<p>There are several considerations here. If you are interested in remaining where either Temple or Vanderbilt is after graduation then the school in your preferred location will give you a “home field advantage” because firms (and other area employers) will recruit more heavily from their own schools. This is especially true as firms slash their own travel and recruitment budgets. If you are interested in working for a high profile national firm, you either have to go to Columbia and do decently well or be on law review at one of the other places. </p>
<p>If you are not really interested in the big money, well-known firms, then you have a bit more leeway. While Columbia will open all sorts of doors for you in any market for any type of legal work, you will still get a law degree from the other places. And with less financial stress after graduation, you can be more adventurous with your career path. </p>
<p>Law school is not like undergrad–it’s vocational education and employers like to pick from big name schools because they assume that their new hire is smart and it looks good when a prospective client sees that the lawyer working on their case went to a blue chip school.</p>