Vandy or USC???

[LTs]

So, it's down to these two schools for me and I need to decide soon. They are essentially the same cost for me (USC is a little more expensive). I know both are regionally stronger respectively, but I am not really partial to either SoCal or the SE (never spent much time in either, but have connections to both). Anyone have insight into the dynamic or personality of each? Which provides its grads with better job prospects? (beyond of course USC being better on the West, Vandy on the East)

[lexylit]

hmm. you could get real stats from books for a good comparison (percent grads employed in which regions, etc)... but i can tell you i'm just not hearing a lot of love for usc lately. one of my friends who went there transferred out, and she pointed out that usc just lost some important faculty, which will affect their rankings. if you want to be in cali the alumni network is phenomenal, but if you don't, i'm not so sure it's as good as vandy for a national school? i'm sure a ton of epople will say go to usc as it's ranked higher, so thought i would preemptively give the dissenting opinion

[KTPT]

USC is still a good school, but they did just lose Prof. Chemerinsky, one of the foremost constitutional law experts, to duke.

[NeverForever]

If I had the choice... Vanderbilt

[baseballjones]

I'm a cali native so I say USC bc they have the best alumni connections in the state. 

[TrojanChispas]

alum conects are ridic at SC

[The ZAPINATOR]

edit

[lawdude05]

USC is better.  Actually, things are on the upswing there.  They've typically been better than Vanderbilt, and despite the loss of Chemerinsky, still are.  They haven't had  mass defections, just the one loss (for family reasons).  And in the past few years, they've added others, such as Elizabeth Garrett from Chicago.  I think both nationally and especially on the West Coast, USC does more for you.  I've heard great things about it recently.

[lawguy]

I pointed this out in another thread, but check out this series of articles by a/an USC law student there:

http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?ch_id=242&nr_page=13&cat_id=2612

[Hjort]

Pretty even in terms of general reputation.  The main deciding factors would be where one intends to work and intangibles (i.e. LA vs. Nashville quality of life).

Hjort