Overrated and Underrated Schools (In your opinion) Forum

[SandyC877]

Overrated: US News

Underrated: Choosing what's best for you

Wrong answer. Can't be that easy.

[ExcitedBlutterance]

Underrated - Richmond?
Lots of great professors and access to a market that has several big law firms. Trying to think outside the box here.

Really struggles in the job market, from everything I've read (I did my undergrad at UR).

I'll say SMU. Barely top-50, but dominates an enormous legal market.

+1

[whuts4lunch]

Boalt and Cornell are overrated, look at the numbers of their latest entering class

No, way idiot. Those schools look beyond the numbers. One or two LSAT points don't really make a difference anyways. Boalt and Cornell look at the whole applicant.

LOL, GTFO bro. That's all a bullshit way of justifying their sub-par numbers.

You disgust me. It's people like you that have led to this ridiculous overly number focused process of law school admission. Because Berkeley's LSAT median is a point or two lower, that means they are producing less capable lawyers?????? That's absurd, and racist.

hahaha

[NewtonLied]

Seems like a good time to introduce this.

No idea about overrated.

Underrated? Both Rutgers schools, I suppose.

I don't think this link got enough attention.

Cooley is climbing the rankings!

[traehekat]

Overrated - all schools who do not accept me and I do not attend.
Underrated - whatever school I choose to attend (I will get back to you with specifics in hopefully a month or so).

EDIT: Oh, and for a legitimate answer, SMU is indeed underrated. I really wish I would have applied there.

[nycparalegal]

Most underrated law school ever Litchfield Law School.

School that is neither underrated nor overrated: UC Hastings

School that is overrated: Princeton Law School

[observationalist]

Overrated:

Stanford (seriously, where is this school? nobody knows, but I think it's in California, who cares)
Berkeley (California, what else do I need to say)
Chicago (because it's a TTT state public school)
Vanderbilt (good luck living in the south the rest of your life, yuck)
Duke (Ann Coulter went there)
Michigan (a half hour drive from Detroit, seriously, who's idea was that?)
UCLA (tuition will be $70k/yr by 2015, I'm calling it)

Underrated:

Yale (they're great, they literally give out diamonds to students)
Harvard (should be tied at #0 with Yale)
NYU (yeah, another public state school, but I like their hustle and Obama used to teach there, so....)
Georgetown (more classmates than you can count, how awesome is that)

I was going to rail against your assertion of Vanderbilt being overrated but then I realized that since I am moving to Chile after graduation to do environmental public interest work, that does put me "in the south." But I swear most of my classmates will be living in areas usually referred to as "the north," "the midatlantic," "the midwest," and "the west coast."

[observationalist]

Overrated:

Stanford (seriously, where is this school? nobody knows, but I think it's in California, who cares)
Berkeley (California, what else do I need to say)
Chicago (because it's a TTT state public school)
Vanderbilt (good luck living in the south the rest of your life, yuck)
Duke (Ann Coulter went there)
Michigan (a half hour drive from Detroit, seriously, who's idea was that?)
UCLA (tuition will be $70k/yr by 2015, I'm calling it)

Underrated:

Yale (they're great, they literally give out diamonds to students)
Harvard (should be tied at #0 with Yale)
NYU (yeah, another public state school, but I like their hustle and Obama used to teach there, so....)
Georgetown (more classmates than you can count, how awesome is that)

I was going to rail against your assertion of Vanderbilt being overrated but then I realized that since I am moving to Chile after graduation to do environmental public interest work, that does put me "in the south." But I swear most of my classmates will be living in areas usually referred to as "the north," "the midatlantic," "the midwest," and "the west coast."

Also, we now offer stronger academic student quality, better NLJ250 placement for the most recent year (pre-ITE), a reportedly better OCI post-ITE than Cornell. Since Cornell is ranked around 13th and we are ranked around 17th, I recommend replacing us with them and say something like (good luck living in NY+ New England the rest of your life), since that is where their graduates go.

