Are T25 law schools still worth the investment?

Nunuboy1994

So I’m a senior getting ready to apply to graduate school; now, ever since I embarked on this journey I’ve heard stories about how law school really isn’t worth it unless you go to a T14 law school or even T25 law school? Obviously it looks like the T14 are the best of the best but are T25 law schools still a good investment? Would you consider the T14-T25 still a fairly good league of law schools?

LastLSAT

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catgonzalez1974

It depends of where you want to work, and what you want to do. There are other considerations also, but really law school gets you contacts and opportunities. It doesn't make you a good lawyer. I've worked for crappy lawyers who went to top 5 schools in the world, and I worked with studied under lawyers who were phenomenal who went to law school at night at the state school ranked #135.

BinghamtonDave

Hello, answers to these questions often escalate into a territory that borders on arguing. I will try to be brief in what I see as the position of those that advocate for an individual getting into the best school they can possibly get into, this is sometimes the "T14 or bust" crowd but can also be the Top-20 or retake" crowd.

This position starts from some basic presumptions:
-The individual who is looking to apply to law school is not a millionaire/fantastically wealthy. Meaning $150,000+ would be a large debt burden for that individual.
-The individual applying to law school does not have a 100% reliable, family/best friend connection to a guaranteed good paying job.

These assumptions I believe are an attempt to avoid having a JD at or near sticker with very little job prospects.

So if an individual meets those two conditions, I believe then we can start talking about the merits of top schools vis-a-vis the rest. At this point, we would be getting into an individual's career goals, city they see themselves working in, scholarships etc.

So, the truth is very broadly speaking that as you go down the list from 25-1 ranked schools, there is an increase return on investment: very generally speaking. So after meeting what I see as the two conditions above and discussing your goals and related aspects of your future, there is sort of a complex calculous that goes into these things. A calculous that is often, (not always) difficult to compute on message boards.

So, very broadly speaking, in short, I personally am of the position (contingent upon one's goals, scholarships, LSAT score etc) that Top 15-25 schools are absolutely worth attending. Vanderbilt comes to mind here. UT comes to mind, WUSTL.

Beyond the top 25'ish range we start to see data that indicates a much different picture, there are of course outliers.

David

Seeking Perfection

From what I have seen Top 25s are generally too risky to attend at full price. They can't match the LRAP(loan repayment assistance programs) of the Top 14. This means that if you don't get a high paying job it will be tougher to repay your debt. Additionally, if you want Big Law which is probably the main viable way to repay $150,000 plus loans, you have a much more secure shot at it.

But as was mentioned above you may not face the exact problem laid out above. Perhaps you get into some of the lower Top 14 schools with very small or no scholarships, but get a full scholarship at a place like WUSTL(which is usually very generous with scholarships for those with high LSAT scores). Say further you don't want Big Law. Then all of a sudden the Top 25 can look pretty good. You don't need a great LRAP since you won't have much debt and just need any legal job. Good public interest jobs are still very competitive, but except for the very most prestigious ones the competition isn't based as heavilly on where you go to school. Instead it is based more on grades and how well you have proven your interest to that area of public interest law both in the past and during law school. Of course the pay difference between Big Law and most other legal jobs is huge with Big Law paying about $160,000 to $180,000 starting in New York City and other legal jobs usually paying more like $40,000-$60,000. So you can see why the Big Law jobs are prized.

westcoastbestcoast

Yes if you get significant scholly money.

Jonathan W S

I don't know, I haven't gone to law school. But, I'd wager, yes, I'm sure they're fine schools. Most of the successful lawyers I have met did not go to a T14 or 25 or 30 or whatever arbitrary cut-off you want to make. And, most of the people I know who ended up hating being lawyers went to T14 schools. The point is, it is such a subjective thing that only platitudes like, "you have to do what's right for you," will truly suffice as an answer.

westcoastbestcoast

@"Jonathan W S" said:
I don't know, I haven't gone to law school. But, I'd wager, yes, I'm sure they're fine schools. Most of the successful lawyers I have met did not go to a T14 or 25 or 30 or whatever arbitrary cut-off you want to make. And, most of the people I know who ended up hating being lawyers went to T14 schools. The point is, it is such a subjective thing that only platitudes like, "you have to do what's right for you," will truly suffice as an answer.

Had a professor who graduated harvard and didnt enjoy being a lawyer so he switched fields