This website is aimed at individuals who are weighing whether or not to attend a Tier 2 or 3 law school.
I created this website because I believe that people weighing whether or not to attend a Tier 2/3 law school should be able to make a fully informed decision before taking the plunge. Most prospective law school applicants don’t know much about the realities of the practice of law and, more specifically, the extra hurdles/difficulties that Tier 2/3 law school graduates face in the profession. I am hoping this website sheds some light on these subjects.
Regarding context - There are a lot of websites and bulletin board-type sites out there where some posters/bloggers harbor a lot of resentment towards the practice of law and towards their law school. The most common sources of this anger are a feeling of misrepresentation (by the law schools), the legal hiring system (which is openly elitist), and a precarious financial situation (usually due to high debt and an inability to find a well paying job). These are all obviously valid sources of anger, and, as an unemployed (and bar-licensed) graduate of a Tier 2 school, I share many of these frustrations. However, I noticed that the anger and frustration on websites, blogs, and bulletin boards made it difficult to easily extract useful facts regarding the differences between elite and Tier 2/3 schools. As a result, I am presenting this information in a way that is not intended to offend others, nor to elicit pity or scorn from others. It is simply a repository of information that I have gleaned from both other sources and observed myself. I hope this site gives prospective students a more realistic sense of the negative consequences of attending a Tier 2/3 law school, and as a result, saves them some time, and hopefully, money.
The Lesser Known Benefits of Elite Law Schools
There are different interpretations of what schools constitute Tier 2/3. Some people say that Tier 2/3 is comprised of any school ranked lower than 50. Others say that Tier 2/3 is comprised of schools ranked below 14. For the purposes of this site, I refer to “elite” schools, which I consider to be the Top 14, and “Tier 2 or 3” which I consider to be everything below the elites.
In my opinion, some of the biggest areas of confusion amongst prospective law students are the numerous differences between elite law schools and mid/low-tier law schools. I obviously knew that students at elite schools had advantages, but no one really broke down the advantages for me when I was deciding on law school. Here are some that aren't as obvious to a prospective law student.
Grading It is generally easier to get a higher GPA at an elite school. At schools like Harvard or Stanford, a C is something that is very difficult to attain, while at Tier 2 schools, profs give out C’s a lot more regularly. The common result for Tier 2 grads is that someone at the 50th percentile at a Tier 2 school will have a 2.9 GPA, while someone at the 50th percentile at an elite school will have a GPA of 3.2. So in addition to the huge discrepancy in school prestige (which in itself means a lot), the elite law school student ends up with a better GPA too. This discrepancy is somewhat mitigated by the fact that law schools rank their students, and this respective rank is what the hiring industry bases things on. However, a lot of employers ask to see applicants’ transcripts, and when they see them, they see each grade.
Test Formats The most commonplace law school exams used to be open book essays. Now, I believe there’s a general trend towards closed book exams amongst Tier 2 (and below) schools. Proponents of the closed book exams say that they’re not that different from open book exams because, in order to do well on a closed book exam, you pretty much need to have memorized the material anyway. Generally, I agree with that, but I think there is a subtle difference between them. I believe that on open book exams, a test taker can dedicate a little more time towards crafting the answer instead of attempting to access exact wording from his/her brain. Personally, I believe that the ulterior motive for this trend is to both prepare students for the bar exam (which is closed book), and to help identify which students are not going to do well on the bar exam (some schools drop the bottom portion of their classes each year to boost the bar passage rate, which is a component in calculating law school rank).
How does this relate to you? If you are the kind of person who is “bad with details”, you might want to consider what kind of exams are given at the schools you plan on applying to. This also applies to multiple choice vs. essay exams. Traditionally, essay exams are the norm in law school, but I personally noticed a growing trend towards multiple-choice exams, especially on bar exam- related subjects.
Law Review Law reviews are scholarly/academic publications, focused solely on legal issues, published by law students. Almost all ABA accredited law schools have a law review. Different schools have different ways of choosing students to join the law review staff - including basing it solely on grades, a writing competition, or a combination of the two. In the legal landscape, being on law review is prestigious. You'll hear things about it being a lot of work or being a painful and tedious experience, but the bottom line is, it's prestigious and having it on your resume gives you a leg up on everyone who doesn't have it on their resume.
