Top Law Schools

I think I have a reasonably realistic assessment of my position based on some long time lurking and obsessive LawSchoolNumbers searches, but thought I'd throw something out there for the community. Currently my list is...

Reach
UCLA, Georgetown

Realistic
USC, UT Austin, BU, BC

Safety
Minnesota

I'm on the fence about submitting to Vanderbilt and WUSTL, I wouldn't be wild about practicing in Nashville or St. Louis and am pretty familiar with the regional nature of the schools. I know TLS can get down on entertainment law, but I grew up in LA, am familiar with the industry, and know that I won't be rubbing shoulders with the stars on weekends...UCLA is probably my first choice right now because of its top ranked entertainment law program. If anybody has any advice on schools to add to the list, or an assessment of my chances that differs from my own, it'd be very welcome.

Why is Georgetown here but not Cornell? You have a better shot at getting in there and it's just as portable as GULC if you want to get back to CA.

Not sure why Minnesota is listed as a safety when BU and BC are targets, either. If anything, they're all safeties.

And yes, an app to WUSTL would be worth it. If they throw around as much $$$ as they did last cycle, you could at least use it to negotiate.

Applying to law school isn't like applying to college. Don't just apply to schools you would want to attend. Leveraging schools' scholarship offers against each other for more money is a key part of the process.

And don't pick law schools based on meaningless specialty rankings. Paying sticker at UCLA over sticker at Cornell would be madness.

Are you a URM?

Yeah, definitely apply to Cornell, Vandy, and WUSTL as well. Even if you don't ultimately want to end up there, they can be useful for negotiation.

cotiger wrote:Yeah, definitely apply to Cornell, Vandy, and WUSTL as well. Even if you don't ultimately want to end up there, they can be useful for negotiation.

+1. But 9 times out of 10, Cornell will be the better option than GULC.

Retake

BigZuck wrote:Retake

This too.

nicholasavallone wrote:
I'm on the fence about submitting to Vanderbilt and WUSTL, I wouldn't be wild about practicing in Nashville or St. Louis and am pretty familiar with the regional nature of the schools. I know TLS can get down on entertainment law, but I grew up in LA, am familiar with the industry, and know that I won't be rubbing shoulders with the stars on weekends...UCLA is probably my first choice right now because of its top ranked entertainment law program. If anybody has any advice on schools to add to the list, or an assessment of my chances that differs from my own, it'd be very welcome.

I mean, Nashville is a pretty damn good place for entertainment law, one of the better places outside of LA and NY. That said, Nashville is hard to crack, even from Vandy, because I guess everyone ends up wanting to stay here and the firms generally can fill their slots with all law review kids and be done. If you don't want to practice somewhere in the South and would rather be in California, UCLA would probably be the better choice, although there are plenty of people who make it back to Cali from Vandy. On the other hand, there usually aren't too many people wanting California from Vandy, and I've heard people say that this can make it easier to get interviews. So if you get a lot more money from Vandy for some reason, you might think about choosing it over UCLA. With comparable money, I'd say UCLA is better for you.

And apply to every decent school that gives you a waiver. No reason not to when you could end up with good leverage.

daryldixon wrote:Are you a URM?

Not a URM, white male K-JD. thanks for the help everyone, its extremely useful going forward. I know TLS encourages retakes, especially for fringe numbers like 167. Worth it for February, or should I see the offers and then decide to prep heavily for next June if I'm not satisfied?

ImNoScar wrote:

cotiger wrote:Yeah, definitely apply to Cornell, Vandy, and WUSTL as well. Even if you don't ultimately want to end up there, they can be useful for negotiation.

+1. But 9 times out of 10, Cornell will be the better option than GULC.

Absolutely. Cornell>GULC all day long.

Travis12 wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:

cotiger wrote:Yeah, definitely apply to Cornell, Vandy, and WUSTL as well. Even if you don't ultimately want to end up there, they can be useful for negotiation.

+1. But 9 times out of 10, Cornell will be the better option than GULC.

Absolutely. Cornell>GULC all day long.

Is Cornell THAT much better than GULC? Sure, it has better employment numbers--but is the difference enough to pick Cornell over GULC 9 out of 10 times? Just curious.

altoid99 wrote:

Travis12 wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:

cotiger wrote:Yeah, definitely apply to Cornell, Vandy, and WUSTL as well. Even if you don't ultimately want to end up there, they can be useful for negotiation.

+1. But 9 times out of 10, Cornell will be the better option than GULC.

Absolutely. Cornell>GULC all day long.

Is Cornell THAT much better than GULC? Sure, it has better employment numbers--but is the difference enough to pick Cornell over GULC 9 out of 10 times? Just curious.

At equal cost, yes. Cornell has markedly better employment numbers, which are realistically the only thing you should care about. Due to GULC's stinginess, the times when GULC will be cheaper than Cornell are few and far between.

altoid99 wrote:

Travis12 wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:

cotiger wrote:Yeah, definitely apply to Cornell, Vandy, and WUSTL as well. Even if you don't ultimately want to end up there, they can be useful for negotiation.

+1. But 9 times out of 10, Cornell will be the better option than GULC.

Absolutely. Cornell>GULC all day long.

Is Cornell THAT much better than GULC? Sure, it has better employment numbers--but is the difference enough to pick Cornell over GULC 9 out of 10 times? Just curious.

For general employment numbers? Yes, significantly. GULC is only going to be better for people wanting DC biglaw or DC-centric Gov/PI.