Top Law Schools

I wanted to ask you all for some feedback. I got accepted at DePaul with some $$ (basically a whole year of tuition paid for). I am torn if I should attend. What do people know about DePaul? Any advice would be extremely helpful.

Thanks

Oh boy, I have a bad feeling about this thread....

hiphopvhlr wrote:What do people know about DePaul?

They are one of the top ten law schools in the entire city of Chicago?

hiphopvhlr wrote:I wanted to ask you all for some feedback. I got accepted at DePaul with some $$ (basically a whole year of tuition paid for). I am torn if I should attend. What do people know about DePaul? Any advice would be extremely helpful.

Thanks

Copy pasted this from TLS

Bar passage rate: 88.7%
Percent of graduates employed 9 months after graduation: 86.8%
Median private sector starting salary: $68,000 (Class of 2007, 84% reporting)

Without knowing much about your numbers/goals, I don't know if people can give you constructive feedback.

cactuarX3 wrote:Oh boy, I have a bad feeling about this thread....

+1

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=137561


And 40k isn't enough to excuse the investment, really. You'll still be forking over 140k (2 years tuition + 3 years CoL in Chicago).

What are your numbers? I saw in an earlier thread you were sick when you took the LSAT?

I wouldn't rely on the numbers provided by the law school on salary or employment information. I think the numbers on TLS also use the numbers provided by the schools.

Here is the link to law school transparency page about DePaul -
--LinkRemoved--

I dunno. How much would it cost you? To be conservative: you are probably unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if you graduate from DePaul. The Chicago market is almost impossible.

congrats. Plus, everything that has been said.

sunynp wrote:To be conservative: you are probably unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if you graduate from DePaul. The Chicago market is almost impossible.

I understand where you are coming from, but to say it is unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if graduating from DePaul seems a little outlandish. If you can graduate in the top 10-15%, you network well throughout your three years at DePaul, participate in events/clinics/etc, it is very hard for me to believe it to be "unlikely" to find a job in Chicago.

Maybe I'm naive, as I live in FL and plan to attend law school in Chicago (Loyola and Kent are higher on my list than DePaul), so perhaps I simply ignore the realists like yourself. However, I do not believe a person should attend law school if they are not ready to dedicate all of their efforts over those three years, so I do not see it as "unlikely" to find a job as an attorney upon graduating from DePaul (or Loyola, or Kent).

Unless of course you are not cut out for the competitive nature of law school and find yourself outside the top 20-30%. But if that is your plan, law school is not right for you (in general).

gjk07fsu wrote:

sunynp wrote:To be conservative: you are probably unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if you graduate from DePaul. The Chicago market is almost impossible.

I understand where you are coming from, but to say it is unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if graduating from DePaul seems a little outlandish. If you can graduate in the top 10-15%, you network well throughout your three years at DePaul, participate in events/clinics/etc, it is very hard for me to believe it to be "unlikely" to find a job in Chicago.

Maybe I'm naive, as I live in FL and plan to attend law school in Chicago (Loyola and Kent are higher on my list than DePaul), so perhaps I simply ignore the realists like yourself. However, I do not believe a person should attend law school if they are not ready to dedicate all of their efforts over those three years, so I do not see it as "unlikely" to find a job as an attorney upon graduating from DePaul (or Loyola, or Kent).

Unless of course you are not cut out for the competitive nature of law school and find yourself outside the top 20-30%. But if that is your plan, law school is not right for you (in general).

You do realize that according to the laws of mathematics and physics, 85-90% of grads are not in the top 10-15%, right? That is the DEFINITION of "unlikely."

rinkrat19 wrote:

gjk07fsu wrote:

sunynp wrote:To be conservative: you are probably unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if you graduate from DePaul. The Chicago market is almost impossible.

I understand where you are coming from, but to say it is unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if graduating from DePaul seems a little outlandish. If you can graduate in the top 10-15%, you network well throughout your three years at DePaul, participate in events/clinics/etc, it is very hard for me to believe it to be "unlikely" to find a job in Chicago.

