Top Law Schools

Veyron wrote:Mostly just employers. No big deal.

Veyron wrote:Mostly just employers. No big deal.

adude wrote:

Veyron wrote:Mostly just employers. No big deal.

c'mon I was being facetious

sojasoph wrote:

Veyron wrote:Mostly just employers. No big deal.

word.

BaronDetroit wrote:Certainly, the Cooley President appropriately addressed this ranking scheme in his remarks here: --LinkRemoved--

BlueDiamond wrote:"He did no feasibility study, or market survey, or business plan. Indeed, he did almost no research, barely enough to find out what it took to incorporate a law school. He did what many entrepreneurs do, they get an idea and they do whatever is necessary to make it successful."

Read as: "He did nothing necessary to make the law school successful. He had a great idea and did whatever was necessary to make the law school successful."

Borhas wrote:the law school hierarchy and USNWR rankings are not the same

the latter attempts to describe the former

employers care mostly about the former while students care mostly about the latter

A'nold wrote:

Borhas wrote:the law school hierarchy and USNWR rankings are not the same

the latter attempts to describe the former

employers care mostly about the former while students care mostly about the latter

Borhas wrote:

A'nold wrote:

Borhas wrote:the law school hierarchy and USNWR rankings are not the same

the latter attempts to describe the former

employers care mostly about the former while students care mostly about the latter

Borhas wrote:the law school hierarchy and USNWR rankings are not the same

the latter attempts to describe the former

employers care mostly about the former while students care mostly about the latter

Veyron wrote:Mostly just employers. No big deal.

A'nold wrote:I love that thing but I can never post pic's on here cuz of my dumz.

savagedm wrote:

Borhas wrote:the law school hierarchy and USNWR rankings are not the same

the latter attempts to describe the former

employers care mostly about the former while students care mostly about the latter

Would you mind explaining this mentality further? How does this hierarchy work in your opinion? This could become a good cautionary warning to the prestige-snobs who shoot for the top of USNWR rankings without actually considering what they are doing.

Borhas wrote:

savagedm wrote:

Borhas wrote:the law school hierarchy and USNWR rankings are not the same

the latter attempts to describe the former

employers care mostly about the former while students care mostly about the latter

Would you mind explaining this mentality further? How does this hierarchy work in your opinion? This could become a good cautionary warning to the prestige-snobs who shoot for the top of USNWR rankings without actually considering what they are doing.

Well, TLS has these hierarchy discussions all the time... see any thread w/ posts like Y>S>H>A>B>C>D>>>>E etc

fact is, students going to Yale have significantly greater opportunities than students going to Georgetown... and at the end of the day the opportunities given to students are what we care about. Some people will drone on and on about the quality of the education or the intelligence of the students. Frankly I think that's pointless, we should just go straight to results. If you want to go to a school because you want to be around smart people then join Mensa, if you want an education go to a cheap school because I HIGHLY doubt the difference in the quality of the education itself is different at Harvard compared to Vanderbilt (higher demand does not mean quality is proportional to demand, just means there is an innate lack of supply for things that are known as "the best" or "top"). It's true, Harvard will have the leading scholars in a lot of specialized fields, but who gives a shit? You aren't a lawyer yet, you aren't specialized yet, that stuff is largely irrelevant just as the quality of a university's graduate programs is to 99% of UG education. (if it were up to me I'd toss out the academic peer evaluation of any ranking system on grounds of nobody giving a shit)

Problem w/ a purely results oriented approach is that there are hidden hierarchies w/ in the results themselves. Many view working for the Federal Government or the ACLU as "Prestigious PI" while working for a city or state government is not as prestigious. Working for a V50 is more prestigious than other firms, clerking for a Federal COA>Fed District>State Supreme Court>State COA>State trial court. There's also differences between the circuits. There's also differences between major cities... San Francisco > Bakersville, etc.

So it's kind of hard to precisely weigh the outcomes. The best I've seen is NLJ 250 + Fed Clerkship, because there's enough people going after those jobs at every school that it's fair to say the schools that provide the best opportunities will best meet those very common desires. "Public Interest" should also probably play a role, but the hidden hierarchies in that field are even more obscure because none of those people want to outright admit they are prestige whores like almost everyone else... we could probably use Federal Government work + Big ["prestigious"] City Gov't work, but I have no idea how to weigh the non-profits.

How much does all this have to do w/ UGPA, LSAT, Class Size, square footage of library, cost per student? Very Little. There's no point in using those #'s as a substitute for the outcomes when the #'s for the outcomes are available (or at least, could be).

Desert Fox wrote:

Veyron wrote:Mostly just employers. No big deal.

I doubt employers actually give a shit what US News says. US news just parrots back the preexisting hierarchy of school prestige.