Oh boy. Someone messaged me to draw my attention to this, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to give you much more guidance than the 0Ls, who gave some pretty good advice. I actually did give up one or two "better" offers to go to UNC, and I did it in part because I've wanted to go to UNC for my whole life and I figured this would be my last chance. The strategic advice from the other two was really wise, although I'm not sure I would agree with niftykid's comment that if you know you want to go to a certain school then "no dollar amount should stop you." I think people underestimate the unpleasantness of having $1000-loan payments every month (this is about what my supervisor at work, who went to UNC, pays, so I'm not just making up a number). Prospective law students get into the mindset of "Oh, well, these kids over at Private School X are taking out $150,000 loans so I can take out $100,000 loans, no problem." And that, in my opinion, is a really bad idea, because making huge monthly payments for an education that you finished with 10 years ago really sucks. It can make you feel forced to take a job that you don't really want, just because it has a higher salary and you've to pay off those loans. In other words, I think money is a VERY important thing to factor into your decision--perhaps even more important than prestige, unless you absolutely know your career goals and they absolutely include making bank as a partner at Covington & Burlington or whatever. In that case, you might have a very expensive and very stressful three years ahead of you.diegoforlan10 wrote:IN off the waitlist by e-mail about half an hour ago!
163/2.9 OOS non-urm hispanic male.
This has fucking fucked my entire world over...I already signed a lease in Illinois and UIUC is offering me a 75% OOS scholarship, but I'd be lying through my teeth if I said that UNC hasn't been my number 1 choice this whole application process. In fact, safe to say UNC is my dream school and has been since high school. I still remember how crushed I was the day I received the rejection letter to my undergrad application.
Fuck.
Does anyone have any advice? Am I being ridiculous for even considering UNC OOS sticker over UIUC's offer? Could I possibly negotiate something out of UNC?
Fucking fuck!
Where is the best, most reliable place to go to look up employment prospects? Law school transparency?
Fuck.
But anyway, that was a long and maybe not-so-helpful speech. I made my decision to spend a *little* extra money to go to UNC because I felt more comfortable while I visited here than anywhere else, and because I knew if I decided once again to turn UNC down and go somewhere else, I would always wonder if I made the right decision. I'm one of those people who fears regret like the plague.
Do you mind me asking what you'd be paying at UIUC v. what you'd be paying at UNC? While I don't think it would be a terribly bad idea to try to bargain with UNC, I wouldn't get my hopes up--we're a public school with a pretty limited budget, and they usually run out of scholarship money not long after the first deposit date.