Maybe I'm naive, as I live in FL and plan to attend law school in Chicago (Loyola and Kent are higher on my list than DePaul), so perhaps I simply ignore the realists like yourself. However, I do not believe a person should attend law school if they are not ready to dedicate all of their efforts over those three years, so I do not see it as "unlikely" to find a job as an attorney upon graduating from DePaul (or Loyola, or Kent).

Unless of course you are not cut out for the competitive nature of law school and find yourself outside the top 20-30%. But if that is your plan, law school is not right for you (in general).

You do realize that according to the laws of mathematics and physics, 85-90% of grads are not in the top 10-15%, right? That is the DEFINITION of "unlikely."

Is there a rule that says the only way to ensure a job as an attorney coming out of DePaul, is to graduate in the top 10-15%?

I guess I am looking at this more on an individual basis. Yes, as a whole, the statistics back the original statement of it being unlikely. But those statistics do not apply to a single person if that person excels in law school. I give the benefit of the doubt and assume someone I do not know on a forum is looking to stand out while in law school.

gjk07fsu wrote:

rinkrat19 wrote:

gjk07fsu wrote:

sunynp wrote:To be conservative: you are probably unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if you graduate from DePaul. The Chicago market is almost impossible.

I understand where you are coming from, but to say it is unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if graduating from DePaul seems a little outlandish. If you can graduate in the top 10-15%, you network well throughout your three years at DePaul, participate in events/clinics/etc, it is very hard for me to believe it to be "unlikely" to find a job in Chicago.

Maybe I'm naive, as I live in FL and plan to attend law school in Chicago (Loyola and Kent are higher on my list than DePaul), so perhaps I simply ignore the realists like yourself. However, I do not believe a person should attend law school if they are not ready to dedicate all of their efforts over those three years, so I do not see it as "unlikely" to find a job as an attorney upon graduating from DePaul (or Loyola, or Kent).

Unless of course you are not cut out for the competitive nature of law school and find yourself outside the top 20-30%. But if that is your plan, law school is not right for you (in general).

You do realize that according to the laws of mathematics and physics, 85-90% of grads are not in the top 10-15%, right? That is the DEFINITION of "unlikely."

Is there a rule that says the only way to ensure a job as an attorney coming out of DePaul, is to graduate in the top 10-15%?

You're the one who chose the 10-15% cutoff, dude. Check the bolded in your own post.

rinkrat19 wrote:

gjk07fsu wrote:

rinkrat19 wrote:

gjk07fsu wrote:To be conservative: you are probably unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if you graduate from DePaul. The Chicago market is almost impossible.
I understand where you are coming from, but to say it is unlikely to get a job as a lawyer if graduating from DePaul seems a little outlandish. If you can graduate in the top 10-15%, you network well throughout your three years at DePaul, participate in events/clinics/etc, it is very hard for me to believe it to be "unlikely" to find a job in Chicago.

Maybe I'm naive, as I live in FL and plan to attend law school in Chicago (Loyola and Kent are higher on my list than DePaul), so perhaps I simply ignore the realists like yourself. However, I do not believe a person should attend law school if they are not ready to dedicate all of their efforts over those three years, so I do not see it as "unlikely" to find a job as an attorney upon graduating from DePaul (or Loyola, or Kent).

Unless of course you are not cut out for the competitive nature of law school and find yourself outside the top 20-30%. But if that is your plan, law school is not right for you (in general).

You do realize that according to the laws of mathematics and physics, 85-90% of grads are not in the top 10-15%, right? That is the DEFINITION of "unlikely."
Is there a rule that says the only way to ensure a job as an attorney coming out of DePaul, is to graduate in the top 10-15%?

You're the one who chose the 10-15% cutoff, dude. Check the bolded in your own post.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe I said the only way to obtain job placement as an attorney upon graduating from DePaul is to finish in the top 10-15%. There were actually multiple criteria.

