I haven't read the book, but it's worth assuming at least some (and I imagine many) of the students in that 70% knew they weren't going to do public interest work from the get go, but said that's what they wanted to do in their personal statements. I don't imagine the "I want to be rich and have good job security" corporate law essay is very well received by admissions committees. I'll bet a vast majority of that 70% were smart enough to know that.legends159 wrote:QFT!masterpinky0509 wrote:Depends on what you want to do.
If you want to do public interest as one of the above posters stated, then being debt-free really helps. You should check out "Broken Contract," an interesting book on HLS that describes how the large debt load and prestige obsession of many HLS'ers sort of 'infects' them with the desire to go into corporate law. It basically looks at how, upon entry into law school, something like 70% claim to be going for public interest; 3 years later, they all go work for Wachtell.
If PI is really your thing, then cracking the T14 is arguably sufficient.
If you're smart enough to get into all these schools, you should be smart enough to achieve whatever your career goals are regardless of which school you chose. For instance, I think UVA has four clerks for the supreme court this year. The people getting those spots got them because they're outstanding across the board. Same goes for those who get these prestigious positions from Harvard. They're getting these jobs because of who they are, not because they chose Harvard over another very prestigious law school. That's just my opinion, though.
It certainly would be hard to turn down that prestige, but if that's what you're worried about, rest assured that you can always tell peoplee you got into harvard, but chose UVA... or go to Harvard and make lay people swoon for the rest of your life. Tough choice. I might go with harvard and take the debt.
