Loyola Law School vs. Howard vs. Santa Clara Forum

[Shot007]

I am a URM, who wishes to practice in California after LS, my question was which school do you think is best for me to go to, Loyola Law, Santa Clara or Howard University School of Law.
Getting a good job at a law firm and practicing in California are the two most important things to me.

[BigFatPanda]

If you're black, Howard is your best bet. Just look at the profile for Howard, its like an elite institution for AA, by the standard of how many law firms comes to their OCI: a whopping 66 California firms.

If you're not black, Santa Clara will make a good fit.

[traehekat]

Loyola is probably out of the question for you if you want to work in California, so it comes down to whether or not you think you can get a job in california coming out of Howard. Like the previous poster said, if you are black then Howard is a great option, especially if they really do get 66 firms from California at their OCI. It could almost be a toss up, so it may turn on whether or not you get some money from Howard or Santa Clara. For what its worth, SC has a beautiful campus, and Howard has, well... not so much.

[Shot007]

What do you mean I wouldn't get much jobs from Loyola (Marymount). It is higher ranked than Santa Clara and seems to have a fairly large alumni in its region, or is there something I am missing

Here are the O.C.I numbers from California Law firms (2007)

Loyola - 103
Howard - 66
Santa Clara - 55

BTW, I am black and weather is semi-important to me.. PS with a 3.0 & 160 are there any other schools I should consider, given my predicament

[Danteshek]

If you want to practice in CA you should go to school in CA, if only to give yourself a fighting chance at passing the bar. You need to decide whether you want Socal or Norcal. That will dictate whether you should go to Loyola or Santa Clara. You should also apply to the other CA schools (Southwestern, McGeorge, USD, Chapman etc...) to see if you can get significant money.

The number of alumni in a particular region is FAR more important than the number of firms that come to a school's OCI program. I also would not rely on the OCI numbers on LSN. They are old and unreliable.

[traehekat]

What do you mean I wouldn't get much jobs from Loyola (Marymount). It is higher ranked than Santa Clara and seems to have a fairly large alumni in its region, or is there something I am missing

Here are the O.C.I numbers from California Law firms (2007)

Loyola - 103
Howard - 66
Santa Clara - 55

BTW, I am black and weather is semi-important to me.. PS with a 3.0 & 160 are there any other schools I should consider, given my predicament

Haha wow way over my head, I thought you meant Loyola Chicago (I am from Chicago so when I hear Loyola I automatically think of the one here).

[Aberzombie1892]

I am a URM, who wishes to practice in California after LS, my question was which school do you think is best for me to go to, Loyola Law, Santa Clara or Howard University School of Law.
Getting a good job at a law firm and practicing in California are the two most important things to me.

This would be a tough decision.

If you could somehow predict that you would finish in the top ~20% at Howard, you would be golden.

Somewhere around 600 employers come to Howard's OCI - rivaling Harvard/Yale.

However that number includes each individual office as a different firm (like Harvard/Yale) - basically if a national firm has 4 officeS in CA, 1 in NY, and 1 in TX, using the NALP system, that would count as 6 employers. I would suggest not to worrying about specifics - all that matters is that the nations largest employers come there to recruit people from the top of the class.

I would recommend against Howard because it is a fairly risky proposition.

I say that because after doing a martindale.com attorney search for graduates of Howard, only 1671 results showed up (http://www.martindale.com/Results.aspx)

This is disturbing because many of Howard's graduates may not be in a position in which they would be in a medium/larger/government employer (like the ones listed).

Out of the results, only 96 were in CA.

In my personal opinion I think that Howard graduates do really well at the top of the class, but outside of that range, employers don't really seem interested.

My advice would be to not let that large number of OCI firms fool you into going there. I think that you would be in a better position median at Loyola than median at Howard.

EDITED for clarity

[Shot007]

After reading these posts, I am leaning towards Loyola as things stands, as I believe it will be a great opportunity for me.
Thanks for the very detailed responses, One other thing I was wondering - which of the three schools has the best Campus and Environment?

[FunkyJD]

After reading these posts, I am leaning towards Loyola as things stands, as I believe it will be a great opportunity for me.
Thanks for the very detailed responses, One other thing I was wondering - which of the three schools has the best Campus and Environment?

Going to go on a limb and say that the answer is not Loyola. But that's just a hunch, given its near downtown L.A. location ... but feel free to correct. Isn't Howard's law school in Van Ness/Northwest DC?

[barry zuckerkorn]

After reading these posts, I am leaning towards Loyola as things stands, as I believe it will be a great opportunity for me.
Thanks for the very detailed responses, One other thing I was wondering - which of the three schools has the best Campus and Environment?

Just curious... where'd you find those OCI stats? Here's SCU's published 2007 OCI list, and if i knew how to count I would, but it looks like a lot more than 55 firms.

--LinkRemoved--

but IMO, OCI in 2007, even 2008, is a poor way to judge which school to attend in 2010 the way the market has been.

If by environment you mean weather, than not Howard, unless you like snow. I'd go with the bay area's weather over LA too, considering southern cal has already been on fire and flooded in the past year. If not weather, and something more general, than it's really a matter of personal preference. SCU is in a suburb, 40 mins south of San Francisco, Loyola is in LA which people seem to have a love/hate with (at least I do).

good luck.

[hmdecisionsdecisions]

I find myself in the same situation as Shot...Love CA, Would love to Live and Work here, but not making the cut at Hastings or Top So Cal schools,


AA Male, in at same schools Loyola, Howard, and Santa Clara....(and Pepperdine, USF, Boulder, longshot at Davis which would be my choice If accepted)

Ideally, I'd like to live and work in SF, but with USF I cant help but wonder if the location is enough to justify it over an opportunity like Howard provides to the top students, or even over high ranked schools in southern CA.

Santa Clara is similarly ranked, beautiful campus, weather, and Im familiar with general area but again does such comfort outweigh the opportunity? expensive too

Weather does matter to me so Boulder and Howard Winters really are weighing on my decision.

[FunkyJD]

Here's my main concern about Santa Clara: Stanford > Berkeley > Bruin or Trojan JDs who did well at UCLA and USC and want to come north >> UC-Hastings >/= UC-Davis >> Santa Clara in the Bay Area. Now if you don't get a job in the Bay Area, where do you find a job with a Santa Clara JD? And what kind of job is it likely to be? The more I think about this, the more I hesitate.

Even with a major scholarship, when you factor in the opportunity costs of attending law school, would SCU still be worth it?