If you can do it again, would u take a full ride or ranking? Forum

[tru]

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[Black-Blue]

UCI might be a special case, but usually, barely getting into the scholarship threshold at a rank 15 will not give you a full ride at a school ranked 20-30. More likely it's UCLA full price vs. free ride at a T50 or lower.

[vanwinkle]

I agree that UCI is a very special case. If you want to work in CA, and don't care about clerking or academia (which is a low likelihood from UCLA anyway), I'd be highly tempted to go for UCI.

[270910]

Nobody knows where UCI will fall in the rankings, much less how it will fare.

Think about it: firms are struggling as it is to higher grads from schools they have relationships with. What incentive do they have to fly a partner out to Irvine and pick up UCI grads? I think it could be brutal for them, to be perfectly honest. Opening a new law school ITE, no matter who your dean is, is just rotten luck.

[lostmymojo]

It depends on where you are I think.

If your in a state where there is a T-50 type school that rules the roost and you don't mind staying local, then a full ride there is damn hard to pass up. Your not just going to get defaulted out of jobs b/c somebody from a T-14 wants into the market in this scenario b/c of the presumably strong alumni base and attachment to the local powerhouse. Your also going to have a lot more room for error when looking for your first job without loan payments hanging over your head.

Again, however, this all rests on the assumption that you want to stay local and your school is strong in the region.

[tru]

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[270910]

From what I've read, every 61 of UCI's inaugural class got jobs. I don't mean crappy jobs that everyone can get. 17 of 61 are clerking for the federal judge as 1Ls. Some in private firms, others in non-profit. It seems like a special case.

Woooooooooooah there partner.

First, 1L jobs are NOT that hard to get. Every law student is supposed to or they will have a hard time later on.

Second, summer work with judges are called internships, not clerkships - and they are somewhat competitive, but often given out before grades go out and not considered especially prestigious nor indicative of strong career potential.

Finally, there may be some employers excited about hiring UCI grads - I don't doubt that - but the mere fact that it inhabits a relatively unique location in CA doesn't change the fact that 50 bajillion OTHER CA law schools and law students already exist, struggle to get jobs, and have established reputations.

[Scarletlady]

I think graduating debt-free liberates you in a way that even a T15 can't; unless of course you graduate debt-free from the T15. You have more options, in terms of attempting BigLaw or Public Interest, because you do not have the pressure of having bills to pay. I'm curious to see where UCI lands on the rankings. I'm familiar with their other grad programs, which are very well respected,and as such I would expect no less of their law school.