OT: Need Law School Advice

[AfgHusky15]

Looking for some advice from all the lawyers on the boneyard as well as anyone who knows anything about law school. I am currently in the process of choosing a law school to attend this coming fall. I applied to a whole bunch of schools because I just wanted to have as many options as possible when deciding where to go. As of now I have been blessed to have been accepted into 11 law schools (have been rejected from quite a few as well). Below is a list of schools that I have been accepted to and some scholarship info if I was given any:

1. UCONN (No schollie but instate tuition)
2. Quinnipiac ($35,000 per year; also a finalist for a full ride schollie)
3. Brooklyn ($0 schollie)
4. Penn State ($20,000 per year)
5. Northeastern ($10,000 per year)
6. Temple ($8,000 per year)
7. Nova (25,000 per year)
8. Pitt (14,000 per year)
9. Houston ($0)
10. Catholic ($21,000 per year)
11. Loyola of Chicago ($16,000 per year)

I would like to go to uconn if they give me some scholarship money. Q has given me the best offer and it might get better but its the lowest ranking school on the list, and doesn't not have a very large alumni base. I would also like to practice in DC. Had an internship down there and I really like the city, but I'm open to going anywhere on the east coast really. The two most important factors for me is graduating with the least amount of debt but at the same time putting myself in a position to be very competitive for decent to well paying employment. I know a dream combination for anyone applying to law.

If anyone out there who knows anything about the schools can drop some advice or facts that would be great. I have done my research as well but I would like to hear more about the schools from people who have attended the institutions or know the schools very well.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Connecticut34]

I'm in my 3rd year at UConn law. They seems to have good in-state connections and they also have a DC program which allows students to spend a semester in DC working at a government agency while receiving a full semester's worth of credit. I can't really speak to the other schools, but if you have any UConn specific questions feel free to message me

 

[ConnHuskBask]

My cousin just graduated UConn Law last May. Had a good job upon graduation and passed the Bar exam on the first attempt. She seemed to have a pretty good experience with the law school.

 

[charteroak4life]

try to find a sweet spot between cost and job placement. with the market for attorneys right now being what it is, you have to be careful that your school has good connections and a good career office. that said, if i had to pick, i'd pick whatever's the cheapest.

 

[jrazz12]

Just my opinion, but it was mine and I know many others' experience that where you go to school (location) is generally where you end up. I came out to Pepperdine and will be in LA now for awhile even though it was never really my intention.

Rankings are important, but the connections you make are almost certainly going to be what you use to get your job after school. That is where Career Development offices and alumni networks come into play. And generally those connections are in the immediate or local area by the school. If you want to be in DC for sure, Catholic may be your best bet, or a bigger school like UConn or PSU with a strong DC alumni contingent.

 

[Robertelamin]

We have enough lawyers, please don't do it.

 

[Excalibur]

There is a reason why Q is being so generous. Other than Catholic, none of the others have any particular advantage in DC placement.

 

[husky8273]

Go to school where you would like to live and practice. Take advantage of the alumni base for internships and part-time jobs.

 

[UConn5]

The advice on going to a school where you want to live and practice is very very sound. So much about getting a job is about the alumni network and that is naturally going to be geographically dependent. UConn is great if you want to stay in Connecticut. If you want to be in NYC then it would be a tough call due to the difference in costs. A friend of mine that I worked with after law school went to Nova and said it was nearly impossible to get a job outside of Pennsylvania afterward. She lucked out with a strong family connection in NYC (she is from Rye) but knows many people that wanted to practice in NYC and were coming up with nothing.

I would strongly advise against Quinnipiac. I was faced with a similar situation (admission to UConn but a huge scholly from a school ranked similarly to Quinnipiac) and took the money which I regretted. Things have turned out ok for me, but many friends of mine weren't as fortunate.

Obviously others would know more about UConn's connections than I would, but everything I have heard has been extremely positive for people wanting to live in CT. Feel free to message me about anything.

 

[progrocks]

Don't go to law school. If you must go to law school , think about whether you really need to o to law school. After that, I you must go, do by go to Q even if free. It is a crap school. Go to UConn to save the money or where you want to live in the future because that will help the best with finding a job.

Once again, just don't go to law school.

 

[UConn5]

Don't go to law school. If you must go to law school , think about whether you really need to o to law school. After that, I you must go, do by go to Q even if free. It is a crap school. Go to UConn to save the money or where you want to live in the future because that will help the best with finding a job.

Once again, just don't go to law school.

