Quote from: stateofbeasley on May 14, 2008, 06:34:29 PMSome Tier 3 and 4 schools are bad. Some are good.A good Tier 3 or 4 school will have a strong alumni network in its local area, affordable tuition, and decent faculty. A BAD Tier 3 or 4 school is an overpriced (generally private school charging 40k/yr in tuition alone) diploma mill that has only a small alumni base and lousy faculty. In short: Don't evaluate a school based on its USNews ranking. Take into account job opportunities, TOTAL cost of attendence, and teaching quality. Crunch the numbers. Make sure the price you pay makes financial sense. This is dead on. I think another good rule of thumb when it comes to T3 and T4 schools is to look at the market you want to work in and look at how many schools tend to feed graduates into your area. This was part of my logic with SLU, which is near the bottom of T2. There are two law schools in St. Louis, but many Wash U grads don't tend to stay in St. Louis. There is also some job competition from Mizzou, but they tend to place students all over the state and not just St. Louis. Compare this to NYC where there's a billion law schools, a few of them top ranked, not to mention many other students from other T14 schools looking for big paydays. With the cost of living there, you need to be leery of a lower ranked school.The Des Moines/Drake example is another good example of a strong alumni base in a local market. You just have to be ceratin you want to work in a particular community after you graduate, and you have to find away to control the debt. I've said it over and over again, but law school is more about the right fit for what you want to do and where you want to be. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like many people think about these things before attending school, so they fall into the trap of going to the highest ranked school regardless of debt consideration. Think about all of this when considering T3 and T4 schools, and you'll make a good choice.
Some Tier 3 and 4 schools are bad. Some are good.A good Tier 3 or 4 school will have a strong alumni network in its local area, affordable tuition, and decent faculty. A BAD Tier 3 or 4 school is an overpriced (generally private school charging 40k/yr in tuition alone) diploma mill that has only a small alumni base and lousy faculty. In short: Don't evaluate a school based on its USNews ranking. Take into account job opportunities, TOTAL cost of attendence, and teaching quality. Crunch the numbers. Make sure the price you pay makes financial sense.
I'm constantly amazed at the 0L's who post on here about jobs and job prospects. They haven't a clue because they haven't even tried to get a job, and they constantly comment on schools that they have no idea about. Ugghhh...This board is about as useful for job/career advice as unmentionables on a boar hog.
Quote from: jammer on May 14, 2008, 07:04:21 PMQuote from: stateofbeasley on May 14, 2008, 06:34:29 PMSome Tier 3 and 4 schools are bad. Some are good.A good Tier 3 or 4 school will have a strong alumni network in its local area, affordable tuition, and decent faculty. A BAD Tier 3 or 4 school is an overpriced (generally private school charging 40k/yr in tuition alone) diploma mill that has only a small alumni base and lousy faculty. In short: Don't evaluate a school based on its USNews ranking. Take into account job opportunities, TOTAL cost of attendence, and teaching quality. Crunch the numbers. Make sure the price you pay makes financial sense. breakThis is dead on. I think another good rule of thumb when it comes to T3 and T4 schools is to look at the market you want to work in and look at how many schools tend to feed graduates into your area. This was part of my logic with SLU, which is near the bottom of T2. There are two law schools in St. Louis, but many Wash U grads don't tend to stay in St. Louis. There is also some job competition from Mizzou, but they tend to place students all over the state and not just St. Louis. Compare this to NYC where there's a billion law schools, a few of them top ranked, not to mention many other students from other T14 schools looking for big paydays. With the cost of living there, you need to be leery of a lower ranked school.The Des Moines/Drake example is another good example of a strong alumni base in a local market. You just have to be ceratin you want to work in a particular community after you graduate, and you have to find away to control the debt. I've said it over and over again, but law school is more about the right fit for what you want to do and where you want to be. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like many people think about these things before attending school, so they fall into the trap of going to the highest ranked school regardless of debt consideration. Think about all of this when considering T3 and T4 schools, and you'll make a good choice.Nice to see somebody talking some sense. What people on this board do not realize... there are millions of lawyers out there and the VAST majority of them did not go to T14!BTW... I go to Mizzou and you are dead on about where people from here place.
Quote from: stateofbeasley on May 14, 2008, 06:34:29 PMSome Tier 3 and 4 schools are bad. Some are good.A good Tier 3 or 4 school will have a strong alumni network in its local area, affordable tuition, and decent faculty. A BAD Tier 3 or 4 school is an overpriced (generally private school charging 40k/yr in tuition alone) diploma mill that has only a small alumni base and lousy faculty. In short: Don't evaluate a school based on its USNews ranking. Take into account job opportunities, TOTAL cost of attendence, and teaching quality. Crunch the numbers. Make sure the price you pay makes financial sense. breakThis is dead on. I think another good rule of thumb when it comes to T3 and T4 schools is to look at the market you want to work in and look at how many schools tend to feed graduates into your area. This was part of my logic with SLU, which is near the bottom of T2. There are two law schools in St. Louis, but many Wash U grads don't tend to stay in St. Louis. There is also some job competition from Mizzou, but they tend to place students all over the state and not just St. Louis. Compare this to NYC where there's a billion law schools, a few of them top ranked, not to mention many other students from other T14 schools looking for big paydays. With the cost of living there, you need to be leery of a lower ranked school.The Des Moines/Drake example is another good example of a strong alumni base in a local market. You just have to be ceratin you want to work in a particular community after you graduate, and you have to find away to control the debt. I've said it over and over again, but law school is more about the right fit for what you want to do and where you want to be. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like many people think about these things before attending school, so they fall into the trap of going to the highest ranked school regardless of debt consideration. Think about all of this when considering T3 and T4 schools, and you'll make a good choice.
Quote from: pete. on May 14, 2008, 11:49:15 AMI got a kick out of this one...http://www.jdunderground.com/thread.php?threadId=14985what a bunch of miserable people. but seriously,Ignore JD Underground at your own peril. While much of what is written there is exageration, there's a grain of truth -- the job market is horrible in some areas of the country. And many of the jobs that are available are horrible themselves. Several of my friends who were very passionate about having the opportunity to practice have encountered only verbal abuse, sweatshop-like hours, and even sexual harassment from partners at firms they worked for. In a small firm, there's no human resources to turn to when things go bad. You might not have Title VII protection because the firm has too few employees. The absolute power the partners have over you in your capacity as employee pretty much ensures that you either take the abuse, or resign.
I got a kick out of this one...http://www.jdunderground.com/thread.php?threadId=14985what a bunch of miserable people. but seriously,
JD Underground and xoxo are the online ghetto.
I want to work for an NGO or IO, like the UN, doing more policy and research-related work. So I don't think it will matter as much what tier I came from.
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