[observationalist]

overrated: NLJ250

underrated: any school not surrounded by NLJ250 firms

In the same vein, what would you say about a school that is not surrounded by NLJ250 firms (VanderbilTTT) but that places more students in NLJ250 firms than a school that is surrounded by NLJ250 firms (Cornell)? Would that indicate the first is underrated and the second is overrated?

[Aqualibrium]

overrated: NLJ250

underrated: any school not surrounded by NLJ250 firms

In the same vein, what would you say about a school that is not surrounded by NLJ250 firms (VanderbilTTT) but that places more students in NLJ250 firms than a school that is surrounded by NLJ250 firms (Cornell)? Would that indicate the first is underrated and the second is overrated?

Yes and No. I think there are two points to my post: 1) The geographic advantage that schools located in these huge markets have 2) The fact that people tend to think the only firms that pay market are those on the NLJ250.

For Vandy to place more students into the NLJ250 than a school with said geographic advantage while (i presume) simultaneously continuing to place students into firms littered across the South & Mid-Atlantic who arent members of the NLJ250 is a pretty big deal. I'd say they are underrated according to my definition.

As for Cornell, I wont necessarily say they are overrated. I think their location might hurt them a bit. There are a lot of schools out there that are in the same state as a their major feeder market, but arent in the same city. Naturally, the schools that are in the major city that makes up that market hurt that school that isn't. In Cornell's case, Columbia and NYU students get face time. The firms get to see them, talk to them, form relationships with them much easier than the students at Cornell. That can't do anything but hurt you.

[observationalist]

overrated: NLJ250

underrated: any school not surrounded by NLJ250 firms

In the same vein, what would you say about a school that is not surrounded by NLJ250 firms (VanderbilTTT) but that places more students in NLJ250 firms than a school that is surrounded by NLJ250 firms (Cornell)? Would that indicate the first is underrated and the second is overrated?

Yes and No. I think there are two points to my post: 1) The geographic advantage that schools located in these huge markets have 2) The fact that people tend to think the only firms that pay market are those on the NLJ250.

For Vandy to place more students into the NLJ250 than a school with said geographic advantage while (i presume) simultaneously continuing to place students into firms littered across the South & Mid-Atlantic who arent members of the NLJ250 is a pretty big deal. I'd say they are underrated according to my definition.

As for Cornell, I wont necessarily say they are overrated. I think their location might hurt them a bit. There are a lot of schools out there that are in the same state as a their major feeder market, but arent in the same city. Naturally, the schools that are in the major city that makes up that market hurt that school that isn't. In Cornell's case, Columbia and NYU students get face time. The firms get to see them, talk to them, form relationships with them much easier than the students at Cornell. That can't do anything but hurt you.

That's a good point... and Cornell will have an easier time getting its overall job placement rate up since it's a much smaller program. But to know whether it's not overrated in the context of NYC placement we'd have to see how Fordham is doing these days, since Fordham is ranked significantly lower than Cornell but benefits from its location in the same way as NYU/Columbia. If Fordham is holding up ok in this economy relative to Cornell (something that we'd need actual information to determine) then it might be worth it to factor in location when saying whether or not a school is over or underrated.

As far as stats go, Class of 2009 was our best year pre-ITE and is no longer a predictor of what to expect for future classes. I had thought it would go down as the best year for all law schools and was surprised to see that only a few managed to improve over Class of '08 for NLJ250 placement. Regardless, all that matters now is how schools are doing these days. OCI was worse at some schools than others, and the damage control across programs varies considerably depending on the size of the school and how willing students are to considering other markets. Vandy's students are more geographically flexible than Cornell's, so it's possible we will end up with better employment stats simply by virtue of having more people willing to work in Cincinnati than Chicago. Self-selection is a beast.

