W&L v. Temple v. Pittsburgh

[onudelma]

Long-time reader, first time poster. So I'm now down to two weeks until deposits are due, and I'm completely torn. My finalists are Washington & Lee, Temple, and Pitt, although I've also gotten accepted to Rutgers-Camden, Richmond, and Dickinson (rejected at Penn and George Mason, WL at Cardozo).

All three of my top choices have positives and negatives in my mind. W&L: + small, much higher rank, good prestige, more national; - middle of nowhere, conservative, too Southern, I'm a city person. Temple: + I love Philly, amazing clinicals, good public interest base; - geographically limited, commuter school in poor location in city, so no community, weaker reputation, bigger student body. Pittsburgh: + great campus/area, more national reputation than Temple (?); - not as many clinicals, farther away from home (South Jersey).

Money is not an issue - all three end up costing the same for me because of equal merit aid and out-of-state status for PA. I want to practice in the Northeast, I think. Should I just succumb to the prestige go to W&L? Or pick the better PA school?

Any advice I can get will be very appreciated. Anyone in a similar situation?

[jdw112]

W&L places like 58% of its class in firms with more than 100 lawyers.
They place very well in the mid-atlantic. Private sector median $85,000. WL places 29% into clerkships.

Temple has a private sector median of around $82,000
Here goes a link: http://www.law.temple.edu/servlet/RetrievePage?site=TempleLaw&page=Prospective_Profile_Enter_Clas
cant find clerkship info

I couldn't locate employment statistics on Pitt's site. Maybe I simply missed them.

What does a Pitt degree do that a Temple degree doesnt?

I dunno, i'd lean toward W&L and suck oft he location a few months a year. I understand that not everyone can do this.

[stateofbeasley]

Assuming all the + and - factors are of equal weight...

Washington & Lee: four positives and four negatives, or 0 total.
Temple: three positives and five negatives, or -2 total.
Pittsburg: two positives and two negatives, or 0 total.

By that methodology (only slightly less arbitrary than USNWR), Temple is out Too bad, since it's the school I attend and I'm sure you'd make a fine student here.

Tie Breaker:

Washington & Lee v. Pittsburg

All your negative factors on W&L have to do with the environment (Southern, conservative, rural), which seem heavily at odds with your desire to be in a city. Meanwhile, most of your W&L positives have to do with prestige. Prestige won't give you a happy living environment.

Your positive factors on Pittsburg seem more in line with your personality as an urban dweller, while the negative factors are marginally negative at best (there still are clinicals and I'm not sure Pittsburg is much farther away from S. Jersey than W&L, though I'm not absolutely sure).

My gut feeling is that Pittsburg is your best choice. Pittsburg gives you a nice urban environment, and I reluctantly concede that Pittsburg edges Temple in the USNWR reputation factor (though I think the schools are roughly equals). If community and urban environment are what you are looking for, Pittsburg is the winner.

[Judge]

Well, W&L looks pretty good.  If you want an education, the size, the faculty, and the opportunities abound there for clinic participation.  Also, if you want to enter a writing based field (IP, Contracts, etc), W&L is also very collegial.  If you want a city you're out, but I here the law school is progressive enough (but the undergraduate is hyperconservative).  There is a more diverse class this year it seems, and Lexington itself is not really the "South", at least deep South.  Job prospects are good at W&L even if you're not in the top 1/3, which is gonning to be brutal because there are some hyper bright people there.  Don't know about the other schools though--they aren't ranked in the same league.

[ilsox7]

If you're a city person, I wouldn't do W&L.  I've worked in some out of the way, southern type places, and while I was fine there, some coworkers who were there temprorarily and were city people couldn't stand it at all.  I guess it just depends how much of a city person you are.  In general, I wouldn't go to school somewhere that you don't think would be good for you, b/c you should not be miserable for your 3 years of school.

[jdw112]

I agree. If you really dislike the environment it may have  an effect on your studies. All the benefits of W&L would go out the window if you blew it and landed in the bottom of your class.

If you're a city person, I wouldn't do W&L.  I've worked in some out of the way, southern type places, and while I was fine there, some coworkers who were there temprorarily and were city people couldn't stand it at all.  I guess it just depends how much of a city person you are.  In general, I wouldn't go to school somewhere that you don't think would be good for you, b/c you should not be miserable for your 3 years of school.

[uponcripplecreek]

I'd go with Temple.

Washington and Lee does not seem like a good fit at all for someone who is a city person, and althought it is higher ranked in USN&WR, I would question whether it carries with it more prestige than either Temple or Pitt in the Northeast.  I could be wrong, but I've always viewed W&L as a rural Southern school for students who wish to practice in the South and perhaps lower mid-Atlantic region. 

[VivaLaMuerte]

For Christ's sake: It's PittsburgH.  HHHHHHHHHHHHH

[onudelma]

Thank you for all the advice. Right now, Temple seems to be in the lead - my visit this past Tuesday was very pleasant. Pittsburgh's community and facilities impressed me, but I'm not sure it fits my interests - criminal, government, PI, family law, as opposed to biglaw.

I'm flying down to Lexington Friday for the Open House, but I'll have to be really impressed to actually go there at this point. W&L's biggest appeal at this point is that in my mind, higher ranking equals a better prepared student body. I'm coming from a top 10 liberal arts undergrad, so I'm used to that. Still, I think there's a fairly decent chance I would be miserable in Lexington, plus I have no interest to practice in Richmond or Charlotte, where most of their OCI firms seem to be coming from. Not that I will most likely get a job through OCI, given my interests, but it means something about geographic reach. I'd love DC, but there's so much competition there already with all the highly ranked schools in the area.

Anyway, we'll see. Right now, it's looking Temple but who knows.

[Fred Hits]

yo i'm kind of in your position- im basically deciding between bc and WL- im from the philly area and would like to end up there afterwards---let me tell you what i've heard so far
i met with some bc alums in philly and they seemed to be pretty impressed by WL- they said they didnt know many grads from there but def looked at WL as at least an equal to BC
i talked to a guy from the philly area who is a 3l at WL- he said while BC is def easier (and by extention I'd assume temple) WL is truly focused towards getting a more geographically spread class and while it would require some hurdles, getting a job there is doable
now you say you want northeast and im not sure what cities you mean but i think temple is only going to place well in philly- i think WL might do better in dc and nyc----anyway you are visiting tomorrow and either you will hear that stuff tomorrow or will read this after the fact---good luck either way you have some good choices