"Should I go here, or there?":What is your criterion for selecting a Law School?

[Yale College Inferno]

How fast the schools issue decisions.

[D.]

1. Prestige
2. Location
3. Cost

Same.

[NYCK]

Law Schools in California (particularly Stanford and UC-Berkley) and schools in NYC (Columbia Law, and the nearby Yale LS and HLS).  They are all great schools with similar tuition costs.  I wouldn't mind living in New York City or California.  I can't decide on a criterion to filter my list.

[Yale College Inferno]

YLS is not meaningfully near NYC. At least not enough to be considered an NYC school. The only sense in which YLS is really "close" to NYC is that you can use the JFK/LGA airports for more convenient flights than Hartford has.

HLS is way far from NYC. Try 4 hours...

[RockyMarciano]

1)Quality of program (gauged by faculty research interests, quality of faculty/reputations in respective fields, prestige of law review/journal)

2)School's reputation (are they national? or at least semi-national with very strong regional pull?)

3)Financial Aid (how much loved did you show me? Was I warm or did you leave me shaking in the cold?)

4) Location (is this someplace I'd willing to spend 3 years--maybe even start my legal career? what's the legal market like?)

5) Gut reading (how'd you treat me when I met you? when I've contacted you? or when I visited your school) *This was the tie-breaker in my case b/t school who were pretty much equal on every other front: Both BigTen, etc, etc.

Hope this helps someone

This is how I am going to select my law school as well. I think it combines everything you need to succeed in law school and in real life. I am also looking at the student body and law school environment, but I guess this may fall under quality of program.

[Steve.jd]

If you are starting UG this fall, don't worry about it, don't stress.  Enjoy your time at UG, do well, and score high on the LSAT.  Besides, in four years you might decide you don't even want law school, so why fret now?

[bass]

If you are starting UG this fall, don't worry about it, don't stress.  Enjoy your time at UG, do well, and score high on the LSAT.  Besides, in four years you might decide you don't even want law school, so why fret now?

Credited.  Chill. Elsewhere.

[trogdor]

1. rankings and all that they entail... they do matter, but they're certainly not the end all be all
2. location... podunk, boring cities are definitely a turn off
3. programs of study offered, clinics, opportunities
4. student body - i still want to have fun and enjoy myself

[shaz]

for me, it's all going to come down to a gut feeling.  my gut tells me that i want to work in chicago, seattle, or cleveland.  if i get off the notre dame waitlist, i'll gladly go into as much debt as it takes. i have never even been to these cities.  it's all gut.  my family wants me to stay in the area, but i'm going to trust my gut on this one. 

[catalyst81]

1. location
2. general feel when visiting
3. good career prospects
4. cost