Arguments That Are Pointless

So there are lots of arguments in the world that are pointless. In almost any walk of life you can find a debate over which people are divided: Mantle v. Joe D, VHS v. Beta (mabye not anymore), DVD v. Whatever that Blueray thing is, Public v. Private control, auction v. snake draft (I'm in a fantasy football mode) or countless other arguments that are industry and interest specific.

For law students there are plenty of these. Today I want to take the time to put three of them to rest. I am sure that I will repeat this again, but for new, we have three arguments that are pointless finally put to bed.

Columbia v. NYU
If I had a dollar for every time I saw somebody post about which of these schools is better, where they should go, or if the rankings are incorrect in their assessment, I could pay for law school without any loans. They are basically identically ranked schools in the exact same legal market. Columbia is the old blood Ivy, NYU is the high spending upstart. Both produce top level law students that take top level firm jobs. If you want to go into academics is Columbia better? Yes. If you want to go into International Law is NYU better? Sure. If you want to go into Public Interest will NYU kids tell you they are better? Ya. Are they? I can't really tell, the sample sizes are too different. The point is this: at either school you will get a top rate education and have the opportunity for top flight jobs. Stop arguing, its pointless.

LSAT or GPA
The only semi-official study I have seen is that using a combination of LSAT and GPA is a better predictor of law school success than flipping a coin and that the difference is statistically significant. To my knowledge there is no evidence one way or the other that one is "right" and the other is "wrong." What I do know is that law schools consider both, but that LSAT seems to determine "where you can go" and GPA seems to determine "if you will get it." Even this isn't an exact science. Which is better? Having high numbers for both is better (unless you go someplace that does a straight 1-500 ranking, in which case low numbers rule!) Do well on both. If you dont, oh well. The LSAT is a one day test. GPA's are easy to game and very too much (not to mention there is an unlimited number of 3.8 +, especially compared to 170+. This debate is stupid and only adcomms opinion matters, and in reality, they are forced to care by USNews.... so get over it. The argument is pointless.

PowerScores or Testmasters
They are the same course. They cover the same course material. They both strive for 10 point increases. The only difference is that one is an offshoot of another and that they use different copywriten terms to describe things in an obvious way. They will both help. You should take one. I tried PowerScores and will always recomend it because it was successful for me. I bet testmasters would have worked just fine also. Take the one that is closer or has a better teacher, but don't argue about it.