While almost every school has a "main" law review (i.e. The Harvard Law Review), elite law schools generally tend to have a greater number of law reviews/journals, while mid and low-tier schools tend to have a lesser number. There obviously will be some exceptions to this rule, and some schools with more law reviews/journals might also have more students, but the gist of this is, if you go to a bigger name law school, it’s more likely than not that you’ll have a better opportunity, statistically, of being on some sort of law review/journal staff.
Clerking Federal judges across America, and high state court judges, hire graduating law students as law clerks every year. These are different than court clerks or file clerks. Law clerks work in a judge's chamber for 1-2 years, during which time they do things like research topics and draft bench memoranda and opinions. In the legal world, a judicial clerkship is very prestigious and difficult to attain. For a variety of reasons, the general trend is that graduates of elite law schools have a much better chance at getting clerkships. For instance, a Harvard student in the top 25% has a greater chance than a Suffolk student in the top 25%. Since clerkships are tough to get anyway, I don't think this is a huge deal…but for a Suffolk student with a 3.7 gpa who loses his/her clerkship to a Harvard student with a 3.4gpa…. it’s a big deal.
SALARY
All the stuff above relates to salary and ease of finding a job. The difference in salary amongst elite and Tier 2 school graduates can be fairly substantial. Everyone thinks lawyers make tons of money. I think a more accurate statement is that the salary potential for lawyers is higher than that of most other professions. Even that is a an overly general statement, but it's still less incorrect than the prevailing stereotype.
For new law school graduate with no legal practice experience, the only way to attain a six figure salary as a practicing attorney is by landing an associate position at a big corporate law firm (what is commonly referred to as a BIGLAW job). A Tier 2 school representative may tell you that "_____ big corporate firm hires students from our school." That may be true, but the hiring process at elite schools is much different from the process at Tier 2 schools. At elite schools, big firms are much more likely to interview and hire students outside of the top 10-15%. In fact, many elite schools have a "lottery" system where almost all students are guaranteed at least a few interviews with big firms. At Tier 2 schools, the big firms prescreen all applicants (i.e. only top 10-15%) before granting interviews. The result is that a student at the 50th percentile at an elite school has a relatively decent chance of getting hired at a big firm while a student ranked similarly at a Tier 2 school won't have a chance. I don't mean a 10% or a 5% chance. I mean a 0% chance. At a Tier 3 school, the numbers are even worse. The explanation for this is fairly simple. Big firms charge their clients a lot of money, and one of the best ways to justify those high fees is with lawyers from big elite schools. It’s a process that is never going to change.
This means that at Tier 2 schools, only 10-15% of graduates will earn six figure salaries coming out of school. The other 85-90% will earn considerably less; most likely something in the range of $30,000-$70,000. This 85-90% will also have to deal with a pay scale that not only starts low, it tends to rise in much smaller increments. It’s not uncommon for a Tier 2/3 grad to take 10 years before earning a six figure salary – a salary that a majority of elite law school grads make in their first year.
EASE OF FINDING A JOB/JOB QUALITY
At Tier 2 schools, only big firms come on campus to hire, meaning that if you’re not in the top 10-15%, you will also have to do more legwork to find a job for yourself. The legwork includes applying to online job postings, “networking”, or working as a clerk at a firm and then hoping that the firm hires you as an associate later on. It is not uncommon for Tier 2 law school grads to go months (12-18 is common) without finding a full time associate position. This period of unemployment can, and usually is, excruciatingly stressful – it’s financially stressful (especially if you have loans or immediate financial concerns), it’s emotionally draining, and it’s flat out embarrassing sometimes. Plus, in certain job markets, it can be extremely difficult to find full time associate positions that pay a reasonable wage. This can be due to an oversaturation in the employment market created by a lot of Tier 2 schools in the same geographic area (i.e. New York City, where some firms offer $35,000 for full time associates), or by a lack of demand (see: small towns and states where certain legislation has limited many types of legal actions).
Another painful reality is also that, even if a Tier 2 graduate is able to secure a full time position, it will most likely be with a small firm or solo practitioner where the experience can vary tremendously. Let’s just say it’s one thing to get treated poorly for $145,000, but it is entirely different to get treated poorly for $45,000. As a Tier 2 law school grad, the latter scenario is much more likely than the former. To make matters worse, most of these poor pay/poor treatment jobs are at small firms, where job security is minimal. You can be let go at any time, for any reason, including the partner not liking you, a client not liking you, a client dropping his case (and the firm losing any fees associated with that), etc.
