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I've been told on here that t14s place better than UF/um in Florida? What about t25 outside t14? Like vandy, USC, Boston u, etc? Are they regional or would they place in fl?

Thanks!

All schools outside the T14 are strongly regional. Vandy would be a good fit for Florida, but you'd be better off taking money at UF than going to USC, Boston U, etc. if you want to work in Florida.

Samara wrote:All schools outside the T14 are strongly regional. Vandy would be a good fit for Florida, but you'd be better off taking money at UF than going to USC, Boston U, etc. if you want to work in Florida.

Thanks! So sticker at vandy vs money at UF? Vandy for the name?

jk2011 wrote:I've been told on here that t14s place better than UF/um in Florida? What about t25 outside t14? Like vandy, USC, Boston u, etc? Are they regional or would they place in fl?

Thanks!

Vandy places really well in Florida, but it's a southern law school with a ton of alums practicing in big firms in Florida. Emory also probably places pretty well in Florida, although I am not as familiar with its placement as compared to Vandy. Schools like USC and BU are sort of a toss up, if you have ties to Florida they might place marginally better than UF or UM (i.e. you might be able to get the same job with top 20% at BU as you could with top 10% at UF/UM), but that's more speculation than anything else.

Also, I am not sure I would equate UF/UM for Florida placement. UM places pretty well in South Florida, but I am not sure that it places as well as UF (or very well at all - although this might be self-selection) in Central or Northern Florida.

jk2011 wrote:

Samara wrote:All schools outside the T14 are strongly regional. Vandy would be a good fit for Florida, but you'd be better off taking money at UF than going to USC, Boston U, etc. if you want to work in Florida.

Thanks! So sticker at vandy vs money at UF? Vandy for the name?

Depends on how exclusive your desire is to work in Florida. If you are absolutely certain you wish to remain in FL for the foreseeable future, UF will probably be the better choice. I personally don't think Vandy at sticker is a good choice if you are footing the entirety of the living costs, but others may disagree. It will give you the advantage of added mobility around the south, but you'll have to pay a high price for it.

jk2011 wrote:

Samara wrote:All schools outside the T14 are strongly regional. Vandy would be a good fit for Florida, but you'd be better off taking money at UF than going to USC, Boston U, etc. if you want to work in Florida.

Thanks! So sticker at vandy vs money at UF? Vandy for the name?

That would depend on a lot of factors, the most important being how much money is offered at UF and how set you are on Florida. When you get a scholly offer at UF, you should make a thread in the Choosing a School forum. Basically, Vandy will give you more fallback options, but probably roughly equivalent job prospects in Florida, AFAIK. So, it becomes a question of what kind of security you prefer and how much security UF is offering in the form of scholly money.

Samara wrote:

jk2011 wrote:

Samara wrote:All schools outside the T14 are strongly regional. Vandy would be a good fit for Florida, but you'd be better off taking money at UF than going to USC, Boston U, etc. if you want to work in Florida.

Thanks! So sticker at vandy vs money at UF? Vandy for the name?

That would depend on a lot of factors, the most important being how much money is offered at UF and how set you are on Florida. When you get a scholly offer at UF, you should make a thread in the Choosing a School forum. Basically, Vandy will give you more fallback options, but probably roughly equivalent job prospects in Florida, AFAIK. So, it becomes a question of what kind of security you prefer and how much security UF is offering in the form of scholly money.

The bolded is incorrect, at least if you're talking big Florida firms. Vandy places better into large Florida firms than UF or UM, hands down. Outside of the big/medium sized firm context, it's mostly about networking anyways (although there are boutique firms that recruit during OCI), so "placement" is really subjective, since OP would get out of it what he or she put into it.

Vandy at sticker is probably a bad decision. They're pretty generous with scholarship, though, and if you can snag a half ride or so I would without a doubt take that over UF.

