Top Law Schools

I am very lucky to have been accepted to both Georgetown and Penn, as well as some other schools (UCLA w/$$, Duke, WUSTL, etc.)

These are my top two because I want to live in a major city, and they are obviously top schools.

I am wondering if there is a huge difference between the two from an academic/post-college perspective. I am interested in public interest litigation, or maybe something in the realm of politics (which I find quite interesting). I guess my point is, being centrally located in Washington, where I have more family and friends (therefore connections for jobs) and in a vibrant city, is a very big selling point.

Explain why I should go to either!!!

Politics or PI go with GULC. Everything else go with Penn.

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hayman wrote:http://excessofdemocracy.com/blog/2013/ ... t-outcomes

Unsure why people keep linking to this. Totally bogus metric.

Seems fairly useful to me. What part of it seem bogus to you

hayman wrote:Seems fairly useful to me. What part of it seem bogus to you

Subtracting school-funded positions from biglaw/fedclerk makes literally no sense. They aren't related.

It would be like subtracting bunts from homeruns to rank who the best hitters in baseball are.

PrideandGlory1776 wrote:Politics or PI go with GULC. Everything else go with Penn.

If we are to assume sticker, is this really such good advice? Penn's placement and LRAP are clearly stronger.

I go to GULC, if you are choosing between the two of them at sticker, Penn is a better choice for pretty much anything you could want to do. That being said, if you've been accepted to both you could definitely negotiate some money out of GULC, which might be worth it if you already know you'd much prefer to work in DC and would like to save some money on tuition.

I wouldn't call GULC at sticker wonderful

hayman wrote:Seems fairly useful to me. What part of it seem bogus to you

I don't think it's bogus, I think it's useful, but people need to be aware of there being a lot of variance in the stats used to compile such rankings.

For example, as of the latest NLJ 250 numbers Columbia is on top with 73.8% (NLJ250 + A3 clerks). That's a big swing.

There was a google doc floating around that showed the NLJ250 numbers for the last 7 years, with mean, and variance.

james.bungles wrote:I wouldn't call GULC at sticker wonderful

+1 GULC is t14, but with t20 employment stats, and they're really stingy with scholly money.

At equal costs, Penn by a mile. If Georgetown makes it rain with scholarship money and Penn is sticker, I'd go with Georgetown.

papercut wrote:

hayman wrote:Seems fairly useful to me. What part of it seem bogus to you

I don't think it's bogus, I think it's useful, but people need to be aware of there being a lot of variance in the stats used to compile such rankings.

For example, as of the latest NLJ 250 numbers Columbia is on top with 73.8% (NLJ250 + A3 clerks). That's a big swing.

There was a google doc floating around that showed the NLJ250 numbers for the last 7 years, with mean, and variance.

Yes, NLJ250+A3 is extremely valuable info. That's not what that site is. It's biglaw (100 or more lawyers) + A3 - school funded positions. That's garbage info.

The number of school funded positions has nothing, nada, zilch, zero to do with biglaw or federal clerkships. It is nonsensical to claim that one grad taking a school-funded position should negate a grad with a biglaw position. It suddenly doesn't count? Lol.

A little nugget that might blow your mind: for the c/o 2012, of the T18 schools for biglaw/fedclerk placement (T14+Vandy/Texas/UCLA/USC), there was a positive correlation of .28 between biglaw+fedclerk and school-funded positions. That means that the better a school was at biglaw/fedclerk placement, the more students that it likely provided post-grad funding to. Like I said, garbage statistic.

Hate to be that guy but here is what I think...

You're right. You got into some great schools. Getting into Penn and GULC for even sticker is exceptional. Sometimes I think people on this board are forgetting that we are still talking about a premiere school in GULC. It is definitely no Penn and it is definitely an outlier in the rest of the T14 but a good school nonetheless. However, do you still have any more retakes left? I personally believe that attending a great school like Penn at sticker is not exactly a bad choice only if you've given it your all on the LSAT in 3 takes. If not, then why not try for an extra point or two? Depending on your stats, which I am guessing are somewhere around a 3.7 and 170 or so, even another two points would be HUGE.

If not interested in that, Penn by a long shot.

$200k premiere dollars is still $200k

patogordo wrote:$200k premiere dollars is still $200k

Exactly my point.

cotiger wrote:

papercut wrote:

hayman wrote:Seems fairly useful to me. What part of it seem bogus to you

I don't think it's bogus, I think it's useful, but people need to be aware of there being a lot of variance in the stats used to compile such rankings.

For example, as of the latest NLJ 250 numbers Columbia is on top with 73.8% (NLJ250 + A3 clerks). That's a big swing.

There was a google doc floating around that showed the NLJ250 numbers for the last 7 years, with mean, and variance.

Yes, NLJ250+A3 is extremely valuable info. That's not what that site is. It's biglaw (100 or more lawyers) + A3 - school funded positions. That's garbage info.

The number of school funded positions has nothing, nada, zilch, zero to do with biglaw or federal clerkships. It is nonsensical to claim that one grad taking a school-funded position should negate a grad with a biglaw position. It suddenly doesn't count? Lol.

A little nugget that might blow your mind: for the c/o 2012, of the T18 schools for biglaw/fedclerk placement (T14+Vandy/Texas/UCLA/USC), there was a positive correlation of .28 between biglaw+fedclerk and school-funded positions. That means that the better a school was at biglaw/fedclerk placement, the more students that it likely provided post-grad funding to. Like I said, garbage statistic.

My bad. I quickly looked at the site's data and assumed I recognized where the figures came from. I do agree, school funded positions aren't so simple you can subtract them away.

I am not overly-concerned with money. Between the GI bill, savings, and LRAP, money seems unimportant to me. Just considering doing DOJ and also have more family contacts in Washington, so that's why I think Georgetown would be a good fit.

gobosox wrote:I am not overly-concerned with money. Between the GI bill, savings, and LRAP, money seems unimportant to me. Just considering doing DOJ and also have more family contacts in Washington, so that's why I think Georgetown would be a good fit.

No UVA love? Plus GI Bill would fully fund it (state school) and COL would be less.

I didn't apply to UVA-- I don't think I could live anywhere that isn't a city…

Does anyone have any citations regarding the anti-Georgetown bias?

Penn, because if PI or government sector doesn't work out for any reason, you would have a better chance of landing other jobs.

The reason that the prevailing sentiment here favors Penn is that the employment numbers for Georgetown are a notch below the rest of the T14, whereas Penn is pretty much on par with the T6 in that regard.

Go to Penn.

At the moment I am considering Penn, Columbia… that’s tough… Penn over GULC... not tough.