Best Schools for Government Work Post-Grad Forum

[Hopefullya1Lin2020]

This question is slightly presumptuous as I am only in the application phase, but I was wondering if anyone has any insight into which schools are best for those interested in working for the government post-graduation? I have found various statistics about schools’ PI/Govt populations, but I’m hoping for some distinction on how much of those demographics enter into governmental work. My career goals are to clerk right after graduation, work for the federal government (ideally DOJ or DHS), and hopefully a future judgeship.

I’m a 28-year-old male. My stats are a 174 LSAT Score, 3.96 UGPA, 3.95 M.A. GPA. I don’t have great softs, but feel good about my LORs. I’m planning on applying to most T14s, but am wanting more insight as I continue to think through everything.

Any insight/advice will be greatly appreciated!

[Anon-non-anon]

Go to Yale. If you don't get into Yale, go to Stanford. If you don't get into Stanford, go to Harvard. That's probably all the advice you need.

[nixy]

Basically, the best schools for getting a government job are the same best schools for getting any other kind of job. Many parts of the government are actually relatively open-mined about school (if you look at the list of schools for people entering DOJ through the honors program you’ll get an idea) so really any T14 will be sufficient.

[cavalier1138]

In addition to the above, be aware that the honors program is insanely hard to get. That doesn't mean you shouldn't aim for it, but you should enter school prepared to spend a few years in biglaw.

[gwgrad]

I'm going to have to disagree with the above commenters. If you want the best chance at getting into federal government, you should choose a law school in DC and intern every semester possible somewhere in your area of interest. By and large, federal gov't gives jobs in part based on grades, but mostly due to demonstrated interest. In DC, you have the advantage over out-of-towners who only come for a few weeks of the summer. Also, it allows you to develop relationship with people on the hiring committees at your agency. Definitely look into the agency though where you want to work, because some definitely will not hire someone straight of law school. Just speaking from personal experience with the DOJ Honors program, you don't have to have the best grades if you are an intern. I interned over two summers at the place I was hired, in addition to another internship during the year where I got hired. DOJ components have the option to give you an offer without having you compete with the general pool, and will likely extend one if you a) do good work and b) at least attempt to get to know your colleagues. Hope this helps!

[gwgrad]

Another addendum - if you can get into a top law school, by all means that route is good. But it is no way a guarantee to go into federal service because you'll have to remember that you are competing with all of the other top law school grads who went to clerkships over multiple years to get spots. If you do go to one, just be sure to put as much federal service on your resume as possible. If you choose to summer at law firms you'll be competing against those with similar stats who also did federal internships.

[nixy]

I'm going to have to disagree with the above commenters. If you want the best chance at getting into federal government, you should choose a law school in DC and intern every semester possible somewhere in your area of interest. By and large, federal gov't gives jobs in part based on grades, but mostly due to demonstrated interest. In DC, you have the advantage over out-of-towners who only come for a few weeks of the summer. Also, it allows you to develop relationship with people on the hiring committees at your agency. Definitely look into the agency though where you want to work, because some definitely will not hire someone straight of law school. Just speaking from personal experience with the DOJ Honors program, you don't have to have the best grades if you are an intern. I interned over two summers at the place I was hired, in addition to another internship during the year where I got hired. DOJ components have the option to give you an offer without having you compete with the general pool, and will likely extend one if you a) do good work and b) at least attempt to get to know your colleagues. Hope this helps!

There's a lot of sense to this, but it's also possible to spend both summers in DC, and even to intern during your time in law school, while attending non-DC schools. I also think that you can do government internships in other locations that will help make you competitive in DC after graduation. Plus, many of the DOJ components do way way fewer funnel offers to interns than used to be the case, so it's hard to bank on that these days.

That said, too, going straight into government from graduating law school is kind of tough, so there's an advantage to going to a top school to be able to get all the other kinds of helpful/necessary experiences that will allow you to enter fedgov laters as a lateral.

Don't get me wrong, being in DC and making those connections is definitely a good thing. But all the honors programs hire very widely from a lot of different schools, and I don't think Georgetown/GW/Mason are really all that overrepresented.

[cavalier1138]

Don't get me wrong, being in DC and making those connections is definitely a good thing. But all the honors programs hire very widely from a lot of different schools, and I don't think Georgetown/GW/Mason are really all that overrepresented.

Strongly agree with this. The idea that GW grads are better positioned for the honors program than T13 grads is absurd. It's hard from everywhere, but that "DC advantage" isn't going to overcome the difference between a GW grad and a Columbia grad who both got fedgov experience (clinics, internships, etc.) during school.

[jackmadis]

Another addendum - if you can get into a top law school, by all means that route is good. But it is no way a guarantee to go into federal service because you'll have to remember that you are competing with all of the other top law school grads who went to clerkships over multiple years to get spots. If you do go to one, just be sure to put as much federal service on your resume as possible. If you choose to summer at law firms you'll be competing against those with similar stats who also did federal internships.