The most prestigious law school admissions discussion board in the world.
|
 |
 
|
Schill a good hire for Univ of Chicago Law School?
Poast new message in this thread
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:19 AM Author: Copper shrine knife Lots of U of C Law hate on this board of late, and Chicago Law just announced its new dean - Michael Schill of UCLA Law.
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/09/ucla_law_dean_michael_schill_w.php
Thoughts?
As I've said before, with an admin change, Chicago should be in fine shape. It's done the leg work of establishing a good rep amongst judges and in the big law world, so I see no reason why it can't maintain a strong position in the law school pecking order.
Also, again, for all those claiming that Chicago is dropping fast and will soon be bested by Duke or Penn or NU or whatever, please keep in mind how much ALL SCHOOLS below HYS suck. I'm not saying Chicago is a tremendous school, and I certainly think anyone who believes Chicago is anywhere near on par with HYS is nuts.
I Do think, though, that Chicago has the ability to be LESS-crappy than the Dukes and Penns and UVas of the world. With good work by the administration, it seems as if it can keep its hold on the #6 spot, and maintain its position as the tail end of the CCN tier (and ahead of Berkeley, Michigan, etc.).
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:24 AM Author: crawly site prole of course it can continue to outdo uva and michigan and berkeley (assuming that no such school decides to start paying for quality faculty and building/rebuilding a rep for superior quality--not a safe assumption; see, e.g., stanford and nyu). it's already doing that. can it jump ahead of columbia and nyu again (not only in terms of faculty quality, where it's already on par or superior, but also in lay opinion)? of course. assuming the dean can find money to spend (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1081800&forum_id=2#12700513) |
 |
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:28 AM Author: Copper shrine knife In terms of lay opinion that may be a tall order - being in NYC seems like such a huge advantage for NYU and Columbia. Those two schools are right in one of the main centers of law firm power, and it seems as if Chicago would need to find yet another hot area of law (like the law and econ boom from a while back) to ride for a while. Chicago's location (specifically Hyde Park) is always gonna work against it when it comes to competing against NYU and Columbia from the lay opinion front.
I think the best step for Chicago is to continue maintaining distance from the MVP crowd. The worst thing to have happen is to drop from a bona fide top 5 school to the lower rungs of the top 10 (i.e. exactly what Michigan did over the past decade or so). The new admin change seems to be happening at the right time, apparently the current dean, Saul Levmore, does nothing.
Maybe a few years down the road if Chicago can get an influx of cash or something, it can think about contending with NYU for the #5 spot. Given it's resources and location though, I can't see Chicago conceivably getting any higher than #5. |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:32 AM Author: crawly site prole well, BIGFINANCE might never come back, and chicago has a true stranglehold on, well, chicago. i don't think uofc needs to find another fad. they just need to continue developing topnotch talent and retaining it. and maybe start numberswhoring a la columbia and nyu (back when i applied, i got the impression chicago actually cared about softs) (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1081800&forum_id=2#12700584) |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:36 AM Author: awkward hateful candlestick maker they are notorious numbers whores.
in any case, i'm glad to see levmore gone. i doubt much will change, but that dude is a pain. |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:42 AM Author: crawly site prole "they are notorious numbers whores."
i think they're a bit better than columbia and nyu; i could be mistaken (maybe i'm just nostalgic because ann perry was the only woman who was ever sad to see me go)
is your dislike for levmore reasoned? i heard he got pissed about being skewered in the musical once; petty, but inconsequential. spill some real dirt pls |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:46 AM Author: Copper shrine knife Eh from what I know, Chicago is a huge LSAT whore, not as much of a GPA whore. The school needs to go for both GPA and LSAT, and, with such a small class, it's time that Chicago's GPA/LSAT range evenly matched the numbers at NYU and (maybe) Columbia. What are Chicago's medians right now? Maybe 3.65/171? They should target say a 3.75/172 median as the goal in the next few years.
