<p>im a jr. public policy major at cornell and finally decided on a law concentration: public interest law</p>
<p>i did some research and found that northeastern, UW, and stanford all rank well for that specific concentration. but im not sure of the credibility of my random google search :)</p>
<p>what do you guys think? obv. stanford is amazing in and of itself. but im from seattle so UW would be awesome. ive read northeastern is dedicated to public interest law but their stats don't make it seem very competitive (avg GPA 3.4, avg LSAT 160).</p>
<p>right now i have a 3.8 and hope to get a 4.0 this semester. i will (hopefully) be spending the spring semester in DC as a intern for a think-tank. i know a lot will depend on my lsat, but im just looking for general thoughts and info. </p>
<p>Putting rankings aside, wouldn’t a DC school put you in a better position to get a public interest job since that is where most of these jobs are?</p>
<p>@Homer28: that’s a really god point and definite possibility. with public interest law though you can do state or federal. dc is prob geared much more toward federal. </p>
<p>in DC i think there is American University and Georgetown. I’ll have to look more at Georgetown’s program but I do like the idea of going to school in DC</p>
<p>Don’t even bother looking at specialty rankings. They don’t mean anything. The best schools are almost invariably going to give you the best chances to do whatever it is you want to do.</p>
<p>There’s a huge emphasis on public service at UW Law. You probably read about the Gates Scholars - 5 full ride awards in each entering class, along with an extensive program of speakers and opportunities for everyone. There’s a large externship program, several public interest clinics, and a public service requirement to graduate, so the public interest culture is pervasive. </p>
<p>I’d say Berkeley Law also has a lot of students who pursue public interest law, but I can’t speak to the extent of its programs in that regard.</p>
<p>Zap’s #4 is correct. USN calculates their specialty rankings in a ridiculous way and they are meaningless.</p>
<p>It is the overall rankings that matter. If you want public interest law, the law school rankings are effectively the same as the rankings for biglaw, clerkships, academia, government work, and everything else.</p>
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<p>FN’s #5 really doesn’t say very much. 5 scholarships is not a lot. And “there’s a large externship program, several public interest clinics” is true at every reasonably-ranked school. And the top schools have loan repayment programs for public interest law.</p>
<p>Again: there’s no meaningful difference between “public interest” excellence and overall excellence.</p>
<p>Re post 7: 5 of these mega-scholarships is a pretty good number in a class of 180, especially in a public law school. And when the 5 include fully supported summer work in the field, plus full tuition and living expenses, that’s significant. </p>
<p>I agree that any top law school is likely to offer great opportunities to do public interest law. But just in case the OP doesn’t get into a T14, or wanted to go to law school in his or home state at a very good law school, then it seemed worth mentioning the strong public interest culture at UW.</p>
<p>Well, outside of the T14, the loan repayment programs don’t tend to be any good. Even within the T14, they’re nowhere near as great as people seem to assume.</p>
Good point. I was referring more towards tuition waiver (ie. tuition waiver for NJ public schools for drilling Guardsmen). Provides what essentially is a tuition-free JD.</p>