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Freshman year i was at local state school, sophomore year at Flagship state.

went to USC, now running out of $$ and have full ride from UNC CH. I either stay at USC for 2 years, costing at least $24,000 or to go UNC CH for 2 years at $2k. I plan on JD or possibly a PHD, most likely JD.


pros of UNC: Money (Parent unemployed, more partying, nice college town)

pros of USC: Stay here so i wont have 4 freaking schools, and fantastic relationship with ugrad college dean and well respected professors. Better reccomendations

Two years is plenty of time to build good enough relationships with professors to get recommendations out of them. I turned down full rides to go to a higher ranked school and I'm still a bit regretful about it.

What, generally, are you studying? Have you looked into whether the departments are comparable?

You made a thread about this already and got some really great advice. To reiterate: schools will not care that you have 4 transcripts as other students have had more and were not negatively impacted. If you are set on law school, it would be best to minimize your debt in anticipation of law school loans (which are, as you know, quite substantial).

The decision is ultimately yours, but you aren't going to hear anything new. Just decide already.

I appreciate your help howerly, im just trying to get more consensus /info for this extremely difficult choice...

on one hand, ive built up a great relationship with the dean here and would hate to see that go. He wants to see me stay. he also wants to game USNWR rankings and help usc rise....

Id be happier at UNC, save more money, but theres no telling if i will build up great relationship with prominent faculty again


UNC poli sci vs USC international relations...

so in all honesty, reccomendations dont matter that much and arnt worth 20k+?

anyone know how good unc poli sci is compared to USC?

TLS wisdom is god, but my professor says that USC is better cus i already are good with profs. and that will hugely benefit with law school reccs. additionally i want to try for fullbright, truman, etc. is it worth staying and betting on one of these lottery programs? or just play it safe?

sorry i never mentioned that i considered marshall/truman/fullbright

Is your professor at USC? He/she may want you to stay if you are doing well. Then again, anyone who would advise you to accrue a significant amount of debt for a political science BA isn't very trustworthy in my opinion. I have no idea what your chances of landing one of those fellowships is, but be aware that you're competing with literally the brightest students from the best schools as well as everyone else. Go look up the profiles of recent recipients of some of these scholarships. You'll see people from Harvard and MIT who have worked under giants in their fields and have conducted serious research, leading them to have valid (this is important) reasons to pursue a fulbright/truman/etc. If you are so confident that you are on that level, which I doubt since you haven't mentioned the many papers or field studies you've done that would culminate in funded research, then go ahead and take out as many loans as you want.

Bear in mind that if you do want a PhD it is also in your best interest to keep your debt down. Even if you find a fully-funded program, you don't want to be servicing a shit-ton of debt on an adjunct's salary. And thats if you're lucky enough to even find a steady teaching or research gig somewhere. I don't think you can get on IBR without a job and you can't stay on forbearance forever.

UNC-CH is a great school and with an awesome alumni network. No one will look down on you for choosing to go. Once again, letters of recommendation aren't weighed very heavily in law school admissions. As long as they aren't negative you should be fine. Two years is more than enough time to earn a decent letter from a professor. The deciding factors for what law schools will accept you will be your LSAT and GPA, regardless of what schools are on your transcripts. No one cares. This isn't a decision between Arizona State and Princeton. Like the vast majority of universities, people will find your two choices fungible. Thus, one is not worth tens of thousands more than the other.

There really is nothing else to say. Its up to you.