Pepperdine, Loyola, Chapman, UC Irvine, and UC Davis Forum

[jbagelboy]

Geez, I'd stick around laguna w/ the grandparents. That sounds like a sweet deal. I grew up in Newport/Irvine actually. Went to K-12 there not counting a little time abroad. Dean Chemerinsky lived on my street; he and I drove the same model red prius for a while (when I was home from college, that is). Most of my family friends are still profs at UCI, a lot of people I knew in high school went there and it's not a bad place. I miss Cha every day; I'd hit up thai iced tea every time I was home for break. Taco Rosa happy hr $4 margs? forget 'bout it! I wouldn't want to leave the newport/laguna area for a second... if I didn't want a career and my parents still had money.

Don't take out loans to go to UCI, Pepperdine, Loyola, or Chapman. I mean, any loans. You will most likely regret it forever. Please understand that TTT law schools are more of a racket than an opportunity - you are credentialing yourself for a particular type of work, but your ability to procure high quality jobs as a JD candidate at these schools will be roughly equal to what it is now. By this I mean, at the schools you listed, if you can't get non-legal work in the sector you're interested in with the connections/undergrad/experience you have now - the type of "public interest law" you're targeting, be it union/labor, sex trafficking, IHR, local gov't, ect. - then you probably won't be able to get paying legal work there as a law student, or at least paying above a guy at the checkout counter at trader joe's. (And that guy's probably trying to pay back his TTT law school loans too.)

This is one of the core misconceptions about law school. People who are underemployed or unemployed now, living with parents/significant others, "waiting to start life" think that law school provides opportunities. That is definitely true of some law schools. I may even place Davis somewhat in that list (some top 10% Davis grads actually end up working at my firm each year) since they have a somewhat legit OCI, but I'm really referring to about 20-22 schools. (I'm pretty discouraged about UCI placement, because they were supposed to be filing this "market void" in Orange county, but then how come there aren't UCI grads at the top firms with OC offices? Gibson, Orrick, Latham, ect.)

The remaining schools do NOT, broad strokes, "provide opportunities" for employment; they provide a credential, but you will have to do all the legwork (the same legwork you would have to do now) to get paid work. If you think your options suck now, they will be equally shitty. If you are highly employable now in an industry with a strong nexus to law, you will remain highly employable with a JD. The people getting good jobs at schools like Chapman are not getting those positions via the school (except maybe top 5%, most of whom transfer to UCLA for their OCI), they already had that network in place and just needed the JD. When you look at the % of people being employed at TTT's, you shouldn't even think "oh, so I have a 55% chance at a job as an attorney, that seems worth it." What that means is, 40% of the students had skills to become employed in that industry prior to law school and just needed to pass the bar in that state, the top 5% of the class got legit work at a firm or clerkship, and the rest were hired by the school to do clerical shit.

I'm not advocating for one of these choice, although I will say (and Zuck might disagree, which is fair since their numbers have been TTT lately) that if you have no opportunities now and you want to open some up, Davis probably gives the best shot. It's still a huge risk. It sounds like you want to hear this: If you can live at home and negotiate $30K+/year scholarship w/ in-state tuition at UCI (and if your grandparents have a house in laguna they must be relatively loaded so maybe they can help you out), then go to UCI and link every network, squeeze every contact, and get yourself a paid job. But I don't recommend it. And certainly don't do it if you are paying more than $15K/year for it.