WUSTL vs Minnesota vs ND Forum

[clyde13]

I'm from Chicago, did my undergrad in Indiana and want to work somewhere in the Midwest (preferably Chicago, but I'd also be happy with other Midwestern cities) eventually. Also, I majored in physics and would like to do IP law. 3.7 GPA and 167 LSAT. WUSTL gave me 30k/year, ND 25k/year, and Minnesota 24k/year. I also have full ride offers from W&L and Iowa that I was planning on using for negotiations, but I haven't started negotiating yet. Any advice on which school would be best or how to go about negotiating to up these offers would be greatly appreciated!!

[deadpoetnsp]

Factor in the actual tuition (resident v. NR, reciprocity, etc.) and cost of living. These three are more or less comparable. Visit all of them, see which one feels more like "you". That said, I chose UMN over WUSTL and am happy with my decision. I had similar stats, and I'm interested in IP law as well. PM me with any questions you might have about UMN.

[matrim]

Look at how each school places in Illinois. I want to say that after NY & DC, ND places third highest amount of grads to Illinois. Surely visit if you can and factor in all debt including cost of living etc. Also remember that ND is 1hr and a half to Chicago, so getting to work there in the summer and to attend different events (law related) is affordable.

[shntn]

I hear Minneapolis is awesome, if that matters. Aside from that, negotiate first and see what you can wind up with in the end to decide between.

[Dr. Dre]

WUSTL'n

[TheZoid]

None of these schools are likely to get you to Chicago. The Chicago market is in shambles and it's extremely unlikely to land a job there without a T-14 degree. I know WUSTL really struggles to place in Chicago, can't imagine UMN does any better, and ND might be marginally better (just rote speculation though) but still pretty much no chance unless top 5-10% I would imagine. If you're dead set on Chicago, you should probably retake and try to at least grab Michigan or Northwestern. If you'd be happy working elsewhere in the Midwest and have ties, I'd take the money at WUSTL and give it a whirl, with the understanding that you're still unlikely to get biglaw and any midwestern city to which you have ties probably has a small legal market, further decreasing your chances of landing a big firm gig.

ETA: I'm not sure how large the boost is for physics, but if that's a legit IP boost that will increase your chances of landing a big firm, though I'm not sure if that'll get you to Chicago. Someone more familiar with IP can probably better answer that.