Sounder89 wrote:I might be misapplying Duke's undergrad reputation to the law school.
Duke's law school population feels
nothing like Duke's undergrad population. It's basically just a cross-section of the types of smart people who can get into a T14 school, with a slight selection bias towards self-actualization and soft factors. More Duke students than not got into a higher-ranked T14 but turned it down because they 1.) wanted the awesome weather and laid-back culture, and 2.) could read employment stats well enough to realize that "T10" is the dumbest breakpoint on TLS. That does create a feel, but it's not that noticeable and I'd say it's closer to "too sane for law school" than "frat".
What hurts Duke Law's rep more than anything is the Tucker Max legacy, but everybody there hated him as well.
I really think the only T14s with significant self-selection factors are Chicago, Virginia, and Northwestern. The rest seem to be pretty similar. Others may disagree, though.