GW Law vs Loyola Forum

[ManoftheHour]

If they gave OP a full ride + living expenses, and he can live at home, I can see why he would want to stay, assuming he can keep the scholarship (seriously, stips are such a TTT thing to do). That'd be okay. Going to school for free and getting a stead paycheck each month. lol I believe you get $500/month for housing?

[dood]

whats ur end goal dogg?

if it's big firm or bust - seems to me attaining top 20% at GW will be easier than top 1% at loyola. get that big firm job and you can always stick around in DC for a few years then lateral back to LA. if you don't care about what kind of law you'll do after graduating, then go to loyola.

also visit the schools/cities - the community, student body, city experience made a difference for me.

[jbagelboy]

whats ur end goal dogg?

if it's big firm or bust - seems to me attaining top 20% at GW will be easier than top 1% at loyola. get that big firm job and you can always stick around in DC for a few years then lateral back to LA. if you don't care about what kind of law you'll do after graduating, then go to loyola.

also visit the schools/cities - the community, student body, city experience made a difference for me.

GWU sticker is suicide. The bolded only becomes relevant when the choices in question are viable

[dood]

whats ur end goal dogg?

if it's big firm or bust - seems to me attaining top 20% at GW will be easier than top 1% at loyola. get that big firm job and you can always stick around in DC for a few years then lateral back to LA. if you don't care about what kind of law you'll do after graduating, then go to loyola.

also visit the schools/cities - the community, student body, city experience made a difference for me.

GWU sticker is suicide. The bolded only becomes relevant when the choices in question are viable

i agree to a certain extent, but OP is stuck between a rock and hard place. whats loyola? just saying 20% > 1% (if a career in big firm is what OP is interested in). i made this choice a long time ago and what it came down to was bet big (GW), win big. versus loyola (smaller risk), no chance in hell of winning.

[radar714]

whats ur end goal dogg?

if it's big firm or bust - seems to me attaining top 20% at GW will be easier than top 1% at loyola. get that big firm job and you can always stick around in DC for a few years then lateral back to LA. if you don't care about what kind of law you'll do after graduating, then go to loyola.

also visit the schools/cities - the community, student body, city experience made a difference for me.

GWU sticker is suicide. The bolded only becomes relevant when the choices in question are viable

ya couldn't agree more. you're talking ~275-300k with DC CoL, and if he doesn't get top 25% at GWU he won't have a lotta good options + will be stuck with massive debt. And he'll have to fly back to LA to try and set up coffee/lunches/network effectively and to me, the geographic distance is a significant obstacle to overcome.

At least with Loyola you could probably network your way into SOMETHING given that you're from SoCal esp if you're top 1/3. If you're below median though, and lose the scholly, I'd prolly drop out. I don't think its worth 100k in tuition debt alone. And honestly, it will probably be easier to do well at Loyola than at GWU (not trying to knock Loyola considering I am going there but we are talking about a relatively significant difference in ranking and by extension, entrance statistics of your classmates. While FAR from perfect, they're still a decent measure of aptitude.)

Realistically for BigLaw, its gonna be top 10-15% to have a shot, still far from a guarantee though. But definitely don't go to Loyola with the intention of getting BigLaw because for ~360/400 graduates its just not going to happen. If you WANT biglaw, retake. If you're cool with having a 50-70k legal job starting out and you believe in 1) your ability to network and build relationships, and 2) the existing strength of your network, then it can happen out of Loyola.

[ManoftheHour]

i agree to a certain extent, but OP is stuck between a rock and hard place. whats loyola? just saying 20% > 1% (if a career in big firm is what OP is interested in). i made this choice a long time ago and what it came down to was bet big (GW), win big. versus loyola (smaller risk), no chance in hell of winning.

There's the option of not playing.

OP would be a damn fool attending either if his end goal is big firm. 20% for GW and 10% (I'm not sure where you got 1% from) for Loyola, no? 10%, 20%, it's irrelevant. They're both horrible if big law is the goal.

GW at sticker, as someone mentioned, is pretty much financial suicide. If you're not one of the 20% and you don't end up in a public job for 10 years, you're fucked. Loyola works ONLY IF OPs goal is to work at a small firm and agrees to drop out if he loses his scholly. To expect any more out of that (10% big law, 40% long term legal employment) is an unwise gamble.