Top Law Schools

For law school, not for football (otherwise this would be an easy choice).

Married with kids. Can't uproot my family every summer to work in Chicago, DC, etc... Decent likelihood that I will end up in Ohio/Midwest after due to family situation.

Take tuition out of the equation.

I am most interested in the opinions of current students/alums of both schools.

Living in Columbus would probably be more fun for your spouse and kids and you wouldn't have to leave in the summers to find work elsewhere.

But I don't go to either school, so I guess I can't really say anything.

With regional goals, I'd go OSU. ND tries to feed into biglaw (fails for roughly 75% of the student body, but tries nonetheless). If you want Indiana regional, I'd go IUB.

FWIW, even with money saved, I don't think it's a wise choice here to take tuition out of the equation. In-state at OSU is 26k vs. 42k at Notre Dame. Unless you got money from ND making tuition prices roughly equal, I think OSU is the clear choice, both in terms of money and goals.

I agree with everyone saying OSU, especially if you are planning on staying in Ohio.

This is actually the choice I came down to, with tuition being roughly equal.

I chose Notre Dame, but I really don't think you can do wrong with either choice. If you don't want to have to leave your family or uproot your family every summer, Columbus provides a much better option I think because there's more employment options in Columbus and I think it's overall a much more pleasant place to live than South Bend.

The alumni network at ND is beneficial, but in my personal experience it didn't benefit me much - I was looking to stay in the Midwest, been here all my life, and still had a tough time with very competitive numbers. So I would be hesitant to accord too much credit to the Notre Dame alumni network - my own personal networking was how I found my place. I obviously can't speak for Ohio State, but that's the networking at Notre Dame - alumni are generally friendly and will give you advice and try to help you out, but in the end your own leg work often times is what is key.

I like Notre Dame, and the community is extremely family friendly - we have numerous law students who are married with kids or engaged and it's not uncommon to see one student's kids drop into the school with them or go to a football game and be in our section. It's a small community and everyone pretty much knows everyone else, so if you like that, there's a positive.

I'm guessing employment prospects are similar, but I really don't know. Ohio State probably places pretty well in Columbus whereas Notre Dame is really lacking a home market - I suppose it would be Chicago but Chicago's very difficult to break into, even with connections.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info/advice everyone. I was basically looking to see if the NDLS name and alumni base made it worth living in South Bend for three years.

You've given me a good start. I just need to go visit the campuses and make a decision with the fam.

Assuming you are getting a good scholarship, OSU. Finding work that you can commute to from South Bend will be very difficult. If you are willing to make the decision to commit to living in Columbus (which is a great place to raise a family and has a decent legal market relative to its size), then I would go to OSU and spend significant time during law school networking (starting day one -- seriously).

Many people are sucked into the lay recognition of the ND name but don't realize that its reputation in the legal market really isn't distinguishable from any of the BigTen state schools.

That said, either school at full price is a significant risk.

TooOld4This wrote:Assuming you are getting a good scholarship, OSU. Finding work that you can commute to from South Bend will be very difficult. If you are willing to make the decision to commit to living in Columbus (which is a great place to raise a family and has a decent legal market relative to its size), then I would go to OSU and spend significant time during law school networking (starting day one -- seriously).

Many people are sucked into the lay recognition of the ND name but don't realize that its reputation in the legal market really isn't distinguishable from any of the BigTen state schools.

That said, either school at full price is a significant risk.

If OP got into ND, then he has good enough stats to get the $12k from OSU. Easy to get in-state in Ohio after 1L too, so it'd be something like $14k a year v. $40K+ in tuition. Don't think that should be discounted. QoL in Columbus is better as well.

ND offers a better Biglaw shot, but I don't think the percentage chance bump is worth it when you consider the cost difference.

stoppre wrote:For law school, not for football (otherwise this would be an easy choice).

Married with kids. Can't uproot my family every summer to work in Chicago, DC, etc... Decent likelihood that I will end up in Ohio/Midwest after due to family situation.

Take tuition out of the equation.

I am most interested in the opinions of current students/alums of both schools.

If this is really a consideration, you should absolutely only go to school in the city you plan to work. It's very important to establish connections in the right city over the summers, even if you don't get a firm gig.

IAFG wrote: If this is really a consideration, you should absolutely only go to school in the city you plan to work. It's very important to establish connections in the right city over the summers, even if you don't get a firm gig.

Yup, and Columbus has the state government and a pretty decent legal market. Also could work at OSU or other places. Seems the better option if he's stationary in the summers because of family.