<p>University of Pennsylvania Law School. What is its reputation in NYC? On the coasts? Midwest? South? When people think of good law schools, does the strength/reputation of the overall university matter more than the law school itself? e.g. Harvard Law is more prestigious than Yale Law in most people's eyes, Duke is more prestigious than UVA and Michigan, etc.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what the general population thinks. People probably think Vandy is better than Berkeley. All it matters is what the recruiter/law firm thinks.</p>
<p>In the legal field:
Yale > Harvard (Yale for academics/BigLaw, HLS for BigLaw)
Duke = UVA = UM (the ranking difference is minimal)</p>
<p>Actually, no. UVA=UM>Duke. There’s a reason why the tier is called “DCNG.”</p>
<p>Penn has the distinction of offering cross-disciplinary certificates. So, one can graduate with a Penn J.D. as well as a certificate from Wharton. Of course, in the process of earning that certificate one has an extraordinary opportunity to network and learn from some, presumably, soon to be successful people. </p>
<p>How much the name matters really depends on your own expectations. Do you want to go into academics? BigLaw?</p>
<p>Yeah, I mean this discussion is ridiculous if the OP is actually planning to be a lawyer. If the OP is planning on taking his law degree and… I don’t know, trying to get a Presidential appointment or something, then it might make sense.</p>
<p>But if he’s trying to run for office he should go to the local state school. If he’s trying to get a consulting gig, they know the law school rankings. And any lawyer who might actually employ a Penn grad is going to know more or less where Penn is ranked.</p>
<p>I asked because there’s a chance I might practice outside the East Coast and in the legal field, the name of the school (as well as the region it’s in) matters a lot.</p>
<p>From post #2:
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