KU or Washburn? Forum

[wallflower1987]

I applied to KU and not Washburn as I am out-of-state... my main concern was also how well the degree would travel (not to NY or DC or CA, so relax TLS elitists)... I decided that KU was higher ranked and bigger (as was its parent institution), so its name recognition was better. Beyond that, it is not a truly national school, and it was one of my safety schools that I will probably not be attending. Still, the size of the school means a bigger alumni base, especially beyond the legal world. You really do need to compare stips and curves though. You may not think it matters, but if KU has a curve around a 3.1 and Wash has a 2.8, that means the same scholarship at either school may be the difference between the 30th and 75th percentile, even if they are both 3.0. It is VERY important to know that if cost is a concern, as you have indicated it is.

Anyway, my gut and research say KU by a mile, given what you have said.

[apeopleshistory]

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[TatteredDignity]

If you want to maximize your odds of getting a job after graduation, KU. Not even close. Washburn has decent lay prestige, for some reason, but you aren't going to have an edge over KU students anywhere except (maybe) Topeka. Probably not even there.

[rjl]

Also, Lawrence seems much more exciting to live in than Topeka, however I plan to hit the books pretty hard so I am not sure if it's going to really matter.

You can go to Washburn and still live in Lawrence. It's less than a 30 minute drive, door to door.

KU is a marginally better school in Kansas City, but, in the rest of the state, it's a wash. KU has better name recognition outside of the state, but still doesn't travel all that well. Before law school, I explicitly asked attorneys in Wichita which was the better school, and most told me they were the same. Most of those attorneys were KU alumni, at that (not that there are more KU attorneys in Wichita, but rather that's who just happened to be standing in front of me at the time).

Washburn alumni are notoriously willing to help out Washburn Law students and graduates. In the current environment, both KU and Washburn grads are getting hit hard by graduates from other, more elite law schools coming back to Kansas because they cannot find jobs in larger markets. It really doesn't matter whether you went to KU or Washburn in that regard, so the school's network of alumni is what's key. If family law is what you are targeting, Washburn has an extensive network of family law alumni; I cannot speak for KU in this area.

In the event that you cannot find a job post-graduation, having no debt from Washburn beats having debt from KU when you are faced with nearly similar prospects.

In terms of the scholarship situation at Washburn, recipients are evenly disbursed throughout each of the two sections your first year. First year curve is set at around a 2.85, but upper level classes are closer to a 2.95.