I did a 2018 study (still working on it) of placement from associates at the Top Vault Law Firms (includes Cravath, Wachtell, etc.) and Top Medical Residency Programs (includes UCSF/UCLA/Harvard/Duke Dermatology programs etc.) ranked by reputation according to Doximity (for more competive specialties I counted more programs and from less competitive specialties I counted less programs) and so far have a sample size of 2490 residents and associates (split evenly). So far, in terms of placement per capita, here are the top schools in terms of representation (minimum count of 13 to be included):
1 Harvard
2 Yale
3 Dartmouth
4 Duke
5 Princeton
6 U Pennsylvania
7 Georgetown
8 Brown
9 Columbia
10 Johns Hopkins
11 Stanford
12 Northwestern
13 Cornell
14 Tufts
15 U Notre Dame
16 Rice
17 U Chicago
18 WUSTL
19 Emory
20 Vanderbilt
21 Boston College
22 UC Berkerley
23 U Michigan
24 U Virginia
25 UNC - Chapel Hill
26 USC
27 George Washington U
PM me for the full table of data with numbers or info on a specific school.
*Again, only included those with the largest placement numbers (i.e. smaller schools with a lower count may have higher per capita represenation but were excluded; the sample size isn’t that large yet)
I’m not saying it is the “best” career option to work at a top Vault law firm or do a residency at the residency programs with the best reputations in their field; this is more a reflection of what the best undergraduate feeders are to top law and medical schools (because of the outcomes). This is a proxy for feeders to top law and medical schools because top law schools and top medical schools tend to matriculate graduates to top law firms and medical residency programs. Obviously, everyone has different career goals upon completing law or medical school so I am not judging what is best for each individual student or commenting on work/life balance, which is a separate issue.
Just so OP is aware- “Top Medical Residency Programs” are completely different from medical schools. You apply to residency when you are in medical school. Often the best residencies are NOT at what are ranked as, or what are thought of as, the best medical schools. For example, Harvard may not have the best or highest ranked/regarded orthopedic surgery residency in the US even though its med school might be ranked #1 in any given year. The best otolaryngology residency in the US could be at U of Pittsburgh although its med school might rank middle of the road.
It actually corresponds pretty well to the Ivies/equivalents and Near-Ivy tiers that I have (all of the Ivies/equivalents are in the top 17 except for MIT and Caltech, neither of whom probably send many grads to law school and Caltech sends half it’s grads in to PhD programs so wouldn’t send a high proportion anywhere else).
I have JHU, ND, Tufts, Cal, UMich, UVa, and USC as near-Ivies but the schools where excellence is more biased towards pre-med (like JHU, WashU, and Emory) would appear higher on this list and lower on mine.
“Surprised to see Dartmouth do so well. Good on them. Stanford at 11 is a shocker.”
I am not sure there is such a pronounced difference at the top JenniferClint. Besides, for the looks of the output, I think the bulk of input used by bmcauliffe was based on East Coast institutions.
@Alexandre, my guess is that while the top residencies are spread all over the country, the top law firms would be heavily weighted towards the East Coast/NYC.