Career Advice Request

[Anonymous]

bjensen, I could have written your original post since I am in the exact same situation as you, only a few years older with a few more children. Also, my scores have landed me into a few schools ranked 50-75, and waitlisted this year at three in the 25-50 range.

Rankings are an interesting matter that we could discuss for hours, but at the end of the discussion I think we would both agree that they matter alot. I have been looking into this law school thing for three years now and have consistantly heard that if you attend one of the top say 10 schools in the nation you are going to be golden pretty much wherever you rank in your class. I’m sure the opportunities are better for those who rank higher, but apparently even if you are the bottom ranked guy at Michigan or Duke you can go out there and make 125k+ a year at a big firm.

Once you get beyond the top 10, I don’t think it is as straight forward. For example, if you were to attend Washington University in St. Louis, or the University of Iowa, I don’t know if you would actually be at that much more of an advantage in SoCal compared to those who attended USD in San Diego and finished in the top 25%, or even those inn the top 50% who were able to network their way to a job locally. This all assumes you aren’t in IP law or some other in-demand specialty. For IP law, I have actually heard it doesn’t matter where you go, but again I’m sure that IP graduates from the top schools place much better.

At a certain point, probably somewhere past the top 10-15 schools, I have heard people recommend that you take into account the region where you want to work. U of Illinois is ranked 25 now, so if you want to end up in Chicago or Des Moines it might be a good bet. But if you hope to practice in Colorado, I have to think you will have better opportunities if you go to #36 ranked Colorado, or even #70 or so ranked Denver.

All of this brings me to the most important point of all, and one that I am currently considering. Do you really, really want to be a lawyer? Are you good at, and will you enjoy the activities that lawyers engage in? To help you answer this, I recommend that you read this book linked below. It is the best book ever written on this topic. If your answer to this question is a resounding ‘yes’, then you will not be as concerned about whether it will be worth it if you rank in the bottom 50% at a top 20 school etc, etc. If you attend a top 100 school and do well you will find opportunities in the region where you go to school. Most of the 125k-150k a year jobs you hear about are in biglaw, in big cities, and include hellish billable hours and a lifestyle you may not even desire…

[Anonymous]

well, I know a bunch of 2Ls at USD, ranked #85. Tier II.
I can say that:
-USD opens a lot of doors in San Diego and Orange County, not so many doors elsewhere (unless the doors are Catholic).
-some of the top national firms (Latham & Watkins, Baker & McKenzie, Jones-Day, etc) recruit from USD. They want local connections for local offices. Granted, they’re mostly grabbing the top 1-2% of the class, but they’re offering the equivalent of annual salaries of way way north of $100K/yr for summer internships for 2Ls.
-people in the top 5-15% of the class are getting offers of up to around 100K/yr I think, mostly from local firms. Not all of them, but a lot are.

It looks like a good strategy (unless you know you have the stones to compete at Wash U, etc) is to pick a school in which you will be competitive that’s located in the city in which you want to live. That school is not the top ranked school that accepts you, it’s the one that offers you a scholarship to join/stay. The most competitive school that accepts you will also probably be the one in which you have the lowest class rank. Maybe not a big deal in the top 20 schools, but the cutoff for job recruitment is pretty harsh in tier II.

[Anonymous]

well, I know a bunch of 2Ls at USD, ranked #85. Tier II.
I can say that:
-USD opens a lot of doors in San Diego and Orange County, not so many doors elsewhere (unless the doors are Catholic).
-some of the top national firms (Latham & Watkins, Baker & McKenzie, Jones-Day, etc) recruit from USD. They want local connections for local offices. Granted, they’re mostly grabbing the top 1-2% of the class, but they’re offering the equivalent of annual salaries of way way north of $100K/yr for summer internships for 2Ls.
-people in the top 5-15% of the class are getting offers of up to around 100K/yr I think, mostly from local firms. Not all of them, but a lot are.

It looks like a good strategy (unless you know you have the stones to compete at Wash U, etc) is to pick a school in which you will be competitive that’s located in the city in which you want to live. That school is not the top ranked school that accepts you, it’s the one that offers you a scholarship to join/stay. The most competitive school that accepts you will also probably be the one in which you have the lowest class rank. Maybe not a big deal in the top 20 schools, but the cutoff for job recruitment is pretty harsh in tier II.

