Law School Discussion

You might as well send an app to WUSTL.  Georgetown is less likely, but worth a shot.  Rather than just aiming as high as you can on the rankings, you might also want to consider transferring to a good regional school in the location where you want to practice.  I don't think transfers are typically offered any financial aid, but you should check that out on your own. 

Open book exams test your legal reasoning skills.  So do closed book exams.  Whether the test is an open or closed book exam depends on the professor.  The reason why some professors like closed book exams, I think, is because they don't like reading a lot of regurgitated black letter law or legal doctrine straight out of someone's outline.  My best grades on open book exams came when I barely looked at the materials I brought with me into the testing room.

It makes it a lot harder to argue with you if you agree with me.

My ivory tower?  Did you even read my earlier post.  I didn't go to a top-ranked school.  This is the comment I took issue with:  

We can be just as successful as those who graduated from HYS, we just probably have to work a lot harder.  If you really want it, you will not be aversed to doing so.

You see, I'm not one of those guys who say you'll end up in a homeless shelter if you go to a T4.  But I'm also not one of those people that say you can graduate from a T4 and be just as successful as someone who went to a T14 if you just work hard enough.  If you believe that garbage, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.  The fact of the matter is, you can graduate from a lower ranked school, work your butt off, maybe get an okay job right out of the gate if you're lucky, and then make a decent wage after a few years practicing if you keep up the hard work (and maybe even enjoy what you're doing for a living.)  That's the reality.  There's nothing wrong with that reality and the sooner you accept it, the less heartache you'll have to deal with.  

Also, the mayor of LA never passed the bar:
http://www.laalmanac.com/government/gl12.htm

I was half-serious.  Just put yourself in the shoes of a T4 student and then read your post.  Also, ask yourself whether your corny rant masquerading as "support" was really just a lame attempt to make yourself feel better.  I didn't go to a top-ranked school but I didn't blame my lack of privilege and I've never felt the need to justify what I did.  It was probably a bad idea.  I went to law school knowing that it was a gamble.  In the end, everything worked out for me, but I was lucky.  Yes, I also worked very hard, but so did a lot of my classmates.  Many of them weren't so lucky.  Regardless, even though I'm happy with the way things turned out, I never fooled myself into thinking I can be just as successful as an HYS grad if I just work hard enough.  That's unrealistic.  Not impossible, but unrealistic.