Should I attend UIUC? Forum

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Lchi

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Should I attend UIUC?

Post by Lchi » Sun Jan 28, 2018 3:21 pm

Background: I have full tuition offers from Iowa, IU-Bloomington, Ohio State, and Arizona State. I am not necessarily BL or bust, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it. I do not know what kind of law I want to go into specifically. I have not heard back from Illinois yet but if I get a full ride there, I would be tempted to take it simply for their 34% biglaw placement ( https://www.lstreports.com/schools/illinois/ ). The next highest placement of these schools is Ohio State at 22%, and the rest are all below 20%. I want to stay in the Midwest, so ASU is out, but would it be worth it to go to a lower ranked school (Illinois is 44) simply for the fact that they have better employment statistics? (They also have the highest LST employment score and lowest under-employment score of all these options) If you had all of these offers, which would you take and why?

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Mullens

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by Mullens » Sun Jan 28, 2018 4:42 pm

If you want biglaw then go to a school that places more graduates into biglaw. Summer biglaw classes are shrinking and the schools you listed below will be hit hard by that.

Saying you’re not big law or bust and then choosing a school solely for its biglaw percentage is...something.

jacketyellow

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by jacketyellow » Sun Jan 28, 2018 4:43 pm

Lchi wrote:Background: I have full tuition offers from Iowa, IU-Bloomington, Ohio State, and Arizona State. I am not necessarily BL or bust, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it. I do not know what kind of law I want to go into specifically. I have not heard back from Illinois yet but if I get a full ride there, I would be tempted to take it simply for their 34% biglaw placement ( https://www.lstreports.com/schools/illinois/ ). The next highest placement of these schools is Ohio State at 22%, and the rest are all below 20%. I want to stay in the Midwest, so ASU is out, but would it be worth it to go to a lower ranked school (Illinois is 44) simply for the fact that they have better employment statistics? (They also have the highest LST employment score and lowest under-employment score of all these options) If you had all of these offers, which would you take and why?
If those were the only schools I could get in, and there was no way to improve my LSAT score, then yes, I would pick UIUC.

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poptart123

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by poptart123 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 4:48 pm

Mullens wrote:Saying you’re not big law or bust and then choosing a school solely for its biglaw percentage is...something.
I chuckled at this

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Dcc617

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by Dcc617 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 4:51 pm

If you’re shooting biglaw then you need to go to a school where the median student can get biglaw. You have unlimited retakes. It’s much, much easier to improve a little on the LSAT than it is to get top grades in all your 1L classes. There’s no rush.

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Lchi

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by Lchi » Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:19 pm

Mullens wrote: Saying you’re not big law or bust and then choosing a school solely for its biglaw percentage is...something.
I mostly included the biglaw percentage because they are highly sought after jobs and how well a school places in them gives testament to their overall employment outcomes. I also would not be against biglaw if I had the opportunity, so a better biglaw placement will hopefully give me more options upon graduation. I also only posted this asking for advice, my decision is certainly not made yet. Also, if you had read the post, UIUC also has the highest LST employment score and lowest under-employment score, so the reason that I would consider UIUC over higher ranked schools was actually not based entirely off any one statistic, merely the overall employment statistics, which I would hold as more important than US News rankings. Thank you for your advice but I believe this was unnecessary.

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chargers21

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by chargers21 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:26 pm

I would suggest figuring out what general sector and location you would prefer before selecting any school outside of the t13 (and likely having at leat a ballpark idea still before attending one of those depending on how much you are paying). I'm going to guess that you have high gpa and mid 160s LSAT based on your acceptances/scholarships, so you should probably retake if you want to work in a competitive field like federal government, high preftige public interest, or biglaw. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you want to work in Chicago, so you should probably retake to get into one of Northwestern/UChicago with a decent scholarship if you want to work in that city in a high end job.

CanadianWolf

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by CanadianWolf » Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:20 pm

Agree that if biglaw is your goal, then you need to retake the LSAT.

Are you willing to share your numbers (LSAT & GPA) ?

Also, would be helpful to know your undergraduate major & whether or not you have any professional work experience.

I ask because there may be a couple of options available to you if willing to get a joint JD/MBA degree (which probably excludes Iowa since my understanding is that Tippie is shutting down their traditional 2 year MBA program--but Tippie might have one year MS degrees, I am just not sure of their plans).

Lchi

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by Lchi » Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:29 pm

CanadianWolf wrote:Agree that if biglaw is your goal, then you need to retake the LSAT.

Are you willing to share your numbers (LSAT & GPA) ?

Also, would be helpful to know your undergraduate major & whether or not you have any professional work experience.

I ask because there may be a couple of options available to you if willing to get a joint JD/MBA degree (which probably excludes Iowa since my understanding is that Tippie is shutting down their traditional 2 year MBA program--but Tippie might have one year MS degrees, I am just not sure of their plans).
165/3.8, Double Major in Political Science and Philosophy, only work experience is minimum wage summer jobs. I studied a decent amount for the LSAT, and all of my PT’s were between 158-162, so when I saw my score at 165, I was pretty happy with it, and do not think that I could bring it up with further studying.