[Anonymous]

well, I know a bunch of 2Ls at USD, ranked #85. Tier II.
I can say that:
-USD opens a lot of doors in San Diego and Orange County, not so many doors elsewhere (unless the doors are Catholic).
-some of the top national firms (Latham & Watkins, Baker & McKenzie, Jones-Day, etc) recruit from USD. They want local connections for local offices. Granted, they’re mostly grabbing the top 1-2% of the class, but they’re offering the equivalent of annual salaries of way way north of $100K/yr for summer internships for 2Ls.
-people in the top 5-15% of the class are getting offers of up to around 100K/yr I think, mostly from local firms. Not all of them, but a lot are.

It looks like a good strategy (unless you know you have the stones to compete at Wash U, etc) is to pick a school in which you will be competitive that’s located in the city in which you want to live. That school is not the top ranked school that accepts you, it’s the one that offers you a scholarship to join/stay. The most competitive school that accepts you will also probably be the one in which you have the lowest class rank. Maybe not a big deal in the top 20 schools, but the cutoff for job recruitment is pretty harsh in tier II.

[Anonymous]

well, I know a bunch of 2Ls at USD, ranked #85. Tier II.
I can say that:
-USD opens a lot of doors in San Diego and Orange County, not so many doors elsewhere (unless the doors are Catholic).
-some of the top national firms (Latham & Watkins, Baker & McKenzie, Jones-Day, etc) recruit from USD. They want local connections for local offices. Granted, they’re mostly grabbing the top 1-2% of the class, but they’re offering the equivalent of annual salaries of way way north of $100K/yr for summer internships for 2Ls.
-people in the top 5-15% of the class are getting offers of up to around 100K/yr I think, mostly from local firms. Not all of them, but a lot are.

It looks like a good strategy (unless you know you have the stones to compete at Wash U, etc) is to pick a school in which you will be competitive that’s located in the city in which you want to live. That school is not the top ranked school that accepts you, it’s the one that offers you a scholarship to join/stay. The most competitive school that accepts you will also probably be the one in which you have the lowest class rank. Maybe not a big deal in the top 20 schools, but the cutoff for job recruitment is pretty harsh in tier II.

[Anonymous]

well, I know a bunch of 2Ls at USD, ranked #85. Tier II.
I can say that:
-USD opens a lot of doors in San Diego and Orange County, not so many doors elsewhere (unless the doors are Catholic).
-some of the top national firms (Latham & Watkins, Baker & McKenzie, Jones-Day, etc) recruit from USD. They want local connections for local offices. Granted, they’re mostly grabbing the top 1-2% of the class, but they’re offering the equivalent of annual salaries of way way north of $100K/yr for summer internships for 2Ls.
-people in the top 5-15% of the class are getting offers of up to around 100K/yr I think, mostly from local firms. Not all of them, but a lot are.

It looks like a good strategy (unless you know you have the stones to compete at Wash U, etc) is to pick a school in which you will be competitive that’s located in the city in which you want to live. That school is not the top ranked school that accepts you, it’s the one that offers you a scholarship to join/stay. The most competitive school that accepts you will also probably be the one in which you have the lowest class rank. Maybe not a big deal in the top 20 schools, but the cutoff for job recruitment is pretty harsh in tier II.

[Bugs]

As it happens I learned conversational Mandarin way back when. Lived overseas for a few years and all that. There are two things you need to recognize about your idea of doing business in China:

There are lots of ethnic Chinese who are already fluent in both English and one or two dialects of Chinese, having grown up with both. Many of them consider their other occupational training to be the big thing, that’s how strong they are academically. Unless your other skills are truly great, adding the language isn’t going to make you that competitive.

Manadrin isn’t a latin-based language, and it is among the most difficult for English speakers to learn. It’s supposedly harder than Japanese or Russian. After 5 years of study you’ll still be behind the curve on vocabulary and you’ll only have rudimentary reading and writing skills.

Doing business overseas means travelling a lot, and we’re not talking about taking the red-eye out to the east coast. Unless you want to live out of a suitcase or relocate you may find that international business travel gets old fast.

If you’re talking about job skills make sure you’re considering the lifestyles that go with your target occupation. Once you do that you’ll soon see that after a certain point the money isn’t the thing.

If the money is the thing then its usually better to own a small business than to be the employee or manager of of a big one.

YMMV.

[Bugs]

As it happens I learned conversational Mandarin way back when. Lived overseas for a few years and all that. There are two things you need to recognize about your idea of doing business in China:

There are lots of ethnic Chinese who are already fluent in both English and one or two dialects of Chinese, having grown up with both. Many of them consider their other occupational training to be the big thing, that’s how strong they are academically. Unless your other skills are truly great, adding the language isn’t going to make you that competitive.

