Top Law Schools

I understand the responsibilities and hard work requires, but I am from LA and lived here all my life and want to make the right decision. Ive never lived out of LA and Im taking my Lsat in a couple of days. My dream is to go to a Law School in a great city, meet amazing people and have a blast. Drinking on the weekends and enjoying myself. I have always believed in work hard play hard.

PLEASE HELP!

Higher up the rankings you go generally the less stressful law school is because most people have jobs after 1L and they don't have to try as hard.

https://law.yale.edu/admissions/profile ... out-grades

Yale doesn't have grades 1st semester of 1L. Pretty chill, also the hardest school in the country to get admitted to.

Honestly though, I get that law school should at least be enjoyable, but it's professional school and should be treated as such. Go get a job as a bartender in Portland or something.

I hate to be that guy, especially as a 0L, but if you have to ask this question, law practice might not be for you. Be absolutely sure this is a career you want to get involved with, because it doesn't stop being a ton of stressful work after law school for most people.

Have you ever talked to a law student without other responsibilities who said they absolutely could not drink 3+ nights/week? Not that they say school is easy or they aren't stressed, but pretty sure you can drink and make friends and enjoy yourself at most schools. Although getting a job might be more fun.

This is a bad question, and should not be your approach to law school at all.

Please consider growing up before you commit to hundreds of thousands of dollars of education and a lifetime in this career. If this is how you're approaching your law school decision, you're not ready to make that decision.

ETA: Pretty sure you're either trolling or incredibly incapable of using an online forum based on your three posts so far. If the former, I hope it was fun. If the latter, the above suggestion should be even more impactful because you have lots of stuff to figure out in life.

Tomas Jefferson in San Diego. Great beaches. Fun city, and no stress because you're not going to get a job afterwards. Or Stanford. Palo Alto is pretty nice and in a great location, and going there you have a very high chance of securing a great job, so low stress.

UVA2B wrote:This is a bad question, and should not be your approach to law school at all.

Please consider growing up before you commit to hundreds of thousands of dollars of education and a lifetime in this career. If this is how you're approaching your law school decision, you're not ready to make that decision.

ETA: Pretty sure you're either trolling or incredibly incapable of using an online forum based on your three posts so far. If the former, I hope it was fun. If the latter, the above suggestion should be even more impactful because you have lots of stuff to figure out in life.

Im am going to be fully committed and have been passionate about this decision for years now. I have worked in top law firms in LA, and have a family full of lawyers. Also, this is my first time ever using a inline forum page.
I know this is a lifetime career choice and I am going to be spending huge amounts of money to pursue this decision, and that is why I would want to be somewhere that is less stressful from other schools and more fun and somewhere I will have a great social life. I know for a fact that there are better cities to be living in when your in law school than other.

The only winning move is not to play.

The urban T13s are like this sort of if you don't care about going for a super elite outcome (e.g., clerking for a federal judge or securing fed gov honors or a highly selective private law firm). Generally you can spend most of law school drinking and hanging out, especially after 1L, compared to other paths. That's not to say it's devoid of stress. I found it to be quite stressful at times. But rest assured that the name of the school matters little in this regard.

Andrewfromla818 wrote: Im am going to be fully committed and have been passionate about this decision for years now. I have worked in top law firms in LA, and have a family full of lawyers. Also, this is my first time ever using a inline forum page.
I know this is a lifetime career choice and I am going to be spending huge amounts of money to pursue this decision, and that is why I would want to be somewhere that is less stressful from other schools and more fun and somewhere I will have a great social life. I know for a fact that there are better cities to be living in when your in law school than other.

Have any of the lawyers in your life told you that you should treat law school as a second undergrad?

Even if you go to a top school (where a lot of the stress is alleviated by the almost-certain good job outcomes), you cannot focus on a "great social life" and "drinking on the weekends". You're talking about entering training for a profession, not taking a vacation. If you are seriously focusing on the social environment over job outcomes, you shouldn't be going to law school or entering the profession, because you simply aren't mature enough to be doing so.

You've presumably been out of school for a year or so. You can stop treating life like a frat party.

Andrewfromla818 wrote:

UVA2B wrote:This is a bad question, and should not be your approach to law school at all.

Please consider growing up before you commit to hundreds of thousands of dollars of education and a lifetime in this career. If this is how you're approaching your law school decision, you're not ready to make that decision.

ETA: Pretty sure you're either trolling or incredibly incapable of using an online forum based on your three posts so far. If the former, I hope it was fun. If the latter, the above suggestion should be even more impactful because you have lots of stuff to figure out in life.

Im am going to be fully committed and have been passionate about this decision for years now. I have worked in top law firms in LA, and have a family full of lawyers. Also, this is my first time ever using a inline forum page.
I know this is a lifetime career choice and I am going to be spending huge amounts of money to pursue this decision, and that is why I would want to be somewhere that is less stressful from other schools and more fun and somewhere I will have a great social life. I know for a fact that there are better cities to be living in when your in law school than other.

Re: better cities - this is very much a subjective decision. For someone who loves NYC, Columbia and NYU will be the more fun schools. For someone who hates NYC, Columbia and NYU will be miserable choices. But no one here can decide that kind of thing for you since we don't know what you like/dislike.