Oh boy. Yes, job prospects are questionable at DePaul. Yes, the Chicago market is rough right now. No, they're not so bad that you only have a 10% of being a laywer. Posters like Sunynp overstate the truth and make it lose credibility.

OP - what are your other options? What do you want to do post-graduation? What are your stats?

These are important consideration. 1 year tuition doesn't alleviate the burden by as much as you think it will. As a poster said above, you're still looking at comfortably in the six figures of debt and your goal should be minimizing debt if you're not heading to a school that will yield exceptional placement stats, of which DePaul is not.

The last half dozen posts have really confused me.

Thanks for the replies. My plan is to try to find a job as a Public Defender. I come from the corporate world, and i can honestly say that I am not cut out for corporate America. I would be open to the location.

hiphopvhlr wrote:Thanks for the replies. My plan is to try to find a job as a Public Defender. I come from the corporate world, and i can honestly say that I am not cut out for corporate America. I would be open to the location.

by location do you mean cook and the adjacent counties? I know that state's attorneys in the chicagoland area make around 40-50k, which isn't bad from a level base, but when you are starting in a 100k hole, things are much more difficult. I think people can work hard from any school and get a job that they want...however, when you are in 100k cement shoes, swimming to shore is much more difficult.

.

Hiphoplvr -

I am a fellow Kent/Loyola/DePaul applicant and have been doing lots of thinking on the question of which school to attend if offered admission at all three. I won't bludgeon you with the LST data or statements like "You won't get a job coming from DePaul", but I did notice one thing in your original post that I thought should be addressed.

You said, "I got accepted at DePaul with some $$ (basically a whole year of tuition paid for)" I am guessing you got the same "Dean's Merit Scholarship in the total amount of $60,000" that I did. However, reading further in this letter from DePaul, I see that I get a guaranteed $20,000 my first year and then my scholarship will be renewed if I "continue as a full-time student in the full-time day program and maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.20 at the end of each academic year." It continues and says that if you get a 2.9, you are eligible for half the scholarship to be renewed.

A little digging reveals in the DePaul Law Student handbook (--LinkRemoved--) that a B+ is given a weight of 3.3 and a B is given a weight of 3.0 (Page 17). Additionally:

"The College of Law faculty adopted the following mandatory grade curve that applies to
all first‐year courses and to upper‐level classes with 50 or more enrolled students:
A 12%‐17%
A‐ and/or B+ 20%‐30%
B 20%‐30%
B‐ and/or C+ 20%‐30%
C or below 10%‐15%
In addition, the mean or average for all DePaul students in any course subject to this
grade curve must be between 2.95 and 3.15. All LARC sections taught by the same
instructor" (Page 18)

Now, maybe someone has a different interpretation of this policy, but by setting the scholarship renewal bar above the curve, it means that a large number of people with this stipulation will not be getting their full scholarship amount for 2L year. Additionally, the bottom 30-45% of each section will not be getting any merit scholarship their 2L year (if they had one to begin with, but DePaul's policy seems to be to send everyone some money).

So, I look at it this way: I was admitted to DePaul with a $20,000 scholarship. The other $40,000 is in no way guaranteed. I totally intend to work very hard in law school and believe I can be successful, but I believed the same thing in undergrad and my GPA there was under a 3.20. And going to a school which I think people pretty unanimously think is inferior to Kent and Loyola (and obviously UC and Northwestern), not to mention all the other schools which place in Chicago (T14, UIUC, Notre Dame), scares me. I can handle a less than rosy job picture, but the thought of that coupled with the possibility of also losing $40,000 out of my scholarship because I was only slightly above-average? Ouch.

I know there must be some current DePaul students lurking on this board somewhere. Maybe you can shed some light on this whole scholarship issue? And throw in a few words about the employment situation, too. Lastly, maybe a thought or two on the section stacking rumors I have heard.

Of course, hiphoplvr, if your scholarship came with no stipulations, just ignore this whole post.