| Topic Name: |
What would you pay for a JD? |
| Message Name: |
here is where rankings matter less |
| Date Posted: |
12/13/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
I was accepted to my safety school today (US News #47) and won't hear from my other choice (US News #23) until Feb.
If I'm accepted to both, do I pay the extra 50K over the three years? What would you do?
I may not have to worry about it. The numbers are 3.15/172 with 4 yrs job experience, but the BS is from an unaccredited school with a bad reputation for religious, uh, fervor. |
| Message: |
Usnews.com rankings are a starting point for sorting out top 5 from low first tier, but not much use at all in comparing below top 15 schools such as number 23 v. number 47. You have to do more research than rankings.
First, go to the school's websites, and see how their
2000 placement went. What percentage went to private employment within 9 months of graduation? What percentage to public? What was the median income level for private hires? Is there an income distribution chart?
If you live near the area of the law school, ask around among local attorneys--what is their anecdotal perception of the law schools. Run each of the law schools through martindale.com for the cities in which you might wish to live. Do lots of the graduates of those law schools practice in those cities? Are any with large law firms, which are typically the most selective employers? You just have to go further than usnews.com rankings on this question. If the schools are in different regions of the country, you'll have to use some cost of living calculators to approximate apples to apples on the numbers.
All that said, I tend to think that for a material difference in school hiring clout, 50K more tuition is worth it, because in the long run the incremental difference in income potential will balance it off.
For small differences in hiring clout, though, I tend to think that debt avoidance is more important. A top 25 school v. a top 50 school will frequently mean that the top 25 school has enough added clout to make the difference, but not always.
Below the top 35 or so, down to the bottom of the third tier or so I find that it is extremely rare that the hiring clout is so material as to justify the extra tuition. There's more to law school than tuition--since grades matter, you have to be comfortable with where you'll be living, the cost of living, and that you're in a place where you'll study rather than do other things.
But I would be careful about writing an extra tuition check based on usnews.com
rankings differences, unless you know that there's a real difference in hiring clout of the 2 schools.
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