I didn't really address this because it seems like you had made up your mind to go to law school. I don't feel quite as strongly as progrocks does but that being said I would advise you to seriously consider why it is you want to go to law school. Dealing with the debt isn't fun and the job market is not strong and I don't think it will ever get to where it was pre-2008. If you have just always wanted to go to law school and that is what you know you want to do then be all means do it. Just do it smartly. I think everyone here is offering very sound advice.

 

[TRest]

If you have a specific career in mind, such as patent law, and the ability to do it, go ahead. If you want to kill 3 years and hope to get a job wherever when you get out, don't bother. There are news stories everywhere about law grads suing their schools for misrepresenting job placement statistics.

Also, why apply to that many schools? Just to see how many acceptances you get?

 

[Mr. French]

First, be positive that's what u want to do and that you will put in the extra curricular work to get a good job and good 1st and 2nd yr summer jobs...even if u have good grades, its real tough to get a job wo that stuff. I'm having a tough time getting a job despite goid grades and moot court experience.

Second, choose one w the least amount of tuition that has good value for the school. Unless you get real lucky or are a top 1-5% student, you will be paying off your loans for years.

 

[Mr. French]

I just saw some of the other posts, most r saying what I am, the market is crap and the debt is overwhelming and not worth it, unless you know a definite job that u can get out of school.

I passed the ny bar last Feb and still no job. Might get a high paying sales job based on my education and some luck, but just make sure you know this is what u want.

 

[Prezidint]

Well, having been a lawyer for some time and having known hundreds upon hundreds of lawyers, I'll throw in my two hundred dollar bills:

1. Based on your one post, you seem to have the perfect anal-retentive, overbearing, cross all Ts and dot all Is, twice, too much attention to small detail hobgoblin . . . etc. , mentality that seems to be a prerequisite for entry in the profession of law.

2. The fact that you applied to such a broad range of schools is ample proof that you a poor decision maker. On the other hand, the fact that you asked for advice might suggest that you are wise enough to realize that you are a poor decision maker. Of course, if you're like 99% of the attorneys that I know, the question wasn't posited originally to elicit advice, but rather to trumpet the fact that you got accepted to law school. I can imagine you at age 4 running around the living room yelling to the house guests, "AfgHusky15 make in potty! AfgHusky15 make in potty!"

Congratulations. You got into law school. You've made the small group of 1.1 million blood suckers running around the U.S. leveraging the rigged judicial system to leech sinfully high fees off of Americans who, for the most part, don't know the basic process of law.

3. I agree that Q is a school. I would only look at top 2 or 3 grads each year from that school.

4. Forget about going to a school because it's got a "big alumni base." That's horse-crap. I never got a job based on the fact that I went to UConn Law.

5. You'll get hired or not based on these things, and almost only these things - law school rank, graduation with honors/cum laude etc., grades, undergrad institution, extracurricular performance (moot court, law review, etc.). If you're a dude, as long as you're not obese or butt-ugly, you're good. If you're female, how attractive you are will impact your opportunities. Nothing better than having a hot associate who does the job. If you've got a horse face and you wear a man's suit, you fall into the butt-ugly guy category - you'll need to get hired on your credentials alone.

6. Law is a business. It's the business of using the fact that you have to go to law school to get a magic union card in order to represent dumb- Americans out of their self-caused problems. It's a career based, in large part, on conflict.

You want to know how you can pick out the future lawyers among kids? Go to a 5th grad class room and find the know-it-all kid who rolls his/her eyes when some other kid is struggling to read aloud. That's the future lawyer. The can't-read kid is the future client.

Of course, if you don't want to swim in the liquid feces of the ignorant proletariat's divorces, car injuries, bankruptcies, will disputes, criminal acts, and so on, then you can always work for soul-sucking corporations, in which case your job may be arguing why some c-cks-king CEO at some corporation that employs 12 year olds in Indonesia to hand-shovel lead and mercury drippings off of barges into ocean currents should not be criminally indicted for knowingly selling lethally defective products to apathetic citizens of the empire.

Hey, and if you just suck at law, then you can always try to get a job as a public defender.

Sure you should go. Remember what Shakespeare said: "first, kill all the lawyers." It was true then, it's true now.

But I'll help you out, and teach you the most important thing I learned in law school, which I taught myself, right here, right now - the Constitution is an illusion. You have no rights. What you have is the illusion of rights, and, when the next "terror" attack comes, or the one after that, your "Constitutional rights" will be thrown aside as easily as the document itself would be.

Law is a racket. It pays well, and regarding the "economy" and all that hoo-haa, remember that, even if unemployment is at 30%, all you've got to do is be in the top 70% to have a job.

Took fewer than 15 years to get to that level of cynicism.

 

[Mr. French]

Wow, prezidint just went ballistic. And I laughed.

