<p>Best</a> Law Schools - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report</p>
<p>Yale, Stanford, and Harvard are the obvious. Some other unknown schools pop up as well. Michigan, Virginia, and Duke are also among the top ten.</p>
<p>Huh, that’s interesting. I wonder what the story is here.</p>
<p>cornell seems to be in top 10 too- as it’s stats are tied with U- Texas which is in the # 10 spot.</p>
<p>my hunch is that some jurisdictions use “local” grads or law students that have ties to the community- especially in places that my be underrepresented in T-14 schools such as wyoming or north dakota. This may just solidify the idea that if you can’t get into a top school, go to best school in area where you plan to practice.<br>
Never underestimate the power of networking- especially in smaller markets like mississippi or utah</p>
<p>just realized I cut off top of page when I did count- seems like cornell and texas are tied in 13th spot- which is not too shabby either.</p>
<p>I think duke is # 12- so I guess I’m not the only one who miscounted.</p>
<p>The difference is that at some law schools, students are more geared towards seeking and obtaining clerkships than at others, and some law schools encourage and emphasize clerkships much more than others do. </p>
<p>I know that at the law school that I attended (when I attended), while it was a highly ranked law school, many students were more inclined to head off into business or into BIGLAW immediately following graduation, so, therefore, not very many students applied for clerkships. At other law schools (Yale in particular), working for a year or two or three in one or more clerkships is seen as an ordinary stepping stone for many students upon graduation. </p>
<p>I can say for myself that I never applied for a single clerkship, and, in fact, it never really crossed my mind to try to obtain one. I knew that I wanted to practice corporate law, and always felt (and still do) that an extra year or two of experience is much more valuable in corporate law than any clerkship would be (the one exception might be Chancery Court in Delaware).</p>
<p>At most of the T14 law schools, if a student has good grades and journal (particularly law review) experience, finding an Article III (federal) clerkship is not too difficult if one is willing to go to live in a less popular location. As you would imagine, federal clerkships on the coasts and in the Chicago area are much more competitive and more hotly sought than clerkships in the bread basket states, for example.</p>
<p>BDM- there is a story here.<br>
There was a link on TLS to an ABA Journal story from 9/8/09 (?) that dean from U of ND said figures were incorrect. Might have been all clerkships not just federal clerkships. Apparently #'s from other school may be incorrect too.</p>
<p>Hi Marny,</p>
<p>Here is the story that you were referring to:</p>
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<p>thanks syb.
Ya think USNWR is overreaching with it’s constant rankings of programs and not really understanding the basics i.e # of clerkships vs. # of federal article 3 clerkships? Heck- I didn’t know the difference either, but at least I don’t print an article based on my lack of knowledge.</p>
<p>going fishin for a few days. Hope everyone has a good week.
Now that summer is over, I think d is finally settling down and working on her applications- but what do I know I’m just her mom.</p>