<p>Looking for opinions from anyone who has perspective on hiring at major firms. Is an applicant on a full merit scholarship and a high gpa at a lower-ranked top twenty school (15-19 range) as attractive to a firm as an applicant who paid full price for a more highly-ranked top twenty (6-11 rank range). </p>
<p>Will firms even care about a merit scholarship? Or would one be smart to just go to a top ten and deal with the cost? I want to go to the best school I can/have the best credentials for future employers as I am able, but a full merit scholarship with free housing at a top 20 school is hard to turn down.</p>
<p>The top graduates at the top schools are always going to have the door open wider for them. Even if you are not on law review at a top school, you have a shot as firms do go a bit deeper into the class and there will be a lot of recruiters from which to select. That said, if you go to any decent school and are on law review, you will also be in a great position. Being on law review anywhere shows talent.</p>
<p>Are you going to enter the job market after 4 years or 8? </p>
<p>I think it would depend on what industry you're considering. They're hiring you, not your school. It might work in an alumni situation but if you don't have ability, it isn't going to matter.</p>
<p>beeker- I am anxiously awaiting some responses from others who are knowledgable about such things. I am hoping my d will be in a similar situation next year. I have been lurking on LSD.org and I also check out LSN's and I have been following discussions from some kids who are in a similar situation. There has been no clear answer yet, as many of the kids are still waiting for ALL their acceptances to be made known. But there has been one girl with similar stats to my d who has been already accepted to 2 T10-14 schools and $60,000 from a T-20/25 school (I have a feeling it is the same one you got accepted to ) and she is really not sure what she is going to ultimately decide. So let the discussion begin--</p>
<p>1) There was a study that came out a few years ago that showed a much closer correlation of success to IQ than to school/university attended; 2) The more important question is which school do you want to go to, in terms of that ineffable quality, fit; 3) much better to do well at a top 20 school focusing on your studies and good internships 'cause you don't have to work your butt off to afford tuition than to limit your experiences by having to squeeze through working a lot at whatever job comes along. 4) Look at who recruits at the schools in question and match against what you want.</p>
<p>It is really splitting hairs, IMHO, to distinguish that much between top 10 and top 20 in this case.</p>
<p>Hahaha, Marny, you sound a lot like my Mom. She's more into the whole process than I am. Not meant as an insult, I appreciate her help in doing the research.</p>
<p>I am sure lots of other people are in this situation, so I am eager to see what other folks have to say.</p>
<p>To answer the 4 years vs. 8 years question, I am doing ful-time day programs, so I anticipate needing a job in 4, if that's what you were asking?</p>
<p>I agree--I reread your original post and realized that you are comparing schools that are very closely ranked. What you should look at is how many and what types of firms recruit at the school since it sounds as if the type of job you want is with firms that are large and do make a point of recruiting on campus. If they are substantially similar, you should go with the cheaper school. Even if they are not, you should keep in mind that, if you do well enough to be a competitive hire, that you can set up your own interview with a firm when and if you are in that city for other interviews. I would not use rankings to make this decision. Keep in mind:</p>
<ol>
<li> Where are the schools located? If one is in the city in which you eventually want to work, that should be a draw since firms often have good relationships with schools in their home city, even if it is not in the top 10.</li>
<li> Again, look at how many employers come on to campus each fall. If there are a lot, it shows a good relationship between the school and the firm and belief by those firms that the graduates are talented. It also shows that the career office is doing a good job.</li>
<li> What law clinics/internships are available? This may be something of interest to you along the way.</li>
<li> Do many of the graduates go on to judicial clerkships right after graduation? If so, this again shows that the school is well-regarded. Also, clerking is considered to be prestigious and may be something you might find interesting to do no matter where you go before beginning your career at a firm.</li>
<li>Look at the background of the professors. Professors often enjoy mentoring students and sometimes help open doors to clerkships or private sector positions.</li>
</ol>
<p>I think that if you want to work at a big firm, you should go to the highest-ranked school you can (unless you want to work at a firm in a smaller market, in which case you should look at what schools those firms recruit from--but that's not your situation). it's not as easy as you may think to get a high gpa in law school, so every advantage helps when you're looking for a firm job--and going to a higher ranked school is a big advantage.</p>
<p>if you were interested in public interest, I might advise you differently--but your loans can be paid off in a couple years if you get a job at a big firm.</p>
<p>It is not so easy to pay off loans and you are trapped in a job you may not like; big practice corporate law is not for everyone -- it has a huge attrition rate. The locale of the law school in relation to the jobs you are interested in can be a big hiring factor. Thus, in SF, they hire at the top firms from Hastings and Davis as well as from Boalt, Stanford, and the other top schools. You don't have to go to the top 10, as opposed to the top 20, to get a great job in a top corporate firm -- there are lots of associates hired each year at each of the firms (exactly because of the huge attrition rate...) Also, most firms hire large numbers of associates from the summer associate cohort -- based not on your final GPA but on how well you do your first year. They may be impressed with a scholarship when you interview.</p>
<p>First, IMHO, the fact that you get merit money from a school has absolutely NO impact on your ultimate employability. Yes, it's nice to save $ and you may choose a lower ranked LS for that reason. But employers aren't impressed by merit $. When they decide whether to make an offer to someone at e.g. UMinnesota, they aren't going to choose applicant A over applicant B because A got merit $ to attend the school and B didn't. It is not at all unusual for someone who did not get merit $ to end up with better grades than someone who did...and it's the grades earned in law school that matter. (Do you think post-college employers give job offers based on how much merit money college students received? Would they pick a student who attended a second tier LAC on a merit scholarship over a student at the same school who paid sticker price if the second student had better grades and more impressive internships during college? Then why do you think that a merit scholarship to law school will matter to post-law school employers?) It's really all about your first year grades. </p>
<p>After all, there are LOTS of students at more highly ranked law schools who could have gotten merit $ to attend lower ranked schools. No employer is going to assume that a student at a law school ranked 16-20 had better "incoming" credentials than a student at a 7-14 school who didn't get merit money from the higher ranked school. </p>
<p>That brings me to the second point of my post. You can NOT assume that if you go to a lower ranked law school you will end up at the top of the class. LSAT and gpa only predict success in law school to a limited extent. You can not assume that if you go to to the cheaper school you'll end up on law review. It just doesn't work that way. </p>
<p>That doesn't even take into account that law school merit $ is often offered for reasons having little to do with merit. One factor that sometimes matters is geography. Schools below the top 14 who want national reps often give $ to LS students from areas beyond the region they normally draw from because they want to become more "national." </p>
<p>So, make whatever decision you want--but don't assume that if you go to a school that gives you $ you'll end up at the top of the class. And don't think the fact you got merit $ will impress employers and help you get a job. </p>
<p>Your first step should be to find out how many and which employers from the cities you want to work in interview on campus and how many job offers they make and what the GPAs of those who got jobs are. This is all info you should be able to get from the schools you are considering.</p>
<p>Oh, and Behead, that study had to do with UNDERGRADUATE degrees--I've never seen a study that claimed that the law school you attend doesn't relate to income earned.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to give me that advice...and I promise, I was not making those assumptions. I will definitely be looking into those factors.</p>