Kyoung05
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2009
- Messages
- 338
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The most sage advice you'll ever get is to go to the best school you can possibly get admitted to. I cannot emphasize this enough. I'm not here to debate whether that's justified or not. It's just the way it is. The competition for associate positions (at firms of all sizes and jobs of all pay scales) is fierce. At the moment, there is an oversupply of law students and a huge pool of laid off lawyers looking for work.
this is bad advice. you shouldn't simply go to the best school you can get into. there are a ton of factors that could lead a reasonable man to a lower ranked school for various reasons.
Actually, it is good advice. If someone is looking to be the most attractive candidate upon graduation, all things being equal (which is really to say costs being equal), one should always go to the best ranked school to which they are admitted. None of the other "factors," i.e. how good their IP program might be, or how well-regarded their writing program is, or how "diverse" they are, etc. will positively affect a graduate's attractiveness to employers. Most top employers really only care about (i) grades, (ii) school prestige, and (iii) law review/moot court, much in the same way law schools only care about (i) gpa, and (ii) LSAT scores in terms of admissions criteria. To say that an employer will look beyond your school's US News ranking to see how well-regarded they are in terms of some meaningless factor, i.e. diversity, is like saying law schools care about where you did your undergrad. They won't, and they don't. So, at the end of the day, if you're looking to be the most desirable candidate upon graduation (actually, you'll be looking to be the best candidate during the fall of your 2L year), go to the best school you get into, and get the best grades that you can.