Which Chicago law school career office should I request reciprocity at?

I go to a regionally respected third tier law school (though we've cracked the top 100 recently). I'm taking the Illinois bar exam this summer and do not yet have a job. I can only affiliate with one law school in Chicago.

My options are:
* Chicago Kent
* DePaul
* Loyola
* John Marshall
* U. Chicago
* Northwestern

Any suggestions as to which career office is best connected? Most resources? Most postings? I think my credentials probably disqualify U. Chicago and Northwestern since I'm not sure I could reasonably get anything they would have posted. I'd love to hear feedback from current or past Chicago-area law students regarding the quality of their school's career services office. Thanks.

If you go to one school how the hell do you affiliate with the career offices of another?

I was going to say UChicago or Northwestern, too, just because they'd have the most job ads and resources. But you're right--if you attend a third-tier school, you'd be out of the running for a lot of those jobs. I don't know what Loyola's rank is, but Chicago-Kent is probably not ranked too much higher than your school and I know DePaul is third tier. I'd say consider one of those two, then, but a couple things to think about:

I was looking to practice in Chicago, and I got the impression from somewhere--either Northwestern's site or my career service office--that reciprocity doesn't give you access to the school's job ads. That might not be true or that might depend on which school you're trying for reciprocity at...but check into it. Ask your career services office and/or check out each school's site and its reciprocity info to see what reciprocity gives you access to. I'm pretty sure that had I been able to view job ads, I would have completed my reciprocity request with Northwestern.

Second, I ended up signing up for the NY bar over the IL bar precisely because I couldn't find a job to save my life in Chicago. Chicago is where a lot of my family is. I summered there last summer. I love it there. I graduated from a top 10 law school that sends a lot of graduates to Chicago. Because I didn't work for a law firm (and, thus, wasn't getting job offers in the fall), by the time I started trying to find jobs in Chicago it was too late--most places there had hired their fill...a lot of kids from Michigan, Northwestern, UChicago and maybe relatively few kids from other schools. The fact that my school sends many to Chicago made me look like no big deal, especially given my grades relative to theirs. On top of that, several lawyers working in Chicago advised me that the legal market is bad around there right now and confirmed that if I didn't have a job by now there I was kind of sh!t up the creek because those employers had completed their hiring. After their comments, that's pretty much when I decided I wasn't paying $1500 (late bar signup--held out as long as I could) for the IL bar when my job prospects in Chicago were slim.

Not trying to freak you out...just saying that if there are maybe other places in IL you can consider, you might want to. I saw a couple job ads on Craigslist sometimes in Chicago when I was looking, so you might want to try that, also.