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Related Discussions
is location an important decision in where you're applying
_oshun1_
Alum Member
There are school in Boston, NY, DC, Seattle that I might be able to get into, but I cant imagine moving out of California. And would those out of CA schools even have job prospects in California ie in the Bay Area? Just seems like a huge move...
I applied to some reach t15 schools that I'm a splitter for and some top 50 schools I should get in to with merit$ (all in CA)...wondering if I should spread my net out of state to some t20-t30...
Comments
The answers vary depending on your goals, debt aversion, national reach of schools you are looking at and a host of other things.
The general rule of thumb is that you should go to law school where you want to work....but is not absolute. Typically your alumni network will be strongest in the area your law school is located and is especially true when your school is a regional school. There are very few schools that carry a serious national reach.
With that being said, there may be a few regional schools in California that may work for you (I'm not super familiar with who is ranked where in CA). While they don't carry the same weight as of some top schools, many local law firms in the area do know of them and hire from them. You may be at a disadvantage compared to say a Stanford but depending on your grades, its very possible to land a lucrative gig. https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/ is a great tool to see the job numbers at different schools across the board.
This is all on top of cost of attendance and how debt averse you are. Regional schools can be much cheaper!
TL;DR: YES!!! Look at lower tiered schools! See what your options are! May be cheaper
Hope this helps. This is a question that has a ton of answers and could be discussed for days on end. This is just my concise answer haha!
If you want to get back to the CA market after graduation, you should attend a law school in California. Non-T14 schools in Boston, NY, DC, and Seattle aren't great choices if* your goal is to find employment back in California. One beautiful thing about T14 degrees is their relative portability compared to other schools.
Are you competitive enough for schools like UCLA/USC? Those are great nonT13 options!
I agree with Alex here. California has so many law schools to choose from, there really is any level available. I could see it being much more difficult to get a job in CA from a lower ranked out of state school since there's already so much in-state competition. Also the CA bar is a beast and I think in-state schools have a better passage rate since they have a vested interest in that.
Location is very important to me.
I’m really only interesting in going to a T-15 school in either NYC or DC.
I am from CA and have visited many of the CA law schools, so ask away if you have any questions. If you can afford USC/UCLA then do attend, but if you have to pay full sticker and need scholarships to attend you may not wish to go if you are worried over 150000 or more indebtedness. While I originally dreamed of attending UCLA and working at a film company while in school, I then looked on other boards and found that UCLA grads are also big in So CA PI defense as well, if that is interesting to you. While some people like to bash UC Hastings, it does, as well as SCU law, place its graduates locally with SF high tech firms. I have family who works in the legal field in California, and many top grads in biglaw are from T14 eastern schools, not local products of CA law schools. If you get into Stanford, you should definitely attend, and perhaps Cal as well. Feel free to ask about other CA law schools you are interested in.
Apply to USC Gould, UCLA, and Berkeley. This should give you a good range, depending on your GPA/LSAT. USC and UCLA are up-and-coming top schools and both have great ROIs.
Don't know if you have access to this or not, but here you go: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XfblJqji8wlaCbc9cUTAheOsZPRRaP_hyWafn3NEYQE/edit#gid=299903710
I feel like a lot of these answers are catered to people who got like a 168+ on the LSAT lol but I'll just stick to CA schools since I want to work in CA. Looking into ABA 509 stats on Boston U, Washington U, Fordham...huge majority of students end up working in the state they studied in