Top Law Schools

GW full price or Loyola with their 90k and 3.2 stipulation which seems to be top half of the class. Numbers are 3.76 and 163.

GW
COA: 150,000
Pros:
- Much higher ranked = more job opportunities

Cons:
- Big ass loan

Loyola LA
COA: 55,000
Pros:
- Money
- Location (I live in socal, friends and family are close and I'd like to work around LA.)
- Rank makes it possibly easier to excel or stand out, maybe?

Cons:
- Low rank limits jobs
- Law school experience seems lacking? I've heard it described as a commuter school.

Let's say retaking is not an option.

In before the bloodbath...

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=206299

Oh shoot I'll edit.

Summarizing what the following posts will say:

Retake is always an option if you haven't taken it 3 times.

Both are bad choices, bad placement/employment. can't guarantee where you will rank in the class. Gun to your head: Loyola cuz GW with over 220k+ debt is a bad idea.

Check law school transparency.

KD35 wrote:Summarizing what the following posts will say:

Retake is always an option if you haven't taken it 3 times.

Both are bad choices, bad placement/employment. can't guarantee where you will rank in the class. Gun to your head: Loyola cuz GW with over 220k+ debt is a bad idea.

Check law school transparency.

Lol no cause theres a 40-50% chance OP will lose the scholarship after 1L, leaving his life in an ocean of suck

neither

KD35 wrote:Summarizing what the following posts will say:

Retake is always an option if you haven't taken it 3 times.

Both are bad choices, bad placement/employment. can't guarantee where you will rank in the class. Gun to your head: Loyola cuz GW with over 220k+ debt is a bad idea.

Check law school transparency.

I've taken it three times, one terrible score, one cancel, and then the 163. Yeah the GW loan size is frightening and obviously losing the LMU 90k is a possibility but I feel LMU might be a tiny bit of a better bet considering the other reasons I mentioned.

Loyola is not the end of the world....if OP is smart enough to drop out if he loses his scholly. If he lives at home, that's like what? 12k in loans and one year lost?

You'd have to be insane to take GW at that price.

Can you take a 4th time? Has it been 2 years since your first take? I'm an upcoming 4th time taker, so that's why I ask.

I took my first lsat dec '11, then october '12 cancelled, then dec 12 was my third.

spree wrote:I took my first lsat dec '11, then october '12 cancelled, then dec 12 was my third.

That sucks. Are you currently working? If so, and it pays the bills just fine, I'd probably stick with the job and study for a retake. You have a 3.7. Just a few more points can mean lower T-14 and/or UCLA/USC.

If that's really not an option (as in, you have no job, not because you "don't want to wait another year"), then I'd take Loyola. If you lose your scholarship, that means you were below median. The thing is, unless you go to one of the top schools in the nation, you'd be screwed anyway if you were below median without any good networking or connections. Taking a 12k gamble isn't THAT bad of an idea if you're a history major and are not leaving a high paying job right now. However, if you lose your scholarship and you decide to stay because "you already invested a year and 12k into it," then you'd be totally fucked. Don't fall for that trap.

Best of luck with your decision.

If these were my two choices and I was too stubborn to retake I would not go to law school.

Don't go to GW with the hope to come back to LA. UCLA/USC are struggling badly right now to keep up with the hard-hit legal market down in SoCal. Imagine that trouble and multiply it by 100. You get Loyola.

As a side point, where else did you apply?

UCB, Duke, UCLA, USC, UCI, U Washington, UC D, Loyola, Hastings.

Accepted to GW, UW, UC Davis, Loyola.

WL at Duke, UCLA, UCI and Hastings.

Applied pretty late for all of these.

Go bruins

ManoftheHour wrote:

spree wrote:I took my first lsat dec '11, then october '12 cancelled, then dec 12 was my third.

That sucks. Are you currently working? If so, and it pays the bills just fine, I'd probably stick with the job and study for a retake. You have a 3.7. Just a few more points can mean lower T-14 and/or UCLA/USC.

