Iowa and goals?

danakila

Hey all,

I'm kinda having a crisis: I'm applying to Iowa, which is a really dream school for me, and it hits a lot of my desires/requirements as far as the school goes. I'm really interested in PI/gov't work, particularly prosecution, complex litigation, and moving into investigating white collar/environmental crime, ideally as a DA/AUSA. Iowa has a lot of cool academics who work in these fields, and it seems to have some great practical programs to this effect as well. And it punches a bit above its weight as far as things like clerkships are concerned.

But I'm worried that a) Iowa might be too regional outside of the midwest though i wouldn't mind living there (especially Chicago/KC), and that b) it might be too low ranked for these positions that I fear might be a bit unicorn-ish. Would going to Iowa and doing extremely well mitigate that possibility, or do I need to go somewhere in the t14 to have a fighting chance of working in these fields?

VerdantZephyr

@danakila I am not an expert in this but I think that Iowa has an absolutely excellent reputation. There might be better options near DC but they would not come with some of the great things about Iowa. If you want to work federal jobs DC is a better market for sure but I would think that Iowa would not prevent you from doing that work especially if you are open to starting as a local/state prosecutor. I would think, though again I do not know, that the AUSA jobs are probably going to people that already have experience in the field. The best place to get the answers you need is to reach out to a current prosecutor or US attorney. They will be able to give you much better answers than you can find here.

lilpingling

I actually live square in the middle of the area- in Omaha (aka NE-2, the infamous "blue" electorate). This puts me about 4 hours from Iowa City, 2.5 from KC, 5 from Minneapolis and STL, 7 from Chicago, 8 from Milwaukee, and so on. There are a few distinct advantages to midwest law- for starters, the midwest has comparatively few law schools. With the exception of IL, even the most populated state in the area has only 3 law schools. This means you're not competing with a huge number of other schools and the bar pass rate is much higher (also, FYI- if you go to law school in Wisconsin- there are only 2- you don't even have to TAKE the bar to practice law in state). It also means that most employers are familiar with the out of state schools. There are a lot of good options for living/lifestyle (especially if you like really, really, really cold weather- if not, I recommend KC or STL because they're the least cold- also by far the cheapest cities in the midwest by a lot). Much of this info is based on research, but much of it is also from my father in law who is, and has been, a practicing attorney in Milwaukee for 40+ years. I'm not an expert by any means, but I am a person living in the midwest who is not actually from the midwest (I'm one of those feared liberal Portland hippies). I would say that on the whole rankings in the area are not quite as high a priority as they might be in other areas where the schools tend to be more numerous and competitive. I don't want to say rankings never matter or don't count, but I'd say perspective is important and IA is a great school.

As far as on a national scale goes, I think IA has a pretty good reputation, it certainly not going to be a school no one has heard of, especially for the fields you are looking at.