Top Law Schools

I am thinking Health or Invironmental or IP but really dont know. I don't think I want big law, but do want a job when I am done. I could really use some help! Your opinions please.

Penn, UVA, Vandy (45), GW (130)

W8tnsee wrote:I am thinking Health or Invironmental or IP but really dont know. I don't think I want big law, but do want a job when I am done. I could really use some help! Your opinions please.

Penn, UVA, Vandy (45), GW (130)

Biggest scholly FTW! I got WL at GW, so I'm jealous.

200k debt is no joke if you don't want biglaw. If you don't want it, you wouldn't be happy if you are forced to do it to pay back loans. Take the fully scholly and have more freedom in choosing what you want to do after school - since you haven't figured out yet.

Off-topic, but I've noticed that in the polls the school highest in us news rankings always gets the most votes, even when all of the posts say otherwise

r6_philly wrote:200k debt is no joke if you don't want biglaw. If you don't want it, you wouldn't be happy if you are forced to do it to pay back loans. Take the fully scholly and have more freedom in choosing what you want to do after school - since you haven't figured out yet.

Even if you want big law it's a lot of fucking money.

Consider paying sticker at a T14. If you want to pay off the debt in 5 years (about how long you can realistically expect to keep big law, and that's a very favorable estimate). You basically have to pay 55K a year.

Now someone will think, yea, with my 160K baller big law sallary 55K is no big deal. But that's 55K AFTER tax.

So big law - student loans on a five year plan effective = 70K job. Still not bad, but you'll also have to live in Manhattan. 70K in Manhattan. And that's winning at law school.

dr123 wrote:Off-topic, but I've noticed that in the polls the school highest in us news rankings always gets the most votes, even when all of the posts say otherwise

How can you say this since GW is leading this poll, and UVa is the 90% winner in my poll?

Desert Fox wrote:

r6_philly wrote:200k debt is no joke if you don't want biglaw. If you don't want it, you wouldn't be happy if you are forced to do it to pay back loans. Take the fully scholly and have more freedom in choosing what you want to do after school - since you haven't figured out yet.

Even if you want big law it's a lot of fucking money.

Consider paying sticker at a T14. If you want to pay off the debt in 5 years (about how long you can realistically expect to keep big law, and that's a very favorable estimate). You basically have to pay 55K a year.

Now someone will think, yea, with my 160K baller big law sallary 55K is no big deal. But that's 55K AFTER tax.

So big law - student loans on a five year plan effective = 70K job. Still not bad, but you'll also have to live in Manhattan. 70K in Manhattan. And that's winning at law school.

You have such great choices. You should take the most money and be financially free to choose what type of law you want.

Desert Fox wrote:

r6_philly wrote:200k debt is no joke if you don't want biglaw. If you don't want it, you wouldn't be happy if you are forced to do it to pay back loans. Take the fully scholly and have more freedom in choosing what you want to do after school - since you haven't figured out yet.

Even if you want big law it's a lot of fucking money.

Consider paying sticker at a T14. If you want to pay off the debt in 5 years (about how long you can realistically expect to keep big law, and that's a very favorable estimate). You basically have to pay 55K a year.

Now someone will think, yea, with my 160K baller big law sallary 55K is no big deal. But that's 55K AFTER tax.

So big law - student loans on a five year plan effective = 70K job. Still not bad, but you'll also have to live in Manhattan. 70K in Manhattan. And that's winning at law school.

This is precisely why I am seriously considering UVa for the money. We'd love to go to CA now, but it makes me nervous taking out $250k on top of my current loans even though I know exactly what I want out of my career.

I don't know if OP knows exactly what legal work is like and what he/she really wants, the best thing is to keep options open by not looking at $3000 monthly student loan bills weeks after graduation.

I appreciate the honest feedback. You guys are right, I don't want to be so financially strapped I do not have choices. $200K is a lottttt of money. I hear DC is a great place to live and UW is an awsome school. Thanks for making the choice easier.

Several of my co-workers went to GW (I work biglaw in DC) and GW is in a pretty nice location in DC. DC is pretty nice as far as big(ish) cities go. I'd say GW is a winner unless there's something special about one of the other schools that really appeals to you. GW is quite well respected in DC as best I can tell. I've no idea how broad its appeal is so you might be semi-limited to DC at first, but there are a lot of high quality legal employers in the city and once you get your career started it shouldn't be hard to transfer to wherever you want to live. Next up on the list from my perspective would be UVA - also a very good school with a good national rep in a nice small town, but not too far from DC. I don't think Vandy has any real advantage over GW and Penn < UVA imho.

If you really don't want biglaw then GW w/$$$ is TCR. Minimized debt FTW.

