Harvard Vs. UCLA Law School?

Q: I was wondering if any students from Harvard and UCLA Law could tell me what life is there. I am particularly interested in the overall atmosphere (like competitiveness, how much free time if any, what people do in there free time, etc.) Another question: I read somewhere that people that go to Yale are pretty much guaranteed a job even if they are at the bottom of their class. Is the same true for Harvard? How difficult and competitive is the job search coming out of Harvard and UCLA? Are there any reasons why one would pick UCLA over Harvard?

A: Don't how true this is on two counts. (1) UCLA is a fairly small law school. I think it might be even less than 200 a year. Not big enough for fine distinctions of class rank. (2) I wouldn't count on getting high grades at any law school because you are at the top of their student pool. I know several people at BU who have low LSATs and UGPAs by BU standards who ranked in the top 6% at the end of their first year. I also know people with LSATs in the high 160's who went to Ivy undergraduate schools and had quite decent UGPAs who turned down NYU to come to BU who rank in the bottom 25%. Law school is a funny place and the grading is real funny.... I can think of three reasons why you would want to go to UCLA over Harvard. If you are from CA its cheaper. Its much smaller and some people like that. In CA, I would expect that UCLA places at least as well as Harvard. I consider UCLA to be a top 15 school. It is difficult for any law school, no matter how good, to beat a top 15 school on its home turf. Too many local alums in the big high powered firms. Do not underestimate the power of a local name. My summer firm has partners who went to BU and is in BU's sphere of influence. They interviewed people who go to much better law schools than I go to. Many of those schools were located 1000 miles away. I got the job..... I think that local reputation is very important when selecting a law school, with the possible exception of Yale. If I could go to

any law school , and I knew where I was going to practice, for example, for west coast I would go to Stanford or Boalt, for the mid west I would got to Chicago, for Boston, Harvard, for NYC, Harvard, Yale, or Michigan, for DC and the southeast, Virginia. If I wanted to work in NYC, I would not go to Chicago. Sure its a great law school, and I sure that it places well in NYC. Michigan just owns a pipeline that ends in NYC....Michigan would probably not be the best choice for LA. Sure, all of those law schools place quite well nationally. However, all law schools have certain spheres of influence where they place well. I bet that few Seattle firms come to Harvard for example.