Hi,
I’m in at Michigan, UVA, Berk, and Duke. Assume similar/equal cost. I know each school provides a unique culture, and I really don’t have a preference since each school has pros/cons it provides.
I’m more concerned about my goals, which are biglaw (NYC, LA, DC, or Chicago - it really doesn’t matter) or a good government position.
Any advice/anecdotes?
Thanks!
Go [url=<a href=“http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/]here[/url], figure out which school places best in the job/location you want most, and go for it. You’re in a great position to maneuver for location, since many firms care about ties (generally not in NY or DC, more common in CA/Chi). Going to law school in a place is a solid tie to the area.
Not necessarily; its a help, but not solid, IMO. For example, attending Northwestern will help some with Chicago placement, but jobs are just not that plentiful in that locale. Without midwest ties, Michigan could be a challenge to get placement in the Windy City, without dropping down the food chain. One might be V10 competitive in NYC but only V50 in Chicago without connections.
To the extent OP wants LA and has no ties to California, the only option of those three is Boalt. Even then, it won’t be easy since the local schools (UCLA and USC and even Loyola place locally.) OTOH, with local LA ties, its not too hard to get back.
For DC, UVa probably as the edge.
All of them place well into NYC.
DC doesn’t care much about ties, but it’s intensely grade focused. In any event, a law school tie is definitely better than no tie at all, especially for markets like CA.
I made a custom LST reports with the schools you mentioned. Check out what is most important to you:
http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/berkeley/michigan/uva/duke/
At least Berkeley is in a big metropolitan area with lots of legal jobs. I’d think that would make interviewing much easier and would attract more law firm recruiters, but seems like the employment statistics don’t on the surface bear that theory out.
Going to law school in an area is not a solid tie to the area, unless you have lived in the place before law school.
Not that I disagree, HA, but which stats are you referring to?
The “employment score” at Lawschoolnumbers.com doesn’t seem much different from the score at other peer schools.
While certainly evenly matched, my counsel would be Boalt. It is a smaller school, and outside of Stanford, is the number 2 school on the west coast. It is recruited by every major west coast firm, and a host of other in Silicon Valley (that is to say, jobs directly with tech firms), as well as NGOs and other public service oriented careers–many many options–plus all that the east bay/SF has to offer.