More sad stories from our friends at JD underground Forum

[neskerdoo]

by the way, whoever ends up at law school with me stands a very good chance of someday hearing me do Wu-karaoke...

[Darth Topher]

That would be interesting.

"Shimmy shimmy ya..." anyone?

[bryguy]

pithy ... yes it is wachtel that buys your sould for a 160k bonus a year ... haha ... pretty tempting though isnt it?! hahaha ... definately not for everyone though

[prettypithy]

by the way, whoever ends up at law school with me stands a very good chance of someday hearing me do Wu-karaoke...

Is your Wu-karaoke excellent in a horrible way or horrible in an excellent way? If it is the latter, please come be my classmate.

[AVSexton]

This post does have a lot of relevant points, though.

At every law school, 49% of the students are going to be below the median. 60% of the students are going to be in a range where finding employment can be tricky, even in smaller markets.

At many, many law schools, that is going to catch a lot of legitimatly intelligent, qualified people. Stories like this, that do seem to be the plights of genuinly intelligent individuals, make me think that if I don't have a 3.3 (Madison approximates class rank by GPA tables, they don't actually release class ranks, but that is ~top third of class) by the end of 1L, I should just drop out:/

Really, top third? I would think Wisconsin has a very insular market, not a lot of T-14 grads flooding it. Wouldn't that make Madison top dog in the whole state? I feel like the size and demographics of the market might make it a little easier on everyone. Then again, it is a small market.

You're likely right about that, though I suppose people at the very bottom of the UChicago/Northwestern/Michigan/Minnesota classes might go after Milwaukee jobs if they are having a tough time finding other employment. The bigger Milwaukee firms pay 125-145k; not quite market, but 145k in Wisconsin is a *lot* of money.

That said, yes, Madison dominates the Wisconsin market fairly strongly, but that doesn't make the job-hunting stories any less terrifying. I had some hyperbole in there; admittedly, but if I end up in the bottom third after 1L, then I may legitimatly think about bailing. You can talk about only going in to Law School if you legitimatly like law all you want; and I'm not fixated on biglaw at all (even though my opportunity cost to go to law school is something like $300k, once you factor in lost wages from the three years and the interest on a 30-year repayment in addition to the initial loans), but there's a difference between being fixated on biglaw and having the prospect of having absolutely *no* jobs offers.

[neskerdoo]

Is your Wu-karaoke excellent in a horrible way or horrible in an excellent way? If it is the latter, please come be my classmate.

um.... why can't it be excellently excellent?

[Darth Topher]

AVsexton, this whole "dropping out after 1L" if not in top of class may be a wise decision depending on what school you attend. You are a thinker. Some people need to truly think about if Law is the right decision for them. Many seem to be confused. At least thats what I have encountered.

[prettypithy]

Is your Wu-karaoke excellent in a horrible way or horrible in an excellent way? If it is the latter, please come be my classmate.

um.... why can't it be excellently excellent?

Wu. Karaoke. I assume some measure of absurdity must be embraced to fully appreciate it.

[neskerdoo]

only if you consider watching a 30-year-old white dude mimic the voice of each killer bee absurd...

[prettypithy]

Yeah, come to my school. Please? Where are you leaning towards anyway? You have a truckload of acceptances.

[Darth Topher]

"Killah bees sting and attack!"

[neskerdoo]

frontrunners are Cornell and GTown at the moment, but I am far from decided... I am terrified of the debt...

[Darth Topher]

"C.R.E.A.M" = Law school debt

[prettypithy]

frontrunners are Cornell and GTown at the moment, but I am far from decided... I am terrified of the debt...

As well you should be. Go to G'town, I'll go to GW and we'll meet somewhere in between for Karaoke. I do a mean AC/DC. You can do Killah Beez next. The racial and musical incongruity will bring down the house.

[neskerdoo]

no matter where I go, I will find a way to meet up with you for this very purpose... it will happen

[prettypithy]

I'm holding you to that!

