Alumni Network National Reach

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Alumni Network National Reach
http://lawschoolalmanac.blogspot.com/2008/03/alumni-network-national-reach.html

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Thanks for posting this - really interesting!

Welcome.

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Is alumni reach indicative of where you can get a job - or just where alumni tend to settle?

The numbers there only show where alumni settle. If you think more alumni = better chance of getting a job, then you might assume a correlation. Graduates from Top 10 schools can most likely get a job in any region they want. Graduates of Tier 4 schools are most likely looking at decent prospects only in their immediate area. In between it's not always clear. One thing you can say is that a school that has large numbers of alumni everywhere has proved that you can travel far and wide if you go there. A school with a very regional network might give you the same options but just happen to attract people who never want to leave. With the first school you have proof of something positive, and with the second you just have no proof of anything negative. With the second school you will have to look for data beyond alumni distributions to figure out whether it's mainly by choice or by lack of it that people stick around.

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I guess I'm just wondering about GWs reach to Boston.  I'm wondering why there's not a lot of GW grad in Boston.  From the chart though, even Harvard grads don't dominate Boston- it's mainly ruled by BU/BC grads.

That depends on how many seem like "a lot." GW seems to do well compared to other schools not in New England. If we leave out Harvard / BU / BC, then only four schools have more graduates in the region: Georgetown (1,197); NYU (792); Cornell (715); Yale (691); and Columbia (688). With 618, GW seems to be in some pretty good company, and not far behind these other schools. Local schools are always going to have a five or ten to one advantage over any individual out of state school. But there are 51,000 lawyers in the New England region total, and even Harvard / BC / BU taken together only account for 20% of those. Considering that it's not local, I'd say GW's numbers seem respectable.

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I concur that if you had BC or BU on the table and really favor Boston, then you would have a clear choice. But with half tuition, and the huge gap in reputation between GW and these other schools, I would say GW is by far your best option now. I would not at any event take Northeastern with no money over GW with $$, no matter where I wanted to work. I would still expect GW to be competitive even with a softer curve. But at least if you work your ass off and make it into that top 1/3, then you get a real payoff in terms of mobility and choice. If you bust your ass at Suffolk or Northeastern, then the most you're buying is a shot at Big Law in Boston. As far as I can tell, the top 1/3 at GW will at least have a spot in line ahead of anyone at Northeastern or Suffolk for jobs in Boston, no matter how much street cred these local schools have. Lots of local school alumni get jobs in Boston of course, but it won't be at the expense of the top candidates that firms can lure from elsewhere.