According to one list the top 15 law schools are Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, Berkeley, Chicago, Penn, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Virginia, Cornell, Georgetown, and UCLA. A composite of their middle LSAT ranges (25th/75th percentile) would be 164 to 177. My LSAT scores in the 90s and earlier this century were 157, 158, and 159; that is why I am now actually studying for this test.
Of the above mentioned law schools, I have been rejected outright by Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Michigan. I have been wait listed, but not accepted by Yale, NYU, Penn, Cornell, and UCLA. I never expected such low LSAT scores, having been one of those ultra high scorers on the SAT and GRE.
In this list, the most demanding school to which I could realistically aspire with my old scores would be the University of Washington, ranked #38, and I have gotten acceptances at that level. I could surely have gotten into all the Louisiana schools: Tulane, #45, LSU, #99, Loyola, #160, or Southern, #195; or the University of Houston, #56.
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The programs that most interest me now are those at Austin, #18, and UCLA, which has fallen to #16. If you look at what they, or any of the top schools have to offer compared to everyone else, you will see why one would want to go to a top school for intellectual reasons. You also need to if you want to get a good job. Observe, for example, the clinics available at Minnesota, #20, compared to the list at Illinois, #30 (still quite good, I must say, and if Illinois had had a loan forgiveness program at the time of my last law school application blitz, I would have seriously applied).
I should want to go to Georgetown, #10, and other important places north and east, but I think the time for that was when I was younger than I am now, and I have already tried; Duke, #13, sounds more entertaining at this point. I reiterate that is incredibly important to have a high LSAT score, write the kind of compelling personal statement admissions officers like, and study in the best possible program.
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You need to study in a good program if you want to get a decent job. People who know nothing of these matters say things like “all you need is to pass the bar,” but people with actual, direct experience do not.
There are cases such as those of my students, who study here in Maringouin and then take jobs in small to medium sized firms here, but I am not talking about that kind of thing (which is precisely the kind of thing I am now too old to be successful at, anyway). I am talking about doing something far more ambitious. If not, there is and has never been a good reason to take on mega-debt.
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This locator matches your grades with your LSAT score. It proves I am right, I must score at least 164 — and more if I can. People considering law school should read this site carefully; it gives very good advice.
Once again, if you go to law school, you should go to a top school and have a GPA above the median while there. Otherwise it is not only harder to get a job; the cost of school is also effectively higher since you make less later. If you go into public interest law you can qualify for loan forgiveness; otherwise beware.
To get into a top law school, you must have been a high achiever throughout your life or be able to cast yourself as one.
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If you incur $200,000 in debt (actual cost of education may be higher since tuition is as high as $55,000 per year), it will take ten years to pay it off if you pay slightly above $2,000 per month.
All of this is why my law school concept is probably unrealistic. I want to do it nonetheless and I wish I had insisted and persisted years ago.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
http://temporaryattorney.blogspot.com/
I didn’t think it’d be possible for me to feel bad for lawyers until I read this site. You’re absolutely right: life becomes very tough if you don’t graduate from the very best schools.
MY GOD what a great blog. Of course the thing is that bad faculty jobs are also this bad. But it so vindicates me — I got a lot of criticism when I did my big law school entry blitz for not taking the offers I got, but I just didn’t trust the debt load to likely salary ratio.
There is loan forgiveness for public interest positions but how many of those there are is my question. AND I am no longer convinced I want to be limited to public interest — a lot of what I’m interested in fits under other things, so I have to find out how all this is to be defined.
There is one exception: if you have good local connections and go to the local law school, you can have a good career if you stay put.
That is my justification for the University of Houston as a safety school. And the economy in Houston is booming, and expenses are low, and it’s the gateway to Latin America, and so on. BUT you should see the difficulties people from L.A. are having now getting jobs in L.A. with J.D.s from UCLA, or living there on $78K jobs while paying on big loans. If I had done this 10 years ago — the last time I took the LSAT — it would have been easier than it is now.
Another suggestion is: think where would you like to live after law school, narrow it down to 5-6 cities, see what kind of jobs that would interest you are there, and where do those lawyers come from.
From that point of view I’ve narrowed further — Houston or L.A. — hence the school choices, in part; I am not really interested in moving to an entirely new region for law school and then moving again thousands of miles for a job.
But looking at this I’m starting to revise my notions of location — for type of job I want should be looking seriously at DC / NY and maybe even Miami. One really needs to go to a school with national reach and current placement records at UCLA indicate it isn’t really that. Austin seems to be doing better and 100% of Duke graduates have employment at graduation.
I’m tired of the frickin’ East and would go for Houston if California is unwise / impractical. In terms of why I want to go to law school, though, the East has value … which is why I applied to the places I did when I made my largest application blitz. (I was SO not wrong although the people I knew in real life thought I was being silly to insist on the best or else not risk the debt.)
…or, any of the Louisiana schools would have been fine if one wanted to work in N.O. That, again, when I was younger and before Katrina and before the ravages of our current governor, when rent was still cheap in N.O. and the economy better and life happier and it was twice as large a city and so on and so forth, could have gotten me a job and a life there … yet still my point in this, even then, was the sharp-sharp education itself, and to get out of the plantation atmosphere that is this state.
Louisiana is probably the hardest hit part of America now. There is a lot to do! It must be overwhelming. I don’t think I could take it. I admire your courage.
I think a lot of the feeling about having to go to the best schools is status anxiety. I say why spend a huge amount of money for the sake of attending a prestige university? The top jobs go to insiders anyway. But as I say there is so much to do. And it does not have to be “prestigious.”
Is Louisiana really the hardest hit? That’s encouraging, actually, since it means things can’t go worse. Status anxiety, that is what people say, but you have got to realize that there are HUGE differences in programs and very serious job placement issues now. If the point is just to have employment, sure, but I have employment now — there’s no point in racking up a huge student loan debt just so that I can work at a potentially less interesting job than what I have. This is a plan to cut and run for a major ambition, not for cover — a plan to run for cover wouldn’t involve school, it would involve resume creation. I’m doing that, too, but it’s a different plan.
Well, I just spent some time with a friend who is a major risk taker, and she has done fine. It has its place. I’m more cautious.
Well I’m told I’m a risk taker. But I insist — the big risk would be spending $200K on a weak degree. Look at the blog Stringer linked to for the panorama.
I’m saving this for my law-school-aspiring students. GL!
Point them to this post, too! https://profacero.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/adjunctification/