Berkeley is different. It has a very strong, very independent brand that really has nothing to do with the rest of the T14. Berkeley is public, progressive, and for as much as they do put out plenty of traditionally career-minded lawyers, the general Berkeley brand is an extremely valuable asset to its law school. Of all T14 schools, Berkeley and Michigan are the two schools that most like to be loved by applicants. At Berkeley, that takes the form of an application that looks pretty different than other schools’. If you’re applying to Berkeley, you’re going to need to jump through a few Berkeley-specific hoops. Doing it with a smile is part of the test.

There’s a bit of a conflicting duality to Berkeley’s appeal. First, it’s Berkeley: the famous capital of 20th-century campus progressivism. Second, it’s a hop, skip, and jump or two away from Silicon Valley and so connected to New Tech and all of its disruptive, innovative power. Most of its applicants are at least somewhat attracted by one or the other. Some brave few applicants are interested in both, privately asking themselves the question: can we still really think of tech as ‘progressive?’.

If you want a law school with a strong identity and great outcomes, often of the more traditional kind than its reputation would imply, UCB is likely a strong fit.