Choosing between LA Schools and T14 Forum

[ghostoftraynor]

(and holy shit, the idea that Harvard is has more "lay prestige" than Yale may be the dumbest thing I've ever read)

It's not that outrageous. Plenty of people think of American universities in a sort of great-power model where Harvard is #1 and the rest of the top tier is filled out by schools that could plausibly go toe-to-toe with Harvard. Almost anyone would put Yale in that latter group, but that still means it's a bit less prestigious by definition. Secondary powers are those that can go toe-to-toe with the weakest great power.

It's actually not that irrational; the main "mistakes" laypeople make result from bias in favor of things they have heard of (so Vandy and Duke, for example, tend to be overrated in the South and underrated everywhere else).

The problem with lay prestige isn't that it doesn't exist, but that it isn't really that valuable except to insecure people who need assurance that others will take them seriously. Real connections are worth paying for; real skills are worth paying for; and for OP's apparent purposes they'll get equally valuable connections and skills from UCLA or Harvard.

Yea. Yale is better than Harvard at many things (including, obviously law school), but Harvard has probably the strongest brand of any school. It's kind of synonymous with elite education. Would be interesting to see a poll of the general populace on which law school is #1. Could easily see Harvard winning that, but who knows.

[Futurelawyer93]

(and holy shit, the idea that Harvard is has more "lay prestige" than Yale may be the dumbest thing I've ever read)

It's not that outrageous. Plenty of people think of American universities in a sort of great-power model where Harvard is #1 and the rest of the top tier is filled out by schools that could plausibly go toe-to-toe with Harvard. Almost anyone would put Yale in that latter group, but that still means it's a bit less prestigious by definition. Secondary powers are those that can go toe-to-toe with the weakest great power.

It's actually not that irrational; the main "mistakes" laypeople make result from bias in favor of things they have heard of (so Vandy and Duke, for example, tend to be overrated in the South and underrated everywhere else).

The problem with lay prestige isn't that it doesn't exist, but that it isn't really that valuable except to insecure people who need assurance that others will take them seriously. Real connections are worth paying for; real skills are worth paying for; and for OP's apparent purposes they'll get equally valuable connections and skills from UCLA or Harvard.

Yea. Yale is better than Harvard at many things (including, obviously law school), but Harvard has probably the strongest brand of any school. It's kind of synonymous with elite education. Would be interesting to see a poll of the general populace on which law school is #1. Could easily see Harvard winning that, but who knows.

Harvard would surely win that poll. And in the international community, by an even greater margin. The runner ups would likely be other household names that roll off the tongue nicely like Columbia or Georgetown. This is more a result of branding and pop culture than anything else. In a related topic, I bet Berkeley moving away from the Boalt name will hurt the brand in the short-term as older people get confused, but in the long-run hopefully "Berkeley Law" will grow into something even more recognizable.

[cavalier1138]

but in the long-run hopefully "Berkeley Law" will grow into an even more recognizable brand.

I'm sure that the graduates of Boalt languish in their high-end jobs, wondering every day whether their "brand" will become more recognizable in the eyes of some imaginary group of laypeople.

This is beyond ridiculous.

[Futurelawyer93]

Just spoke to one of these big time plaintiff/PI attorneys. He said clients don't care where you went to school, just that you get results and have personality. But to certainly go to UCLA/USC over lower schools if possible, and that Boalt or Stanford would be great, but not necessary for my goals. He said what's most important is building your network, which the school will determine somewhat. He said no need to clerk.

Lol and he was confused when I kept calling it Berkeley... "uhh you mean Boalt?"

[Futurelawyer93]

I'm going to drop this here. I found it informative in summing up some of the public interest aspects of plaintiffs law firm as well as a long list of such firms by state.

https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/file ... -guide.pdf