[nate_2001]

I think about this sometimes, and frankly, I wouldn't put a lot of stock in it. Yeah, it's sad, but it's the same story I've been hearing after high school and undergrad. For some reason people think that a good school will mean that they don't have to work anymore -- like a ticket to easy street or something. If she really went to a top 30 school, she should be able to find something.

Another thought I had is why doesn't she out her school? Is it because a bunch of more successful and satisfied classmates will out her?

I know that law school will be difficult. I know that the job market will be difficult. But I sincerely find it hard to believe that the graduates from the fourth tier school in my small market town can find jobs and someone graduating from a top 30 school can't find ANYTHING.

[JusAbstinendi]

Another thought I had is why doesn't she out her school?

I'd say it's because s/he basically wrote an article from the perspective of an economic loser. Anonymity is his/her friend.

[Player30]

Maybe the bottom half should just drop out after 1L if they aren't at a T14. If schools started losing more of their students, maybe they'd start catering to all their students rather than just the very top.

[high4ever2008]

frontrunners are Cornell and GTown at the moment, but I am far from decided... I am terrified of the debt...

As well you should be. Go to G'town, I'll go to GW and we'll meet somewhere in between for Karaoke. I do a mean AC/DC. You can do Killah Beez next. The racial and musical incongruity will bring down the house.

Come on prettypithy, you're stronger than that. Wait for you Hastings and Davis acceptances. I'm sure they are coming soon!

[prettypithy]

Maybe the bottom half should just drop out after 1L if they aren't at a T14. If schools started losing more of their students, maybe they'd start catering to all their students rather than just the very top.

If the bottom half dropped out, wouldn't there just be a new bottom half?

[prettypithy]

frontrunners are Cornell and GTown at the moment, but I am far from decided... I am terrified of the debt...

As well you should be. Go to G'town, I'll go to GW and we'll meet somewhere in between for Karaoke. I do a mean AC/DC. You can do Killah Beez next. The racial and musical incongruity will bring down the house.

Come on prettypithy, you're stronger than that. Wait for you Hastings and Davis acceptances. I'm sure they are coming soon!

I'm sorry high4ever, the pull of karaoke is too strong for me to deny!

[high4ever2008]

frontrunners are Cornell and GTown at the moment, but I am far from decided... I am terrified of the debt...

As well you should be. Go to G'town, I'll go to GW and we'll meet somewhere in between for Karaoke. I do a mean AC/DC. You can do Killah Beez next. The racial and musical incongruity will bring down the house.

Come on prettypithy, you're stronger than that. Wait for you Hastings and Davis acceptances. I'm sure they are coming soon!

I'm sorry high4ever, the pull of karaoke is too strong for me to deny!

lol

[MockTrialBoy89]

I really love JD Underground. Honestly, where else can you get stuff like this??

"Author: GoldenGate 1L
Subject: Cooley poised to jump ahead of Yale in Rankings
Time: March 19, 2008 - 2:47 pm

In a leaked edition of the 2008 Cooley Rankings, Cooley is rumoured to have jumped up to #13, 2 places behind of Stanford at #11, Yale university has fallen from #8 to #14, although yale managed to gain increased recognition for the quality of its professors and research it failed to match cooley in key performance indicators such as: Total Libary Seating Numbers, Number of Students enrolled, Number of sucessful graduates, % of students from a low-income background.

Harvard University maintains it's position at #1 as in 2007,
Author: GoldenGate 1L
Time: March 19, 2008 - 2:52 pm

Cooley Rankings are a generally accepted more "accurate" measure of the true rankings of various law schools.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 85,00.html


Cooley Rankings are unaffected by historical prestige and can be used to see the REAL changes affecting law school rankings using metrics that really matter, and prevent a self-fufilling prohecy of the same schools being ranked the same over and over.

Cooley Rankings are catching on in many leading legal recruiting companies, they release all the releveant information using the Cooley Comparer.

http://www.cooley.edu/rankings/search/r ... school.php


Cooley Rankings are the only law school rankings unaffected by historical prestige giving a disorted view of the true value of various legal educations."



http://jdunderground.com/thread.php?threadId=13488

[kkhtlk]

this answers my question of whether to buy into a big name school, or excel in a smaller, local program.