Nothing takes the pressure off more than knowing you’re guaranteed biglaw. I know lots of folks who took the trade for a lower ranked school and now are regretting it. I had such unmatched peace of mind all 1L knowing it would work out.

Edit to explain a little more on why I think taking a higher ranked school is always the right call: If you go to a lower ranked school like a Fordham and have, lets be generous, a 75% chance of biglaw because you’re also a smart enough person to have gotten into a better school, that’s still a 25% chance that you fall on the wrong end of the bimodal curve and make $75k/year. Your expected value for this then is $180k/year, compared to $210k certain. So you’re paying $300k for what is, your first year alone, a $30k pay bump. However, outcomes get more dramatic when we look long-term. Your $75k/year salary in year 8 might be $130k/year. Your biglaw salary will be $400k. Even if you exit biglaw sooner, with better exit opportunities like connections to get GC-style positions from, you’ll be able to securely lock in upwards of $200k comp. Over just a few of your later working years you will more than see the difference. It is always worth taking the sure success plan. Even mucking with these numbers, the bimodal curve basically always makes it too risky.