Is going to a Tier 2 law school a fate worse than death? I used to think it wasn't that big of a deal, but reading this board makes me think otherwise...
No.
Overpaying for a Tier 2 (or 3 or 4, and to some extent even some Tier 1's) is not a great idea.
Neither is deciding upon a Tier 2 (or 3 or 4, or to some extent even some Tier 1's) that directly competes with several (or more) higher ranked/regarded schools in that direct market.
whats the definition of tier 1/2? i thought it was tier 1 1-100 then tier 3 and 4?
forget tier 1 and 2. those definitions are meaningless. you have the top 3 (HYS), top six (CCN) and then the rest of the top 14. anything outside of the top 14, you're going to have difficulty getting biglaw unless you gun hard to get near the top 1/3 of the class. anything below the top 30 or so will be difficult unless you're in the top 10% or top 5%.
if you want to go to cali, get into the highest ranked school you can possibly get into. i guess that's fordham. the cali market is VERY competitive. you have stanford, boalt, ucla, and usc as powerhouses over there in the home market. you also have usd law which has san diego market locked pretty tight. outisde of the t14, it's going to be hard to place at biglaw firms out there in cali unless you gun hard. fordham will place you out there if you rank high. if you get top half of the class at fordham, then you can get biglaw in NYC as a backup.
Loyola is a reeking ttt. it is not well regarded in LA. if you don't perform extremely well there, you have no job options. at least with fordham, you have backup in NYC.
make your decision carefully.
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