If that's really not an option (as in, you have no job, not because you "don't want to wait another year"), then I'd take Loyola. If you lose your scholarship, that means you were below median. The thing is, unless you go to one of the top schools in the nation, you'd be screwed anyway if you were below median without any good networking or connections. Taking a 12k gamble isn't THAT bad of an idea if you're a history major and are not leaving a high paying job right now. However, if you lose your scholarship and you decide to stay because "you already invested a year and 12k into it," then you'd be totally fucked. Don't fall for that trap.

Best of luck with your decision.

Yeah I'm working some weak job that I can leave any time. I am inclined to take Loyola at the moment. Obviously I have no idea how difficult law school is but I'm gonna gamble that I can at least finish in the top half of my class, naive as that may sound. I will be sure to not be trapped if I lose my scholarship.

What kind of job do you think you'll get if you end up median at Loyola?

bruin91 wrote:Don't go to GW with the hope to come back to LA. UCLA/USC are struggling badly right now to keep up with the hard-hit legal market down in SoCal. Imagine that trouble and multiply it by 100. You get Loyola.

As a side point, where else did you apply?

Hey spree, I was down to the same 2 schools (http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=208911) but ultimately chose Loyola (GWU @ 48k & Loyola @ Full-ride). Good luck with the choice because its definitely a tough one, esp with no retakes left (I'm in the same boat too).

That said, I completely agree with the bolded, and its ultimately why I picked Loyola. I wanted to stay in LA more than I wanted go to GWU, and I was worried that at GWU I'd pretty much be playing a lottery, hoping to land in the top 1/3 to get a good job. Now at Loyola, those chances are even decidedly lower. I'm from LA (and went to UG here) and have a bunch of friends that go to Loyola and consensus is you gotta be top 15% to even compete for a biglaw/midlaw/small law job and still at least top 25% to even stand a chance at most other jobs. But I felt that given my ties to the area and the fact that its free (assuming I keep my scholarship)*, I could probably network my way into something that I'll at least mildly enjoy. Also I figured the internship/externship opportunities I would have at local DA/PD/etc offices during the year in the market I want to be in long-term would work to my advantage over just attending the better ranked school in a completely different geographic region.

But know that to succeed out of Loyola, you're gonna have to hustle your ass off, but if it's in the market you want to stay in/you have some ties, I don't think its a bad choice. Unless of course you can find something meaningful you'd like to do with your life for 2 years and then retake/reapply (seriously though, with a 3.7 you're in good shape for alotta of schools if you can hit 168+, and with a 163 already I think you probably can).

Good luck with your choice, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions or if I can help in any other way.

*I do want to stress how real the threat of losing your scholarship is. Every one of the 20+ people I know that go to loyola were hard-working and on some form of merit-based aid and a few of them lost their schollys, so really put some thought into what you would do if this happened (i.e. dropout, stick it out, i dunno what other options there are). I'm lucky in that 1) living at home during law school & 2) my family has generously offered to cover my tuition.

PS Can you live at home and commute to cut down on debt?

I don't think I'll be able to commute, I live in Irvine which is like an hour south. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to cover most of my living expenses outside of tuition. All of what you said encapsulates why I'm budging towards Loyola. Thanks for your input, very helpful.

spree wrote:I don't think I'll be able to commute, I live in Irvine which is like an hour south. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to cover most of my living expenses outside of tuition. All of what you said encapsulates why I'm budging towards Loyola. Thanks for your input, very helpful.

Whered you go to high school? I grew up in irvine

Edit: technically newport but yea

jbagelboy wrote:

KD35 wrote:Summarizing what the following posts will say:

Retake is always an option if you haven't taken it 3 times.

Both are bad choices, bad placement/employment. can't guarantee where you will rank in the class. Gun to your head: Loyola cuz GW with over 220k+ debt is a bad idea.

Check law school transparency.

