Go Thomas Jefferson School of Law! On the Rise... :)

[cooleylawstudent]

There has been research that even in undergrad those who go to an expensive well known college and get the same degree as they school who's instuctor spit tabaco off his tractor half the day end up getting jobs of almost equal pay just with less debt.

You say he's "wishful thinking" lets face it the reality is you are just stroking yourself to feel better. Most T1's just like the feel of their own stroke, I've noticed that.

[petermharrington]

Notice how all the Ivy League and Engineering school graduates make the most money:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/07/which-colleges-graduates-make-the-most-money/21808/

Keep telling yourself that it doesn't matter what school you graduated from. But go ahead and take a look through a BIGLAW website's associate and partner bios. Try to find T3 and T4 schools on there. You'll only discover that there is a disproportionately low number of alumni from T3 and T4. You're much more likely to see Harvard, Yale, Stanford, NYU, and the other T14 schools than Cooley or Golden Gate.

I'm not trying to stoke my ego by citing reality. In all likelihood, I'll be transferring to the University of Baltimore which happens to a T4 school. I'm not going to pretend that firms would much rather hire Georgetown, GWU, and UVA grades over me.

[nealric]

You say he's "wishful thinking" lets face it the reality is you are just stroking yourself to feel better. Most T1's just like the feel of their own stroke, I've noticed that.

Insulting people with sexual innuendo is not appropriate here.

[bigs5068]

The whole reason I have been posting on here often is just to let people know the HORROR stories about t-4's are not true. Tier 4's do NOT kick out 25% of the class and things like that. I have never once said that I will have the same opportunities as a Harvard Grad and it would be idiotic to say that.  

The OP was talking about how much she enjoyed her experience at Thomas Jefferson despite all the horror stories written on the internet before she attended and that is the case for a lot of tier 4 or 3 schools, but the stories are not true ABA is ABA. There is certainly some reality, when I came to visit GGU they were honest and told me employers are not going to roll out the red carpet for you, which is absolutely true. However, employers aren't really rolling out the red carpet for anybody except the elite schools. I am sure at Santa Clara, USF, or Golden Gate's graduation law firms are not going to be handing out 100,00 a year contracts as we walk of the stage. None of those schools are going to make law firms drool over you. Especially when we have Berkeley and Stanford right here and those schools will certainly have top pick. However, the whole market is terrible and even they are having some trouble.

Your, friend that went to Buffalo working for free to get experience is not that shocking. I have two friends who went to Hastings and are not working AT ALL, because they have not passed the BAR so they couldn't even work for free as attorneys if they wanted to. Bottom line is everybody knows somebody somewhere that something good or bad happened to, everybody "Knows a Guy" no matter what the situation. I know Cooley grads that are successful and they had to work for it a lot harder than someone from Harvard did. However, they did make and bottom line is no matter what school you go to it is going to be tough out there and there are no guarantees of anything. Harvard does not have a 100% bar passage rate last I checked so somebody from that school is probably having a hell of a time and is envious of a Cooley Grad who passed the bar. I have constantly said on this site also that law school is not a great way to make money and it is not shocking your friend is waiting tables either. Education is a risk, I could have gotten a job in construction right out of high school instead of going to undergrad and I would be making more money than most of my friends with college degrees and would have also been saving up for those four years. Education is no guarantee of money at all. My friend is making 90k as a bartender with no bachelor's degree, she is doing fine without education and if money is your sole purpose there are a lot better ways to make it than in law school.  Education does teach you a skill though and that is why people go, law school is supposed to teach you the law and that is all you can expect from them no matter where you. No law school guarantees employment or that you will pass the bar just as no educational institution anywhere will guarantee you will pass a licensing test or get a job.

That was a long, but the OP's and my point is that we are speaking with first hand experience after attending T-4 schools and just letting people know the horror stories are not true. I am sure she like me was really scared after reading terrible things posted on the internet about the school kicking 25% of the class or that everybody fails the bar, nobody gets his a job etc.  However, the people saying these things generally have no idea what they are talking about, because they have no experience with the school. As an exampl Cooley is despised on this site constantly, however has anybody been to Lansing and attended class there? How can they speak on the school when they have no experience at all with it?  

[petermharrington]

I was responding to your claim that "T-3 and T-4 schools are not going to live you destitute when you graduate."

I find that statement to be erroneous based on what I have witnessed this year. In fact, T1 and T2 schools are also leaving some graduates in a state of destitution. There's destitution and unemployment to be found across the board.

I'm going to back to school just to get my JD. I plan on working at a federal government agency where a JD can help qualify me for a wide spectrum of positions. I have no illusions of being able to practice with this economic market.

[bigs5068]

Of course it is a rescission, I am aware of that as most people are.  Most student's are not left destitute though, but it does take time to get started no matter what you are doing. When you graduate from medical school, dental school, teaching credential, bachelor's degree etc it is hard to get your start no matter what you are doing. After I graduated college it took me 2 months to find a job, but eventually I started working at O'Melveny & Myers and it paid alright and gave me some experience, it worked for the time being. Obviously, they did not track me down either I applied to so many jobs after graduation it made my head spin, but eventually I got a job. I moved to New York about a year after that and same thing it took me about 7 weeks to find a job, but I did it again. Honestly, finding a job sucks no matter what school you went to or what your degree is in. However,  most law students are not destitute or not at GGU anyways, that's really the only school I can speak for. Honestly, the only two people law graudates I know that are struggling are the people from Hastings who didn't pass the bar.  Every graduate I know that passed the bar is doing o.k. There are not making millions by any means and they have a lot of debt to pay down, but they are happy with their decision to go to law school, because they wanted to be lawyers and no they are.

Honestly, if you are going for your J.D. with no intent to practice that might not be the best decision. If you want to work for a government agency learn Arabic, Farsi, or some type of engineering, those are the skills government wants right now. I really think the only reason you should get your J.D. is if you want to be a lawyer, just like you go to medical school if you want to be a doctor, you get a teaching credential if you want to be a teacher and so on.  Maybe you know something I don't, but I would be careful if you think a J.D. is going to open all kinds of doors in the Federal Government that are not law related.

[3ebfan511]

yea I can say firsthand I have not had any problem with Thomas Jefferson school of law...I heard back from them in a timely manner and I was accepted.  I am still waiting to hear back from some higher, and some lower "ranked" schools so that is pretty irrelevant.  I find the longer a school takes to let you know, the more difficult a decision was for the school to make.  I just went to an admitted students day there where there were a few hundred of us, so obviously the students they knew they wanted, they let them know quickly, and for others its a longer process.  Same with any other school.  I can also say everything about the school has been very impressive and I have visited a few other higher "ranked" schools as well.  Its certainly a pretty good school and it is definetely "on the rise" as they will be completing a new state of the art campus in downtown san diego this spring.