Top Law Schools

Based purely on job prospects, which of these four schools is the best of the bunch ITE, in your opinion?

tag

It feels like GW is the strongest though I could be wrong. In all honesty the differences are probably negligible enough that you should decide based on preferred market.

bk187 wrote:It feels like GW is the strongest though I could be wrong. In all honesty the differences are probably negligible enough that you should decide based on preferred market.

really? Interesting. I would think BU has the highest job prospect among BU, GWU, and Fordham since it is the second best law school in Boston area. GWU is the second best law school in DC area, too, but since DC legal market is flooded with T-14 grads, GWU grads can see some challenges. Same with Fordham and NY legal market. I dont know much about WashU and the mid-west legal market, so no opinion.

What about Illinois?

I say GWU or BU. GWU has a tiny bit more reach along the upper/mid east coast than BU and Fordham does. Every market is different, but the main thing to keep in mind is that none of these schools is a "national" school that will get you a top notch job everywhere you go. Forget rankings because they dont tell the whole story.

Good luck!

How do you guys think GWU places on the west coast - like SF or Sacramento .

1L at GW

Teoeo wrote:How do you guys think GWU places on the west coast - like SF or Sacramento .

1L at GW

Well you go to GW, so you should know. I dont think its a good idea to ask a bunch of non law students and non GWU law students what your schools employment prospects are. From what Ive seen it doest have that much reach. Again, most strong in the Midatlantic area.

well a lot of people on here are 2Ls , 3Ls etc., obviously I am not asking for uniformed people to answer.

edit: I know its the admissions forum, but it pops up on the main page.

Teoeo wrote:well a lot of people on here are 2Ls , 3Ls etc., obviously I am not asking for uniformed people to answer.

True, but this is still not the best medium to ask that. Talking to the 2 and 3L's, as well as career services, at your school would probably give you much more concrete information than youd get here.

gdane5 wrote:

Teoeo wrote:well a lot of people on here are 2Ls , 3Ls etc., obviously I am not asking for uniformed people to answer.

True, but this is still not the best medium to ask that. Talking to the 2 and 3L's, as well as career services, at your school would probably give you much more concrete information than youd get here.

fair enough, I was just riding the thread xD, my sense is that GW does better in SF than you would think.

gdane5 wrote:

Teoeo wrote:How do you guys think GWU places on the west coast - like SF or Sacramento .

1L at GW

Well you go to GW, so you should know. I dont think its a good idea to ask a bunch of non law students and non GWU law students what your schools employment prospects are. From what Ive seen it doest have that much reach. Again, most strong in the Midatlantic area.

I did my undergrad in CA, and I think BU has some advantage over GW in terms of reputation. However, that reputation is among general student population, not law firms. I imagine law firms pay much attention to USN ranking, which put GWU and BU in the same boat.

gdane 5, I think you are right with the "along the atlantic" argument for GW. Sorry I only thought of local legal market.

tbldc2009 wrote:

gdane5 wrote:

Teoeo wrote:How do you guys think GWU places on the west coast - like SF or Sacramento .

1L at GW

Well you go to GW, so you should know. I dont think its a good idea to ask a bunch of non law students and non GWU law students what your schools employment prospects are. From what Ive seen it doest have that much reach. Again, most strong in the Midatlantic area.

I did my undergrad in CA, and I think BU has some advantage over GW in terms of reputation. However, that reputation is among general student population, not law firms. I imagine law firms pay much attention to USN ranking, which put GWU and BU in the same boat.

gdane 5, I think you are right with the "along the atlantic" argument for GW. Sorry I only thought of local legal market.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Absolutely not! Employers do not care one bit about USNWR. They do not consult that magazine in order to decide where they're going to hire from. Please dont be fooled into thinking this. The only morons that place an unnecessarily high value on that magazine are pre law students.

The "top" schools have been so for decades. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Northwestern, NYU, Columbia, etc have been recognized as the best schools for decades. Employers know this and dont need a magazine to tell them. So, USNWR doesnt determine which schools are the best, it just restates the obvious and creates arbitrary rankings along the bottom.

Definitely, I don't think USN ranking does a good job in listing best law schools since you can see the geographic factor embedded in the ranking. But for some reasons, I think firms recruit out-of-the-area grads by considering the ranking, in addition to other factors of course.

tbldc2009 wrote:Definitely, I don't think USN ranking does a good job in listing best law schools since you can see the geographic factor embedded in the ranking. But for some reasons, I think firms recruit out-of-the-area grads by considering the ranking, in addition to other factors of course.

I havent gone through the employment process, not am I a hiring partner, but from what Ive read on here, many employers (firms) already know where they're hiring from. Since law schools are primarily regional, a firm in Chicago isnt going to hire a person that went to UMiami Law or UWashington. So, I think its very unlikely that any firm would use USNWR as a guide. They already know what they want.

True. Also, since most mid-size legal markets such as Boston, Philly, Atlanta, etc are already saturated with local law schools. In addition, T14 grads can enter these markets as well, thus Tier 2 grads are limited in terms of mobilization. However, I am from the west coast, is going to school in the east coast, but hope to go back someday. So I would choose the best well-known east coast school to attend hoping west coast firms can recognize the name.

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tbldc2009 wrote:

bk187 wrote:It feels like GW is the strongest though I could be wrong. In all honesty the differences are probably negligible enough that you should decide based on preferred market.

really? Interesting. I would think BU has the highest job prospect among BU, GWU, and Fordham since it is the second best law school in Boston area. GWU is the second best law school in DC area, too, but since DC legal market is flooded with T-14 grads, GWU grads can see some challenges. Same with Fordham and NY legal market. I dont know much about WashU and the mid-west legal market, so no opinion.

Egregious BC trolling!

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