Top Law Schools

Hello all...

I'm faced with the toughest decision of my life

I have 35k at each school and have negotiated down the contingent requirements for my scholarship to a manageable 2.5. -- This means that I don't want to try and reapply to the reach schools which I didn't get into, I'm happy with my acceptances and would prefer going to these schools for half price, thann going to UC Davis at sticker (which I wasn't accepted to anyways).

My case for Santa Clara:

I currently live in the Bay Area and have all my work connections/friends/family/ long time girlfriend (soon to be fiance) in this area. At the law office I work at, I know multiple lawyers from Santa Clara and all of them speak highly of the school and it's connections in this area. I one 2L life-long friend at Santa Clara and have two 3L friends on law review at USF who also have sworn to help me find a job, etc. My girlfriend works at a gaming company here in the Bay Area who has a team of 4 lawyers, 3 of them went to Santa Clara and said they were really interested in starting an internship program within the next year and I'm assuming I'd have a big chance to get paid work there. My parents are also pretty successful business people in the silicon valley and I'm quite sure that I have a near 100% chance of finding a "non-business" job to pay back my loans if I really just can't find legal employment after school. I love the San Jose sharks and the 49's and by the time I'm going to graduate there will be a new 49 stadium in Santa Clara, as the team is moving here in 2014. A close relative owns a cabin in Tahoe for weekend getaways, if time permits. Clearly the Bay Area has almost endless opportunities for employment, especially if the economy begins to recover in the next few years.

My case for Lewis and Clark:

I was dead set on this school before I even started studying for my Lsat, or even knew what the Lsat was. I was intrigued by environmental law and I'm assuming that both schools took me with such a huge scholarship because of my extensive international humanitarian/environmental volunteer experiences. I was fascinated by environmental law, but the more and more I do the due-diligence before selecting a school, the more I realize that -- 1. I don't have any undergraduate course work in ANY environmental sciences or biology classes and 2. There doesn't seem to be much employment prospects for environmental lawyers. So I've decided that environmental law is really not my forte, and I'm assuming that I won't get along with the school-folk considering that I'm pretty moderate politically. The campus is beautiful and would be a winter dreamworld for me. I MUCH prefer colder weather and I'm actually quite uncomfortable in the Bay Area during summers. Portland is MUCH MUCH cheaper to live in, during and after school. L & C keeps jumping up the rankings and I honestly suspect it will be a T40 school within the next 5 years. If it's lucky it can pull an ASU and be a T30. The city of Portland, if I were to gain employment, would grant me a MUCH higher standard of living. I know kids who live there who are working full-time at libraries and they are able to put down payments on decent little homes. It is my chance to start over, probably my last chance to ever move out the quickly crumbling California. I'm a sucker for hiking/fishing/hunting and nature and I'd love to be around to see the four seasons. Despite my moderate political upbringing, I'm fairly certain that I would be able to connect with a lot of people in that area because of my passion for the great American outdoors. The degree might end up "traveling" further than Santa Clara, if I ever want to move out of the Silicon Valley.


My case against Santa Clara

It seems to be the beaten path. It has a lackluster reputation outside of the Bay Area. My other family members, who are lawyers in Los Angeles, have never heard of Santa Clara, although they have heard of Lewis and Clark. It seems that they have a pretty awful career services team; but to be fair I've always expected to either get connected with people I know, or spend 9 months frantically sending out resumes. Santa Clara seems like high school part 2. I went to high school about 45 minutes away from here and the kinds of people it attracts an equally scary counter-part to Lewis and Clarks "counter-culture": the "California Conservative." It just seems boring to be in Santa Clara, although I'm hoping this boredom will help me really tackle school.

My case against Lewis and Clark

I don't have ANY connections whatsoever. No friends, No family, No business ties. I've only ever been there one time when I was like 11. I could really just hate the place for all I know, versus a modest boredom I feel towards Santa Clara and the Silicon Valley as a whole. I've never lived more than 2 hours away from San Francisco, and although moving to a beautiful new place seems exciting, it feels wrong to do that right before Law school. This is especially true because the biggest reason that I'm hesitant is that I'd have to leave my long time girlfriend. We talk about marriage and the like and by the time I graduate I really think I'd be ready for that. If I went to Portland I doubt she would ever be able to move up there because she works in high-technology and video games. She has a great job at an international video-game company and would never find the same caliber of employment in Portland. This would mean that I MUST find work back down in the Silicon valley after Lewis and Clark. I don't even know if that is possible with an L & C degree. I strongly feel that Santa Clara has a MUCH better name here in the Bay Area than Lewis and Clark.



Well, that is it. Vote if you like. Sorry for my grammar, as I'm rushing to get to work as I type this....

Any input would be appreciated. Any trolls need to pay the troll-toll.

Santa Clara, because your ties give you a small shot at a legal job that could pay off the debt.

If I were you, I would just take a job with your parents and go with the sure thing. The prospects from both of these schools aren't great.

Well, it really comes down to where you want to live. Though Lewis and Clark is a "better" law school, it's still regional. You don't have a better chance of a job in, for example Chicago, than do out of Santa Clara.

I know cost of living is cheaper in Oregon, but that shouldn't fuel your decision in my opinion. You have good scholarship offers to both, just decide if you want to live in the Bay Area or in Oregon. Seems to me like Bay Area is the safer bet since you know you like it. You say you have no ties to Portland at all. Well, what if you get there and decide you don't like living there? You're stuck.

Sorry, let me clarify... The ONLY way I can get a job is if I have completed my legal education and passed the bar. That is a necessary condition.

gsenator wrote:I love the San Jose sharks and the 49's and by the time I'm going to graduate there will be a new 49 stadium in Santa Clara, as the team is moving here in 2014.

Santa Clara by a mile bro!

The Santa Clara campus is beautiful.

Go to Santa Clara, and tell Lewis & Clark that you would like modus pwnens to receive your scholarship money. :)

Your "case against" SCU is kind of muted to be honest. How about the fact that little more than half (54%) of the class got long term legal employment in 2010? Its probably worse now. It seems you have some connections but none of them very solid, or solid enough to take on a lot of debt. If thats 35k total, I wouldnt go. If Its 35k a year I guess its reasonable.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub ... Bd3c&gid=4

59% of L&C had full-time JD required work 9 months out, and it looks like around 13% cleared 50k in the private sector. Average debt was around 120k. I started to look at SCU's data but it was so much worse that I vomited on myself.

I'd still go to SCU. Is that 35k a yearly scholarship? Enjoy SCU for a year and drop out of you aren't lined up for a job already or in the top 10%.

thanks for the input people... 35k per year...

Also, I guess I should have mentioned that I live close enough to Santa Clara to commute. It's about an hour away, so I'd probably move near campus for the first year and then live with my girlfriend after the 1L shitstorm is over.

As someone from San Jose.... I'd pick Santa Clara. I'm applying this upcoming cycle and the convenience/location/beauty of the campus gives it MAJOR points and may compensate for the lower rank... just my opinion! To each her/his own and you have to pick which school is right for YOU, not what a prestige-monger on TLS thinks (the "retake or bust mentality").

tfleming09 wrote:

gsenator wrote:I love the San Jose sharks and the 49's and by the time I'm going to graduate there will be a new 49 stadium in Santa Clara, as the team is moving here in 2014.

Santa Clara by a mile bro!

Especially since no Oregon ties and connections near Santa Clara. This is a no brainier.