SHOULD YOU GO TO A T14 LAW SCHOOL? (ALL ABOUT LAW SCHOOL RANKINGS)

SHOULD YOU GO TO A T14 LAW SCHOOL? (ALL ABOUT LAW SCHOOL RANKINGS)
In this video, we discuss how law schools get their rankings (specifically the T14), as well as the significance of these rankings. Should we only go to T14s? Should we give up on law school as a whole if we can’t get in? I answer these questions in the video!

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FAQ:
How old are you? 21
Law school? WUSTL
Areas of interest? Criminal law (post-conviction work), immigration law, and environmental law.

[prettybobgirl]

Wow such an informative video, its just sad that not everyone knows what makes up the t14 ranking. Thanks for sharing!!

[commonunicorn]

I have no desire to make a bunch of money in corporate law. I’d rather get a scholarship at a decent school in the city I want to practice in. My goal is to help underserved communities and I definitely do not want 6 figure debt to do that.

[JessicaLescarbeault]

1/2 This is so true!! (ps : I'm rewatching older videos or watching the ones I had not watched when I found your channel and subscribed, so that's why I'm commenting here after being subscribed for a few weeks hehe). I feel like a lot of people put to much importance on big universities without really knowing why they rank higher. It is also true for undergrad. People want to go to well known universities and look down on smaller ones, but really, universities that rank high are evaluated on their graduate programs and their research/if their profs are known abroad and do a lot of research/write a lot of scientific articles. So, that does not say anything about the quality of teaching and how much the profs are easy to contact and wiling to help students a lot. It does not say a thing about how much you can gain from attending smaller schools and, it is mostly applicable to scientific programs. Universities that focus more on Arts and Humanities will rank lower because those fields (mostly Arts) have a less "traditional" way of evaluating the profession. Literature or Visual Art professors write less in scientific articles, etc. (Sometimes they do, I mean yes, some fields are more "scientific" than others in Arts, but some areas are more practice based or they are indeed "scientific" (theory and research papers) but not always “truly scientific “in the eyes of the university and therefore are not counted. A newer university will have had less funding and less opportunities, less scientific papers published and less renowned alumni and professors over the 40/50/60 years that it has existed than a much older and well-established university... That does not mean the quality of education is not good. If it is a university that was founded to be different and more impactful on social aspects and more innovative and more practice based, it will probably have some expertise in fields like education, social work, arts, political science, etc. It will be looked down from people who are looking for a big science or business school, but if you are actually looking for a good Education program or a good innovative Political Science program or if you want to go to one of the first innovative university that had a program in Feminism and Gender & Sexuality Studies, you're probably better off with that newer-lower-rank university than an older renowned “classical” one... Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you always have to look at what YOU WANT and what YOU NEED out of your degree and then compare every university and program, and choose based on what feels the best FOR YOU and not based on how renowned the university is (or look at how renowned it is in YOUR FIELD only and not necessarily overall/in programs that are very different that yours) and how other people will judge you for going to X or Z school. Some universities might have a bigger Science Faculty and put more money into it than into their smaller Arts Faculty. If you want to study Arts, you might want to go to a university that has a bigger Arts Faculty with more money put into it and more options within the programs. Or you might want to try this university also for Science because it is more practice based unlike the others that are more renowned based on research but are more theory based, and then go to those later for graduate level when you are actually doing a scientific research thesis. Then you will have had the best of both worlds. Or you stay at the first university because really, what you want to do in your scientific field is more practice based even at grad level. It is all about what you want and need for your own career. Not about what other people think and how X University would sound better. Anyways, if you are going to apply to a specific field that's leaning towards a more practice based or whatever that Z smaller University offered, I bet your boss is going to know and is actually going to look for more people who graduated from that kind of university rather than more typical well renowned universities. That's why you have to do you and what you want for your career. Look for the Faculty more than the whole University. Look for the program more than the whole University. I left an older and more renowned university that I went to because people I knew went there and had heard bad things about the other one in my city, without doing research, and I regretted it and left. I studied French Literature there and they offer more classical conservative classes. The program is very good, no problem there, but I didn't want very classic and older Literature classes. I wanted Modern and Contemporary and I wanted more classes about Women's Literature and minorities and First Nations' Literature. I did not know these programs existed and that we did not have to only study Molière and Victor Hugo. I am really interested in other languages’ literatures but am not fluent enough to literally study German Literature or even English Lit at University level and write essays with the English level it takes when you are an English student and are graded a lot on your language skills. I later found out that my current University offers its Literature program under the name of "Literary Studies" which does not focus solely on French Language and Literature, but rather focuses on many literatures and literary theories/ways of analyzing texts. I prefer this, actually. I discovered the sociocritics approach there, which is what I was always doing without even knowing it was a whole field of study. I always preferred to analyze the social and political background rather than analyze the language, let's say, or analyze the subject from a psychoanalysis point of view. And by not analyzing the language, you are not restrained to your own language's Literature and can analyze translated texts befcause you focus on a theme rather than on the language. Same thing applies to McGill versus Concordia (I live in Montreal, so we have the same thing going on with our 2 main universities in English than with our 2 main universities in French). English Literature is just fine at McGill even if it's best known for scientific fields, but it focusses on more Classical Literature : Shakespeare, Chaucer, Old English classes, etc. Very British and European Literatures, whereas Concordia has more Contemporary Literature and has more themed classes (all literature of all era and all languages that have themes in common) rather than corpus classes (based on a specific century or an author) like Women's Writings, First Nations, and Innu's Literature, Ecopoetics’ in Today's Novels, Writings of Criminals, English Literature from Quebec (as a minority language) versus Canadian Literature. Or English language Literature in Quebec compared to French language Literature in Canada as both have a status of minority, etc. Sure, McGill is great and if you are looking for a more classical education and want to know a lot about classical texts and what people have been learning for years in Classical Studies, that’s perfect for you! The Department is great! But if you're not looking for that, well Concordia might be best for you even though the university itself is less renowned and ranks much lower (again, based on graduate level and research and scientific articles published and mostly scientific fields such has Medicine and Dentistry and Chemistry and big "classical" programs such as Law. Concordia does not even have a Law program, nor a Medicine program. They don't do science much, which, again, is why they rank lower. Not because the programs they do offer are bad quality!) I recently became interested in Law, and I looked into that old first University I went to, because again, they rank higher and I thought that for a program like Law, it might be best.

