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Hey all,
I am just beginning the law school search process and have a few questions. First a little information. I have obviously been preparing for the LSAT this June and have been scoring between 160-165 on my practice tests. I hope to score higher on the actual test date. My undergrad GPA is a 3.9/4.0 scale. I am a member of three honor societies and have roughly 20 hours of community service/week for the past 4 years. I have also completed an internship and will have a senior thesis (required by college). My career goals are to serve in the public sector. I ultimately would like to earn a position as an ADA and possibly make my way into a Fed. law enforcement agency or AUSA. Which list of school should I begin to look at? I am a non-URM and live outside of NYC (think Westchester/LI). To be honest the lifetyle of Big Law seems unappealing to me so schools with high placement in that area are not necessary for me. Thank you in advance for your help.

Aim for a 170+ and you will have solid chances at every school in the country. After you get your score (and acceptances/scholarships), then you can start making these sorts of decisions. If public sector work is your goal you should prioritize minimizing debt.

Take the LSAT when you are consistently scoring ~175 on your practice tests.

Getting ADA is very different from getting AUSA. For ADA, the most important thing is showing an interest all through law school. Do both summer internships there, and make them want to hire you. School doesn't matter that much. Whether they actually hire you will depend on their hiring budget, which will be based on the state budget. Hope that it's good when you graduate.

AUSA is prestige PI, which is very different. You should try to go to HYS, which have unconverted grades. You should also try to snag a federal clerkship out of LS, which can be hard at those schools, and is almost out of reach elsewhere.

Edit: Oh, and for AUSA, you're really, really unlikely to get AUSA out of LS, it's possible to get it off of a fed clerkship, but your best bet is likely to lateral out of DoJ, which is also almost impossible to get.

Thanks for the input so far. I realize the goals I have planned are quite ambitious. Since I hope to minimize the debt after LS, I don't plan on moving unless the offer is too good to refuse. Would Columbia, NYU, or Cornell provide the opportunity to land a decent clerkship after LS? I have a couple of connections with local DA offices which would hopefully help out with the internship process. How long would an ADA have to serve in order to realistically land an AUSA position or DOJ position? Thanks again.

SnakySalmon wrote:Getting ADA is very different from getting AUSA. For ADA, the most important thing is showing an interest all through law school. Do both summer internships there, and make them want to hire you. School doesn't matter that much. Whether they actually hire you will depend on their hiring budget, which will be based on the state budget. Hope that it's good when you graduate.

AUSA is prestige PI, which is very different. You should try to go to HYS, which have unconverted grades. You should also try to snag a federal clerkship out of LS, which can be hard at those schools, and is almost out of reach elsewhere.

Edit: Oh, and for AUSA, you're really, really unlikely to get AUSA out of LS, it's possible to get it off of a fed clerkship, but your best bet is likely to lateral out of DoJ, which is also almost impossible to get.

wtf

where do you get the idea that clerkships "almost out of reach" at non-hys schools?

look at these stats:



over the past three years for which data is available, an avg of 12% of students have taken federal clerkships at u chicago, for example. considering that not everyone seeks a federal clerkship (for example, people who want to do transax work generally don't), it's likely that even more than 12% of the u chicago class could get a federal clerkship.

that's hardly "almost out of reach." median might not cut it, but "almost out of reach" is certainly too strong.

Thanks for the perspective on clerkships. Obviously I will know more about the schools and costs this time next year, but in your opinion (TLS) would it be smarter to go to a strong regional school on a 3/4 scholarship or even a full ride if I want to stay with the local government? These local schools have clinics and externship opportunities with the local gov. and DA that seem to lead to employment after LS. I did some research on LinkedIn and noticed that ADAs at the local offices come from schools that are looked down upon by TLS. Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble. I just have a lot of questions.

retake2018 wrote: would it be smarter to go to a strong regional school on a 3/4 scholarship or even a full ride if I want to stay with the local government?

