molloyboytoy wrote:First, it is completely speculative to one's personal situation whether you have blank dollars before and after law school.
In English, please? The amount you spend on law school is very relevant to whether it's an intelligent decision to attend a school. To reduce this to the level of the absurd, it's only slightly less stupid to pay for Cooley at sticker if you can afford it than it is to borrow money to attend. Ergo, how much you can afford to pay without taking on debt might be relevant in the abstract, but it's not nearly as relevant when comparing schools.
Again, the majority of your argument is based upon your personal opinion instead of statistical evidence (which bears out my points). If you have a 145K job versus 50K etc etc..which school was better? It depends on your personal situation and where you end up.
That biglaw placement for the two firms is similar. You only need to look at OCI interview criteria to see how deep into a school's class a firm will go (and the top OCI firms typically won't go below top 10% at either school). Most firms will go about the same depth into Emory's class as UGA's class. This is corroborated by biglaw placement numbers earlier in the thread.
I get it you don't like Emory and it's costly... fine. However, this whole thread is about assumption and your assuming sticker price as I'm talking about the degree as a whole vs. UGA's.
Sure, but how much you pay factors into your return on investment on the legal education - one isn't paying for a piece of paper that says Juris Doctorate on it. One is paying for the opportunities it brings. The amount you spend on the degree has to factor into that, as one has to consider student loan payments after getting out of law school if one has to borrow to attend a school. If you're in the enviable position of being able to pay for law school without incurring debt (which would make choosing between Emory and UGA stupid - in that situation you should retake and shoot for the top 14), that amounts to how much money you'll have available for expenses/investments/splurges both during and
after law school. I've already said that were the two schools the equivalent price, I would have attended Emory, and not because of USNWR, but because I'd prefer to be in Atlanta. But the expected amount of debt post-graduation is very relevant.
Statistics such as job placement numbers,
No they don't. Emory's biglaw + Article III clerkship numbers are quite similar to UGA's. And this is despite the fact that a larger proportion of UGA's class is interested in PI.
LSAT scores,
Irrelevant. LSAT scores are mildly predictive of ability to get grades 1L year, but not especially so.
rankings, public opinion,
How is this remotely relevant? Lay prestige doesn't count for a whole lot in legal hiring, and the Emory name isn't really prestigious enough to open any kind of doors by itself.
firm recruiter surveys are bear out placing Emory ahead of UGA, the exact point I was making.
Except that you still need to be in the top 15% of your class to even get those firms, who you suggest value Emory over UGA, to even talk to you. And that's true for either school.
In addition, the OP that was the basis of this thread chose Emory ...only further reinforcing my point that Emory is perceived (justly or unjustly) to be a better school which is what I'm saying eliminating any mention of money.
The perception of going to a better school won't pay your student loans if you're stuck at the median.
Emory is better than UGA (which isn't really saying much). I mean you admitted it yourself when you stated that UGA even being in the top thirty was an
anomaly. Of course, when defending your argument, rankings matter, but when someone assert's Emory's rankings dominance over UGA...they don't.
How are year to year fluctuations in the rankings really all that relevant to one's career prospects? It's not like a firm is going to refuse to come to OCI just because Emory dropped to 30 from 22.
That biglaw placement for the two firms is similar? You only need to look at OCI interview criteria to see how deep into a school's class a firm will go. Most firms will go about the same depth into Emory's class as UGA's class. As mentioned earlier in the thread
As I said above - if one can actually pay the 100k out of pocket, then the correct answer is to retake the LSAT and shoot for the likes of Vanderbilt and the lower top 14.