University of Houston or Tulane for the Houston market? Forum

[Bustang]

Lots of misinformation ITT. If you guys hadn't stumbled across the pre-ITE employment graph, here it is

http://www.law.com/pdf/nlj/20080414empl ... trends.pdf

UH had slightly better NLJ 250 placement than Tulane. According to LSN the 07-08 OCI numbers were 106 firms at Tulane vs. 93 at UH. Not a huge difference. I'm sure Tulane pwns in LA (actually LSU probably provides some decent competition) just like the University of South Dakota pwns in their home state, but they just are not large legal markets. UH takes the UT scraps in Houston, but the Houston legal market is much bigger.

Regarding "lay prestige", first of all that's a dumb reason to pick a law school. Secondly, UH UG is semi-respected in the houston business community. It's not very hard to get into, but some programs get alot of respect (CE, CS, Pharmacy) and the business school gets a decent amount of cred. My company hires from UH all the time.

I agree with everything that you're saying, but lay prestige does come into play when you're applying to schools outside the state your LS is placed in.

Outside of T14, law is regional. Most people get jobs in the area where they go to school.

Correct, but, the amount of Tulane people who take the bar for states outside LA and the amount of practicing alumni in various regions leads me to believe that the school is a bit more portable than others in its range.

[Blindmelon]

Lots of misinformation ITT. If you guys hadn't stumbled across the pre-ITE employment graph, here it is

http://www.law.com/pdf/nlj/20080414empl ... trends.pdf

UH had slightly better NLJ 250 placement than Tulane. According to LSN the 07-08 OCI numbers were 106 firms at Tulane vs. 93 at UH. Not a huge difference. I'm sure Tulane pwns in LA (actually LSU probably provides some decent competition) just like the University of South Dakota pwns in their home state, but they just are not large legal markets. UH takes the UT scraps in Houston, but the Houston legal market is much bigger.

Regarding "lay prestige", first of all that's a dumb reason to pick a law school. Secondly, UH UG is semi-respected in the houston business community. It's not very hard to get into, but some programs get alot of respect (CE, CS, Pharmacy) and the business school gets a decent amount of cred. My company hires from UH all the time.

I agree with everything that you're saying, but lay prestige does come into play when you're applying to schools outside the state your LS is placed in.

Outside of T14, law is regional. Most people get jobs in the area where they go to school.

Correct, but, the amount of Tulane people who take the bar for states outside LA and the amount of practicing alumni in various regions leads me to believe that the school is a bit more portable than others in its range.

Thats not saying much.

[PDaddy]

Unless Tulane offers you a sizable scholarship and assuming that you are a resident of Texas, U of H is the credited response.

Absolutely. We are strictly talking Houston. If it were the D.C., NY, ATL or Bay Area markets it would be a totally different ball game.

[waverider]

Thanks for the advice.

[FunkyJD]

If you don't have some deep personal and/or professional roots in Texas, and you plan on practicing law here, know that this is a very insular market. Unless you get an offer you can't refuse from a top school, you'd be well-advised to attend law school here.