bk187 wrote:1. How much money do your parents have/how much do they make? How much are they contributing? How much money are you contributing? These are important questions. The fund from your grandfather is essentially a scholarship that applies to both schools.
2. If you want CA, heck if you want NYC/DC/Chicago, WUSTL is not going to make that easy.
3. I'd guess that NU is going to have an appreciable edge with PI employers, heck probably with all employers. LRAP/PSLF will cover your debt if you actually get PI work.
If your parents have a decent amount of money and your cash contributions are minimal then I'd lean towards NU. Your goals in both geography and job are not compatible with WUSTL. Is 150k a lot of money? Of course it is, but it is at least close to manageable. Is NU worth 150k more than WUSTL? I don't think it is in the abstract but this is not an abstract situation. Even for free it doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense to go to a school where you are unlikely to end up in the geographies you want or in the type of job you want.
Dolphine wrote:Ya know what doesn't make you flexible? 150k debt. You are much much much more flexible when you aren't strapped by debt. WUSTL wins easily.
This is egregiously simplistic.
Samara wrote:I also wouldn't take out all that debt if I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.
This isn't really fair. Most law students take out debt without knowing what they want to do. How many threads do we have asking about trans vs lit or about specific practice areas? I think it's enough if OP knows that he/she OP wants to be a lawyer and has at least some ideas of what he/she wants to do.
1. The tuition I would be paying is primarily from my grandfather's fund. My parents will cover roughly 15k/year, I have a negligible amount of savings (10k). Debt financing the rest. But actually, 150k is kinda a high estimate, just used Georgetown's calculator and ended up with 130k.
2. Yeah, this is why I think WUSTL is not a good option for me--the only place I would be ok with living in the Midwest is Chicago, but definitely leaning towards CA/NY/DC.
3. I am interested in PI work. To address the concerns about my having a lack of direction job-wise, I have very clear ideas of where I want to work/what I would ideally like to do, and I have talked to a number of attorneys in order to develop a more concrete picture of how to get there. I just meant that I understand that students' ideas about what they want to do change slightly (and I guess sometimes drastically) while they're in school. Also, my "flexibility" reference was referring to geographic flexibility, not blindly jumping around between "maybe biglaw or PI". And I actually do have a few years of nonprofit work.
I know WUSTL for free is an amazing option, but considering that I don't want to work in the Midwest, it doesn't seem like a wise decision to me. And then there's the opportunity cost of going to a school for three years that is not likely to allow me to accomplish my goals.
And bk, I'm glad that things have worked out for you.
Really appreciate everyone's advice.