I don't know, I think if you're in the top of your class, your options are open most anywhere. For example, while I am in the dead middle of my class at Michigan (#7 on the list) a friend of mine is #1 in her class at Ohio State (#42 on the list). Guess who got the better job offers? Guess who is clerking? Guess who got a full ride scholarship to law school and is graduating without any debt?

Not me. So while the plural of anecdote is not data, I'd venture to guess that being in the top of your class can make up for being at a lower ranked law school.

I agree. Top-ranked students at schools with lower USNWR numbers do tend to escape some of the effects of the USNWR ranking, since even the most status-driven employers still acknowledge that outperforming everyone else in one's class is a sign of talent.

And of course, the range of opportunities offered by schools within a few USNWR points of each other tends not to vary hugely. Yet despite both of these truisms, people do still transfer "up" the scale every year. And I'd argue that their reasons for doing so extend beyond the mere desire for increased prestige on the resume.

I agree with almost all of what you've said here. Choosing a higher-ranked school is not thoughtless when it preserves your options.

But the "dirty secret" isn't that your options are more limited when you attend a school with (significantly) lower rankings. This might be dirty, but it's also common knowledge. In no sense is it a secret. And not only is everyone allowed to acknowledge this publicly, everyone actually does.

I'm not questioning the existence of a law school hierarchy. My point is that there are plenty of pre-law students out there who allow USNews to choose their school for them, and thus avoid their responsibility to think about why they're doing what they're doing.

I'm not talking about the student admitted to Columbia and to a USNews tier 3 who chooses Columbia because she wants to preserve her options. That's too thoughtful. I'm talking about someone admitted to Chicago and Stanford who chooses Stanford solely because USNews ranks it a few places higher.

This student is thoughtless. This thoughtlessness is bad not because the student might end up working for Biglaw, but because the student might end up working for Biglaw for no other reason than that it's prestigious, or that it pays a lot of money.

Working for Biglaw isn't evil; doing it thoughtlessly, under certain circumstances, can be. But so can working for the government. Or for a "public interest" firm. It's the acting without thinking that I'm worried about.

But the "dirty secret" isn't that your options are more limited when you attend a school with (significantly) lower rankings. This might be dirty, but it's also common knowledge. In no sense is it a secret. And not only is everyone allowed to acknowledge this publicly, everyone actually does.

Not by my definition of "everyone." I think outside the upper echelons, schools and their students go to desperate lengths to paper over this Common Knowledge. Did you go to admitted students' day at your safety school? Did everyone there publicly acknowledge that you'd have a better shot at [X career path] coming from Michigan instead? Or rather, did they emphasize the range of opportunities that they *did* offer there, such that they'd take umbrage if you raised your hand and commented that a higher-ranked school would serve you better?

It's hardly a secret in the sense that no one is aware of this at all; but I think that most of the law school industry lacks your candor, and needs to in the interest of self-preservation.

Being #1 at Ohio (#43) might be superior to middle-of-the-pack at a top-10. But Ohio's still first tier. I know someone who graduated #1 from a tier 4 LS, and can't get a job outside of the school's region.

Just as a nitpicky point--your dream job is not a career.

And as another nitpicky point, nothing comes free. Going to school here expands one sort of options for me, but it shrinks another sort as well. Choice of school is as much about choice of options as anything else; I think that you shouldn't go to any graduate school until you know yourself well enough to know what options you want.

Nice post. I think the ranking insanity in this country actually begins with the first grade we get in elementary school. Public school ingrains the "ranked" sense of value in us- we are only worth as much as our class standing. Shame on public education for both starting and perpetuating this myth.

And Greg,

How do you know you are dead middle of your class at Michigan, since Michigan does not release any student rankings until you graduate? Maybe you have access to some records that I don't? :)

When it comes to job offers, ranking is only one factor. Geographic location makes a big difference in keeping one's options open. I went to Cornell which tends to hover around 11-15 in the rankings (though to the less knowledgeable, Cornell sounds more prestigious than it is because people often impute the undergrad's considerably higher and Ivy League reputation to the law school) But because of Cornell's remote location in Ithaca, students don't have the same opportunities as their peers at schools in larger cities to take on internships at government agencies, public interest groups, courts or for legislative bodies -- or even to work part time at law firms. Many of my classmates in the lower ranks of the class at Cornell had significant difficulty finding jobs when I graduated (circa 1988). However, from my experience working in DC for the past 15 years, I have seen students from so-called "lower ranked" schools obtain internships or work study at agencies, public defenders offices, etc...and leverage those internships into post-law school employment (and in turn leverage that experience into positions - and eventually partnership at large firms. Geographic location is definitely a factor to consider in choosing a school - and one that is more important than ranking in my view.

Re your "dream job" clerking:

The year I spent clerking for a Fifth Circuit judge was the best job I've ever had, hands down. My writing and critical analysis were substantially polished, and throughout my subsequent practice I've felt like I've benefited from the insights and the practical knowledge I gained about both trial and appellate courts. I was superbly prepared for the pro bono criminal appeals I handled after I went into the private sector, and indeed, got opportunities to make a bigger difference on meaningful pro bono cases precisely because of my clerkship connections. And I got to meet and work for a year with some of the most remarkable and admirable people (judges and co-clerks) that I've ever met.

When I have time to kill in an unfamiliar law library, I can walk over to a certain span of Federal Reporter (2d Series), pull out any random volume, flip to the front index of case names, and find some of my (unattributed) prose — always good for the ego.

Although as Heidi points out above it's a one- or two-year job at most, clerking definitely broadens your career options, whether you've come from a top-tier law school or not. "Big law" generally also will give you a year's credit for salary purposes, meaning you start not at starting salary rates, but second-year associate rates — which cuts the financial opportunity costs if you choose to go that route. Some state-court clerkships are pretty skimpy on pay, but the federal court clerkship salaries are certainly livable. And you are performing a public service, albeit one considerably less martyric than, say, spending a year in the Peace Corps.

So you're not the only one for whom clerking is a "dream job." Go for it!

"Being #1 at Ohio (#43) might be superior to middle-of-the-pack at a top-10. But Ohio's still first tier. I know someone who graduated #1 from a tier 4 LS, and can't get a job outside of the school's region."

Well, we had a paralegal at my firm who came up from the non-lawyer claims adjusters at our favored client insurance company. She had been editor of the law review at Texas Weslyan, a 4th tier. Eventually she got a job in subrogation and then moved on, but her opportunities were a lot less than the middle of the class SMU grads who were floating around.

None of them took a non-law job as a shot at transferring to a paralegal position in order to pick up a staff attorney position that paid less than paralegal pay.

She was an excellent lawyer, btw. I think much better of the school for having met her.

If you go to a third or fourth tier law school, go ahead and end the suffering now. There are no jobs for losers like us. Find a different calling. I am 3.5 months from graduation and I don't have shit lined up. I have contacts at Chadbourne and Parke and Buchanan Ingersoll and they are powerless to help me in their prestige obsessed factories. The only possible jobs might be PI, if you are into suing everyone into oblivion and doing it for the rest of your life.

Have a nice day.

I don't know what third or fourth tier law school you go to, but almost every 3L in my third tier law school has a job lined up - albiet, mostly regionally.

Why is everybody on this board obsessed with Big Law? My father is a human rescources director for a Fortune 500 company, and he hires lawyers from all over the nation. I can assure you that he has no idea what the USNEWS rankings are, and I am sure he doesn't care.