The Rager's Cycle Is Done: Who Wants To Take A Crack? (WUSTL vs UIUC vs SLU)

[skeeball]

The seem to be a billion different things one could call "health law."

Which is why it's so AWSOME.

Babyboomers are all going to need geriatric care and Medicare is going to go bankrupt. Plenty of work for health lawyers in the future.

[RageLaw]

The seem to be a billion different things one could call "health law."

Which is why it's so AWSOME.

Babyboomers are all going to need geriatric care and Medicare is going to go bankrupt. Plenty of work for health lawyers in the future.

Well, that sounds a little brainwashed.  Personally, I am thinking about in-house work with a group like a pharmaceutical manufacturer, hospital, MCO, etc ... or all things public health.

[donwario]

The seem to be a billion different things one could call "health law."

Which is why it's so AWSOME.

Babyboomers are all going to need geriatric care and Medicare is going to go bankrupt. Plenty of work for health lawyers in the future.

Well, that sounds a little brainwashed.  Personally, I am thinking about in-house work with a group like a pharmaceutical manufacturer, hospital, MCO, etc ... or all things public health.

After reading through your goals, it seems like WashU would be the obvious choice for you. You want to be able to work in Chi-town or Saint Louis, you want to have good options coming out of school, and you want to one day work in-house for a medical entity.

It sounds to me like having debt is making you nervous and you are trying to rationalize turning down WashU to go to SLU. You only make this choice once and you don't want to regret passing up an amazing school.

[skeeball]

The seem to be a billion different things one could call "health law."

Which is why it's so AWSOME.

Babyboomers are all going to need geriatric care and Medicare is going to go bankrupt. Plenty of work for health lawyers in the future.

Well, that sounds a little brainwashed.  Personally, I am thinking about in-house work with a group like a pharmaceutical manufacturer, hospital, MCO, etc ... or all things public health.

I was kind of kidding. But I do think working with nursing homes would be an interesting thing to do with the health law experience. It's great because there are SO MANY little niches in the health law field.

[Shellby117]

You don't have to be top 5% if you do health law at SLU and want to be in Chicago. You have to do well, just not THAT well, and you have to find a position there over the summer.

How can you support that contention? Martindale shows that there is only 1 (ONE!!) associate in all of Chicago who is a SLU grad. Even if there were 15x that number of SLU grads in Chicago, it would still indicate that SLU is placing a miniscule number of students in Chicago each year. After looking at Martindale, it might actually be more accurate to say that you need to be top 5% AND be lucky to get a job in Chicago from SLU.

PS: If you have statistics showing otherwise, please post.

When I do a search on Martindale for lawyers working in Chicago with health care as their practice group who went to St. Louis University (Martindale spells it St. not Saint) I come up with 4 not 1. They also show only 84 lawyers as going to St. Louis University practicing in Health Care in the whole country. Which either means most people who go into the health law field from SLU don't work for law firms or Martindale isn't accurate, I can't imagine only 84 people have come out of SLU's health law program. If you don't go into the health law field, Martindale shows 94 people in Chicago who went to SLU...doesn't really compare to the 2000 it shows in St. Louis, but it's still not impossible to work in Chicago

[DontQuestionMe]

I don't even see how this is a question WashU or UIUC. Both schools place well at BigLaw in Chicago. Visit both schools, decide which school and town you like more and then call it a day.

Have you read the responses in this thread to his question?  It's easy to just pick the best ranked school every time, but the WUSTL versus SLU debate here seems to be one worth discussing with the OP's desired location and specialization.  From skeeball's shared experiences, SLU seems like a much more interesting school for someone in the OP's situation.  In my opinion, UIUC is the worst option of the three.

If the OP wants to practice in Chicago UIUC is the way to go; if the OP wants to practice in St. Louis WUSTL is the way to go. There is no question about it. Ask any equity partner in a St. Louis or Chicago firm and they will tell you that 39k or 60k investment is small for the potential payoff. Go check V100 firms and see how many associates and partners are SLU law graduates, then check for WUSTL or UIUC. Case closed.