[actorlaw]

Overrated:

Stanford (seriously, where is this school? nobody knows, but I think it's in California, who cares)
Berkeley (California, what else do I need to say)
Chicago (because it's a TTT state public school)
Vanderbilt (good luck living in the south the rest of your life, yuck)
Duke (Ann Coulter went there)
Michigan (a half hour drive from Detroit, seriously, who's idea was that?)
UCLA (tuition will be $70k/yr by 2015, I'm calling it)

Underrated:

Yale (they're great, they literally give out diamonds to students)
Harvard (should be tied at #0 with Yale)
NYU (yeah, another public state school, but I like their hustle and Obama used to teach there, so....)
Georgetown (more classmates than you can count, how awesome is that)

Ann Coulter went to Michigan... not Duke.

[PDaddy]

Underrated (in no special order)

UCLA
Chicago-Kent
Brooklyn
Tulane
Baylor
GWU
Miami
Cardozo
Syracuse
Suffolk
Howard
San Diego
Seattle-U
Loyola (CA)
Loyola (IL)
San Francisco
Villanova
Seton Hall
Temple
Southwestern

Overrated

HYS
Berkeley
Cornell
Duke
GULC
Indiana

[kittenmittons]

[strike]Underrated[/strike] Where I was accepted

UCLA
Chicago-Kent
Brooklyn
Tulane
Baylor
Miami
Cardozo
Syracuse
Suffolk
Howard
San Diego
Seattle-U
San Francisco
Villanova
Seton Hall
Temple
Southwestern

[strike]Overrated[/strike] Where I was denied

HYS
Berkeley
Cornell
Duke
GULC
Indiana

[Clint The Bull]

Just to clear this up. NYU is not a state school. It is a privately funded institution.

[jetlagz28]

Overrated - T14
Underrated - Everything outside the T14

[D. H2Oman]

[strike]Overrated - T14
Underrated - Everything outside the T14[/strike]

No

[kittenmittons]

Overrated - T13
Underrated - Everything outside the T13

ftfybro

[PDaddy]

[strike]Underrated[/strike] Where I was accepted

UCLA
Chicago-Kent
Brooklyn
Tulane
Baylor
Miami
Cardozo
Syracuse
Suffolk
Howard
San Diego
Seattle-U
San Francisco
Villanova
Seton Hall
Temple
Southwestern

[strike]Overrated[/strike] Where I was denied

HYS
Berkeley
Cornell
Duke
GULC
Indiana

You got jokes! lol. That was a good one... Adcoms at Indiana would sell their grandmothers to have me go there, that I know. And I applied to three of my underrated schools: UCLA, Tulane and Miami.

[UF Gators]

Underrated- W&M, W&L

Overrated- Yale

[D. H2Oman]

You got jokes! lol. That was a good one... Adcoms at Indiana would sell their grandmothers to have me go there, that I know. And I applied to three of my underrated schools: UCLA, Tulane and Miami.

The bolded doesn't quite work if you applied to Miami and Tulane

[D. H2Oman]

Underrated- W&M, W&L

Overrated- Yale

+1

[awesomepossum]

Just to clear this up. NYU is not a state school. It is a privately funded institution.

I love people with no sense of humor.

[Unemployed]

[strike]Underrated[/strike] Where I was accepted

UCLA
Chicago-Kent
Brooklyn
Tulane
Baylor
Miami
Cardozo
Syracuse
Suffolk
Howard
San Diego
Seattle-U
San Francisco
Villanova
Seton Hall
Temple
Southwestern

[strike]Overrated[/strike] Where I was denied

HYS
Berkeley
Cornell
Duke
GULC
Indiana

You got jokes! lol. That was a good one... Adcoms at Indiana would sell their grandmothers to have me go there, that I know. And I applied to three of my underrated schools: UCLA, Tulane and Miami.

Overrated: Overrating oneself.

Underrated: grandmothers.

[OneKnight]

Just to clear this up. NYU is not a state school. It is a privately funded institution.

Hehehe.
Clint, I think you need to take your sarcasm detector in for repairs.