| Topic Name: |
lsat average |
| Message Name: |
thanks |
| Date Posted: |
09/24/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
Every year folks get into schools they did not expect to get into, and do not get into other schools they did expect to get into. Sometimes this is due to idiosyncracies in the GPA/LSAT weighting each school does, but apparently it is often a function of individual review of applications. You have one anecdote about L & W hiring,
although frankly I suspect that L & W's hiring criteria are much more stringent than merely top half of the first tier schools as you cite. Perhaps someone from L & W can give a better idea, but "first tier" is not usually the criterion, it's usually something like "top 5 or 10 or 15", which is a much more select list. In terms of how many second and third tier hires there are at the major CA firms, you might run the lesser CA firms through the martindale.com search engine,
and you'll find that some, even from schools below the first tier, get top firm jobs.
Your assumption is still essentially correct, though, to get a BIGLAW job from a lesser law school you must be a top grad (and I do not claim that top 20% is necessarily the statistic).
If you score a 3.0, 152, you'll have a chance at the bottom of the usnews first tier or the usnews second tier. But, really, once you cross below school 16 or 25 or 35, you can't tell all that much difference among law schools by looking at the usnews.com rank until you get down into the middle of the fourth tier. The usnews rankings are not precise enough to tell you that tier 2, school 5 will give you better career chances than tier 3, school 2. That's not to say there aren't real differences in hiring trends among schools outside the top 10--your chances from UC Davis will eclipse your chances from Whittier. It's just to say that you need to go beyond the usnews.com rankings and research the market a bit. If getting into a firm like L & W is the only way law is worthwhile for you, and your GPA and LSAT stay at current anticipated levels,
then you should realize that you may be taking on a more uphill struggle. You'll have to get high grades to have a shot at the top firms. If, on the other hand, what you really want is to be a lawyer, then you go ahead and go to law school,but you pick from among the least expensive low first tier, second tier or third tier schools, and go to the best one you can get into. As many on this board might point out, even then your career chances may not be as good as if you had chosen a different path, but if you keep your tuition expenses low, you reduce the pressure you experience when you take on high debt that you must have top grades, or you are underwater. A reasonable argument can be made that a degree in engineering or an MBA or any of a number of other topics are no more difficult to achieve than a JD, and yet offer more job security in the short (and maybe long) run than a "lesser" JD. So if you're a 3.0/152 grad, you have to think about whether you really want to be a lawyer, or if this is more a money play for you. In the latter instance, there are other plays you might choose other plays instead. In terms of admission
The more concrete answer to your question is that it is unlikely that a great admission essay will propel you into a top law school if you have a 3.0/152, but a low first tier school may be just within your reach and the second tier may be more easy to attain. But law hiring is a bit more subtle than the usnews tier system, and you need to focus on the schools themselves and their recent hiring trends, not just what tier they make in usnews.com.
I assume you know already that you can get data on the "math problem" part of your equation by going to the usnews.com first and second tier tables and to officialguide.lsac.org.
So do believe that good ribbons and a good app can help, but don't imagine that 3.0/152 is apt to get you in a top school if you have a good essay. Exceptions do happen, but that's an exceptional situation indeed.
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| Message: |
Thanks for your information! I just wanted to let you know that the area of law I want to pursue is tax law, as I am graduating with a degree in business adminsitration - accounting. Do you know anything about the Big 5 hiring lawyers for tax law consulting services? If yes, what are their requirements? I talked to someone at Ernst Young, and he wasn't too clear on the requirements from what he said. Andersen (formerly known as Arthur Andersen) told me that their Business Consulting Division doesn't even hire lawyers because of some law stating that consultants can't give legal advice, but wouldn't a JD overcome that?
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