<p>Suppose you are admitted to a U.S. News & World Report TOP 20 law school and the rest of your admissions are say in the 40 and below range (so a seemingly signicant difference in reputation), but the school is in a state/area you don't want to eventually live in, would you attend just for the name (and hope that will open doors in the state you WANT to live/work in later)? </p>
<p>e.g. ...Michigan, Vanderbilt....places like that that maybe people don't want to live or work in....would you attend these law schools just to get a good degree name and then try to move? Is that a good strategy?</p>
<p>I think there’s a huge difference between the examples that you mention (Michigan and Vanderbilt) - namely in the portability of the degree.</p>
<p>More Michigan grads actually work in New York than in Michigan.</p>
<p>Check out Law School Transparency to see where the grads of schools you’re interested in are working. In some cases, it might be worth it - in others, not.</p>
<p>It also really depends on what kind of law work you want to pursue.</p>
<p>For example, say you want NYC “biglaw”. You might think that attending Fordham would be the ideal, given the location. But you’ll note that only about 20% of their grads are placed in that kind of job, compared to 30% at Michigan. That might merit going to Fordham, because it’s where you want to be, but then compare it to Cornell, in Ithaca, with a placement of 35% of its graduates in those kinds of job.</p>
<p>It really depends on the kind of job you’re interested in. If you’re interested in doing local work, it probably wouldn’t make sense to get a law degree from the University of Michigan instead of CUNY if you want to practice in New York.</p>
<p>Hmmm…does anyone know where the CUTOFF would be for portability of a degree? </p>
<p>Obviously Harvard…Stanford…Columbia…would be competitive and looked at anywhere in the nation. </p>
<p>But at what point does regionality takeover? …After you leave the TOP 25?..TOP 35?..</p>
<p>Also, why DOES regionality matter? Wouldn’t a law firm WANT to hire the BEST possible person for the job? Why would someone favor someone just because they went to a local law school? Or does it only come up when the candidates are of even qualifications and serves as a tie breaker?</p>
<p>The top 20ish are the “national” schools; simply by going there and being a decent to good student, you stand a reasonable chance of getting a job in a national firm.</p>
<p>Regionality is important because networking. People preferentially hire from their alma mater, and regional firms are obviously staffed primarily with people from that region.</p>
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<p>Methinks you need to look at the true numbers. A “decent” student at #20 is highly unlikely to find a job at a national firm in today’s market. USC and UCLA, for example, have horrible job placements. Even “decent” students at GULC are scrambling for jobs. “A reasonable chance?” No way. Look at Paul Campos’ blog.</p>
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<p>The big cutoff is generally considered Top 14. But the chances of finding a well-paying job starts declining after Yale. Penn grads do very well, but most end up in NYC or Philly. Is that ‘regional’? (I would say yes.)</p>
<p>Ehhh. Just under 25% of UCLA and USC '11 grads are making 160k; that’s not good, but it’s not really fair to say they don’t do national placement anymore. (“Decent” wasn’t the right word choice though, because you’re completely right that you can’t expect anything just from doing average.)</p>
<p>What is T14? Is that like some kind of ranking system…top 14? If so, from what publication/ranking? Is there even an “official” industry ranking that EVERYONE looks at/uses? USNWR? Or is it another system?</p>
<p>Also, are CA schools bad examples, given that the state of CA is practically bankrupt…already some places are declaring bankruptcy in CA …Google San Bernadino…they just filed for it. 
Sad! </p>
<p>Even engineers in CA are being laid off as their companies go under!!! CA is just miserable in terms of economics lately. </p>
<p>Contrast that with say…Washington D.C. …growing…or the fastest growing city in all of America, Houston baby! Houston’s booming too…low cost of living, growing and good pay jobs and lots of amenities. Houston is like the Atlanta of the 90’s.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s the top 14 of the USNWR rankings. They aren’t technically “official”, but people talking about law school rankings will always mean those ones. (Unless they’re making fun of Cooley for ranking itself second in the Cooley ranking system, that is.)</p>
<p>LOL…ranking itself high? </p>
<p>But why TOP 14? …and not TOP 15…or TOP 12? </p>
<p>why 14? anything special about that number? And don’t the rankings change year after year so that schools drop in and out of the TOP 14?</p>
<p>The answer to both your questions is the same. Schools don’t drop in and out of the top 14; for whatever reason, the top 14 has stayed perfectly consistent for a pretty long time. That’s why it’s a convenient term to use. (It used to be that, if you went to a top 14 and didn’t screw up, you got into a firm paying six figures easy. That is… not the case anymore.)</p>