schools from USNWR. I tried to control for location and employment outcomes, in order to better help guide my negotiations of scholarships between peer schools.

Does this look about right? Any changes you would make?

1. Yale, Stanford, Harvard
2. Columbia, Chicago, NYU
3. Penn, Virginia, Berkeley, Michigan
4. Duke, Northwestern, Cornell
5. Georgetown, Texas, Vanderbilt
6. UCLA, USC
7. WashU, Notre Dame, Emory
8. BU, BC, GW, (Fordham)
9. Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana
10. UCI, UCD, ASU, Washington
11. W&M, Alabama, Georgia, UNC
12. OSU, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland
13. BYU, Arizona, Colorado, Utah
14. Wake Forest, W&L, GMU
15. SMU, Florida, Florida State

Strong Username to post-content ratio.

[Pomeranian]

This is silly. Outside of the top schools, they aren't really comparable simply due to rank - it has far more to do with location and career goals. For instance, if you want to work in Dallas and aren't going to T14/UT, Iowa or OSU is a horrible choice, yet you have them tiered well above SMU, which is the correct choice.

This.

Also, FWIW, Illinois is underrated. They're still a great school if you want to work in Chicago, but dropped in the rankings due to a scandal with their Dean a few years back. (Source: uncle is a BL hiring partner in Chicago).

Your username made me laugh... Blair Waldorf? XOXO Gossip Girl

[A. Nony Mouse]

12. OSU, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland

this is a really weird grouping if you're considering geography.

[Effingham]

12. OSU, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland

this is a really weird grouping if you're considering geography.

They aren't considering geography and are oddly assuming schools (or rather, the real people looking at the emails being sent) engaging in scholarship negotiations aren't either.

[A. Nony Mouse]

12. OSU, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland

this is a really weird grouping if you're considering geography.

They aren't considering geography and are oddly assuming schools (or rather, the real people looking at the emails being sent) engaging in scholarship negotiations aren't either.

Did you not read the post? The whole point of this list is that it compares group schools based on their geographic location.

[Effingham]

12. OSU, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland

this is a really weird grouping if you're considering geography.

They aren't considering geography and are oddly assuming schools (or rather, the real people looking at the emails being sent) engaging in scholarship negotiations aren't either.

Did you not read the post? The whole point of this list is that it compares group schools based on their geographic location.

Welp, I'm lost. You're a saint for doing this everyday, nony.

[Colonel_funkadunk]

this completely changed the way I look at rankings op, ty so much

[waldorf]

This is silly. Outside of the top schools, they aren't really comparable simply due to rank - it has far more to do with location and career goals. For instance, if you want to work in Dallas and aren't going to T14/UT, Iowa or OSU is a horrible choice, yet you have them tiered well above SMU, which is the correct choice.

This.

Also, FWIW, Illinois is underrated. They're still a great school if you want to work in Chicago, but dropped in the rankings due to a scandal with their Dean a few years back. (Source: uncle is a BL hiring partner in Chicago).

Your username made me laugh... Blair Waldorf? XOXO Gossip Girl

[Npret]

I mean I'm a little skeptical that your stated purpose is your real purpose due to your inclusion of 50 schools on the list.

E. but my substantive contribution is that regardless of employment outcomes I don't think gtown sees vandy et al as peer schools. Which doesn't mean that a much higher offer from one of those schools can't be used to negotiate with gtown (or any other t14 outside of his for that matter).

Got it, I felt Georgetown was a hard one to place and I honestly think their kind of right in between the Duke/NW/Cornell and Vandy/Texas/UCLA tiers.

Personally I am looking at school from 8 to the mid 30s. I applied to a ton of schools and have acceptances across the board which is why I made a list that included all of the schools I am looking at (decided to include all of the top 50 for completeness' sake). I am not very interested in taking on a lot of loans to go T14, which is why I am trying to figure out the non T-14 landscape in terms of getting the most scholarship money I can.

Are you just making this up or do you have a basis to believe that schools negotiate in these tiers? I find it nonsensical tbh.

[somedeadman]

So would negotiating for merit aid from NU with a scholarship from WashU not end well?

[BlendedUnicorn]

So would negotiating for merit aid from NU with a scholarship from WashU not end well?

I wouldn't expect NU to match but at the end of the day once they've accepted you all a school cares about is if you attend or not. A full ride from WashU probably gives you some credible leverage in that context.

[cavalier1138]

So would negotiating for merit aid from NU with a scholarship from WashU not end well?

I wouldn't expect NU to match but at the end of the day once they've accepted you all a school cares about is if you attend or not. A full ride from WashU probably gives you some credible leverage in that context.

Speaking from personal experience, Northwestern does not consider WashU a peer school, especially for purposes of scholarship negotiation. WashU's propensity for throwing money at good LSAT scores is well known, so it's not a good bargaining chip.

Unless Northwestern has changed their procedure in recent years, you'll have to wait until they officially make negotiations available. When you fill out that form, they only let you inform them of scholarship offers from certain schools. I would strongly advise not using WashU, because they only let you use two offers for leverage. In the past, people have had better luck using admission to a HYSCCN school alone than they have using a full scholarship at WashU to get some kind of bump.

[somedeadman]

So would negotiating for merit aid from NU with a scholarship from WashU not end well?

I wouldn't expect NU to match but at the end of the day once they've accepted you all a school cares about is if you attend or not. A full ride from WashU probably gives you some credible leverage in that context.

Speaking from personal experience, Northwestern does not consider WashU a peer school, especially for purposes of scholarship negotiation. WashU's propensity for throwing money at good LSAT scores is well known, so it's not a good bargaining chip.

Unless Northwestern has changed their procedure in recent years, you'll have to wait until they officially make negotiations available. When you fill out that form, they only let you inform them of scholarship offers from certain schools. I would strongly advise not using WashU, because they only let you use two offers for leverage. In the past, people have had better luck using admission to a HYSCCN school alone than they have using a full scholarship at WashU to get some kind of bump.

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