Don’t look for a lot of help from the career center at a Tier 2 law school. Outside of scheduling on campus interviews for top students, providing access to job listings, and maybe coordinating with alumni, a career center at a Tier 2 school is almost useless. A lot of Tier 2 law students complain that their career centers should somehow be providing more assistance to students in their job search. I don’t see how they really can provide much help in a free market economy. If a law firm decides that it can only make money on associates with particular pedigrees, nothing a career center can do to convince them to hire outside of those pedigrees. For the most part, career centers, especially at Tier 2 schools, don’t exert any control over the employment market.
I just wish that law schools were more upfront about job prospects, salaries, and the difficulties of finding your own employment, but they’ll never do that. Law schools are in the business of making money, which comes in the form of tuition from students. Being brutally honest never helps the bottom line.
Conclusion
From a pure economic perspective, I believe that attending a Tier 2 law school without the aid of scholarships or in-state tuition benefits is generally a poor investment. Considering that there are a plethora of jobs that pay in the $40-50,000 range for college graduates and skilled tradesmen, it doesn’t make financial sense to pay over $100,000 in Tier 2 law school tuition when it is likely you’d earn a mid five-figure job upon obtaining your J.D. As I stated above, at a Tier 2, there is only a 10-15% chance of earning six figures out of school. No matter how hard you say you will work, or how good you are at putting yourself in denial, the fact is, there’s an 85-90% chance that you won’t make that much.
I stress that this is a pure economic perspective. For many people, the value of a law degree extends beyond economic measurement. For many people, making a huge salary isn't the reason they want to go to law school. All I'm saying here is that going to a Tier 2 or 3 school isn’t a great investment for your financial future. If your lifelong dream is to become an attorney, then this financial frankness isn't for you. If your lifelong dream is to become a fairly well off attorney, then keep reading.
If You’ve Read This and You’re an Undergraduate
You obviously need to find out if an elite school is within your grasp. Refer to the average GPA and LSAT score of admitted students for each school. This information can be attained at most school’s websites or in the U.S. News Rankings, or as part of the LSAC Admissions Grid. Your GPA and LSAT are extremely important for law school applications. If either your GPA or LSAT scores are much lower than the average for your target school, your chances of admission are extremely low.
That being said, because there are no curriculum requirements for law school admission, I’d recommend taking a lot of fluff classes to boost your GPA has high as you can get it. If you don’t care about job prospects, and you really want to go to law school, I don’t see why you wouldn’t do this (except for having some principle, or an insatiable quest to learn…but that can wait a few years, can’t it?)
Second, get an LSAT book soon and start taking practice tests. You need to know if you can score high enough to get into an elite school. If you’re close to scoring high enough for an elite, by all means pay for a class. The LSAT is a test that requires certain skill sets (like the ability to read and comprehend quickly) that can be strengthened, but not magically created. If you’re not even close, scorewise, to getting a competitive LSAT score for an elite, I’d probably just quit right here. I know that sounds exceedingly negative, and against social conditioning (“never give up!”), but just think about that 5’6’’ kid in high school that loved basketball and said he’d play in the NBA. Guess what? He’s not playing in the NBA. And with a 158 LSAT, you’re not going to an elite school either.
If You’ve Read This and You’ve Just Finished Undergrad
I’d recommend working after undergrad instead of going to a Tier 2 law school straight after undergrad. There are numerous reasons for this – the ability to pay down some undergrad tuition debt, the ability to build some real world experience that will hopefully dissuade you from going in to law, the break from academics, the ability to perhaps build some savings…the list is extensive.
Don’t think getting a job in the legal profession will really help you a lot in terms of law school admission. If you’re a paralegal with a 2.8 GPA and a 154 LSAT, it doesn’t matter if you’re a paralegal with a big firm - you won’t crack into the elite schools. You’re still Tier 2 (or, likely 3) bound. And if you’re a mediocre Tier 2 graduate, your old firm probably won’t hire you.
