justhockey31 wrote:Flips88 wrote:I'm voting UMN because while GW is a great school, it is not worth sticker. Also UMN is the top school in its home market while GW is always in the shadow of GULC. Like BK said, the debt at UMN is manageable if you land a meager salary while at GW you will be debt pwned if you don't get big law or a PI job. I can't say with certainty, but I'd be willing to bet Minneapolis is a much much much less competitive market compared to DC, where you are competing against GULC and American and every T-14. Not many kids from Columbia or Berkeley are gunning for Minneapolis, ya know?
I (and many others ITT) think UMN is clearly the best choice. Good luck with your decision.
This general opinion seems to say that Minneapolis is actually quite competitive because of A) it is much much much smaller than other legal markets (NYC, Chicago, DC, etc) B) having ties to that area seem to be really important C) I have heard that t-14 students from the area will return for jobs
Does GW give people a chance to make it to NYC?
Well obviously Minneapolis is a secondary market, but I don't know if that necessarily means more competitive. Basically you're competing against the T-2 and T-3s in Minneapolis (St. Thomas, William Mitchell, Hamline) and then strong regional schools (Iowa, Wisconsin, maybe Illinois). I'm sure there are
some kids from T-14s (most likely Chicago and Northwestern) gunning for Minneapolis as well as a handful at each T-14 that are from the area wanting to return home. But I still think that DC is such a saturated market that if, God forbid, you are below median at GW you are gonna have a hard time finding a job there.
I can't really speak to the need for ties in Minneapolis but I'd like to think 3 years at UMN would count as sufficient ties and demonstrate your desire to be in the city.
You should email UMN's career services and get a list of firms that do OCI.
Either way, I still think the biggest and most important difference is the COA and the clear advantage is UMN
ETA: and I think it's possible to save yourself thousands of dollars because Minneapolis has a lower CoL. You can find cheap housing by UMN. There's no such thing as cheap housing near GW that isn't a festering shit hole.