Will the number of LSAT takers continue to decrease? Forum

[BillsFan9907]

I think they will decrease. The one positive (law firm jobs are back on track) may not be enough to overcome all the negatives such as the outrageously high tuition cost and too many newly minted JDs for the market.

The LSAT application market can go up but the key is to bow out if your score does not open doors at a respectable tier 1. Plus, accept no deal nowhere without a meaty discount.

That seems rather extreme. HLS, for example, offers Low Income Protection flat out.

[stellina]

I think they will decrease. The one positive (law firm jobs are back on track) may not be enough to overcome all the negatives such as the outrageously high tuition cost and too many newly minted JDs for the market.

The LSAT application market can go up but the key is to bow out if your score does not open doors at a respectable tier 1. Plus, accept no deal nowhere without a meaty discount.

That seems rather extreme. HLS, for example, offers Low Income Protection flat out.

the shitty situation with high debt at harvard isn't if you have a low paying job

[thatsnotmyname]

Whenever I discuss the law schools I'm targeting with people outside of the legal field, they tend to bring up Georgetown and how great it would be to go to school in DC. It probably has more lay prestige than most of the schools outside of the top 6 or 7.

Georgetown probably has more lay prestige than CCN also. I feel like definitely way more lay prestige than Chicago and NYU. I feel like outside of YHS, the schools in the T14 with most lay prestige would probably be Duke and Georgetown.

Why Duke? Just because of name recognition derived from basketball?

I'm sure that helps drive name recognition, but for some reason it seems like people are aware that Duke is a really good school. Based on my experiences of discussing schools around people, most people can't even name the Ivy League schools. People always get Harvard, Yale, Princeton and then are like Stanford and MIT. Sometimes they'll mention Columbia after name dropping Stanford and MIT but will never get or heard of the other ones.

For whatever reason though, in my experience, people are always impressed whenever Georgetown or Duke gets name dropped in casual conversation. I'm not sure what the reason is and it's completely unscientific but I feel like if you gave the general American public a survey and told them to rank the T14 by the prestige of the school it would go: Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the next three in some order would be Georgetown, Duke, and Columbia. I feel like there's probably a big drop in lay prestige after those six. If I had to keep guessing the order of the rest, the state schools of Berkeley, Michigan, and Virginia would probably be next within their respective regions (i.e., I don't feel like Berkeley carries a ton of lay prestige outside of the West Coast, Virginia probably doesn't outside of the Mid-atlantic, and Michigan only in the midwest). Then NYU. Then Penn, Cornell, and Northwestern in some order. Then the out-of-region state schools. Then last would be the University of Chicago.

To summarize, my completely unscientific T14 lay prestige rankings:
1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Georgetown
5. Duke
6. Columbia
7. Berkeley/Mich/UVA depending on region
8. NYU
9. Cornell
10. Penn
11. Northwestern
12. Berkeley/Mich/UVA depending on region
13. Berkeley/Mich/UVA depending on region
14. University of Chicago

Now that I look at it, I feel like outside of the T6, there would be a lot of regional fluctuation. Like I'm sure in Pennsylvania and the Northeast, UPenn and Cornell would rank much higher. Whereas the same would be true for Northwestern and Chicago in the midwest. But for whatever reason, I do think the T6 I listed would have the top national name recognition. I feel like there has to have been some sort of study done on this already.

[stellina]

I get curious sometimes about what kind of schools people who get really into lay prestige rankings went to.

Like is it hyp and they get a hard-on about being on top, or is it the next-tier schools who want to say really everyone really cares and thinks its awesome that you went to Penn, or is it the tier after that that feels good about pumping up their school as being like the "harvard of the southeastern part of the southwest" or whatever? Or is it just like amherst/williams kids who get into it bc it's like this strange anthropological study of their alternate universe selves?

[mudiverse]

To summarize, my completely unscientific T14 lay prestige rankings:
1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Georgetown
5. Duke
6. Columbia
7. Berkeley/Mich/UVA depending on region
8. NYU
9. Cornell
10. Penn
11. Northwestern
12. Berkeley/Mich/UVA depending on region
13. Berkeley/Mich/UVA depending on region
14. University of Chicago

Now that I look at it, I feel like outside of the T6, there would be a lot of regional fluctuation. Like I'm sure in Pennsylvania and the Northeast, UPenn and Cornell would rank much higher. Whereas the same would be true for Northwestern and Chicago in the midwest. But for whatever reason, I do think the T6 I listed would have the top national name recognition. I feel like there has to have been some sort of study done on this already.

I would question NYU over Cornell. From an East coast perspective, NYU is known as a good university for the wealthy/arts-inclined and celebrities (look at Hollywood's NYU alums). Ultimately a spoiled rich kids school for undergrads. I don't think anyone would classify it as an academic institution of prestige from layman's point of view. Cornell as an Ivy takes that seat. Obviously this is highly incorrect as NYU Med/NYU Law are profoundly strong scholarship schools, but hey.

[Big Red]

NYU doesn't have a football team and it's not an ivy, so I don't buy them above Cornell.

Or is it just like amherst/williams kids who get into it bc it's like this strange anthropological study of their alternate universe selves?

There is definitely a LAC inferiority complex that shows in graduate school selection. This is also true of people who chose state schools who could have gone elsewhere.

[Moneytrees]

Completely unscientific analysis of lay prestige:

Harvard
Yale
Stanford

Columbia
Georgetown
U Penn
Duke
Cornell

U Chicago
Berkeley
NYU

UCLA
Michigan
UVA
Northwestern
Vanderbilt

[Mack.Hambleton]

Oh look another lay prestige thread

[mudiverse]

Oh look another lay prestige thread

Amen. Let's agree to end this. I'm a prestige monkey myself but its off-topic.