Top Law Schools

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It really depends on what kind of organization you want to work for and where you want to be working.

Also, if your interests are really more policy-oriented, make sure that law school is the right choice for you instead of an MPP.

If it is your life dream to become a lawyer in some sort of PI roll in the DC area and the only opportunity you have to go to law school is American on a full ride, then sure, but it is a risk (see link below). It is impossible for us to actually give meaningful advice without knowing your other options and more about you. But to answer the question, there could be a scenario in which an individual could make a rational decision to go to American, but it would still be with considerable risk.

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/american/jobs/

Easterbork wrote:If it is your life dream to become a lawyer in some sort of PI roll in the DC area and the only opportunity you have to go to law school is American on a full ride, then sure, but it is a risk (see link below). It is impossible for us to actually give meaningful advice without knowing your other options and more about you. But to answer the question, there could be a scenario in which an individual could make a rational decision to go to American, but it would still be with considerable risk.

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/american/jobs/

Thanks, yeah I guess my biggest issue with it is would I have any sort of boost with the support of this specific program and maybe might mean something in this city or is it all still a terrible idea. Still seems like a risk is what you are saying.

I guess I didn't post the other options because I don't want to weed through opinions/criticisms on all of those when I mostly want to know if I should rule this out entirely or really consider it as an offer itself.

cavalier1138 wrote:It really depends on what kind of organization you want to work for and where you want to be working.

Also, if your interests are really more policy-oriented, make sure that law school is the right choice for you instead of an MPP.

Well if you mean what kind of organization like am I trying to work for the ACLU coming from American I know that won't happen. But I do want to work for a nonprofit in DC and I'm sure its competitive.

Before applying I did a lot of research on JD vs MPP and this Is the right path for me-it opens up my career choices to more of what I want. To be policy counsel for a nonprofit or work for an organization that focuses on impact litigation an MPP wont cut it

WCL still gives its students in the top 10% good options in Big Law, clerkships, federal government work, and public interest related organizations. Top 20-30% also seem to get decent jobs doing public interest related work at small law firms in the DMV and with local DMV government. If you do worse than that, you might need to accept a PD job in a fly over state.

I don't think WCL's reputation has really caught up to many employers yet. I think most people in hiring positions still think WCL is the very good school that it was a few years ago. Maybe that will change soon though.

anon3030 wrote:WCL still gives its students in the top 10% good options in Big Law, clerkships, federal government work, and public interest related organizations. Top 20-30% also seem to get decent jobs doing public interest related work at small law firms in the DMV and with local DMV government. If you do worse than that, you might need to accept a PD job in a fly over state.

I don't think WCL's reputation has really caught up to many employers yet. I think most people in hiring positions still think WCL is the very good school that it was a few years ago. Maybe that will change soon though.

If this were true, wouldn't their employment stats be a lot better?

anon3030 wrote:WCL still gives its students in the top 10% good options in Big Law, clerkships, federal government work, and public interest related organizations. Top 20-30% also seem to get decent jobs doing public interest related work at small law firms in the DMV and with local DMV government. If you do worse than that, you might need to accept a PD job in a fly over state.

I don't think WCL's reputation has really caught up to many employers yet. I think most people in hiring positions still think WCL is the very good school that it was a few years ago. Maybe that will change soon though.

Thank you for this-these are details that I can actually wrap my head around like I need to decide if I am willing to risk not being top 10% for the opportunities I want

AaA92 wrote:

anon3030 wrote:WCL still gives its students in the top 10% good options in Big Law, clerkships, federal government work, and public interest related organizations. Top 20-30% also seem to get decent jobs doing public interest related work at small law firms in the DMV and with local DMV government. If you do worse than that, you might need to accept a PD job in a fly over state.

I don't think WCL's reputation has really caught up to many employers yet. I think most people in hiring positions still think WCL is the very good school that it was a few years ago. Maybe that will change soon though.

Thank you for this-these are details that I can actually wrap my head around like I need to decide if I am willing to risk not being top 10% for the opportunities I want

I have no idea about the specifics of AU's job placement, other than it isn't very strong, but any school you need to be in the top 10% to achieve your goals is not a school you should be attending.

