Is Northwestern Law impressive? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Is Northwestern Law impressive? For big law, federal government/clerkships, personal injury, perception among laymen, etc.?

[Nagster5]

No. If you don't go to Yale everyone will make fun of you behind your back.

[BasilHallward]

Is Northwestern Law impressive? For big law, federal government/clerkships, personal injury, perception among laymen, etc.?

Weird abuse of anon. Short answer: it's a good school, meaning you'll likely come out going into a clerkship or BigLaw. Beyond that, I don't know what answer your seeking.

[carsondalywashere]

People in the Midwest are really impressed with it, but I'm not sure how far geographically the reputation spreads. I know like a quarter of the class goes to New York, and about 10% go to Cali. Not much of a D.C. presence though, and no idea about the South

[thatlawlkid]

I feel like the east coast only knows it as the school Penn State beats in football every year.

[QContinuum]

Is Northwestern Law impressive? For big law, federal government/clerkships, personal injury, perception among laymen, etc.?

It's a T13 - it's a great law school. Not quite as great as the "upper" T13 above it, but still one of the strongest in the country.

Obviously lay people won't be too impressed, but lay people wouldn't be too impressed by many of the other T13 either (NYU, Michigan, UVA, even Chicago) either - just how the cookie crumbles. Lay prestige is generally useless as a practical matter and IMO it'd be dumb to place any weight on it; anyone in a position to hire a T13 grad will know which schools are good and which aren't.

[Anonymous User]

The very best Northwestern students get federal courts of appeals clerkships, with maybe the absolute best student getting a feeder judge and is competitive for a SCOTUS clerkship (i.e. if your dream is SCOTUS, Northwestern will unlikely get you there). Above median students are competitive for v20 firms and federal district court clerkships. A median student is competitive for big law in general. A below median student is at risk of striking out, but can still get 1-2 biglaw offers. Students at the bottom have a hard time finding employment, but often there is a personality issue accompanying this. To me this means Northwestern is one of the best law schools in the nation, but not the absolute top tier.

People in Chicago think Northwestern is prestigious. Most of the Midwest considers it the Harvard of the Midwest. East coast confuses Northwestern with Northeastern or thinks it is in Oregon.

I think outside HYS, the t13 schools are largely regional. Judges will likely be impressed by CCN, but people in the Midwest would likely confuse Columbia University with Columbia College (shitty art school) in Chicago. T13 schools like Northwestern, UVA, Duke, etc. can get you a job anywhere in the country, but it's unlikely.

[QContinuum]

The very best Northwestern students get federal courts of appeals clerkships, with maybe the absolute best student getting a feeder judge and is competitive for a SCOTUS clerkship (i.e. if your dream is SCOTUS, Northwestern will unlikely get you there). Above median students are competitive for v20 firms and federal district court clerkships. A median student is competitive for big law in general. A below median student is at risk of striking out, but can still get 1-2 biglaw offers. Students at the bottom have a hard time finding employment, but often there is a personality issue accompanying this. To me this means Northwestern is one of the best law schools in the nation, but not the absolute top tier.

People in Chicago think Northwestern is prestigious. Most of the Midwest considers it the Harvard of the Midwest. East coast confuses Northwestern with Northeastern or thinks it is in Oregon.

I think outside HYS, the t13 schools are largely regional. Judges will likely be impressed by CCN, but people in the Midwest would likely confuse Columbia University with Columbia College (shitty art school) in Chicago. T13 schools like Northwestern, UVA, Duke, etc. can get you a job anywhere in the country, but it's unlikely.

First paragraph is spot-on, the other two paragraphs not so much. If referring to prestige within the legal industry, lawyers in the Midwest are extremely unlikely to confuse Columbia Law with an art school that doesn't even teach law. If referring to lay prestige, even the general public knows the Ivy League schools. And even "lower T13s" like Berkeley and Cornell have plenty of lay prestige.

[Anonymous User]

The very best Northwestern students get federal courts of appeals clerkships, with maybe the absolute best student getting a feeder judge and is competitive for a SCOTUS clerkship (i.e. if your dream is SCOTUS, Northwestern will unlikely get you there). Above median students are competitive for v20 firms and federal district court clerkships. A median student is competitive for big law in general. A below median student is at risk of striking out, but can still get 1-2 biglaw offers. Students at the bottom have a hard time finding employment, but often there is a personality issue accompanying this. To me this means Northwestern is one of the best law schools in the nation, but not the absolute top tier.

People in Chicago think Northwestern is prestigious. Most of the Midwest considers it the Harvard of the Midwest. East coast confuses Northwestern with Northeastern or thinks it is in Oregon.

I think outside HYS, the t13 schools are largely regional. Judges will likely be impressed by CCN, but people in the Midwest would likely confuse Columbia University with Columbia College (shitty art school) in Chicago. T13 schools like Northwestern, UVA, Duke, etc. can get you a job anywhere in the country, but it's unlikely.

First paragraph is spot-on, the other two paragraphs not so much. If referring to prestige within the legal industry, lawyers in the Midwest are extremely unlikely to confuse Columbia Law with an art school that doesn't even teach law. If referring to lay prestige, even the general public knows the Ivy League schools. And even "lower T13s" like Berkeley and Cornell have plenty of lay prestige.

That's a fair criticism because I weaved in the perception among elites and laypeople in that response. I think everyone in the legal field respects Northwestern, but I think laypeople out east or west would not be as impressed with Northwestern.

My t13 regional comment does hold though. For example, Northwestern can get Chicago much more easily than a school like Cal-Berkeley, but Cal-Berkeley can get San Francisco more easily than Northwestern. This doesn't mean a Northwestern student couldn't get San Francisco, because Northwestern is still a national school, but it's still regional in the sense it has its highest buying power is in the Chicago area.

[Anonymous User]

Something else to factor in is the JD-MBA degree. About 10% of the JD class is a JD-MBA and they all either work in v10 firms or some super great business role.

[Anonymous User]

NU grad at a SF/SV v20 here. I actually disagree with the idea that the school is regional and that it's easier to get a job in the Midwest than elsewhere. As a median NU student, you may even have a better shot outside of Chicago, in my opinion. Everyone coming out of NU wants Chicago and the Chicago firms are very familiar with the NU grade distribution, so there is a lot of competition if you are not towards the top of the class.

Legal recruiters at biglaw firms are familiar with the top law schools - lay prestige doesn't enter into the equation - it doesn't matter if the average Californian knows that NU is in Chicago and not Boston, the recruiters at California firms know that it is a good school. The same goes for UVA, Cornell, etc. All of the T14 have national recognition among the people that matter for purposes of getting you a job.

With that being said, is it possible that an NU grad has a slight disadvantage in SF against a Berkeley grad at a firm where the hiring partner is a Berkeley grad? Sure. But NU also has a good reputation (regardless of whether it is still deserved these days) of producing more mature grads with work experience. I know in my office we actively try to recruit NU grads and this past OCI season I believe we interviewed more rising NU 2Ls in our office than from any school besides H and S.

[lawlzschool]

Native Californian at UChicago... people ask my why I went to Chicago all the time and have no idea that it's the #4 law school in the country.

I was well below median and had 7 BigLaw offers.

I'd expect an NU student to have similar reaccs and success.

TL;DR if you don't go to HYS laypeople won't gasp but that shouldn't matter and if it does I would maybe take time to evaluate priorities.