Postby kswiss » Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:44 pm
I think that all of the snarkiness actually does a disservice to the OP in a big way, because it makes it too easy to cast off as elitism.
OP, you really need to ask yourself a few questions about your future. I'm not trying to say anything bad about you or your aspirations or your potential. You should look, however, at the potential of a school to do what you want for it. There are schools, fully accredited by the ABA, in the bottom of the T4, who's graduates have less than a 30% chance of gaining legal employment. The other 70 percent, 9 months after graduation, are either back at their old jobs, unemployed, etc.
The stature of the school does come into play. For example, UC Irvine is still probably a good bet.
If you are independently wealthy, are paying cash, or have a guaranteed job at graduation, then by all means, do what you want to do. There is little risk.
But don't lie to yourself and talk yourself into a bad investment if that isn't the case. Even if it is the case, do yourself a favor and avail yourself to the best legal education you can get. If that means a smaller state school that happens to be T4, then so be it.
The fact that you plan on transferring says a lot about how you feel about the school you might attend. If you knew for a fact that you could never transfer, would you be happy with that degree hanging on your wall, along with its associated employment prospects and debt?
With your numbers, its not like schools are showering you with lucrative scholarship offers. If it is your dream to be a lawyer, start your career right by making very good choices right now. A bad choice could affect you for the rest of your life. Unless you can pay cash, you will likely incur considerable debt in order to attend any school, just make sure you are smart about what you are doing.
Like another poster said, if you just want to go for the pursuit of knowledge, then get the booklist and read them. Write up some hypotheticals. Because there is a statistically good chance (in some cases higher than 80%) that if you attend a T4 of ill reputation, the outcome will be the same: some knowledge of the law, but no job to put it to use.