Manadrin isn’t a latin-based language, and it is among the most difficult for English speakers to learn. It’s supposedly harder than Japanese or Russian. After 5 years of study you’ll still be behind the curve on vocabulary and you’ll only have rudimentary reading and writing skills.

Doing business overseas means travelling a lot, and we’re not talking about taking the red-eye out to the east coast. Unless you want to live out of a suitcase or relocate you may find that international business travel gets old fast.

If you’re talking about job skills make sure you’re considering the lifestyles that go with your target occupation. Once you do that you’ll soon see that after a certain point the money isn’t the thing.

If the money is the thing then its usually better to own a small business than to be the employee or manager of of a big one.

YMMV.

[Bugs]

As it happens I learned conversational Mandarin way back when. Lived overseas for a few years and all that. There are two things you need to recognize about your idea of doing business in China:

There are lots of ethnic Chinese who are already fluent in both English and one or two dialects of Chinese, having grown up with both. Many of them consider their other occupational training to be the big thing, that’s how strong they are academically. Unless your other skills are truly great, adding the language isn’t going to make you that competitive.

Manadrin isn’t a latin-based language, and it is among the most difficult for English speakers to learn. It’s supposedly harder than Japanese or Russian. After 5 years of study you’ll still be behind the curve on vocabulary and you’ll only have rudimentary reading and writing skills.

Doing business overseas means travelling a lot, and we’re not talking about taking the red-eye out to the east coast. Unless you want to live out of a suitcase or relocate you may find that international business travel gets old fast.

If you’re talking about job skills make sure you’re considering the lifestyles that go with your target occupation. Once you do that you’ll soon see that after a certain point the money isn’t the thing.

If the money is the thing then its usually better to own a small business than to be the employee or manager of of a big one.

YMMV.

[Bugs]

As it happens I learned conversational Mandarin way back when. Lived overseas for a few years and all that. There are two things you need to recognize about your idea of doing business in China:

There are lots of ethnic Chinese who are already fluent in both English and one or two dialects of Chinese, having grown up with both. Many of them consider their other occupational training to be the big thing, that’s how strong they are academically. Unless your other skills are truly great, adding the language isn’t going to make you that competitive.

Manadrin isn’t a latin-based language, and it is among the most difficult for English speakers to learn. It’s supposedly harder than Japanese or Russian. After 5 years of study you’ll still be behind the curve on vocabulary and you’ll only have rudimentary reading and writing skills.

Doing business overseas means travelling a lot, and we’re not talking about taking the red-eye out to the east coast. Unless you want to live out of a suitcase or relocate you may find that international business travel gets old fast.

If you’re talking about job skills make sure you’re considering the lifestyles that go with your target occupation. Once you do that you’ll soon see that after a certain point the money isn’t the thing.

If the money is the thing then its usually better to own a small business than to be the employee or manager of of a big one.

YMMV.

[Bugs]

As it happens I learned conversational Mandarin way back when. Lived overseas for a few years and all that. There are two things you need to recognize about your idea of doing business in China:

There are lots of ethnic Chinese who are already fluent in both English and one or two dialects of Chinese, having grown up with both. Many of them consider their other occupational training to be the big thing, that’s how strong they are academically. Unless your other skills are truly great, adding the language isn’t going to make you that competitive.

Manadrin isn’t a latin-based language, and it is among the most difficult for English speakers to learn. It’s supposedly harder than Japanese or Russian. After 5 years of study you’ll still be behind the curve on vocabulary and you’ll only have rudimentary reading and writing skills.

Doing business overseas means travelling a lot, and we’re not talking about taking the red-eye out to the east coast. Unless you want to live out of a suitcase or relocate you may find that international business travel gets old fast.

If you’re talking about job skills make sure you’re considering the lifestyles that go with your target occupation. Once you do that you’ll soon see that after a certain point the money isn’t the thing.

If the money is the thing then its usually better to own a small business than to be the employee or manager of of a big one.

YMMV.

[bsrsharma]

XboxBoy,

Would you mind giving an email to contact you regarding music education/career?

Thanks,
[email protected]

[bsrsharma]

XboxBoy,

Would you mind giving an email to contact you regarding music education/career?

Thanks,
[email protected]

[bsrsharma]

XboxBoy,

Would you mind giving an email to contact you regarding music education/career?

Thanks,
[email protected]

[bsrsharma]

XboxBoy,

Would you mind giving an email to contact you regarding music education/career?

Thanks,
[email protected]

[Author]

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