Hey everyone! I'm interested in a career in international human rights law. Choosing between Hastings and Pepperdine is a tough one--I know both have great human rights opportunities. I'm from LA so Pepperdine would be closer to home (which is a plus), and as you might now Hastings is not in such a great location. However, I know Hastings has a great reputation and a higher ranking. Also, Hastings offered me a grant. Any advice would be great! Thanks!

Hey Chloe. Do you mind sharing your stats (gpa/lsat) and total cost of attendance for both schools? That info would make it easier to give thoughtful advice.

They do not, and the chances of you getting a job in this field are basically nil.

Exactly. Keeping that in mind, what else do you want to do? How much money at each?

Cost of attendance (without living expenses) for Pepperdine is $39K, for Hastings about $30K.

Still exploring my options for possible career paths, but I'm interested in global health policy or women's rights.

Cost of attendance (without living expenses) for Pepperdine is $39K, for Hastings about $30K.

Still exploring my options for possible career paths, but I'm interested in global health policy or women's rights.

is that per year or total?

I vote Hastings because they are peer schools and it is more affordable.

That's per year. What do you mean by peer schools?

I don't think anyone is trying to crush dreams or anything, but these types of jobs are near impossible to get. Very few exist. The actual high profile jobs go to HYS types. Most small and mid size non profits don't have lawyers or have one or a couple. They certainly have no need for a first year lawyer. If you are committed to PI then your best option is probably gunning for a public defender or similar.

Agreed. If women's rights for you means like doing plaintiff's side employment work (like suing people for being fired bc they were women or whatever), it would be a different story. But you're not. If you want to do policy, do policy. Go work on a campaign. You don't sound like you want to be a lawyer.

I just mean that they have similar job prospects and are basically interchangeable. Since they are peers, choosing the more afforable option is usually the best way to go.

Stanford > Boalt >> UCLA/USC >>> Davis/Hastings/Pepperdine/Loyola >>>>> everyone else >>>>> online schools

Yeah I agree. If this is what you really want to do, what about a masters in public policy? That should open up non profit advocacy work to you.

I doubt that Pepperdine/Loyola are peers of Davis/Hastings.

While Hastings itself is in a less than ideal area of SF; it's still in SF. I wouldn't let Hastings immediately surrounding neighborhood deter you, it would be easy to live in and enjoy other parts of beautiful SF while attending Hastings.

Fair enough.

Stanford > Boalt >> UCLA/USC >>> Davis/Hastings/Irvine >>> Pepperdine/Loyola >>>>> everyone else >>>>> online schools

Fixed.

OP, you are looking at nearly 200k debt when you add in compounding interest on a 10 year loan. Think carefully before you pull the trigger. Consider retaking the LSAT to increase scholarship offers.

Sigh. What methodology are you using for the # of arrows? Considering you just had Hastings and Pepperdine as peers a few hours ago, this seems kind of arbitrary.

California is big. Pepperdine does better in LA. Hastings does better in SF. And although I agree that Davis and Hastings are better schools than Loyola or Pepperdine, if the OP wants LA more than SF, I think you can justify going to Pepperdine over Hastings at similar cost.

Still though, at those prices both Pepperdine and Hastings are terrible options...so maybe my point is irrelevant.

Flame.

The arrows dont mean anything.My methodolgy is USNR and their relative rankings. Lazy, I know. Davis is 29, Hastings is 44, Pepperdine is 49. Honestly, yes, it is rather arbitrary.

The 27k tuition difference over three years + intrest is significant imo.

All things being equal (as in the op is indifferent to LA/SF), Hastings is the better choice. It is higher ranked and less expensive.Like you said Bdole, placement is better in their repective cities. OP says its a plus to be in LA so it really comes down to if OP would rather go to a lower ranked school for 27k more than move to SF.

OP, would you be living at home if you went to pepperdine?

I agree that the prices of both are too much.

Sure, maybe the international lawyer line is an intentional flame. Or maybe its blissfull ignorance.

USNWR rankings don't matter.

Rankings give you general idea of the quality of the school. There is certainly a difference between T14, Tier 1, Tier 2, and TTT.

I agree that if the schools in question are all about the same, then it does not really matter. Its more of a just a general guidline.

Im sure you would agree with the end of the sentence, which you did not quote:

That cost is a factor that makes Hasting a better choice, everything else being equal.

Well since Pepperdine hates gay people I would probably avoid studying human rights crap there. But then again it is pretty.

The truth of the matter is that you should either retake or reassess what exactly you are trying to get out of law school because I don't think your goals are particularly realistic and the debt you're staring down is ridiculous atm.

Thanks for all the input!

Pepperdine is very right wing (they were so proud of Ken Starr that they made him Dean!!!) so I don't know if the atmosphere there will be good for training in your desired field.

Hastings is in the middle of SF and it's all about stuff like that. There's even a clinic set up to help refugee women. That's just one example. Hastings is right next to the courts so there's a bunch of things you can get trained on.

Also, I don't think Hastings and Pepperdine have the same reputation or ranking, whichever you want to go by. Every lawyer I've talked to, including two Pepperdine grads, say Hastings has a better reputation. In terms of job prospects, Hastings is in SF and Pepperdine is in SoCal, so if you want to eventually work in SoCal, location is probably more important than reputation.

With that said, I still think the biggest factor is that Pepperdine is very conservative and Hastings is in the heart of SF, so Hastings will most likely provide a better environment for that type of study.

About job prospects: What you want to get into is competitive (and so is everything else right now), but if it's something you're really passionate about, you can always hustle, do very well, and you just might have a shot. You can also try to do very well and transfer to a better school after your first year. The question is whether this is realistic or not. If you work your ass off and are willing to reach out to people and network and show effort, I think it's realistic.

Why would you calculate the cost of attendance without living expenses? Is someone paying them for you or do you have significant savings? Because if you're just not counting them, that puts the actual COA in the 200K range which is insane for a school in this territory.