If you are going to law school or are thinking about going to law school, you have probably heard the term "prestige whore". While I do not particularly care for the term, it is a reality of the legal world, and you had better get used to it.
Lawyers and law students are generally
obsessive about prestige. One look at top-law-schools will tell you that from 0L, students are riled up over where they are going to be going, how much they plan on making, and how much better their school makes them than their competitors. Law school applicants go crazy over LSAT scores, undergraduate GPA's, and other 'soft' factors that they use to size each other up. If you get into the T14, T10, T6, or T3, as they are called (and this is just another example of how
number-obsessed law students are), you consider yourself 'set for life'.
Then, there are the other T's. The Tier 1 (T), Tier 2 (TT), Tier 3 (TTT), and Teir 4 (TTTT) law schools. As you can imagine, to the new law school applicant, this is really confusing at first. However, in a couple days time, you'll learn it because everyone is talking about it.
What are the difference between law school tier rankings?First, the
Tier 1 is the top 50 law schools. The top 14, 10, 6, 3, 2, 1, etc. are in this list, but are considered in a league of their own by many. The tier 1 schools are considered by many to be
quasi-elite (the top 14, etc. are considered by many to be elite, even though that may be changing as job prospects are turning out to be not as AMAZING as the students that go to these schools are realizing). Schools like the mighty Cardozo, University of Washington, UC Berkeley, Boston University, Boston College, UC Hastings, Michigan, etc. are on this list.
Everyone coming out of here makes $160,000! Right? Right?Second comes the
Tier 2 (TT) schools. These are the schools ranked 51 to 100. Such schools include St. John's, Brooklyn Law School, University of San Francisco, Seattle University, Lewis & Clark, University of Oregon, among others. Such schools are seen as
quasi-quasi-elite (law students always like to put the word 'elite' into everything, as you will notice). These are schools that are considered to be 'up and coming' or 'gaining speed' by their deans. These are the schools that you can still get a fine legal education (whatever that means to you) and not have to feel (too) dirty inside.
Third is the
third tier (TTT) schools. Schools like the infamous Drake University, Gonzaga (what's a Gonzaga anyway?) New York Law School, CUNY Law, and a host of others line this classification like the plaque lines your teeth. Basically it's schools that fall out of the top 100 to 150ish (even though they are not ranked in order by US News). As you will be realizing, there are a TON of law schools out there, each pumping out hundreds of graduates every year. Third tier schools are generally considered (or touted) to be
quasi-quasi-quasi elite.
Next and last is the
quasi-quasi-quasi-quasi elite fourth tier schools -- Cooley, Florida Coastal, Western New England, Golden Gate University, etc. Although they are in the bottom of the barrel of accredited law schools, they are still somewhat elite to their students because they seen as better than unaccredited law schools, they cost a lot (
and if something costs a lot it MUST be good, right?), and they are law schools, and
just being in law school makes you a wonderful human being! Oh, and these schools are the ones in your e-mail and in your mailbox trying to get you in with fancy pamphlets and smiling faces of intelligent and sexy looking students who are making big money. Who would not want to go?
"Give yourself a pat on the back, you're law students now!"
-Obligatory speech fodder at a convocation/welcome ceremony for lower ranked law schools.
The Law School Transfer GameIf you did not land in the top school (Yale), there's always the idea of transferring. You see, law students want to be the very best (like no one ever was), and the hundreds of thousands of students are all vying to be the top student of their graduation year at Yale. That's the game (with a couple of exceptions). The game of transferring up the ladder has been introduced, and
law schools LOVE it! Why? All those scholarships that they give away
do not go to transfer students. That means a student that climbs up from Phoenix School of Law to Touro or makes that arduous climb from Florida Coastal to New England Law: Boston will give up any scholarship money they had AND have to pay full price at the new school. The schools see this is a great way to make an extra bit of cash. And thousands of law students want to transfer. Many will give up scholarships at a school ranked 150-200 to go to a school ranked 97th. It's a climb up the elite ladder.
Why would you not want to transfer from Cardozo to Fordham, or from Western New England to Seton Hall? Rutgers to Brooklyn? Beam me up scotty!
After Law School
After you are done with law school, you will be vying for jobs. This is the reason you went in the first place (unless daddy has his own firm, momma's a judge, or you are dying to hang up a shingle). Many will want to get the highest ranked clerkships. Going into the working world, many now realize that the firms have their very own pecking order and are ranked just like law schools! In fact, everything is ranked. Associates, Partner, Of Counsel, Big Kahuna. These are terms you will see in the firm. The numbers game never ends. Bill so many hours. Get so many clients. Where did you work before here? Can you have that intern scrub the door nobs before he leaves?
My goal: to work at a quasi-quasi-quasi-quasi-quasi elite firm. That is, get a real life legal job!
