Top Law Schools

Hey everyone,

I'll be applying to a bunch of schools this fall with my fiance. She is getting a PhD in chemical engineering, so her schooling will take a couple years longer than mine. Since I want to be close to her after I graduate, I was wondering what schools in the top 25 are also located in or close to good markets? My numbers are 171 and a 3.4x. Id be interested in clerking and biglaw.

Schools I am looking at currently are:

UChi
Boalt
UTexas
Penn
UVA
Cornell
UCLA
Vanderbilt
USC
UCLA
WUSTL
UIUC


Thank you!

chem wrote:Hey everyone,

I'll be applying to a bunch of schools this fall with my fiance. She is getting a PhD in chemical engineering, so her schooling will take a couple years longer than mine. Since I want to be close to her after I graduate, I was wondering what schools in the top 25 are also located in or close to good markets? My numbers are 171 and a 3.4x. Id be interested in clerking and biglaw.

Schools I am looking at currently are:

UChi
Boalt
UTexas
Penn
UVA
Cornell
UCLA
Vanderbilt
USC
UCLA
WUSTL
UIUC


Thank you!

Chicago - Chicago is still recovering, and took the hit a little after NY. But it feeds well into NYC as well.
Boalt - California market is not very good right now.
Texas - Good market. Dominates Texas.
Penn - Not much of a market in Philly, but feeds into NY.
UVA - No market in Virginia. Difficult to break into DC. But feeds well into NY.
Cornell - No market in upstate NY. Feeds almost exclusively into NY big law.
UCLA - see Boalt. But the SoCal market is larger than the Bay Area one.
Vanderbilt - Feeds throughout the south and NY. As I'm aware, the South did not get hit as hard in legal market.
USC - See UCLA.
WUSTL - Feeds primarily to Midwestern market like Chicago and St. Louis. As said above, Chicago is still recovering.
UIUC - Feeds primarily into Midwest and Chicago. Chicago still recovering.

I hope I'm more or less correct on these.

Keep in mind that any T10 school will put you in great line for a great job, however. With Chicago, do well and you can get a job in Chicago. With Boalt, do well and you can get a job in the SF. With Penn, do well and you can probably figure out some sort of commute between Penn and NYC. Perhaps live in the middle and compromise with an hour commute for each person.

With places like UVA it would be a bit more difficult, since there's no market real close (other than DC which is hard to break into).

Check with Law School Numbers, however, to see which schools will even be feasible. I know, for example, that Chicago, Boalt are most likely out. For places like Penn and UVA, you will have to see if you can ED. Your GPA, unfortunately, is rather low and is keeping you back from those schools. West Coast schools, in general, favor GPA more than East Coast ones.

No UT? Chemical engineering sounds like a perfect fit for TX and the legal market has been pretty resilient.

bdubs wrote:No UT? Chemical engineering sounds like a perfect fit for TX and the legal market has been pretty resilient.

Third on the list

Shawh wrote:

chem wrote:Hey everyone,

I'll be applying to a bunch of schools this fall with my fiance. She is getting a PhD in chemical engineering, so her schooling will take a couple years longer than mine. Since I want to be close to her after I graduate, I was wondering what schools in the top 25 are also located in or close to good markets? My numbers are 171 and a 3.4x. Id be interested in clerking and biglaw.

Schools I am looking at currently are:

UChi
Boalt
UTexas
Penn
UVA
Cornell
UCLA
Vanderbilt
USC
UCLA
WUSTL
UIUC


Thank you!

Chicago - Chicago is still recovering, and took the hit a little after NY. But it feeds well into NYC as well.
Boalt - California market is not very good right now.
Texas - Good market. Dominates Texas.
Penn - Not much of a market in Philly, but feeds into NY.
UVA - No market in Virginia. Difficult to break into DC. But feeds well into NY.
Cornell - No market in upstate NY. Feeds almost exclusively into NY big law.
UCLA - see Boalt. But the SoCal market is larger than the Bay Area one.
Vanderbilt - Feeds throughout the south and NY. As I'm aware, the South did not get hit as hard in legal market.
USC - See UCLA.
WUSTL - Feeds primarily to Midwestern market like Chicago and St. Louis. As said above, Chicago is still recovering.
UIUC - Feeds primarily into Midwest and Chicago. Chicago still recovering.

I hope I'm more or less correct on these.

Keep in mind that any T10 school will put you in great line for a great job, however. With Chicago, do well and you can get a job in Chicago. With Boalt, do well and you can get a job in the SF. With Penn, do well and you can probably figure out some sort of commute between Penn and NYC. Perhaps live in the middle and compromise with an hour commute for each person.

With places like UVA it would be a bit more difficult, since there's no market real close (other than DC which is hard to break into).

Check with Law School Numbers, however, to see which schools will even be feasible. I know, for example, that Chicago, Boalt are most likely out. For places like Penn and UVA, you will have to see if you can ED. Your GPA, unfortunately, is rather low and is keeping you back from those schools. West Coast schools, in general, favor GPA more than East Coast ones.

Whether the south was hit hard or not is a city by city thing. Atlanta was annihilated, but lawfirmrecruiter says Nashville was relatively stable.

Edited for autocorrect derp.

stratocophic wrote:Whether the south was hit hard or not is a city by city thing. Atlanta was annihilated, but lawfirmrecruiter says Nashville was relativley stable.

LOL good point. Not sure why I was thinking so regional with Vanderbilt.