Florida biglaw firms in general give preference to national schools (with ties), then regional schools that reach to Florida (with ties), then Florida schools. Vandy is a regional school that reaches to Florida, as is GW, Emory and, to a lesser extent, Alabama and Georgia (which would be treated fairly on par with UF). Outside of those schools and Florida, you will have a difficult time finding employment in Florida. Going to BU over Florida, if you're set on Florida, would probably be a bad decision because BU is regional but doesn't reach to Florida.

duckmoney wrote:Vandy at sticker is probably a bad decision. They're pretty generous with scholarship, though, and if you can snag a half ride or so I would without a doubt take that over UF.

Florida biglaw firms in general give preference to national schools (with ties), then regional schools that reach to Florida (with ties), then Florida schools. Vandy is a regional school that reaches to Florida, as is GW, Emory and, to a lesser extent, Alabama and Georgia (which would be treated fairly on par with UF). Outside of those schools and Florida, you will have a difficult time finding employment in Florida. Going to BU over Florida, if you're set on Florida, would probably be a bad decision because BU is regional but doesn't reach to Florida.

Do all t14s reach to Florida?

duckmoney wrote:Vandy at sticker is probably a bad decision. They're pretty generous with scholarship, though, and if you can snag a half ride or so I would without a doubt take that over UF.

Florida biglaw firms in general give preference to national schools (with ties), then regional schools that reach to Florida (with ties), then Florida schools. Vandy is a regional school that reaches to Florida, as is GW, Emory and, to a lesser extent, Alabama and Georgia (which would be treated fairly on par with UF). Outside of those schools and Florida, you will have a difficult time finding employment in Florida. Going to BU over Florida, if you're set on Florida, would probably be a bad decision because BU is regional but doesn't reach to Florida.

This is generally TCR.

Good god, I didn't realize at Vandy w/o scholarship you'd be taking out 68k per year. That's, what, 204k? Not to mention if you don't get a paid gig over your first summer + bar loans if you don't find a job with a bar stipend, you're almost 215k in the hole upon graduation. Law school is disgustingly expensive.

jk2011 wrote:

duckmoney wrote:Vandy at sticker is probably a bad decision. They're pretty generous with scholarship, though, and if you can snag a half ride or so I would without a doubt take that over UF.

Florida biglaw firms in general give preference to national schools (with ties), then regional schools that reach to Florida (with ties), then Florida schools. Vandy is a regional school that reaches to Florida, as is GW, Emory and, to a lesser extent, Alabama and Georgia (which would be treated fairly on par with UF). Outside of those schools and Florida, you will have a difficult time finding employment in Florida. Going to BU over Florida, if you're set on Florida, would probably be a bad decision because BU is regional but doesn't reach to Florida.

Do all t14s reach to Florida?

Typically with ties. If you don't have ties to Florida it's going to be much tougher getting a job in Florida, regardless of what school you go to.

Indifferent wrote:

jk2011 wrote:

duckmoney wrote:Vandy at sticker is probably a bad decision. They're pretty generous with scholarship, though, and if you can snag a half ride or so I would without a doubt take that over UF.

Florida biglaw firms in general give preference to national schools (with ties), then regional schools that reach to Florida (with ties), then Florida schools. Vandy is a regional school that reaches to Florida, as is GW, Emory and, to a lesser extent, Alabama and Georgia (which would be treated fairly on par with UF). Outside of those schools and Florida, you will have a difficult time finding employment in Florida. Going to BU over Florida, if you're set on Florida, would probably be a bad decision because BU is regional but doesn't reach to Florida.

Do all t14s reach to Florida?

Typically with ties. If you don't have ties to Florida it's going to be much tougher getting a job in Florida, regardless of what school you go to.

Okay I hear a lot about ties. What exactly do you mean? Sorry for the ignorance. Most of my family lives and works in Florida, but my immediate family is Indiana. However, no lawyers in the family. Would this be considered a tie, or do you mean knowing lawyers in Florida?

jk2011 wrote:Okay I hear a lot about ties. What exactly do you mean? Sorry for the ignorance. Most of my family lives and works in Florida, but my immediate family is Indiana. However, no lawyers in the family. Would this be considered a tie, or do you mean knowing lawyers in Florida?

