Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Rank Order List Advice

On her blog, Marissa Nicole has discussed oh she and her husband have used their parents as a resource when creating their list. I think this is wonderful, but Mr. and I didn't opt to involve our parents much in the decision making. Part of this is because I already basically know the advice.

My parents are academic types. They actually met at a university that has a top tier law school, a top 10 business school, and one of the best music programs in the country. My dad was in law school, and my mom was in the music school. Through my college search when I was in high school, I learned that, in my father's opinion, it's not just about the name, but matching the offerings of the program with your own needs. I was in a rather unique program at NYU studying the entertainment industry - an industry that in the US only really exists in NYC and LA. When I considered switching my major to accounting, my dad said I should transfer back to an in-state school because his alma mater was just as good for less than half the price.
In short, my parents advice would be to go where he can get the best training. They'd love for us to be at the program closest to them, but not at the expense of his training.

Neither of my in-laws finished college, but my mother-in-law's father had a PhD from Princeton and moved the family frequently for work. She gets that the best opportunities aren't always in the same place, but she'd love for us to move closer to them and start giving her grandchildren.

So, who have we actually gone to for advice? Mr. has gone to various orthopedic surgeons in the area. For his independent study project requirement, an article on a specific orthopedic procedure, he's being overseen by a Spine attending with whom he has worked before. They have been in contact at least weekly since the fall. He received the specific advice that operating experience is paramount in determining rank order.

As for me, I've been talking to my boss a lot. I know it's often best to play your cards close to your chest, but I respect my boss too much to not keep her in the loop with everything. I plan to go to law school starting Fall 2011, and expect to be a slightly above average but not stellar applicant. My boss has advised to go to law school in cities where BigLaw exists if I want to do BigLaw. On our list, that would be New York, Chicago, or DC. (Ideally for her, we'd stay in New York, and I'd go to Fordham at night, continuing to work for her during the day.) While there are better schools in other cities on our list, they tend to train attorneys to work in those states, and the big firms don't necessarily look at mid-top-tier programs in smaller cities rural areas. I'm taking that to mean I will need to be aggressive in my job search, which I'm planning on being anyway.

In general, a lot of people have a lot of advice, but we've focused in to figure out what's legit and what we really want. I'm pretty happy with our list. I think it does well to look out for our oft conflicting interests. Should be interesting to see how it all plays out!


01 day until ROL is due
06 days until my LSAT score is back
20 days until Black Monday
23 days until Match Day!

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