KissMyAxe wrote:Sciencemeetslaw wrote:
Oh, now I understand! Because when i ask for suggestions from ppl outside of the legal field, everyone tells me that Wake Forest is much better compared to Tulane. Probably they only considered the overall ranking.
I did find out that according to ABA, Tulane has 50% graduating students staying in Louisiana, then 2nd most is Texas, then California. As for Wake Forest, 50% NC, then Virginia, then New York. I personally prefer to either practice in California or in mid-Atlantic/Midwest (New york, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington DC). I know that both of these schools are not ideal for these locations, but let's say that I only have these two choices, which one would give me a higher chance of practicing in the desired locations?
Another thing that I found out is that it seems that the quality of Tulane professors seems to be much better than Wake. A lot of them graduated from Harvard JD, and are active in the legal field (some of them are very well known), unlike Wake, which has professors from T14, but only one from Harvard. And Tulane has more diversity for professors and more student organizations. Should these factors be sth that I should put under consideration?
This is starting to sound like a flame. It's flat-out insane to choose a school for prestige. You should choose your law school based on how well it does at placing students into the kind of employment you want, not out of some vague sense of who's considered better by random people.
Neither school is great for IP law, so the correct answer would be to retake for a school stronger in that field, which I would suppose tend to also be more "prestigious" schools. Both of these are also regional schools. You nailed it in your second paragraph. If you go to Tulane, you better make sure you are happy practicing in Louisiana. Same with Wake Forest and North Carolina. Wake would certainly outperform Tulane across most of the mid-Atlantic (especially Atlanta) for the reasons stated in my next paragraph. That said, you'd have to finish at the very top of your class, which is always a risky notion. Neither school is getting you into California IP law, which is an extremely competitive field. At the end of the day, both schools have extremely similar employment outcomes, so your decision needs to be based on where you want to work and who gives you more scholarship money.
Now, since I know good and well you're going to ignore me and consider prestige anyway, let me speak on that. Neither of these schools is prestigious from any sense of the word, and I come from the same area as them. I doubt most people in the South have even heard of Tulane (including most lawyers), let alone know it has a law school. I didn't before coming to TLS. Wake Forest is only known because it has some well-known sports teams (though admittedly not very good ones), which is actually how a lot of schools tend to develop reputations. But, Wake Forest is at least known for that reason. So I think there's no question that Wake is a more well-known brand across the South and I assume the country, though it's like the third best law school in its own state, one that doesn't have a ton of legal employment, let alone IP employment.
But what really prompted me to respond is your insane last paragraph. Why the hell are you going through the faculty websites counting Harvard grads? If anyone becomes a law professor today, they are insanely qualified. They will have excelled at their law school, made powerful connections, published prolifically, and likely obtained a Federal clerkship, probably one on the COA. Their alma mater is irrelevant. Also, while a lot of my friends attend Harvard, it's still a Biglaw factory whose admissions office is only concerned about getting the high LSATs that do not commit to Yale or one of the full-rides (with a small handful of Californians who stay at Stanford). Do you really think the ability to answer five more questions on the LSAT makes someone a better teacher? Because that's all that separates most HLS and Cornell students, about 3 points on the LSAT. So, to answer your question, no, it makes no difference which school has more Harvard grads.
Choose whichever school gives you more money and is in the area you want to work, because you're probably not cracking competitive markets (DC, Chicago, California) from either.