A big part of getting stronger students may come in actually selling the school better. The admins are ridiculously laissez faire about this - I don't get the sense they really "recruit" much at all, they sorta expect top talent to come. Chicago's gotta get in the game here, start selling the school a bit - it actually has some pretty significant strengths. Right now, they sell the faculty and the "rigor," that's about IT, and there's more the school has going for it.
For example, even little things may help - Hyde Park sucks, but the reverse commute on lakeshore means kids can get from the north side to HP in 25 min, and from the South loop to HP in maybe 15 min. Chicago really should play up the fact that the rest of the city is accessible from the U of C. I haven't been back to Chicago in a while, but from what I know, South loop is really growing, and it's a real easy commute from there to U of C Law. Again, Chicago should play stuff like this up. Heck, even UPenn Law makes the city of Phila look good on first blush, no reason Chicago can't do the same with the greater city of Chicago.
One other idea - do a little subsidized housing in the south loop or maybe north side area. South loop is still under developed, so it seems as if Chicago could get some good deals on places there and give prospective students another reason to come (live in a nice apt for $1100 a month right in downtown Chicago as opposed to a tiny dorm at NYU for $1800 a month). |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:53 AM Author: underhanded nursing home Jesus who the fuck takes out loans to pay $2K/mo for rent while going to school?
My rent was $400/mo. Of course I didn't go to NYU, but still. Jesus H Christ. |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 2:41 AM Author: Copper shrine knife Friend of mine went to NYU law, lived in a pretty bad dorm, paid like $1800 a month, so had to take out loans for it. NYC is crazy expensive...
& that's exactly what Chicago can play up. Its most immediate competitors are Columbia and NYU, and it can probably convince some (especially some kids leaning toward NYU - Columbia is prolly still a little stronger) that the added cost of living is just not worth it, especially if Chicago is right on par with NYU. Some kids might take an apt in South loop and a Chicago law education over NYU if it means saving 8-10k a year.
Even now, with a crap administration and a horrible dean, I dunno if an NYU law degree is worth an extra 25K total in loans in comparison to a Chicago law degree.
Of course, right now, the admin doesn't do this at all - it just pretends that Chicago Law has no competition and kids should come because of the "rigor." Again, this is a garbage approach, if Chicago actually bothered to recruit and be a bit more proactive in wooing admits, I'm sure they could steal some more cross-admits from NYU Law. |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:38 AM Author: awkward hateful candlestick maker chicago is the ave maria of the t14 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1081800&forum_id=2#12700622) |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 12:31 PM Author: carnelian pervert pistol Full disclosure: I know absolutely nothing about the guy that wasn't in Zimmer's e-mail.
I'm conflicted on it. He must be the first dean in at least twenty-something years not to be a former faculty member (Levmore, Epstein, Baird, and Stone; don't remember who was dean before that). On the one hand, maybe it is a good idea to get someone with executive experience in to run the school and leave the Chicago profs to do what they do best.
On the other hand, it seems like a further dilution of Chicago's unique culture. I appreciate the criticisms of Levmore, but in both good ways and bad, he was intensely Chicago. I liked that. |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 2:39 PM Author: domesticated chrome crackhouse Didn't Levmore come to Chicago from UVa two years before he was named dean? How was he "intensely Chicago"? Stone and Epstein are "intensely Chicago," but Levmore?
Edit: He came to Chicago in 1998 and became Dean in 2001 http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/levmore |
|
Date: September 9th, 2009 2:47 PM Author: carnelian pervert pistol Right, but Levmore was the kind of quirky character that exemplified a lot of what makes Chicago unique. The deans I encountered at other lawschools struck me as sort of typical milquetoast bureaucrats by comparison.
EDIT: And rereading, I guess I'm making the assumption that Schill will be in the style of one of those "other lawschool" deans. That may be unwarranted, particularly if the dean search committee did a good job. I probably ought to give him more of the benefit of the doubt. |