Choosing A Law School

Size | Areas of Special Interest | Clinics | Extracurricular Activities | Other Students | Location | Cost
Joint Degree Programs | Unaccredited Law Schools | Information for Minority Applicants

When choosing a law school, there are several factors to consider, including reputation, ranking, size, cost, location, course offerings, facilities, resources, clinical programs, and the strength of law-related extracurriculars (like law journals and moot court programs).  Even more noticeably than with undergraduate institutions, your choice of law school can affect your opportunity to be considered for employment at top law firms.  The top-tier law schools have definitive advantages over lower-ranked schools in terms of on-campus recruiting programs and resources.  The reality is that often a student at a lower-ranked law school must be in the top 5% of the class to receive the same employment consideration that a student in the top 25% of the class from a top institution receives. 

For purposes of educating yourself as to which law schools are highly ranked or regarded, you can make use of numerous publications ranking the law schools.   In addition to overall rank, law schools are ranked in these publications in specific areas such as reputation, selectivity, job placement success, faculty resources, and clinical programs.  Some publications also include a specialty rankings system which is typically derived from surveys from practicing attorneys who have identified schools with the best offerings.  Keep in mind that certain elements of the methodology used in these rankings is subjective.  Therefore, consulting a law school rankings guide should not be your only tool for choosing the law schools to which you wish to apply. 

In addition to the questions that a law school will have about you, you will want to ask recruiters, law students and Wesleyan alumni/ae a number of questions about the school itself. Here, in no particular order, are some issues to consider.

Size

There are several components to this factor: overall size of school, size of most classes, and (at least in the second and third years) availability of small classes. Do not overemphasize class size beyond small sections; there is not really much difference between a class of 50 and one of 100. One way to get a sense of how you react to large classes is by sitting in on one, preferably given by a professor who is skilled at dealing with larger groups.

Many law schools are part of a larger university and are located on the main campus.  This setting allows law student to take advantage of other university resources in close proximity, like the university recreation center and student center, and often gives them the sense that they are part of a larger academic community.  Other law schools that are part of a larger university system may be situated on a separate campus.  Students at these law schools also have access to university resources, albeit at a short commute via car, university shuttles, or public transportation.  A few law schools are independent, in the sense that they have no official relationship or affiliation with a larger institution. 

Areas of Special Interest

Many law schools have gained a reputation for expertise within certain specific subject areas; for example, international law or environmental law.  For most applicants, this is not a major concern because most law students do not have a firm idea of the type of law they would like to practice and those who do often change their minds. Also, most lawyers learn general skills in law school and develop their expertise in practice.  However, those applicants who do have a firm idea of what area of the law they are interested in would benefit from consulting with the NAPLA/SAPLA Book of Law School List, available in the CRC library.  This resource identifies law schools that have specific areas of concentration. 

Clinics

Clinical courses and externships offer the opportunity to apply classroom learning to work in a real legal setting.  Participating in a legal clinic is one important way a law student can gain significant real world experience by taking on actual cases under the supervision of a faculty member (who is an attorney).  Clinics typically work in areas of public interest law, such as housing, domestic violence, and discrimination.  Clinical programs, which are often accorded academic credit by the affiliated participating law schools, enables law students to put into practical application the skills that they are learning in the classroom.  The range and depth of a law school’s clinical offerings should be considered as a way to help determine the fit between you and the law school.

Extracurricular Activities

Particularly after the first year, most law students work on law-related extracurricular activities, some of which may be partially for credit, while others are wholly voluntary. The importance of these activities must be underscored.  Typically, employers differentiate between qualified applicants based on participation in a few, prestigious extra-curriculars, including moot court and law review.  Many law school graduates credit these activities in particular as being as much a learning experience, if not more, as classroom or job experiences. 

The variety of additional extra-curricular opportunities is quite broad, and includes not only activities focused on honing and advancing a student's legal skills,  but also on student-run activities focusing on non-legal interests as a way of keeping balance and satisfaction in the lives of law students. The law school’s catalog should have a list of student organizations, which will give you an idea of the range of offerings.

Other Students

A primary goal of law school is to impart upon students an analytical method, a way of thinking through legal issues which can then be applied to various subject matters that will later be encountered in practice.  Much more so than in your undergraduate courses, you actually learn from your classmates while in law school. 

Especially in the first year, classes are taught by the Socratic method, in which student participation is vital. This method of teaching involves a law professor asking a succession of questions that lead a student further along a line of reasoning and challenge the student to intellectually defend increasingly difficult positions.  The classroom advantage of this process is that students are able to refine their own thought process by observing that of their peers when pressed by the professor. 

