Law School Discussion

I'll concur with much of what is above.

The Vanderbilt Campus - The layout isn't well planned.  They seem to have undergraduate housing in the middle of campus, then put all of the colleges and classrooms out on the periphery.  This makes it a long walk to get from one location to another.

Nashville & Housing - My wife and I decided we wouldn't live withing walking distance of the University.  It doesn't look dangerous, but most of the area looks rather crappy until you get beyond I-440.  Just on the other side of 440 are some nice apartments and neighborhoods, which are within a reasonable driving distance.  Traffic in Nashville appears to be fairly light for that size of a city as well.  Kudos to the DoT that builds new streets before they've reached maximum capacity.

I'm also a non-drinker, so the ravings of one student about the weekly Friday keg parties is a big negative for me.

All in all, we liked the area, and would be happy heading there.  I'm very sure I'll pick Vanderbilt over University of Texas.  I've still got a visit to Cornell planned.  That's the only school left that could win out over Vanderbilt at this time.

I cannot answer this question definitively for Law School Graduates.

I myself got an undergraduate in Computer Engineering.  After I got my job, I also did recruiting for my company.  I never put my SAT score on a job application, and I can't remember seeing any on the applications I've read.  In my opinion, placing that on there is saying, "I've not done enough things in college to fill up a one page resume."

I'm presuming the same is true coming out of Law School.  I'd say it is even worse since you'll be taking up even more space from the start by listing an undergraduate degree and a law degree.

After you've gotten into school, your LSAT shouldn't matter anymore at all, unless you are considering becoming a transfer student.  Employer's won't care, because they can look at the school you attended and see what grades you got on the actual coursework.

I would disagree slightly with the presumption that grades don't matter 5 years after you've been working.  Grades will matter less, as you've now established a work history.  If you got good grades in school, it won't hurt to include them.  They are usually just added to an existing line on the resume, so don't take up space better used for other things.  For undergraduate degrees, a 3.0 tended to be the cut-off for a "good grade."  For graduate work, it takes a 3.5 or more to be considered a "good grade" since graduate courses grade differently than undergrad ones.