Law school grades are extremely unpredictable, you absolutely should not attend expecting to be at the top of your class.

what are the kinds of organizations that do the type of work you're talking about? look at the lawyers employed in these organizations and see what backgrounds they have. if they only employ people from Harvard you can assume they will continue to do that. don't take 1 lawyer from WCL as meaning they will continue to hire from WCL however, because hiring could have gotten a lot more competitive or that lawyer could otherwise have a competitive background, or they could just not be hiring at all anymore. having hyper specific goals like this can be pretty tough at any school especially if you're not talking about organizations that hire every single year or an area of law (or policy as it may be) that isn't done by a huge number of organizations. on the other hand there's real value to being a really aggressive networker which most law students are terrible at but sounds like you may be used to being a resident of dc

trebekismyhero wrote:

anon3030 wrote:WCL still gives its students in the top 10% good options in Big Law, clerkships, federal government work, and public interest related organizations. Top 20-30% also seem to get decent jobs doing public interest related work at small law firms in the DMV and with local DMV government. If you do worse than that, you might need to accept a PD job in a fly over state.

I don't think WCL's reputation has really caught up to many employers yet. I think most people in hiring positions still think WCL is the very good school that it was a few years ago. Maybe that will change soon though.

If this were true, wouldn't their employment stats be a lot better?

What is no? See: Employed at graduation [last longer than a year and a JD is an advantage] 45.7%.

The top 20% at WCL (who have made finding employment a priority) the past three years have done relatively decent and the top 40% normally find something. There is, however, a huge drop off after that. I know being in the top 1/3 at a top 20 law school can be random luck due to the large percentage of talented students; but at WCL, anyone getting a full-ride and putting in a lot of work can almost determine his or her own fate.

I know a few people who got a full-ride at WCL and and each received a job that many top students at a T14 would be jealous of. I think they have some regrets not competing with the best of the best at a "top" law school. But the no debt also makes up for that.

I agree that WCL is a pretty bad option for the vast majority, but if you can get a full-ride, want to do PI, and are ready to take law school very serious, it is still a pretty good place to be.

AaA92 wrote:

anon3030 wrote:WCL still gives its students in the top 10% good options in Big Law, clerkships, federal government work, and public interest related organizations. Top 20-30% also seem to get decent jobs doing public interest related work at small law firms in the DMV and with local DMV government. If you do worse than that, you might need to accept a PD job in a fly over state.

I don't think WCL's reputation has really caught up to many employers yet. I think most people in hiring positions still think WCL is the very good school that it was a few years ago. Maybe that will change soon though.

Thank you for this-these are details that I can actually wrap my head around like I need to decide if I am willing to risk not being top 10% for the opportunities I want

I withdraw my advice about this potentially being a good decision. Your response here makes it clear you are shooting for a more prestigious PI job. In light of that, it's an unequivocal NO. You cannot assume you will be top 10%. You cannot assume top third, even. You have no idea.

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jlc058 wrote:

Easterbork wrote:

AaA92 wrote:

anon3030 wrote:WCL still gives its students in the top 10% good options in Big Law, clerkships, federal government work, and public interest related organizations. Top 20-30% also seem to get decent jobs doing public interest related work at small law firms in the DMV and with local DMV government. If you do worse than that, you might need to accept a PD job in a fly over state.

I don't think WCL's reputation has really caught up to many employers yet. I think most people in hiring positions still think WCL is the very good school that it was a few years ago. Maybe that will change soon though.

Thank you for this-these are details that I can actually wrap my head around like I need to decide if I am willing to risk not being top 10% for the opportunities I want

I withdraw my advice about this potentially being a good decision. Your response here makes it clear you are shooting for a more prestigious PI job. In light of that, it's an unequivocal NO. You cannot assume you will be top 10%. You cannot assume top third, even. You have no idea.

would you still withdraw the advice if the people with this specific scholarship do majority go on to get pretty good PI jobs and have 91% employment, or is it still mostly based on your own specific ranking? asking for a friend....

There could be something about this specific scholarship that makes it great that I'm not aware of, sure, however I would caution you that it is easy for a school to talk about vague BS and throw the success stories in front of you when it comes to a scholarship program like this.

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