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I'm iffy on pulling the trigger to WVU Law.

I've been accepted for some time with a scholarship. I'll be looking at around 60k debt for the three years. The school seems to be very friendly, and has good employment statistics. I'm concerned about being able to work elsewhere other than the state of WV, and the possibility of being boxed in to mid-level pay and employment options.

Does anyone have any experience with the school, or advice concerning WVU and prospects after graduation?

Thanks for any help offered.

If you don't want to work in West Virginia, don't go to West Virginia law school. What are your goals, where do you want to work, LSAT/GPA?

"No don't do it. Please don't do it"

Drake

trebekismyhero wrote:If you don't want to work in West Virginia, don't go to West Virginia law school. What are your goals, where do you want to work, LSAT/GPA?

No chances of working outside of WV then?

I don't have much preference of where to work. I don't know if I would want to stay in WV my entire life though.

I was 156 and 4.0 GPA.

Wolfpack09 wrote:

trebekismyhero wrote:If you don't want to work in West Virginia, don't go to West Virginia law school. What are your goals, where do you want to work, LSAT/GPA?

No chances of working outside of WV then?

I don't have much preference of where to work. I don't know if I would want to stay in WV my entire life though.

I was 156 and 4.0 GPA.

woof, retake my friend. Think about it this way, get another 15 questions right on a stupid learnable exam and you are going to a t13 school for close to free. Imagine the opportunities that opens up for you. How life changing it would be.

So yeah, don't waste that gpa on WVU. Dont waste it on any school not the t13.

Also OP, you are one of a handful of people who could hypothetically get HS (never know about Y). If you get 18-20 more questions right, you are looking at a likely acceptance at Harvard.

If you need motivation about the silly lsat, I can provide you some. My first diagnostic was a 142. It took me a year and a lot of focus, but I got on my third try a 175+. It changed my life, and you can change yours.

Wow 100% retake.

OP, you need to retake! I did it and it opens up so many doors. Went from thinking about a T1 school to a T6 and only increased less than 10 points.

grades?? wrote:

Wolfpack09 wrote:

trebekismyhero wrote:If you don't want to work in West Virginia, don't go to West Virginia law school. What are your goals, where do you want to work, LSAT/GPA?

No chances of working outside of WV then?

I don't have much preference of where to work. I don't know if I would want to stay in WV my entire life though.

I was 156 and 4.0 GPA.

woof, retake my friend. Think about it this way, get another 15 questions right on a stupid learnable exam and you are going to a t13 school for close to free. Imagine the opportunities that opens up for you. How life changing it would be.

So yeah, don't waste that gpa on WVU. Dont waste it on any school not the t13.

Also OP, you are one of a handful of people who could hypothetically get HS (never know about Y). If you get 18-20 more questions right, you are looking at a likely acceptance at Harvard.

If you need motivation about the silly lsat, I can provide you some. My first diagnostic was a 142. It took me a year and a lot of focus, but I got on my third try a 175+. It changed my life, and you can change yours.

I left undergrad with a perfect GPA, an English degree, writing awards, and publications. I took a year off to study for the LSAT, and looking back, I think I was burnt out. I thought I was preparing well, but in retrospect I wasn't learning the test very well.

Nevertheless, I got accepted to various schools 3 years ago, but didn't go due to family issues. Now I've been teaching for a few years, and I took an app for WVU as it's fairly local for me. I almost feel like I applied for law this past cycle by default without really knowing what I wanted. Got accepted with a scholarship though, so I wanted to see what the outside world thought of WVU.

Wolfpack09 wrote:Got accepted with a scholarship though, so I wanted to see what the outside world thought of WVU.

Since the chances of anyone practicing outside of West Virginia with a WVU degree are around zero, that's not likely to happen.

You absolutely, 100%, without a doubt need to retake.

Retake. I have a similar gpa and I had the same LSAT score after my first take. After my retake I'm attending Duke this fall at an affordable price, was accepted to UChi, and had about the same COA at good schools like UT and USC that you're looking to pay at WVU. Best of luck!

Generally, it will be easier to find a job if you go to school in the area where you want to work.

Other folks have the right idea about retaking. Even if you pay a tutor $3000 to help you bring your LSAT score into the 160's or 170's, you could save a lot more comparing your initial outlay to ending debt. Heck, you could go to a better school with better job numbers for less money. Please don't waste your GPA.

cavalier1138 wrote:

Wolfpack09 wrote:Got accepted with a scholarship though, so I wanted to see what the outside world thought of WVU.

Since the chances of anyone practicing outside of West Virginia with a WVU degree are around zero, that's not likely to happen.

Not entirely fair. I suspect there's some reach into Kentucky.

albanach wrote:

cavalier1138 wrote:

Wolfpack09 wrote:Got accepted with a scholarship though, so I wanted to see what the outside world thought of WVU.

Since the chances of anyone practicing outside of West Virginia with a WVU degree are around zero, that's not likely to happen.

Not entirely fair. I suspect there's some reach into Kentucky.

Weirdly enough, even though there's minimal reach into border states, Kentucky isn't one of them: https://www.lstreports.com/schools/wvu/jobs/location/

cavalier1138 wrote:
Weirdly enough, even though there's minimal reach into border states, Kentucky isn't one of them: https://www.lstreports.com/schools/wvu/jobs/location/

I was really just being sarcastic. There's probably the opportunity for reach into Kentucky, but it's a smaller legal market. OH and VA makes sense, since Cincinnati/Columbus are going to have decent sized markets. Northern VA will have some pull for government jobs (likely some graduates with connections/experience in energy & mining) and firms dealing in those same areas.

The stats show that those outcomes are very hard to achieve from WVU, so everyone else's advice stands. For someone with a 4.0 it would border upon insanity not to retake the LSAT. If, for some reason, WVU was still attractive, it should have a COA of zero.