It's also funny how someone can claim folks just vote for the highest-ranked school when GW is clearly winning the poll here.

edited because i'm a huge retard

That GW scholly, if the same as in past years, is contingent on maintaining like a 3.2 or 3.3 GPA. That's a big downside, since it means there's ~50% chance that the $$ will disappear.

vanwinkle wrote:If you really don't want biglaw then GW w/$$$ is TCR. Minimized debt FTW.

It's also funny how someone can claim folks just vote for the highest-ranked school when GW is clearly winning the poll here.

And UVa is winning over Michigan in a landslide in my poll. Just 1 spot though.

paulinaporizkova wrote:
ummmm, why is penn better than UVA? unless you want biglaw in NYC exclusively, where penn might give you a slight edge over UVA since way more penn grads go to work in NYC than UVA grads (percentage wise) there is no real advantage one way or the other. i just don't get it. like someone said above, people just go off USNWR rankings, where penn has like an 85 index and UVA has an 83 index. in comparison, i think gtown and cornell are in the 170s and other schools drop off past that. the clear answer here is a huge scholly at GW since OP doesn't want biglaw.

If given the same cost, I would choose Penn. I don't know as much about UVa, but I love Penn as a institution as a whole. Penn also have home market, which should account for something however small it is.

paulinaporizkova wrote:

bikepilot wrote:Several of my co-workers went to GW (I work biglaw in DC) and GW is in a pretty nice location in DC. DC is pretty nice as far as big(ish) cities go. I'd say GW is a winner unless there's something special about one of the other schools that really appeals to you. GW is quite well respected in DC as best I can tell. I've no idea how broad its appeal is so you might be semi-limited to DC at first, but there are a lot of high quality legal employers in the city and once you get your career started it shouldn't be hard to transfer to wherever you want to live. Next up on the list from my perspective would be UVA - also a very good school with a good national rep in a nice small town, but not too far from DC. I don't think Vandy has any real advantage over GW and Penn < UVA imho.

ummmm, why is penn better than UVA? unless you want biglaw in NYC exclusively, where penn might give you a slight edge over UVA since way more penn grads go to work in NYC than UVA grads (percentage wise) there is no real advantage one way or the other. i just don't get it. like someone said above, people just go off USNWR rankings, where penn has like an 85 index and UVA has an 83 index. in comparison, i think gtown and cornell are in the 70s and other schools drop off past that. the clear answer here is a huge scholly at GW since OP doesn't want biglaw.

So you haven't figured out how the greater than/less than symbols work, I see.

Desert Fox wrote:

r6_philly wrote:200k debt is no joke if you don't want biglaw. If you don't want it, you wouldn't be happy if you are forced to do it to pay back loans. Take the fully scholly and have more freedom in choosing what you want to do after school - since you haven't figured out yet.

Even if you want big law it's a lot of fucking money.

Consider paying sticker at a T14. If you want to pay off the debt in 5 years (about how long you can realistically expect to keep big law, and that's a very favorable estimate). You basically have to pay 55K a year.

Now someone will think, yea, with my 160K baller big law sallary 55K is no big deal. But that's 55K AFTER tax.

So big law - student loans on a five year plan effective = 70K job. Still not bad, but you'll also have to live in Manhattan. 70K in Manhattan. And that's winning at law school.

He doesn't have to live in New York. If he worked in a secondary market (like Atlanta etc.) paying off the debt would be a lot easier. Nonetheless it'd be hard to turn down a full ride.

clintonius wrote:

paulinaporizkova wrote:

bikepilot wrote:Several of my co-workers went to GW (I work biglaw in DC) and GW is in a pretty nice location in DC. DC is pretty nice as far as big(ish) cities go. I'd say GW is a winner unless there's something special about one of the other schools that really appeals to you. GW is quite well respected in DC as best I can tell. I've no idea how broad its appeal is so you might be semi-limited to DC at first, but there are a lot of high quality legal employers in the city and once you get your career started it shouldn't be hard to transfer to wherever you want to live. Next up on the list from my perspective would be UVA - also a very good school with a good national rep in a nice small town, but not too far from DC. I don't think Vandy has any real advantage over GW and Penn < UVA imho.

ummmm, why is penn better than UVA? unless you want biglaw in NYC exclusively, where penn might give you a slight edge over UVA since way more penn grads go to work in NYC than UVA grads (percentage wise) there is no real advantage one way or the other. i just don't get it. like someone said above, people just go off USNWR rankings, where penn has like an 85 index and UVA has an 83 index. in comparison, i think gtown and cornell are in the 70s and other schools drop off past that. the clear answer here is a huge scholly at GW since OP doesn't want biglaw.

So you haven't figured out how the greater than/less than symbols work, I see.

good call! omg. i need to take a break from this site.