Top Law Schools

Top 20% on Law Review or Top 13% and secondary journal?

Did you school give you the choice of boosting your class rank if you declined law review? I don't understand your question.

Which candidate looks better?

One in top 20% on LR

or

One in the top 13% on secondary journal

I think he's just trying to figure out how much swing Law Review gives an applicant.

I'd rather be top 13% secondary.

But you don't have the choice of being one or the other. You're either in the top 20% or the top 13%, and you can't change that now. Why not just ask, "Does law review make up for the fact that I'm not in the top 15%?"

And what school are you talking about?

cinephile wrote:But you don't have the choice of being one or the other. You're either in the top 20% or the top 13%, and you can't change that now. Why not just ask, "Does law review make up for the fact that I'm not in the top 15%?"

And what school are you talking about?

The fact that he specifies "13%" probably means that its the other way around.

To answer the question, it depends on the school and the firm. Some firms won't even look at a top 20% candidate at some schools regardless if he/she is on law review. That said if its at a firm where top 20% is good enough grades-wise, then the law review person is probably going to have a leg up. Personally, I would rather be top 13%/secondary journal so I wouldn't have to do law review, since I would probably get something, but YMMV.

Depends on the school and the individual firms.

You like to double post eh?

I think grades > LR if I had to choose

lolwat wrote:I think grades > LR if I had to choose

But 13 to 20% won't make a massive difference at OCI and you can always boost your grades 2L and 3L. I'd take LR over 7% higher class rank any day of the week (unless the 7% pushed you into top 10%). If you're a graduating 3L, then I'd take magna + secondary over LR + cum, but if top 13% and 20% put you outside of the magna range, I'd rather LR.

For employers, I'd rather have the GPA. If hoping to clerk, I'd rather have the LR.

Blindmelon wrote:

lolwat wrote:I think grades > LR if I had to choose

But 13 to 20% won't make a massive difference at OCI and you can always boost your grades 2L and 3L. I'd take LR over 7% higher class rank any day of the week (unless the 7% pushed you into top 10%). If you're a graduating 3L, then I'd take magna + secondary over LR + cum, but if top 13% and 20% put you outside of the magna range, I'd rather LR.

13% is a weird number, honestly. I'd definitely rather take top 10% + secondary over top 15 or 20% + LR, though.

I guess it depends on school and I'm biased because of the way my school's OCI generally goes. At least at my school, I fully believe that 7% higher class rank that high up WOULD make a difference at OCI, while LR will likely matter very little except for clerkships--in which case I'd rather have LR, but the 7% lower class rank would hurt pretty badly, too.

I would rather be the 20% with LR personally.

As somebody mentioned, it depends on your career goals after graduation.