 

[sledog]

If you didn't get into Hvd or Penn, go Northeastern. Lots of connections. You can get a great co-op job as well. Undergrad-wise, they have led all US colleges and univs in placing the grad class into either jobs or grad schools for the last 15 years - an astonishing 98%!! (it fell to a meer 93% last yr due to recession - and probably a surplus of fine arts majors).

 

[JTLAW]

Here's my advice. I have been a lawyer for 10 years now and there a s in every profession, including law. It is a tough profession that is very rarely selfgratifying. It is easy to get jadded. If you want to be in corporate law and want that 100 hour a week, pushing paper job, then go to the highest rated school and become friends with the kid in your class that has a father with the big firm. If you want to practice at a medium to small size firm, or hang your own shingle, then go with the law school that you can get the most money from. Law school is two things: what you make of it and who you get to know and become friends with while in school. You know how many people give a where you went to law school after you get your first job? Nobody, except the doucebags that are 50 years old and still living their college days at Harvard and talking how they use to run so much game in Cambridge back in the day. Embarrassing. Go to the school that will not drown you in debt and make you jaded, and dedicate yourself for 3 years to whatever school you choose and you will turn out fine. Yes, the market is tough, but the cream always rises to the top. I went to a non-CT small law school and after years of busting my ass I run my own firm and love what I do and make an ample living. Good luck young Counselor!

 

[Prezidint]

You know how many people give a **** where you went to law school after you get your first job? Nobody, . . .

Nonsense.

At any sizable, reputable firm, the FIRST thing they'll look for on your resume is where you went to school.
Where I worked, UConn Law was considered low-end (ivys all around) and everybody knew where everybody went to school and it mattered.

Problem with getting advice on the Internet is that you don't get to see who's giving it and what they've done.

 

[Mr. French]

Nonsense.

At any sizable, reputable firm, the FIRST thing they'll look for on your resume is where you went to school.
Where I worked, UConn Law was considered low-end (ivys all around) and everybody knew where everybody went to school and it mattered.

Problem with getting advice on the Internet is that you don't get to see who's giving it and what they've done.

Well I'm not practicing yet, so you very well may be right, and I'm sure everyone does KNOW where ppl went, but to be fair he said "after your first job" so I'm assuming he thinks your work in your first job overcomes that...getting a job out of school, I'm sure your law school is a big factor.

 

[CL82]

Wow. Bunch of disillusioned attorneys on this board.

Let me add my two sense worth as well. If you love the law, and I mean really love the law, then being an attorney is great job. That's true of most jobs. If you love it, isn't "work". If you are in for the cash, and it is a lucrative profession for the successful, I'd counsel you to do something else. It can be a tough haul for those who don't really enjoy it.

Good luck!

 

[rw005]

I'd recommend highly Northeastern one of the better Law Schools on that list.

If you're not afraid to spend some size, I'd say NYU, Columbia.

If you don't want to spend any size, just do it at UConn. Not too fond of Quinny.

 

[Chuck]

I agree with what many of the lawyers said. BigLaw is an ego game. The rep of your school stays with you forever. I went to a top 50 school and times were better. I wound up at a couple big firms, despised the last one, and have been a partner at a small shop for 10 years. I like my job many days.

None of the schools you mentioned are going to land you a great job unless you finish your 1L at the top of your class. Don't take that in a bad way. They're fine schools. It's just a different world now. None, including Catholic will do much in DC which is a tough market acadmically. That's not a reason not to go.

Good luck.

 

[ChrisSmith]

I think chances are, coming from any of those schools, you're likely to get a job starting at around $50-60k a year (non-profits start around $45k, the big DC firms start at $160k but to be honest you are unlikely to get one of those jobs coming from the schools you mentioned, federal government jobs which are also tough to land around $90k, and smaller law firms probably around $65k). I think that is important to recognize. You need to consider that long and hard before you even decide to go to law school.

But in terms of making the decision: the better school you go to, the easier time you'll have finding that job. The worse the school you go to, the chances are they will offer you more money and you will have more debt.

Ultimately I decided to go to the best law school I got into, and figured it would pay for itself in the long run. I'm a 3L right now and I think I made the right decision.

 

[uc1974]

Damn. Back many years ago when I applied to law schools you never did more than 4. Your application fees alone must be between $1000-$2000. Chuck gives you good advice as do several of the other posters. I can only say that I had a great career working for the Feds and later as a judge. I did not finish in the top of my class, in fact I was exactly in the middle. It is much more expensive now and the job opportunities are less. Select carefully and try not to go into debt. As a vet I got to go to UConn for almost nothing and got paid for doing so. If not, I would have taken an offered graduate full ride in history at UVA or Tulane. Consider the military (JAG) or FBI, etc..