Throughout all three years of law school, most students form their own study groups. Because everyone is taking a similar course of study, especially the first year, students tend to spend a great deal of time with each other talking through legal issues, analyzing hypotheticals, or collaborating on things like clinical work or moot court research. For these reasons, your reaction to other students is quite important. A visit to a prospective school should give you an idea of whether the chemistry is right for you.

Location

You do not need this guide to tell you whether you hate the cold or cannot stand a climate with no change of seasons, whether you like a rural setting or prefer an urban environment. Of course, you should consider these preferences in deciding where to apply.  In addition, for law school, location has a somewhat different importance.

Although, as previously discussed, the most competitive and prestigious law schools have national reputations (whereby employers from across the country recruit at these schools), most law schools tend to be more regional or even local in their reputation. Because these schools are better known locally, graduates tend to stay in that geographic area.  This trend increases the likelihood that as a student of the same school, you will have an opportunity to connect with those more-localized employers for internships and, ultimately, for employment.  Thus, if you are fairly sure where you want to practice (or do not want to practice), such geographic preferences ought to play a role in your choice of law school.

Cost

Due to the rising costs of law school tuition, it is not uncommon for most graduates to have incurred a substantial loan debt, often as high as $100,000 or more from law school alone.  Although many law firm jobs in large city markets can pay quite well, the large loan debt is a considerable mental and financial burden that seems universal among young law school graduates.  Such a sizable debt can seriously constrain your career choices, for at least the first few years. Unlike Wesleyan, most law schools have very few scholarships, although federal and private loans are readily available for both tuition and living expenses. Some students go to law school at night, work part time, or opt to attend state schools with much lower tuition.  However, most law students graduate with large debts to repay, slight differences in amount aside.

Increasingly, law schools, particularly those which are top-ranked and have substantial institutional resources, are evolving programs of loan forgiveness for graduates who choose public service or other lower paying jobs. Not all schools have such programs, and the term may vary widely. Inevitably, these programs are prestigious, extremely competitive, and attract top applicants from the student body.  Their availability is something for you to consider, especially if you have narrowed your interests to public interest law.  For additional financial aid information, consult the appropriate section in this guide. 

Joint Degree Programs

Joint degree programs allow a student to apply credits from his or her law courses to other degrees, while credits achieved in outside disciplines contribute towards the J.D. The result is that a student can, for example, achieve a three-year J.D. degree and a two-year Master’s degree within four years of straight academic work.  These programs are becoming increasingly popular, as joint degrees help distinguish students from each other, allow them to pursue individual interests, and in some cases, can put students on the “fast track” in certain fields because of the dual expertise graduates are believed to have.

However, in many circumstances, dual degrees add little to the basic J.D. in terms of preparing a law school graduate for the type of legal work that the graduate will be doing, while at the same time adding an additional $30,000 to $40,000 to the overall student debt burden.  Careful consideration should be devoted to whether or not you wish to incur the additional time and expense of a joint degree.  One way to understand the issue better is to contact employers and ask their opinions regarding the desirability certain joint degrees that interest you. 

Unaccredited Law Schools

Not all law schools have been accredited by the American Bar Association.  In some states, graduates of these institutions may take the bar exam and be admitted; however, employers tend to be wary of these graduates. In many states, a degree from an unaccredited law school does not enable the graduate to even sit for the bar exam.  You are urged to avoid enrolling at an unaccredited law school, and, if you do consider enrolling at such an institution, you must investigate it thoroughly, consider the implications of doing so, and find out why it has not been accredited by the ABA. Correspondence courses are not ABA-approved, and correspondence course graduates are not permitted to take the bar exam in any state of the U.S. except California, where those graduates are still subject to limitations.

For additional considerations and a list of questions you may want to ask when evaluating schools, see The Official Guide to U.S. Law Schools, published by the LSAC. Some questions include:

• How strong is the alumni network and where do the majority of graduates work?
• How helpful is the career center in assisting students with finding internships and jobs?
• What percentage of students are employed at graduation?
• How much choice in curriculum is offered?
• How are clinics and other outside opportunities and experiences incorporated into formal studies?
• What is the school community like?
• What kind of joint degree programs are offered and what is the attitude toward these?
• What distinguishes this school from others?
• What is the deferral policy?

Information for Minority Applicants

If you are a person of color there are some factors that you may want to consider while assessing the law school’s strengths and fit. For example, diversity represented among faculty and students and number of minority interest groups.  An LSAC publication The 10 Questions For Minority Law School Aplicants is available at the CRC.

Information for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered (GLBT) Applicants

If you are a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered applicant there are some factors that you may want to consider while assessing the law school’s strengths and fit.  For example, researching the school’s GLBT nondiscrimination policy, whether the school has a GLBT student organization, and whether the law school offers courses specific to GLBT legal issues.  An LSAC publication Out and In: Information for Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgendered Law School Applicants is available at the CRC. 

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