Yes, you can have fun and go out during law school. It really shouldn't be your primary focus going in, though. If you need to take some time to get out of the Spring Break Jamz mentality, you should do that before you enter an expensive professional school.

Lexigator wrote:Tomas Jefferson in San Diego. Great beaches. Fun city, and no stress because you're not going to get a job afterwards. Or Stanford. Palo Alto is pretty nice and in a great location, and going there you have a very high chance of securing a great job, so low stress.

Even ignoring the "great" part of this, do you really consider 21% a very high chance of securing a job?

celticsfan wrote:

Lexigator wrote:Tomas Jefferson in San Diego. Great beaches. Fun city, and no stress because you're not going to get a job afterwards. Or Stanford. Palo Alto is pretty nice and in a great location, and going there you have a very high chance of securing a great job, so low stress.

Even ignoring the "great" part of this, do you really consider 21% a very high chance of securing a job?

Dat RC, though...

celticsfan wrote:

Lexigator wrote:Tomas Jefferson in San Diego. Great beaches. Fun city, and no stress because you're not going to get a job afterwards. Or Stanford. Palo Alto is pretty nice and in a great location, and going there you have a very high chance of securing a great job, so low stress.

Even ignoring the "great" part of this, do you really consider 21% a very high chance of securing a job?

Retake.

Future Ex-Engineer wrote:

celticsfan wrote:

Lexigator wrote:Tomas Jefferson in San Diego. Great beaches. Fun city, and no stress because you're not going to get a job afterwards. Or Stanford. Palo Alto is pretty nice and in a great location, and going there you have a very high chance of securing a great job, so low stress.

Even ignoring the "great" part of this, do you really consider 21% a very high chance of securing a job?

Retake.

LOL more like:

1. Relax.
2. Learn Sarcasm.
3. Retake.

lol I totally misread that

Andrewfromla818 wrote:

UVA2B wrote:This is a bad question, and should not be your approach to law school at all.

Please consider growing up before you commit to hundreds of thousands of dollars of education and a lifetime in this career. If this is how you're approaching your law school decision, you're not ready to make that decision.

ETA: Pretty sure you're either trolling or incredibly incapable of using an online forum based on your three posts so far. If the former, I hope it was fun. If the latter, the above suggestion should be even more impactful because you have lots of stuff to figure out in life.

Im am going to be fully committed and have been passionate about this decision for years now. I have worked in top law firms in LA, and have a family full of lawyers. Also, this is my first time ever using a inline forum page.
I know this is a lifetime career choice and I am going to be spending huge amounts of money to pursue this decision, and that is why I would want to be somewhere that is less stressful from other schools and more fun and somewhere I will have a great social life. I know for a fact that there are better cities to be living in when your in law school than other.

I prefer v forums to inline forums. Much more compact packaging for the engine bay.

Andrewfromla818 wrote:
Im am going to be fully committed and have been passionate about this decision for years now. I have worked in top law firms in LA, and have a family full of lawyers. Also, this is my first time ever using a inline forum page.
I know this is a lifetime career choice and I am going to be spending huge amounts of money to pursue this decision, and that is why I would want to be somewhere that is less stressful from other schools and more fun and somewhere I will have a great social life. I know for a fact that there are better cities to be living in when your in law school than other.

What are your goals for after law school?

Do you have any particular interest in an area of law you want to practice in?

Do you want to work in big law or a small firm?

What are your expectations for salary post law school?

How are you financing law school? Through personal savings/family savings/or loans?

These are the questions people should ask about law school before going, not how much fun you can have.

That doesn't mean you can't go out every weekend and be social, but it means those are side interests only. Everyone at the end of the day is going to law school go get a job as a lawyer.

If you can't successfully answer why you want to go to law school, have an idea of what you'd practice, and show an competent understanding of the finances involved, I think shouldn't go. This is a career path after all, and 3 years of fun isn't as important as a 40 year law career. There are other career paths out there that involve much less stress and let you have more personal time during your professional life.

I applaud OP's commitment to not being boring. We need more lawyers at big-law firms who take care of themselves physically and have other things to talk about besides bashing Trump.

Honestly, today all the pudgy partners at my firm were so eagerly awaiting Comey's testimony. I have never heard them talk about their wives or children with the same amount of enthusiasm.

Lawyers don't like trump? shit...

joefresh wrote:Lawyers don't like trump? shit...

I don't like him either, but I can think of other things to get excited about and talk about besides politics. That was my point. It was not about partisanship.

The haters here all raise valid points that you should consider, but to offer a contrasting (albeit anecdotal) point of view: I went to school in a cool city, partied my ass off all three years, had a blast, and still graduated near the top of my class, got clerkships, biglaw, etc.

You mentioned "work hard, play hard." In my opinion, if you are truly committed to the former, you can certainly embrace the later. This can really be done at any school, but the advice above about getting a job is certainly true: the higher ranked the school is, the less hard you have to work to graduate above your peers in order to get a good job. Depending on your stats, apply to the T20 schools in cities where you would want to live, read about the schools, and then go visit them to get a feel for the student body.

Phil Brooks wrote:

joefresh wrote:Lawyers don't like trump? shit...

I don't like him either, but I can think of other things to get excited about and talk about besides politics. That was my point. It was not about partisanship.

You're the one who brought him up...