@HappyFace2018 LSE is an excellent school if you are interested in IR. As an aside, I would recommend she start reading The Economist every week. Set aside the quality of the writing, but if someone is truly interested in international relations, you simply won’t find better reporting on a global scale.
@Mevans6 The top tier is usually referred to as the top 14 (or once in a while top 15), but not usually top 10.
It may depend on what the student’s future plans are, but for the student paying full cost, T14 is the route to high-paying jobs that will pay off the loans in a timely manner. In many cases, it is that black and white. As dumb as it may sound, I know of a law firm that won’t even interview the #1 student at schools not far outside the T14 (more usually, firms may interview but not offer). Disclaimer: I have been out of touch in recent years, but I’m not under the impression that this has changed much.
@evergreen5: It hasn’t changed. Firms still have school/grade cutoffs they adhere to.
@Peruna1998 The summer before her junior year in high school she attended a highly selective and very rigorous program at Yale called Explo @Yale Foreign Affairs. She absolutely loved every minute of it (she was elected Secretary of State!). As part of the program the students received a one year subscription to The Economist and Foreign Affairs magazines. I know she’s kept up with the Foreign Affairs magazine but not The Economist (she attended a private full IB high school and was busy working on her extended essay, theory of knowledge essay and studying for IB exams). Between her foreign exchange trips (Toulouse and Strasbourg) and attending this program she was convinced.
My goal is to make sure she doesn’t feel like she has to follow the crowd…to make sure she knows she can explore a bit. If it’s grad school or law school we will support her. If it’s the Peace Corp we will support her (and pray for her safety).
When I started college I secretly wanted to attend law school. During my sophomore year I was blessed with a co-op position with a government agency which allows early retirement (I’m going in January at 49). I initially saw this position as a stepping stone. Since I was putting myself through school (independent student) I was unable to step away from a steady paycheck and benefits to pursue law school.
Not knowing what the future holds for the existence of the federal pension-benefits plans, we’ve encouraged her to be open to different opportunities.
@Peruna1998 I just saw LSC has a summer school program. I’ll suggest this for Summer 2018. 
@HappyFace2018 In that case, I would also recommend that she look into the Fulbright program. I did a Fulbright to the UK way back in '98-99 in International Security Studies at St. Andrews (it was the leading research institute in international terrorism at the time, remember, this was pre-9/11). I never ended up doing anything with my degree, but I made a lot of interesting contacts (some I still have today). I am a strong believer in the Fulbright program. It is very flexible and tailored to the student’s interest. It is a challenging selection process, but well worth the time invested. My kids DS '22 and DD '24 (I am way ahead of things) are in an IB school. Nice to hear positive things about the program.
@Demosthenes49 Too true. I have managed to find some good hires by looking outside of the school/grade cutoffs of the larger firms. The blessing of the smaller firms in the flyover is work/life balance. We don’t pay as much (we can’t), but we don’t beat the hours out of our attorneys either. So long as the debt load isn’t bad, the trade-offs can work.
@Peruna1998 As fast as things move nowadays, you can never be too far ahead.
My dear friend gave me a book called “The College Hook” written by Pam Proctor when my sweet girl was in the 7th grade. Mrs. Proctor is a renowned college consultant and IB consultant. When we (me, my daughter and my hubby) read through the book we were all very excited. At the time she was looking forward to heading to the public high school which had an IB program. After looking into the program (and the size of the public school) we were very concerned about the caliber of the program at the public school. At that time we had no idea that a fully accredited IB private school was 25 minutes from us (ranked #2 by the Washington Post Most Challenging High Schools). It was the absolute best decision we ever made which effectively set her up for her GW-ESIA and University Honors Program acceptance. The most valuable asset of her IB education was the writing requirements. Outstanding and prepared her for all the college application essays (and additional Honors Program essays). (She was also accepted to American University’s School of International Service and Global Scholars Program).
