Texas vs. Vandy vs. side thoughts Forum

[starry eyed]

Gotcha. Appreciate the responses, everyone. It's too bad that USC's offer isn't enough to make it anything less than the most expensive school for me.

Something I asked earlier but didn't receive an answer to was what major differences can I expect between graduating from Davis and USC? Davis is only a short drive from my hometown of Sacramento, so it obviously has quite a bit of pull there. I have some modest connections to local attornies via family friends and such, though nothing too significant.

There is also the possibility of me commuting either my 3L year from home. It's a 50 minute drive so a pretty long commute, but could save basically all my living expenses my final year. I think that 3L year would probably be the most realistic one to do this in, but correct me if I'm wrong.

the difference is large firms will accept someone with lower grades from USC than davis-for you that doesn't seem to be a big deal

from what i can gather, small firm hiring is more related to connections/timing/luck than large firm hiring- typically a large firm will have a top 25% or top 33% requirement from UC Davis, and top 50% from USC.- and relies more on how well you fit in the firm. so since you aren't deadset on biglaw, Davis looks good in this situation compared to USC (which is >100k more)

[YungSlumLord]

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[zombie mcavoy]

Anyone else have any final thoughts on this? Plan to make a decision today. Seems it'd be hard to justify Vandy or Texas at this point.

Why would you set some arbitrary date? Keep playing all of these schools against each other. Wait to hear back on scholarship bumps.

If your final debt load at UCLA or USC is ~100K I would say that it is probably all right for your goals. I would favor UCLA over USC if costs are equal, but either is justifiable. Davis is a fine option for so little debt, but only if you're fine with modest career options. Stop considering Vandy and UT; that's stupid.

Retake and you'll have less debt or legitimate options out of California, but if you're gonna go this year I would take the risk on UCLA here. But if USC bumps you significantly (they should), that may win instead.

[YungSlumLord]

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[lawschool1741]

Anyone else have any final thoughts on this? Plan to make a decision today. Seems it'd be hard to justify Vandy or Texas at this point.

Why would you set some arbitrary date? