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[TLSModBot]

So my expected debt at GULC is 130k, GW is 60k, and American is 2k (all part time). This is with a 10k scholarship for GULC. I think that comes out to a 1700 monthly payment (for GULC) on a 10 year loan, and 1050 on a 25 year loan (do people usually do 10 year or 25 year? 25 year sounds like a terrible idea). I can afford the 25 year monthly payment on my current salary, so that is my worst case scenario. What do y'all think?

Since you have $1050 above and beyond your cost of living each month, let me ask you, are these numbers assuming you are putting $1050 a month toward your tuition while you're in law school? If not, then you should redo your numbers with the assumption that you can take out less in loans by paying part of your cost of attendance as you go, which would mean ~$34k less in debt.

In either case, I'm going to disagree with some of the other opinions on this thread. According to LST, Georgetown has a Biglaw+Clerkship placement rate of 45%, while GW is at 35%. While 10% is not insignificant, I don't think the disparity is as big as "GW has to be free, but GULC doesn't."

Additionally, LST's numbers do not separate out full-time vs part-time outcomes. As I understand it, GULC has a dedicated part-time faculty, while GW rotates their full-time faculty through the part-time program. As a result, my understanding is that part-time GULC students do not place as well as their full-time GULC peers to a greater degree than schools where the part-time program is more integrated with the full-time program. As a result, I don't think your employment prospects are that different between GW part-time and GULC's part-time program.

I'm a part-time student. I was accepted @ GW, although they didn't take me off the wait list until August, so I had already committed elsewhere by then. I would've gone to GW if I didn't already buy a house near where I ended up going to school (which was a T2 school with a part-time program and I ended up in biglaw, but I'm patent bar eligible, so my math is different).

Between your options I'd go to GW, but that's just me.

Don't get me wrong, GULC is a trash school compared to the T13, but guy above has literally every single fact wrong above on GULC.

[Alive97]

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[elmar]

Thanks for the advice all. I may actually be wrong that I already can afford a $1,050 monthly payment. But the point that I shouldn't consider my current salary because it would be pointless to get a JD and keep my current job is certainly a good one. I was just thinking I have a fallback, so the worst case scenario of getting a JD and not being able to pay for it would not come to pass. But that might not be saying much lol.

I just hope GULC's employment results don't drop because they fell to 15. It would seem pretty silly for that to happen considering the margin between GULC and Texas is probably razor thin.

My finances looked similar to yours going into part-time at GULC, and for what it's worth as anecdote, everyone I know in the program ended up overestimating their ability to contribute to money to tuition over the years. A lot of it had to do with intervening life events and or changing circumstances, so if you're already a little shaky about the $1,050, then I suspect you are right to doubt what you've calculated as your bottom line COA. It's also probably right thinking that your current salary as a fallback is actually a very poor outcome, because in that scenario you've spent four years and 130K without being put into a meaningfully better position than if you had done nothing, so it really only makes sense to attend if the JD puts you on a superior trajectory. And that's all assuming you don't hate the lifestyle of work and school so much that you go full-time. Most part-timers stick it out, but not all can or want to, so you've got to be clear-eyed about whether your particular employment situation will be flexible that long and make it doable. I also sort of blundered into GULC without a definite outcome in mind, though, so I (and I think most students) can hardly blame someone for not having a perfect plan at this point.

Also, none of that ookoshi post about the GULC PT program is correct.

Also, I doubt the rankings movements matter for your purposes. They're relevant for law school recruitment, not law firm recruitment, but others may disagree. You're talking about a part-time program here, though, so it's pretty small group of schools to consider.

[TLSModBot]

Also, I doubt the rankings movements matter for your purposes. They're relevant for law school recruitment, not law firm recruitment, but others may disagree.

This is accurate. Most firms don't give a fuck on rankings minutiae. My firm swings wildly between various T14 schools year to year in who we hire more strongly from, but GULC consistently does ok.

[Colonel_funkadunk]

You should forfeit your scholarship at American and go there at sticker.

agreed. im tired of the consolidation of wealth at top schools. be a populist and show the common man's alma mater some love.

[Alive97]

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