<p>I know that a distinction is often made in the career prospects / exit opportunities for those attending T14 schools vs. other schools, but what about within the T14? </p>
<p>Is there really a huge advantage between attending HYS over other top 14 schools in terms of salary, landing jobs with big law firms, clerkships, or other post-law school paths? Do firms take a larger percentage of their summer or new hire class from these very top schools, or is it fairly equal as long as they recruit on your campus?</p>
<p>Yes, there is a huge advantage between attending HYS over the rest of the T14, in terms of landing jobs with prestigious law firms, clerkships, academic jobs, etc. Almost all biglaw jobs pay the same in a given market, and most T14 grads can get one if they wanted, so the average salary difference may be small. You could be dead last in your class at HYS and still land a great job.</p>
<p>I disagree that there is a "huge advantage" to attending HYS over the rest of the T14. There is some advantage, perhaps, in some cases, where someone might have a greater chance of obtaining the job of their choice despite a lower class rank, but most of the T14 will offer an incredible number of opportunities for the vast majority of their students. The main difference may be in the number of students who eventually go into teaching law who graduated from HYS.</p>
<p>To me, the biggest difference will be that biglaw recruiters will sometimes hire from the lower 50% of classes at HYS, while at other T14's they'll only stay within the top 50% and usually top 33%. Blue touched on the other point, which is that it's much easier to get a sweet clerkship from HYS than the other T14.</p>
<p>BronxBombers is incorrect. According to the National Law Journal, more than half of 2005 graduates at Penn, NYU, Duke, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, and Virginia went to NLJ 250 firms (which seems like a pretty good measure of "BigLaw" to me). More than 40% did at Stanford, Northwestern, Michigan, Berkeley, Vanderbilt, and Georgetown.</p>
<p>Clearly, these firms are not just taking the top half or third of the class, especially when you consider the fact that many of the top students at these schools went straight to public interest, boutique firms, or clerkships (the latter accounting for the seemingly low number of Yale grads in BigLaw) and aren't counted in these figures. </p>
<p>Also, at my (non-HYS but T14) law school, employers don't know our class ranks. Heck, the students don't know their OWN class ranks. Employers don't get to see our transcripts before they interview us, only once the first interview is over. I'm sure they take grades into consideration, but they don't have the strict cutoffs you imply.</p>
<p>the biggest advantage HYS gives you is a) for clerkships/government work, b) for academia (chicago does decently for both of them too). if all you care about is BIGLAW you should be fine at any of them</p>
<p>The bottom 50% will be more inclined to go straight to biglaw, while the top will go for more bearable positions, prestigious clerkships, etc. If you go to any T14 and get through the coursework, it's not all that difficult to land a biglaw job making 100-140k a year, at Harvard even the bottom 30% could go biglaw if they wanted. Now if by 'great job' you mean a great clerkship or going back into academia , then no, it will be difficult for the bottom 50% to get that.</p>
<p>Law review is usually determined by grades, but I've heard of some schools having writing contest type of things to get in. Similarly clerkships tend to be very grade oriented.</p>
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The bottom 50% will be more inclined to go straight to biglaw, while the top will go for more bearable positions, prestigious clerkships, etc.
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<p>On what did you base this assertion, trumpet? In my experience, this is just not at all the case.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that many top grads don't go on to biglaw, I'm saying that they will have the opportunity to get the best clerkships or go back into academia whereas the lower grads will not. For them biglaw will present itself as the best thing available. I think this is similar to a recent study I've read where a higher percentage of grads from the lower T14s go straight to biglaw than grads from HYS; this is likely due to the fact that you're average grad from say Northwestern wont have the same opportunities outside of biglaw that an average grad from Harvard or Yale would have, just as the bottom grads at Harvard wont have the same opportunities outside of biglaw as the top ones would.</p>
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Even if you are at the bottom 50% at HLS, you can still land a great job?
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<p>Yes, and that's another major advantage to attending HYS. A student in the bottom of his class at Harvard will still probably have multiple biglaw offers. The student in the bottom of his class at Georgetown probably won't. A few of the T14's also allow employers to pre-screen students for on-campus interviews, which can dramatically affect the employment prospects for students not in the top of the class.</p>
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How does one get involved in the law review or the journal?
What are the criteria for a clerkship?
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<p>Most law reviews use a combination of grades and a writing competition for 1Ls, which is typically held right after spring semester finals. Often some spots will be reserved for the students with the highest GPAs and the highest scores on the writing competition entries, but most spots will be determined by combining the two factors.</p>
<p>For clerkships, judges consider the school you went to, grades/class rank, law review participation/board positions, professor recommendations (this can sometimes be the biggest factor; having a professor who knows/clerked for the judge willing to make a call on your behalf can go a long way) and your interview.</p>
<p>I think he was asking whether a top editor position (i.e. EIC) on a secondary journal would look better than being just a regular Law Review staff member.</p>