If you’re considering going to a Tier 2, get their employment/placement statistics for their recent graduating classes. Look for the following data:
- How many students had jobs upon graduation and within 3-6 months of graduation
- What percentage of graduating students actually are included in the statistics (some schools only use their top students’ data when compiling the stats)
- What the salary distribution was (i.e. what is the median salary? What percentage of students earned a six figure salary?)
- What were the most common methods students used to get jobs (i.e. on campus interviewing, networking, begging, mass mailing, etc.)
- Call the career center and ask if their employment stats include part time, contract, or law clerk positions. Personally I believe that including this data is misleading. No one goes to law school to get a $15/hour law clerk job or a contract/document review job with no benefits. Plus, including this in the data is misleading because it is considerably more difficult to get a full time attorney position than it is to get a law clerk or contract position (and sometimes, it’s pretty difficult to get those).
Also, as noted above, look into each school’s grading policy, test policy, the law review/journal to student ratio, and regional job placement info.
Also, I wouldn't recommend taking any "law school prep" type courses that supposedly "prepare" students for law school. Those classes just basically hand out outlines from first year courses and have professors come in and do a family-friendly socratic method schtick. These courses usually advertise that their students do well in their first years, and I don't necessarily doubt those stats. I just don't think classes like this have a direct bearing on grades - knowing the answers on the real exams is the only thing that affects that. Trust me, what you learn in these "prep" classes won't stick with you and won't nearly be enough to make a significant difference. And yes, I took one of those, so I actually have first hand experience on wasting that money.
If You’ve Read This and You’re at a Tier 2 or 3 Already
Reassess your position after the first year. If you’re not in the top 10-15%, you’re likely destined to have to scrounge for yourself in the job market for a low to mid five-figure salary. From a pure financial perspective, dropping out of school is probably a prudent decision. If you’re in the bottom half of the class, dropping out is a VERY financially prudent decision.
If you decide to stick around, do whatever you can to get on a law review or journal. If you’re in the top quarter of the class, something like law review can really help your resume. Law Review boosts any resume, but for the top 20%, it might be able to push you into the big firm stratosphere if you’re at a decent Tier 2. For anyone outside of the top 20%, you'll need all the help you can get. If you're a bottom 75 percenter bluebooking your writing competition entry, picture your resume sitting on a desk with 200 others for a job in the basement of an old building, working for a lawyer with questionable hygiene. That should give you motivation to keep bluebooking because that scene I just described is probably going to happen in 2 years.
Start taking classes or sections with dumber students in them. Remember, your competition determines your grade just as much as your study habits. If you sign up to take Con Law with the most popular prof on campus, and you find yourself sitting in the lecture hall with a hundred Erwin Chemerinsky lookalikes, the chance of you getting a top grade is lower than if you took the other Con Law section with the not so popular prof and the hundred Pauly Shore lookalikes. I know this sounds like a horrible case of selling out. I know that taking your classes with the better professors may yield a better learning experience that will outweigh other difficulties. All I know is this - I took a federal income tax course with about 20 students, taught by an adjunct, and I got an A. I know a lot of people who took the 10am section with 150 other people, taught by a leading tax prof, and they got B's. We learned the same stuff.
In your last year of school, try to find a law clerk position at a private firm. For many Tier 2 grads, this is their means of securing a full time associate position later on. Law Clerk or extern positions at government agencies can help you to secure employment later on as well, but these clerk jobs usually aren’t paid, and government agencies are more prone to hiring freezes.
If you’re not in the top 10-15% and decide to stick around, start a bar exam fund for yourself. It costs thousands of dollars to take bar exam preparation courses and the bar exam itself, not to mention incidental stuff like hotel costs and food costs during the exam. You won’t see the top 10-15% students starting such a fund because the big firms pay these costs for them. As you’d expect, the other 85-90% of people are on their own.
As I’ve tried to illustrate, the law profession is split into two main categories: the haves and the have-nots. I have no problem admitting that I’m a have-not. There is criticism from the “haves” that have-nots are whiners who complain too much. I really don’t think such criticism has merit. I personally believe that an elite law grad at a big firm can’t possibly make a fair assessment of another person’s struggle to find employment because many of them have never experienced a similar situation. That being said, if there are any suggestions for additions to this site, leave a comment and I’ll try to incorporate things I’ve missed. Don’t waste time flaming or starting arguments in the comment section.
