Reasons I'm leaning towards the ED option:
1. Between the full scholy and my savings, I'd be graduating with debt below 35k, while still keeping a lot of my savings intact.
2. I really like the school itself and the surrounding area. I know "fit" isn't supposed to be a big factor, but knowing myself, I'd like to self-select into an environment I enjoy for three years.
3. I have little desire for Big Law and almost no desire to be forced into it because of student debt. At this point in my life I'd really just like government work or some kind of local DA/PD gig depending on whichever side I gravitate towards during law school. One thing I like is that if I change my mind and do want to pursue Big Law, I'd have roughly a 20% chance of doing that, but in the event that I end up at median it won't be a disaster because debt will be so manageable. Really, my goals are just to make a comfortable middle class wage in an area without ridiculous CoL, with the possibility of a decent quality of life.
4. I've spent some time in Richmond and met some friends there I made through work. I like the area enough and they've said they'll introduce me to attorneys they work with/know if I end up deciding to attend a school in VA. Plus the BBQ there and stuff like Croaker's Spot are really good.
Admittedly though I'm not really familiar with much of VA outside of Richmond at this point. Not sure how heavily that should influence my decision.#3 is my chief concern though. Are my goals realistic? I've been looking through LST's W&M reports, but it's hard to discern what the "median student's outcome" would be.
Unrelated to my earlier reasons, I am a little concerned that their unemployment rose so much between the 2014 and 2015 classes. There was roughly a 10% drop off in government employment too, so I don't know if that's because of hiring freezes or people from the 2015 class just pursued different outcomes.
So all of that said, should I go with my gut and ED?
