Top Law Schools

I returned back to school last year after deciding that I've been working for far too little for too long in an unsatisfying job with no benefits or prospects. After 20+ years away from school I can honestly say that it's amazing how easy undergraduate work is after you've been working for a living for decades. I'm not looking at law school to eventually become wealthy (even if I end up a top graduate from a top school, there's no way I'd be willing to go through the grinder at a biglaw firm, and from what I understand, it takes a lot of money in the bank to do PI work on a contingency basis), but I do want better than the 27-30k/year I've been making since I dropped out of college the first time when I was 18.

I'm married, have two teenage kids, have a mortgage, and my wife finally can pay all the bills while I use loans to go back to school. I'm only 49 hours into my undergrad in political science (it interests me even if it is a waste as far as careers go), and the only law school I think I'd even consider is the University of Memphis since I'm not sure I want to try to sell the house and relocate, though if I were to find myself the recipient of a full ride somewhere that I think I'd be able to reasonably maintain, I'd go pretty much anywhere.

What should I be looking for at this point? I currently have a 3.57gpa and I don't expect it to change much by the time I graduate, and while I have not taken any practice LSAT's, I'm gonna pull a number out of the air and guess that I'll score somewhere between a 158-168, and yes, I know that is a huge range.

Is the University of Memphis a "good" school?
Are all lower ranked law schools TTT's? If not, which one's aren't or what major practical considerations should nontrads, like I hope to be, look at when considering law school? Hell, if I push through, the earliest I could get admitted will be 2014, and graduate in 2017. I just figured the sooner I start doing some real research on how best to make this happen, the better off I'm going to be. Not like I'm going to pass up this opportunity, since I've always wanted to be a practicing lawyer in the first place. I'm not too worried about the loans, either. At my age, having been a chain smoker for over 25 years, my guess is I'll die of lung cancer long before I'll pay off the school debt.

Any input, advice, etc is appreciated...unless such advice tells me to forget about trying to become a lawyer.

Thanks,

Bob

Memphis isn't bad if you wanna work in that part of TN. If you do get a high LSAT and explain why you want to go to Memphis, they would probably give you a good chunk instead of yield protecting you with a waitlist decision.

If law really interests you and you can see yourself making the sacrifices to make it happen then go ahead and try for it. Most likely you will not get biglaw even if you are at the top of your class at most schools b/c of your age but at some elite schools, it could be a different situation.

Since you have teenaged kids, you should think about whether law school will be worth it closer to your application cycle. Until then, no one knows what kind of opportunities or money you'll get and if things don't work out and you need to pay close to sticker, you're basically looking at paying for 3 tuitions.

Anyway, good luck and hopefully things work out for you.

Thanks for the reply. To be honest, I'm a terrible dad because I've decided that my kids are going to either need scholarships or to take out loans like me.