Top Law Schools

Currently I am top 40% at Hastings and was offered a similar scholarship to go to Davis. I have very little time to decide between the two. A lot has changed since this has been debated last, both schools have massively cut their enrollment. As far as I can tell the major factors go to Davis:

1. Employment
2. Peer reputation
3. Bar passage rate (varies)
4. Scholarly impact
5. Median LSAT/GPA scores of students (by a lot)
6. Class sizes

Hastings:

1. Lawyer reputation (barley by .1, nearly equal survey results, and how long will this last with median lsat's below 160?)
2. Location in SF (where my GF lives).
3. Better OCI?

However, I believe the largest factor is the ability to get good grades in the next few semester. Does anyone think going to Davis to sorta hide my 1L grades would help my employment prospects versus staying at Hastings? If I only took a couple of classes and a externship and did well I could potentially be ranked at the top of the class in the spring (Hastings only ranks once per year in July). Would that give me a shot at biglaw or make me more competitive for midlaw?

Going to Davis would also mean I could try and write onto law review and compete for moot court, which I cant do until 3L at Hastings because I missed the deadlines.

I am interested in living in SoCal where I am from. Thanks for the help!

DAVIS

Dead even. Anybody care to comment?

I am interested in working for the government and I noticed that Davis actually pays like 10 percent of your loans per year. Meanwhile, Hastings only makes your IBR loan payment. The difference is huge- 8 years of public service after Davis and about 80 percent of your loans are gone (including undergrad). At Hastings you would still owe almost all of them since your IBR payments would basically be interest. Is this accurate, am I missing something?

Does anyone think Hastings can recruit a class with a high enough LSAT score to rebound now that it's TT? I know rankings don't matter to anyone but 0Ls but those are the decision maker here.

I don't understand. Are you saying you already go to Hastings and you could transfer to Davis? Why would you even contemplate that?

If I read it right you're saying you're top 40% at Hastings. That means big law is impossible and you're going to need to hustle to scrounge up any type of legal employment. If that's the case then you would be better served hustling your butt off than contemplating making a lateral transfer or the importance of the lawyer reputation of certain law schools IMO.

I'd also give some serious consideration to dropping out depending on how much debt you'll be in at graduation.

I picked Davis for their loan forgiveness program- Hastings' program requires you to work for a c3 nonprofit for ten years while Davis will pay off your loans as you go and lets you work for political organizations.

I also think that in 2014 there are significant job differences between the schools, likely to be compounded by growing differences in scores and GPA's between the students at the schools. Some people in my position might have chose Hastings on its lawyer/peer reputation, but Davis in fact beats Hastings easily in the most recent survey!

I wish I had known that I could not participate in some of Davis' clinical programs during 2l because I am a transfer student. But FWIW there is more than one transfer student at Davis from Hastings. I am glad to be out of the tenderloin where I was unfortunate to be in close proximity to a shooting that took place a few blocks from campus. I also heard about women complaining that the homeless around campus would try and assault them. I dont think anything like that happens here in Davis.