Local school is probably better for local government when considering networking and debt, but you're boxed into that market indefinitely. I doubt they would turn you away if you went to a better school, but you'll need to hustle to show that you really want it rather than simply applying broadly.

retake2018 wrote:Hey all,
I am just beginning the law school search process and have a few questions. First a little information. I have obviously been preparing for the LSAT this June and have been scoring between 160-165 on my practice tests. I hope to score higher on the actual test date. My undergrad GPA is a 3.9/4.0 scale. I am a member of three honor societies and have roughly 20 hours of community service/week for the past 4 years. I have also completed an internship and will have a senior thesis (required by college). My career goals are to serve in the public sector. I ultimately would like to earn a position as an ADA and possibly make my way into a Fed. law enforcement agency or AUSA. Which list of school should I begin to look at? I am a non-URM and live outside of NYC (think Westchester/LI). To be honest the lifetyle of Big Law seems unappealing to me so schools with high placement in that area are not necessary for me. Thank you in advance for your help.

Just want to give you props for wanting to pursue what you're passionate about rather than the money comes first big law mentality among most on here.

retake2018 wrote:Thanks for the input so far. I realize the goals I have planned are quite ambitious. Since I hope to minimize the debt after LS, I don't plan on moving unless the offer is too good to refuse. Would Columbia, NYU, or Cornell provide the opportunity to land a decent clerkship after LS? I have a couple of connections with local DA offices which would hopefully help out with the internship process. How long would an ADA have to serve in order to realistically land an AUSA position or DOJ position? Thanks again.

I don't understand your position on moving. It seems like Cornell should be considered "moving". Penn and Yale are both closer to NYC than Ithaca, even Georgetown is about the same distance as Ithaca. Am I misunderstanding?

I should have elaborated more on the "moving" part. I live in an area that would make it practical to commute to several schools. Since I am looking to keep the amount of debt as low as possible, I would not consider having to relocate for LS unless it was an offer that a rational person could not refuse.

retake2018 wrote:I should have elaborated more on the "moving" part. I live in an area that would make it practical to commute to several schools. Since I am looking to keep the amount of debt as low as possible, I would not consider having to relocate for LS unless it was an offer that a rational person could not refuse.

That's what I thought you were saying, and now I'm more confused. Where you could you possibly live that Cornell, NYU and Columbia could all be considered within a commutable distance. Ithaca is four hours from NYC. I know that some (extremely ambitious) people have two hour commutes for work, but I don't think that would be feasible for law school, unless your commute was on a train and you could spend the whole time studying.

NYC-WVU wrote:

retake2018 wrote:I should have elaborated more on the "moving" part. I live in an area that would make it practical to commute to several schools. Since I am looking to keep the amount of debt as low as possible, I would not consider having to relocate for LS unless it was an offer that a rational person could not refuse.

That's what I thought you were saying, and now I'm more confused. Where you could you possibly live that Cornell, NYU and Columbia could all be considered within a commutable distance. Ithaca is four hours from NYC. I know that some (extremely ambitious) people have two hour commutes for work, but I don't think that would be feasible for law school, unless your commute was on a train and you could spend the whole time studying.

I had meant to exclude Cornell from the commute list and add it to the possible with good offer list. I hope that clears it up. Thanks again for the help.

iamgeorgebush wrote:stuff with images that I can't quote

Since the credited stance on this forum is to assume you will be around median when making application decisions, I don't feel that my statement is inaccurate. Particularly as UChi, the non-HYS school with the best clerkship placement would still require somewhere around Magna if clerkship was based solely on class rank (of course it isn't).

SnakySalmon wrote:

iamgeorgebush wrote:stuff with images that I can't quote

Since the credited stance on this forum is to assume you will be around median when making application decisions, I don't feel that my statement is inaccurate. Particularly as UChi, the non-HYS school with the best clerkship placement would still require somewhere around Magna if clerkship was based solely on class rank (of course it isn't).

well yes, if you're median, clerkships at u chicago are probably out of reach. but plenty of people do better than median. 50% do better, to be precise. one ought to consider a number of possibilities, including both above median and below median grades, when making application decisions.

long story short, if OP wants AUSA, he or she should aim for HYS, and if that doesn't pan out, perhaps CLS, u chi, or NYU. none of the above would give him or her any sort of guarantee of getting an AUSA position, but hey, life is full of risks. as long as OP realizes that there is a distinct possibility that he or she may never become an AUSA and is happy with the alternative possibilities, i don't see an issue with pursuing that career path. if OP wants ADA, the path that leads there may be different, as you rightly pointed out, snakysalmon.

also, OP, you may find this interesting: --LinkRemoved--