Lol no cause theres a 40-50% chance OP will lose the scholarship after 1L, leaving his life in an ocean of suck

Gun to your head and you need to choose, I'd still say Loyola. At least you're guaranteed scholly money for a short period of time.

jbagelboy wrote:

spree wrote:I don't think I'll be able to commute, I live in Irvine which is like an hour south. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to cover most of my living expenses outside of tuition. All of what you said encapsulates why I'm budging towards Loyola. Thanks for your input, very helpful.

Whered you go to high school? I grew up in irvine

Edit: technically newport but yea

uni, that school was harder than undergrad lol.

spree wrote:I don't think I'll be able to commute, I live in Irvine which is like an hour south. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to cover most of my living expenses outside of tuition. All of what you said encapsulates why I'm budging towards Loyola. Thanks for your input, very helpful.

By the way, if you've gotten into GWU, I assume you have either a relatively high >3.6 or >165 LSAT, in which case you should definitely try to leverage your GWU acceptance to a full-ride for Loyola. They're probably gonna say "we're out of money" but just ask them to re-review your file as money becomes available. Chances are if you have good stats they're going to want to keep you.

spree wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:

spree wrote:I don't think I'll be able to commute, I live in Irvine which is like an hour south. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to cover most of my living expenses outside of tuition. All of what you said encapsulates why I'm budging towards Loyola. Thanks for your input, very helpful.

Whered you go to high school? I grew up in irvine

Edit: technically newport but yea

uni, that school was harder than undergrad lol.

yea I feel you. 09 or 08?

radar714 wrote:

spree wrote:I don't think I'll be able to commute, I live in Irvine which is like an hour south. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to cover most of my living expenses outside of tuition. All of what you said encapsulates why I'm budging towards Loyola. Thanks for your input, very helpful.

By the way, if you've gotten into GWU, I assume you have either a relatively high >3.6 or >165 LSAT, in which case you should definitely try to leverage your GWU acceptance to a full-ride for Loyola. They're probably gonna say "we're out of money" but just ask them to re-review your file as money becomes available. Chances are if you have good stats they're going to want to keep you.

the numbers are in the OP

3.76/163

jbagelboy wrote:

radar714 wrote:

spree wrote:I don't think I'll be able to commute, I live in Irvine which is like an hour south. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to cover most of my living expenses outside of tuition. All of what you said encapsulates why I'm budging towards Loyola. Thanks for your input, very helpful.

By the way, if you've gotten into GWU, I assume you have either a relatively high >3.6 or >165 LSAT, in which case you should definitely try to leverage your GWU acceptance to a full-ride for Loyola. They're probably gonna say "we're out of money" but just ask them to re-review your file as money becomes available. Chances are if you have good stats they're going to want to keep you.

the numbers are in the OP

3.76/163

OP should definitely do that. 3.60/162 and I got 96k from Loyola. Wtf. He should get a full ride + living expenses with those stats.

OP, you're getting ripped off.

ManoftheHour wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:

radar714 wrote:

spree wrote:I don't think I'll be able to commute, I live in Irvine which is like an hour south. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to cover most of my living expenses outside of tuition. All of what you said encapsulates why I'm budging towards Loyola. Thanks for your input, very helpful.

By the way, if you've gotten into GWU, I assume you have either a relatively high >3.6 or >165 LSAT, in which case you should definitely try to leverage your GWU acceptance to a full-ride for Loyola. They're probably gonna say "we're out of money" but just ask them to re-review your file as money becomes available. Chances are if you have good stats they're going to want to keep you.

the numbers are in the OP

3.76/163

OP should definitely do that. 3.60/162 and I got 96k from Loyola. Wtf. He should get a full ride + living expenses with those stats.

OP, you're getting ripped off.

Loyola has been weird this cycle. A few people, myself included, have gotten either too high or too low of aid packages. 3.73/164 got me 96k, friend with 3.58/162 got aid not too much lower than I.