Ties basically means reasons to believe that you want to stay in Florida and not leave their firm at the first opportunity. Have you lived in Florida before? I would think that having a lot of family in the state would be enough.

Samara wrote:

jk2011 wrote:Okay I hear a lot about ties. What exactly do you mean? Sorry for the ignorance. Most of my family lives and works in Florida, but my immediate family is Indiana. However, no lawyers in the family. Would this be considered a tie, or do you mean knowing lawyers in Florida?

Ties basically means reasons to believe that you want to stay in Florida and not leave their firm at the first opportunity. Have you lived in Florida before? I would think that having a lot of family in the state would be enough.

Having family in state would be a good start, but if you haven't lived in Florida for any significant duration of time it might hurt you. Florida firms (even the big ones) are looking for 'fit' (i.e. someone who they can see practicing in their office). I have heard, for example, Miami firms think that a lot of candidates attempting to come to Miami are just coming because they think it will be "fun" or some sort of vacation. Lawyers also know that living in Florida as compared to visiting is a whole different animal. Generally, I have found that the best 'tie' you can have is actually being from the city the office is located. Being from Florida generally also helps. Having lived in Florida for a significant amount of time is good, although not as ideal.

Indifferent wrote:

Samara wrote:

jk2011 wrote:Okay I hear a lot about ties. What exactly do you mean? Sorry for the ignorance. Most of my family lives and works in Florida, but my immediate family is Indiana. However, no lawyers in the family. Would this be considered a tie, or do you mean knowing lawyers in Florida?

Ties basically means reasons to believe that you want to stay in Florida and not leave their firm at the first opportunity. Have you lived in Florida before? I would think that having a lot of family in the state would be enough.

Having family in state would be a good start, but if you haven't lived in Florida for any significant duration of time it might hurt you. Florida firms (even the big ones) are looking for 'fit' (i.e. someone who they can see practicing in their office). I have heard, for example, Miami firms think that a lot of candidates attempting to come to Miami are just coming because they think it will be "fun" or some sort of vacation. Lawyers also know that living in Florida as compared to visiting is a whole different animal. Generally, I have found that the best 'tie' you can have is actually being from the city the office is located. Being from Florida generally also helps. Having lived in Florida for a significant amount of time is good, although not as ideal.

I laughed at the bolded. Totally believe it.

Samara wrote:

Indifferent wrote:

Samara wrote:

jk2011 wrote:Okay I hear a lot about ties. What exactly do you mean? Sorry for the ignorance. Most of my family lives and works in Florida, but my immediate family is Indiana. However, no lawyers in the family. Would this be considered a tie, or do you mean knowing lawyers in Florida?

Ties basically means reasons to believe that you want to stay in Florida and not leave their firm at the first opportunity. Have you lived in Florida before? I would think that having a lot of family in the state would be enough.

Having family in state would be a good start, but if you haven't lived in Florida for any significant duration of time it might hurt you. Florida firms (even the big ones) are looking for 'fit' (i.e. someone who they can see practicing in their office). I have heard, for example, Miami firms think that a lot of candidates attempting to come to Miami are just coming because they think it will be "fun" or some sort of vacation. Lawyers also know that living in Florida as compared to visiting is a whole different animal. Generally, I have found that the best 'tie' you can have is actually being from the city the office is located. Being from Florida generally also helps. Having lived in Florida for a significant amount of time is good, although not as ideal.

I laughed at the bolded. Totally believe it.

Lol. Thanks for the advice everyone. When I actually get some scholly offers I'll post again,

Indifferent wrote: I have heard, for example, Miami firms think that a lot of candidates attempting to come to Miami are just coming because they think it will be "fun" or some sort of vacation. Lawyers also know that living in Florida as compared to visiting is a whole different animal.

Lawyers arent the only one who know that living and visiting Florida are two different beasts