lawlife2010 wrote:lawman2010 wrote:Please help me with my decision! I started out this cycle really really wanting to get into Hastings or Davis but haven't heard from either. I have a sub 3.0 gpa and mid 160s lsat but have lots of work experience and a very high graduate gpa. Also, I'm a URM. Ultimately, I'd like to work in San Francisco.
Oh, and to make things tougher to decide, my daughter lives in Davis. However, I will only have my daughter every other weekend (Davis is about an hour from San Francisco on a weekend).
Please tell me where you would go and why. Alternatively, you can tell me to holdout for Davis or Hastings
Edit: I understand I won't be able to see my daughter much if going to East Coast. Highly unlikely I would go to any school outside of NorCal, but wanted to get a gauge of what ppl think.
Since you want to work in SF and stay close to your daughter...I would say either Santa Clara or USF. I got a 25k/year offer from McGeorge and have around the same LSat as you, while my GPA is higher. I'm sure you can use the scholarships to try to ask for more from McGeorge. I went to the Legal Scholars Day there recently and it really is an amazing campus with what seem like very accessible professors and great resources...this would also be very close to your daughter and allow you to live somewhere much cheaper than SF. However, Santa Clara is probably more respected in the city name-wise which would give you a possibly greater chance of getting hired but i am unsure if it would make that much of a different impact.
I have interned in the courts in SF before and know that USF has a great reputation in the city. WHile it is lower ranked than hastings i found it was respected among everyone in the court and you would definitely be able to say you went there and be proud. Also, the benefit of it being a jesuit school would probably help if you find yourself in a situation involving others who went to Jesuit schools. However, SF is very expensive so you'll have to ask yourself if it's worth the extra money each month to work here. And Santa Clara may have just as good of a reputation here, but i mainly saw students from USF and Hastings come into the courtrooms. Hopefully that helps your decision a bit.
It does help. Thanks very mcuh!
