Law school!

[Kate Monster]

So I will be finishing my M.A. degree and heading off to law school soon.  And so I am stuck making a pretty difficult decision between three pretty good schools giving me decent amounts of money (I wish every decision I had to make were this kind of difficult!) and as such I am harassing pretty much everyone that I come in contact with about their opinions.  So, are there any law students or lawyers here on the board? I’m happy to hear about direct contact with the school or with its graduates, opinions about reputation, or just hearsay about the schools and its programs.  I figure anyone with the good sense to love bunnies probably has good judgement! :-D  If so, just reply here or pm me and I can give you more details about my areas of interest and the money being offered.  And if anyone else has done other academic work at Indiana University, University of Illinios, or Washington University (or live/d in the cities in question, although I attend IU right now so I’m less worried about hearing about Bloomington), feel free to weigh in as well!

[Elrohwen]

I didn’t go to law school and I don’t know about those specific schools (since I’m in the northeast), but from what friends in law school have said, the rank of the school is one of the most important things. You’ve probably heard this already, but I thought I’d put it out there. Apparently getting a job after graduation is all about how highly your school was ranked and how highly you were ranked while there. If the schools are all pretty close, then I don’t have any other advice.

Good luck with your decision! Do you know which type of law you want to get into?

[Kate Monster]

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been hearing a lot, it’s rather sad really that such an important decision has been pretty much narrowed down to a fairly arbitrary ranking system based on what some people think is important, instead of how well it fits an individuals goals, but that’s whole different issue. All three are pretty close in rank, so I pretty much can’t back a BAD decision. But after finishing my M.A program I’ve definitely learned that a program can be well respected and still be a disfunctional mess. ahem.
I’m hoping to do some kind of women’s rights public interest law (whether international human rights or more close to home I have yet to decide, I have background in Middle Eastern languages and culture so that would be pretty natural route for me to go). And thanks!

[jerseygirl]

There are some lawyers/law student members here. They haven’t been very active on the boards lately. Hopefully they’ll see this thread though.
I’ve sent you a PM.

[peppypoo]

I know what you mean by the inflated importance of a seemingly arbitrarily rank…my experience in medical school is that things are much the same way, unfortunately. I don’t have much advice in terms of law school, but I wanted to say congrats on not only getting in, but having three great choices!

[Kate Monster]

Thanks!

[Author]

Messages