<p>This is ridiculous, im not saying that attending a T -14 wont help you in your chances for making great money and essentially having your debt from law school paid for quickly, but there are great options elsewhere.</p>
<p>Texas, UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt can do well pretty much anywhere and if you graduate in the top third you can probably get big law from those places. Other schools like BU, BC, Fordham, GW all do well in Boston, DC and NYC, maybe not for the top jobs but you caan definitely get market salary jobs here also. </p>
<p>Even schools like colorado, georgia, Ohio State, all dominate their markets and ou can make a lot of money. To get a job making great money you have to do well at law school, the only difference is well at a school like UPenn is top half and well at a school like emory or gw is top 20%, either way you have to work your ass off. </p>
<p>If you are looking to work for a V10 - V 50 firm, then yes its pretty much T - 14 or bust, and also its top 15% or bust from there. Its really hard to get these jobs, but biglaw consists of roughly 250 law firms all which pay nearly the same base salaries (differences can be seen in bonuses). Getting one of these is not as hard, bottom half at T -14 can get these and top 40% at some other schools. </p>
<p>Thats all I have, the fact that someone thinks its T -14 or bust is ridiculous, it is what you make of your education and how hard you work. My buddy turned down fordham for brooklyn because he loved the area, got a huge scholarship and if he does well, hell still be working a nice job in nyc</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Why couldn’t this go in the other thread?</p></li>
<li><p>You are missing an important part- The OP of the other thread said “IN THIS ECONOMY.” That’s the difference. Right now and maybe in the next 5 years, it may not be economically wise to go to a non-t14 school.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Dude, top half at Penn is probably a lot easier than top 20% at Emory. And I think you’re underestimating the difference. I don’t know what Emorydoes, but Penn sends 70% straight to BIGLAW jobs. A bunch more get market rate jobs, and a bunch more go to clerkships and then big firm jobs.</p>
<p>So being in the top 80% is a lot easier than Emory’s top 20%, or whatever.</p>
<p>(It’s worth noting that GWU was at around 40% or so.)</p>
<p>I’m no expert in law schools, but my sister is currently going into her 2nd year at a top five school, is in the top 40% of her class and did not get any job interviews. Just thought I’d chip in. Its tough right now…</p>
<p>That’s incomprehensible to me. On the other hand, why have her interviews happened already? Or are you talking about jobs for her 1L summer, in which case that’s totally normal?</p>
<p>Nope she just heard about what interviews she got recently. They were supposed to happen in a few weeks I think. I’m talking about L2 summer. Something about some law firms skipping this year because they gave kids last year jobs but they had to wait a year and they can’t take twice as many kids this year? I don’t know, its confusing to me too.</p>
<p>I wonder if there are extenuating circumstances. I’m going to have a tough road, for example, because I have school that will continue after law school. So if I don’t get a summer job (likely), it won’t be because of the economy.</p>
<p>I mean, I can see this hitting some other programs, but Columbia or NYU?</p>
<p>That doesn’t sound right unless she is looking at only one very specific market or didn’t submit her resume to very many employers. At T5 schools, resumes and grades are not generally pre-screened by employers, so everyone should have plenty of interviews on their schedules unless they have self-selected a smaller pool of employers somehow.</p>
<p>Do you know in what cities she is looking for employment? What kind of law she is looking to practice?</p>
<p>People who start law school this fall won’t be graduating in “this economy”. They’ll be graduating in 2012. Things can change a lot in three years.</p>
<p>It’s hard to take a long-term view when you’re young, but the decision of whether to go to law school isn’t simply a question of how much money you’ll make in your first year. Going to a top-14 law school guarantees nothing; going to a lower ranked law school doesn’t necessarily preclude anything. Getting a Biglaw job doesn’t guarantee long-term success; failing to get one doesn’t mean long-term failure.</p>
<p>I went to law school before USNWR started ranking law schools, but my alma mater has always been ranked in the top 14. I hated law school, and only graduated because it was the path of least resistance; I took a job with a small firm, and found to my surprise that I enjoyed practicing law. I practiced in small firms or as a sole practitioner for a dozen years, before going in-house a dozen years ago. For the last couple of years, I have worked for a Fortune 1000 company; my colleagues arrived here from a wide variety of backgrounds, some from big firms, some from small firms. A few have worked in-house since law school. Some attended top-14 schools, some didn’t.</p>
<p>The question of whether law school was right for me wasn’t written in stone the day I graduated, or the day I got my first job, or the time I was laid-off by a start-up. But it has become apparent to me over the last quarter century that I was well suited to do this work over the long haul, in the settings where I have done it. (I doubt very much that I would have thrived in a big firm, and am grateful that the big firms with which I interviewed seemed to be aware of before I was.)</p>
<p>Actually, considering that many former and current summer associates have already had their starting dates pushed back to 2011 and 2012, I am imagining that over the next few years, summer associate recruiting will continue to be scaled back, and that starting dates will continue to be deferred, causing quite a glut of associates waiting for their chance to just start working.</p>