How "national" are UCLA, Vandy and Texas? Forum

[Rory1987]

If you have strong ties somewhere, can you bring your degree back home (in my case, the northeast)? I ask, because Texas and Vandy have offered me nice money and I expect and hope to get into UCLA at some point. As a lifelong urbanite I also love the idea of living in Austin, LA, or Nashville for three years instead of Ithaca or Ann Arbor. I guess what I'm asking is, would it be insane to take one of those three and their money over a T13 and expect to have some sort of national mobility?

[FreddyBigShot]

I'm of the opinion that good money at a T17 is just as good as sticker at anything below CCN. Take the money and run. If you have ties, you'll have a solid shot at getting back east if you do well. Plus, Vandy's placement has been very good for the most part and UCLA place over a third of the class of 2010 into BigLaw -- and they have a lot of PI people.

[Rory1987]

bump

[vanwinkle]

Even in the lower T14 range, schools aren't as "national" as people think they are. To have a strong chance of finding the kind of work you want where you want it, you either need to 1) be going to school in the region you want to work, 2) have ties to that region already, or 3) be going to one of the very few markets that doesn't care that much (e.g., NYC).

Places will go a bit deeper into the class at, say, MVP than they would at UT/UCLA/Vandy, but you're still going to see the same general hiring patterns in either group of schools.

[Rory1987]

So with strong ties and solid grades, I could potentially bring one of those three back to the northeast?

[Bumi]

If you have strong ties somewhere, can you bring your degree back home (in my case, the northeast)? I ask, because Texas and Vandy have offered me nice money and I expect and hope to get into UCLA at some point. As a lifelong urbanite I also love the idea of living in Austin, LA, or Nashville for three years instead of Ithaca or Ann Arbor. I guess what I'm asking is, would it be insane to take one of those three and their money over a T13 and expect to have some sort of national mobility?

I think the real question is, after living for three years in any of those three cities, are you going to have any desire at all to return to the northeast?