[AntiMasonic]

If you get into a T14 school, go there. If not, then go to a regional law school. Most employers like to recruit candidates that went to regional law schools. So, a candidate who went to a regional law school might get the legal job over someone that went to an out of law school.

[clarar]

I didn’t care about ranking when I started looking at law school. I didn’t go to a T14 school in the end. Got a good scholarship and my school focused on practical studies, did post conviction work with the public defender office and worked with a non profit that focused on constitutional violation within prison system. I’m got my JD in the end. Just need to pass the bar.

[ohhiguy]

05:42 "And obviously, why else is this T14 significant? If not for money." lol You started this video with cynicism, and finally get to one of your main points here. I also
need a little distain to get thru my day. haha. DISDAIN NOUN– Open dislike for someone or something considered unworthy of one's concern or respect. True. We should all distain the law professionals who are elitist.

06:41 "slight sarcasm" (display) I am so glad you had this display. I could not feel the sarcasm. HAHA

07:13 "And the money baby." lol

[cassandranelson]

This was actually really helpful! Your video helped clear up so many questions for me that I've been trying to have answered by several other videos before this one. Thanks for the tips!

[n.k]

I’ve been really questioning perusing a career in law even tho I do love the whole idea of it a lot and it has always been a possibly for me. I’ve been manifesting and watching videos that pop up to do with the topic and one about careers said I will see a sign very soon. then I just got a notification for this video even tho u posted it a few days ago and I will take this a sign to go for it! thank you!

[approachingcalamity]

Ya know what? I got accepted this week to Washburn in Topeka, KS. It has awesome post-graduation employment stats, especially in criminal law, which is my passion. Fairly inexpensive. And tons of states hire from them (including my home state, Utah)

I think I'm content. Can't wait til August.

[NicoRusconi]

Good to remember that Robert H. Jackson, one of the most accomplished lawyers and jurists of the 20th century, did not have a law degree or a college degree. He attended and unaccredited law school for only one year. He apprenticed and sat for the bar.

[alytarmin]

I'm watching this in my first year of undergrad, I'm so scared!

[rvegas]

Where you go to law school can have somewhat an effect of initially where you wind up after graduating; however, five years out, no one cars. I think it's robbery that certain schools charge huge tutition costs for a law degree. My advice is just go to the best law school program that you can and graduate. I've met and worked with folks from schools all over the place. It honestly really does not matter.

[willkovach]

Thank you for this! I am trying to decide between WashU and a t14 with substantially more debt, and this video was def helpful in thinking through that!

I would be interested in hearing to what extent you agree with this now that you are further along in law school, too. Do you feel as though you are competitive with students at t14 schools in the hiring process? What about t6?

Thanks so much! Your videos have helped me get a bit more of an understanding of WashU and are super helpful and engaging!

[danbuffington]

There is no other numbering system in the world that divides into measurements of 14. That T14 is such a weird thing to me. And, god forbid you go to the number 15th ranked school. The shame...

[pranavpillai]

Low ranked law schools are fine to attend if you accounted for cost and employment outcomes.

[KlystiEvangelist]

How important is T14 if you're goal is big law or bust? AND what if your undergrad GPA wasn't that high, say 3.5, but you get a 170 or higher on the LSAT? Is there any hope if you pick a top 50 or top 100 school like Syracuse or Loyola?

[brittneypierce]

Hi! I was wondering if going to a law school that is low tier but is ranked high in the type of law you want to practice would still be good if you wanted to work in big law? I want to become a medical lawyer and the school has a highly ranked program but the overall rank is low.

[ashleebritton]

School rankings don't really matter in my opinion. It's all about the individual and their drive and determination to be a great lawyer. The whole purpose of law school is to prepare the student to take & pass the bar exam. If you pass the bar exam then you're good. The separation does not really start until post bar exam. Saying that you went to a top Law school without proving your worth post bar exam is like a guy bragging about having a big stick but having your girl complain that you don't know how to use it.

[audetpro]

What is you're opinion regarding the ranking for LLM (for example washU taxation LLM)?