Top Law Schools

With a 46.7% BigLaw placement, it's higher than GULC's 46.2%, UCLA's 40.2%, and UT's 35.9%. Vanderbilt' federal clerkship at 9.9 is higher than GULC's 5.4%, UCLA's 2.5%, and UT's 9.1%. It is also going to be cheaper than GULC and UCLA. What to make of these stats? Has Vandy closed the gap? Should it belong in the top 14 over UT/GULC? If my goal is strictly biglaw does this mean I should go to Vandy over these other 3?


https://www.reddit.com/r/lawschooladmis ... t_reports/

They're peers more or less. When comparing them, choose the cheapest one in the region you want to practice (although GULC places nationally more than the rest).

Its the t13, then the GULC, vandy, ucla, ut, wustl top 20 tier. There isn't much difference between these, go to which is cheaper and in the market you want to work in. If you want Texas, go to Texas not UCLA. If you want NY, probably georgetown or vandy. Etc etc. They are all regional schools with georgetown being more national, but not having the national employment numbers of the t13 (hence why they have been completely expelled).

Don't forget that, given its location, GULC has quite a few folks who are Big Gov or bust. They have no interest in Big Law. Thus there is plenty of self-selection at that school.

Big Dog wrote:Don't forget that, given its location, GULC has quite a few folks who are Big Gov or bust. They have no interest in Big Law. Thus there is plenty of self-selection at that school.

But the numbers don't support that being the major factor in the less-than-stellar employment outcomes for Georgetown. Their LST score is low, even accounting for the extra placement in government.

Big Dog wrote:Don't forget that, given its location, GULC has quite a few folks who are Big Gov or bust. They have no interest in Big Law. Thus there is plenty of self-selection at that school.

Can someone confirm this? This would swing the pendulum in my opinion. Similarly, UC Berkeley only had a 49% biglaw placement but considering its antiestablishment culture I can understand that it's due to self selection.

pleaseberkeley wrote:

Big Dog wrote:Don't forget that, given its location, GULC has quite a few folks who are Big Gov or bust. They have no interest in Big Law. Thus there is plenty of self-selection at that school.

Can someone confirm this? This would swing the pendulum in my opinion. Similarly, UC Berkeley only had a 49% biglaw placement but considering its antiestablishment culture I can understand that it's due to self selection.

Even if it were true, not enough of GULC students are getting Big Gov jobs based on statistics to swing any pendulum. If there were seriously 25% (or whatever percent you deem significant) of the class gunning for federal government positions, then a significant portion of those students aren't getting those jobs, and that leaves a still significant portion of the class not getting other traditionally desirable jobs. So your best interpretation would be generously half of Big Gov or bust types are getting those jobs they definitively want (cause I personally refuse to believe their ~20% going into public service are all FedGov, but if you want to believe that, it's on you), and now the rest of the 75% of the class is fighting to be in the ~40% of Biglaw placement. That's being generous and doesn't dramatically change how you should view GULC. It's still on a bit of an island as a nationally placing school that places ~50-60% of its graduates into traditionally desirable outcomes. That's how you should understand it.

The statistics aren't perfect and there is some room for interpretation in them, but there is no way you can see GULC in a significantly brighter light relative to its placement statistics that makes it demonstrably better than its placement peers like Vandy, UT, etc. You should still go to the cheapest one and/or the one that places the strongest in the region you want to practice following graduation. If you want demonstrably better opportunities, trust the statistics and believe that the T13 get progressively more capable of putting you in the job you want as you go higher up (it's not strictly linear as you go up the ranks, it's more like concrete steps, but for simplicity sake, just understand that the statistics aren't lying to you).