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I'm trying to decide which DC area school to go to and would appreciate any input anyone has. I'm trying to decide among Georgetown, GW, George Mason, American, and Catholic. I'm interested in public interest and immigration law and plan on making very little money. WIth that said, Should money be my number 1 consideration?

gracekim123 wrote:I'm trying to decide which DC area school to go to and would appreciate any input anyone has. I'm trying to decide among Georgetown, GW, George Mason, American, and Catholic. I'm interested in public interest and immigration law and plan on making very little money. WIth that said, Should money be my number 1 consideration?

yes...yes it should.

Anastasia Dee Dualla wrote:

gracekim123 wrote:I'm trying to decide which DC area school to go to and would appreciate any input anyone has. I'm trying to decide among Georgetown, GW, George Mason, American, and Catholic. I'm interested in public interest and immigration law and plan on making very little money. WIth that said, Should money be my number 1 consideration?

yes...yes it should.

And if you believe that, I have a bridge you might want to invest in with all that money you are saving.

GW and Georgetown are both very good with asylum/refugee/forced migration stuff if that's your bag. If you're interested more in general immigration law, go where you get money.

I'd say choose btwn gtown and GWU. At both American and GMU you will not get $ and the jobs after grad are limited in number and you MUST be in the top of your class not to get shitlaw (GMU less so, but limited alum base is scary to me).

If you choose CaTTTholic over Gtown then you deserve the non-existent job prospects that school entails.

Finally, since you got into gtown I assume you will get/have gotten $$ from GWU. Therefore, it really becomes, IMO, a choice btwn the name of Gtown vs less debt from GWU. Unless you have amazing numbers and got $ from gtown... in which case the choice is clear.

I vote gtown just because if what you want to do w/ your degree changes you will always have the name of gtown.

Bosque wrote:

Anastasia Dee Dualla wrote:

gracekim123 wrote:I'm trying to decide which DC area school to go to and would appreciate any input anyone has. I'm trying to decide among Georgetown, GW, George Mason, American, and Catholic. I'm interested in public interest and immigration law and plan on making very little money. WIth that said, Should money be my number 1 consideration?

yes...yes it should.

And if you believe that, I have a bridge you might want to invest in with all that money you are saving.

I was being sarcastic. Calm yourself.

Anastasia Dee Dualla wrote:

Bosque wrote:

Anastasia Dee Dualla wrote:

gracekim123 wrote:I'm trying to decide which DC area school to go to and would appreciate any input anyone has. I'm trying to decide among Georgetown, GW, George Mason, American, and Catholic. I'm interested in public interest and immigration law and plan on making very little money. WIth that said, Should money be my number 1 consideration?

yes...yes it should.

And if you believe that, I have a bridge you might want to invest in with all that money you are saving.

I was being sarcastic. Calm yourself.

Uh... so was I? I was agreeing with you. (And clarifying in case some people, unlike me, did not realize it was sarcasm.)

gwuorbust wrote:I'd say choose btwn gtown and GWU. At both American and GMU you will not get $ and the jobs after grad are limited in number and you MUST be in the top of your class not to get shitlaw (GMU less so, but limited alum base is scary to me).

If you choose CaTTTholic over Gtown then you deserve the non-existent job prospects that school entails.

Finally, since you got into gtown I assume you will get/have gotten $$ from GWU. Therefore, it really becomes, IMO, a choice btwn the name of Gtown vs less debt from GWU. Unless you have amazing numbers and got $ from gtown... in which case the choice is clear.

I vote gtown just because if what you want to do w/ your degree changes you will always have the name of gtown.

+1. Currently living in DC, Gtown has the best name BY FAR. Having lived on the West Coast, Gtown still wins. By a lot. Plus, Gtown is known for great PI options (at least compared to other DC LS). So unless you could go for free (or almost) to one of the other schools, Gtown FTW.

I know it seems like a no-brainer to most, but not having the "golden handcuffs" sounds awfully tempting to me. I've made it thus far w/o any educational debt (BA, 2 Masters-dh's and mine), so I would like to avoid it. We also have 2 kids, so that's another consideration. I just want to be sure that gtown and gw will be worth it for the field I'm interested in. Public interest isn't exactly the most lucrative arena. I have 0 interest in big law.

Are there any law students or lawyers out there who regret their choice of law school?

Have you compared the loan repayment assistance programs at these schools? My recollection is that Georgetown's program is the most generous of all the DC schools.

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/finaid/lrap/index.html

jonas wrote:Have you compared the loan repayment assistance programs at these schools? My recollection is that Georgetown's program is the most generous of all the DC schools.

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/finaid/lrap/index.html

Yes, but gtown has had to scale back b/c of recession, so I don't want to count on it.

jonas wrote: Yes, but gtown has had to scale back b/c of recession, so I don't want to count on it.

That's actually not true. There are a lot of rumors on TLS about GULC's financial difficulty stemming from lackluster scholarship offers from last year--GULC's endowment supposedly took a severe hit when the market crashed.

BUT GULC has significantly expanded its LRAP for next year. Read over the page linked above to see just how generous it is. The income cap, in particular, is extremely impressive. $75K/yr--a salary that is much higher than the PI median.

Read the fine print carefully. As a married applicant, your spouse's income will be factored into your eligibility for the LRAP, but don't think that the program is contracting. At the ASW I went to, the financial aid rep. said the LRAP funding was *doubling* for next year.

Note that the new LRAP works in tandem with the new federal Income Based Repayment (IBR) plan, which is how GULC can make the astounding claim that, exceptions aside, those making $75K or less in PI will not have to pay a dime on their loans.

notaname wrote:

jonas wrote: Yes, but gtown has had to scale back b/c of recession, so I don't want to count on it.

That's actually not true. There are a lot of rumors on TLS about GULC's financial difficulty stemming from lackluster scholarship offers from last year--GULC's endowment supposedly took a severe hit when the market crashed.

BUT GULC has significantly expanded its LRAP for next year. Read over the page linked above to see just how generous it is. The income cap, in particular, is extremely impressive. $75K/yr--a salary that is much higher than the PI median.

Read the fine print carefully. As a married applicant, your spouse's income will be factored into your eligibility for the LRAP, but don't think that the program is contracting. At the ASW I went to, the financial aid rep. said the LRAP funding was *doubling* for next year.

Note that the new LRAP works in tandem with the new federal Income Based Repayment (IBR) plan, which is how GULC can make the astounding claim that, exceptions aside, those making $75K or less in PI will not have to pay a dime on their loans.

Wow, I guess I should take what I hear from non-gtown law profs with a grain of salt! Now I feel naive. Thanks so much for this info. I am a bit concerned about how my husband's income would factor into this, but am glad to hear that GULC still has this program.