Iowa - What are they good for?

[mgd04]

Iowa is a state school and many of their graduates choose to stay and work in their home state.  And Iowa's cost of living is not that high so salaries are not that high.  Also, looking at starting salaries does not tell you much if you are not taking into consideration where people are living and working.  A lot of people on this site seem to be saying that you are better off going to Kent or Loyola over Iowa because the average starting salary is higher.  But if you are graduating 80,000 in debt and want to live in the city, 60,000 a year is not that much money. 

Kent and Loyola are tier 2 or 3, are they not?  I can hardly imagine how they can compete with Iowa, which is a top 25.  I am thinking of going to Iowa myself, that's why I am asking why Iowa is so highly regarded.   

Here's how they compete. Unless you're top 1/3 at iowa they will take a kent/loyola grad over you any day of the week, especially in non big law firms. If you work in a 50 person law firm you take loyola/kent people every year and are very familiar with the law school so you will naturally go to these schools. Also, a lot(most) of these firms hire out of year round clerks and you don't have the opportunity to do this from iowa. Let's say you have a kid in the 40% of his class at loyola and another one in the 30% of his class from Iowa. The loyola kid has been workign 20 hours a week for you all year and you know him really well, the iowa kid is just some phone call or resume on your desk. You will take the loyola kid over the iowa guy even though he is lower in his class and iowa is T25 and Loyola is T2.. these tiers or usnews rankings mean nothing at this point. I think top 1/3 or 1/4 of your class no question Iowa is better.. but be honest.. are the big firms from the coasts and major markets looking at someone in the middle to bottom of their class at iowa.. probably not.. probably just the top of the class... where do people go from the middle and bottom of the class at iowa.. i imagine it can be a very daunting job search for these folks. The kids from the middle and bottom at schools like loyola/kent have many opportunities to get in with firms during the school year so the job search isn't as difficult. This is especially true because a lot of the firms these students are gonig to are very unconcerned with prestige and usnews rankings.. they care more about the person in question.

[yiplong]

One thing I really like about Iowa is their Research Assistant job in 2L and 3L.  I can get my tuition reduced to in-state rate if I work 10/hr a week.  I am poor, money is very big deal for me!

[yiplong]

are the big firms from the coasts and major markets looking at someone in the middle to bottom of their class at iowa.. probably not.. probably just the top of the class... where do people go from the middle and bottom of the class at iowa.. i imagine it can be a very daunting job search for these folks. The kids from the middle and bottom at schools like loyola/kent have many opportunities to get in with firms during the school year so the job search isn't as difficult. This is especially true because a lot of the firms these students are gonig to are very unconcerned with prestige and usnews rankings.. they care more about the person in question.

I would imagine it is hard for an Iowa graduate to land a biglaw job on East or West coast.  However, this is equally difficult for Kent graudates, or even impossible.  Not sure about smaller law firm placements, because people only do research on big law placements. 

[mgd04]

Although I imagine on the same note Kent grades in the 50% percent of their class have a much easier time getting employment in Chicago than Iowa grads in the 50% of their class.

Also, people go to Kent specifically to work in Chicago... not to work in New York or Boston. A lot of people go to Iowa on the notion that USNEWS ranks it 22 so it must be a national school.

[yiplong]

I looked at the employment study by Anthony Ciolli, this study only includes placement in the most elite law firms.  Iowa grads places much better than either Loyola or Kent in Chicago or anywhere. 
But this is only for elite firms.  However, I find no study on 'non-elite firm' placement.  I guess no one is interested in going to a 'non-elite firm'.

[Stuje1]

Here are the USNEWS survey results:

Iowa Peer= 3.5 judge/lawyer = 3.6
Kent Peer = 2.6  judge/lawyer = 2.6
Loyola Peer = 2.4  judge/lawyer = 2.9

Clearly, no comparison.   Iowa does have a very good national rep.  For comparison sake, BU's scores are 3.4/3.4, BC's are 3.3/3.5 and Notre Dame's is 3.2/3.7

   Yeah, some people at Kent and Loyola will have easier times finding jobs in Chicago than an Iowa grad, but not everyone who goes to Iowa wants to practice in Chicago.   With an Iowa degree, you have th mobility to travel to the Twin Cities, Indy, Milwaukee, and even opportunities to pracitce on the coast (albeit a difficult task) that you don't get with a Kent or Loyola degree.

[blocke123]

I looked at the employment study by Anthony Ciolli, this study only includes placement in the most elite law firms.  Iowa grads places much better than either Loyola or Kent in Chicago or anywhere. 
But this is only for elite firms.  However, I find no study on 'non-elite firm' placement.  I guess no one is interested in going to a 'non-elite firm'.

Yiplong where is this study?

By the way (off topic) I'm not sure what a gunner is.. is that someone extremely aggressive?

[yiplong]

http://www.autoadmit.com/studies/ciolli/

go all the way down to the link. 

gunner I guess is someone who is a known-it-all.  Hermione Granger from Harry Potter is a good example.