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CanadianWolf

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by CanadianWolf » Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:40 pm

Since you do not have a STEM or business/economics/finance/accounting background, my suggestions would not be as useful to you as it would be for others.

If willing to retake the LSAT for even a 3 point increase, you should be able to get into Cornell with some scholarship money since you would be above both medians. Cornell places well into biglaw.

Otherwise, investigate any joint degree options with the graduate business schools at Indiana, Ohio State & ASU. This should make you an attractive candidate for a wider variety of employers (think Big Four accounting/consulting firms & large regional accounting firms). The Big Four firms offer opportunities both throughout the United States and internationally.

In the past, there was very little chance of transitioning from a Big Four accounting firm into law firms, but that has changed.

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Mullens

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by Mullens » Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:51 pm

Lchi wrote:
Mullens wrote: Saying you’re not big law or bust and then choosing a school solely for its biglaw percentage is...something.
I mostly included the biglaw percentage because they are highly sought after jobs and how well a school places in them gives testament to their overall employment outcomes. I also would not be against biglaw if I had the opportunity, so a better biglaw placement will hopefully give me more options upon graduation. I also only posted this asking for advice, my decision is certainly not made yet. Also, if you had read the post, UIUC also has the highest LST employment score and lowest under-employment score, so the reason that I would consider UIUC over higher ranked schools was actually not based entirely off any one statistic, merely the overall employment statistics, which I would hold as more important than US News rankings. Thank you for your advice but I believe this was unnecessary.
My bad for pointing out your blatant hypocrisy and trying to give you advice to get the job you clearly want. Next time I’ll just tell you “good luck, follow your dreams” instead of providing practical advice of how to achieve your goals. Pretty sure I had to read your post to see “simply for their 34% biglaw placement.”

The USNews rankings don’t mean anything when it comes to emploment other than as a proxy to tell you what the best 13 schools in the country are. After like #19, schools are purely regional and the rankings don’t mean anything. You’re right to look at employment stats. Do that everywhere. And go somewhere that gives you more than a (shrinking) ~34% chance of the job you want.

I work in Chicago biglaw, my firm gives out way more offers to Chicago/Northwestern/Michigan students than UIUC students. The cutoffs at UIUC are way higher too. I’m talking like 25+ offers to Northwestern students a year vs like 5 to UIUC kids. Absent very strong connections (kid of a major client) everyone from UIUC seems to be top 10%/law review at a minimum.

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Shcamz

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Re: Should I attend UIUC?

Post by Shcamz » Fri Oct 26, 2018 12:20 pm

Mullens wrote:
Lchi wrote:
Mullens wrote: Saying you’re not big law or bust and then choosing a school solely for its biglaw percentage is...something.
I mostly included the biglaw percentage because they are highly sought after jobs and how well a school places in them gives testament to their overall employment outcomes. I also would not be against biglaw if I had the opportunity, so a better biglaw placement will hopefully give me more options upon graduation. I also only posted this asking for advice, my decision is certainly not made yet. Also, if you had read the post, UIUC also has the highest LST employment score and lowest under-employment score, so the reason that I would consider UIUC over higher ranked schools was actually not based entirely off any one statistic, merely the overall employment statistics, which I would hold as more important than US News rankings. Thank you for your advice but I believe this was unnecessary.
My bad for pointing out your blatant hypocrisy and trying to give you advice to get the job you clearly want. Next time I’ll just tell you “good luck, follow your dreams” instead of providing practical advice of how to achieve your goals. Pretty sure I had to read your post to see “simply for their 34% biglaw placement.”

The USNews rankings don’t mean anything when it comes to emploment other than as a proxy to tell you what the best 13 schools in the country are. After like #19, schools are purely regional and the rankings don’t mean anything. You’re right to look at employment stats. Do that everywhere. And go somewhere that gives you more than a (shrinking) ~34% chance of the job you want.

I work in Chicago biglaw, my firm gives out way more offers to Chicago/Northwestern/Michigan students than UIUC students. The cutoffs at UIUC are way higher too. I’m talking like 25+ offers to Northwestern students a year vs like 5 to UIUC kids. Absent very strong connections (kid of a major client) everyone from UIUC seems to be top 10%/law review at a minimum.
For any future students that come across this post, ignore the last sentence I bolded. This is entirely FALSE. I was below top 33%, no LR, and got BigLaw. A friend was top 5% & NO LR and got a V5; another friend was top 33% & LR and got offers from multiple V40s. Another friend was top 20% & LR and multiple V40 offers.

UIUC places extremely well in Chicago. I even got a callback at a V40 with my numbers...

Remember, numbers get you in the door, but your personality is what gets you the offer. Network like crazy and you can get a BigLaw job with my pedestrian numbers.

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