What law school would be better to attend?

I'm planning to apply to go to law school next year and have been looking at some potential schools. I'm looking at the some schools in the D.C. area and also Regent University. Trying to get an idea on where I should look at more seriously. If anyone can give me some advice.

The joke about med school is clever, but it's probably not accurate (nor is it a good foundation for planning your future). The lowest ranked student at the worst med school in America, if he graduates at all, will probably have a very hard time finding residencies and getting a career started; it'll be some time before anyone calls him "doctor." The post about bar exam passage rates suggests the same is true for law school.

As a current law student, I agree with what earlier posters said: 1) lawyers are snobs who care about prestige, and 2) law schools of different prestige really are very different. Law is so large and complex that there is no one set of information that you could call "the law." There are so many things to learn and so many ways to learn them that different law schools take wholly divergent approaches. Prestige attracts more qualified candidates, who in turn are able to engage material in different ways. Employers know this and hire those who have attended prestigious law schools, both because the law school admissions process has acted as an initial screening mechanism and because they have a sense that graduates from more prestigious law schools have been challenged by more qualified classmates and professors. That being said, employers probably place too much emphasis on prestige rather than getting to know individual candidates, because as the earlier poster said, a dedicated student can get a great education anywhere.

It should be a factor, but only one of many. You may find a school attractive for other reasons.

Usually if you can get into more than one accredited law school, you should attend either the most prestigious or the one where you want to practice law. Why? Because the prestige tends to be earned, with more rigorous education at the "name" schools.

(Like any course of study, hard-working students at a mediocre school can still get a fine education there.)

Regent's has some earmarks of a not-so-good program, including a low passing rate for the state's bar exam. (Under 60%.) Compare that to the University of Maryland's 80% or the University of Virginia's 90%.

http://www.princetonreview.com/law/research/rankings/rankings.asp

This is a site where you can compare law schools using different criteria--I would suggest you go to the best-ranked school you can, as lawyers are snobs, and go around asking each other where they went to law school.

This reminds me of the old joke about medical school quality.

Q: Do you know what they call the person who graduates at the bottom of his class in the worst medical school in America?

R: Why no.

A: DOCTOR!

Go to the school that admits you. Learn the law, not snobbery.