While she was looking forward to becoming a member of the public high schools orchestra, she was ecstatic about the opportunity to attend the private IB school. To remedy the orchestra piece, she auditioned for a regional orchestra in the 9th grade and was a member of the orchestra for four years. The orchestra did a blind audition for Carnegie Hall and was invited to play at Carnegie Hall in April 2016. The kids had an awesome time and rocked the 1812 Overture!!
@Peruna1998: There’s nothing wrong with small firm practice (PAYE/IBR handles the debt load relatively well) if a student is interested in those areas. There just aren’t enough jobs in small law in the places that grads want to live (plus small firms tend to be very strict on ties). Job security is also an issue.
So is there any secure career field for someone who is interested in law, governement, psychology, and politics and perhaps international relations? The social sciences. I’m willing to work hard but I don’t want to corner myself.
@pinkbarbie In a previous post I mentioned that I started my career with the federal government at 19 years old. I am a federal LEO (law enforcement officer) and over my 30 year career I have worked with some of the finest Assistant United States Attorneys. I dreamed of attending law school a long time ago but the stability of a government pension/benefits kept me with the government. Also important was working with these professionals. While I don’t know if the pension/benefit plan will be around for much longer (and you could earn more in the private sector), this position of public trust will definitely be very challenging.
@pinkbarbie There are no secure career fields, especially now. Let’s think about this for a moment. The most important career in about nineteen states, in terms of numbers of people involved in it, is truck driving. So, what happens when driverless vehicles come online? All those jobs are lost. Look at retail, a lot of it is moving online. In food service, jobs are being shed left and right. It is a tough market everywhere. Now, I know you are likely thinking, that you aren’t considering doing those jobs. That’s great, but what happens in a society when all those people are out of work? Second, how does automation impact skilled labor? How has TurboTax and the like impacted accounting?
As a society, we are entering a new era, it is like shifting from a agrarian society to an industrial society. There will be a lot of upheavel. The question is how will you make a living in the future. That is going to require you to not only earn a college education, but constantly continue to educate yourself.
" That is going to require you to not only earn a college education, but constantly continue to educate yourself."
@Peruna1998 So many people don’t get this.
Sure there is, and I’m rather surprised that nobody here has identified it given that this is ostensibly a discussion board regarding academia. The one truly secure career field remaining is tenured academic faculty.
Granted, obtaining tenure is no mean feat. But once you’ve got it, you’re golden: As long as you show up to teach your assigned classes (even if you teach them poorly), attend the required departmental administrative meetings (even if you never say/do anything during those meetings), and refrain from misconduct (a.k.a. don’t sexually harass anybody, don’t steal anything, etc.), you can never be fired. And, yes, at practically every university that offers tenure, there are invariably ‘deadwood’ tenured faculty members who hardly do anything beyond the bare minimum.
What law schools are considered top 14? That’s kind of an odd cutoff number.
Speaking as someone who went to law school back in the 90’s, I know a LOT of former attorneys. Probably about half the people I’ve kept in touch with from law school (my school was probably ranked around 35-40) are no longer practicing law. That includes me and my husband – I’m a policy advocate and he’s a business strategy consultant. Both of us still find our law degrees useful, and we probably wouldn’t have made our way into these careers if we hadn’t been lawyers first, but still. The truth is that practicing law is not actually very enjoyable for most people. A lot of people find LEARNING law – i.e. going to law school – to be really interesting, but when it comes to actually practicing law, they rapidly discover that they hate it.
So before you saddle yourself with $100K plus in debt, make sure you know you want to be an attorney.
Other than that, my main advice for anyone thinking about law school is to think hard about what kind of law you want to practice, and get some experience in a related field first. This will not only help you focus while in law school, but will also set you apart from other candidates when you’re job-hunting.
@Dustypig: The T14 are the 14 law schools that have been in the top 10 since the beginning of USNWR rankings. They also tend to stay in the top 14 spots, with a bit of internal shuffling (except this year, when GULC fell to 15). More importantly, they’re the schools with names strong enough to sell their students. The job prospects are a lot better at the T14 than anywhere else.
Even within the T14, not all schools are created equal. For example, employment numbers for Georgetown are noticeably weaker than at say, U Chicago.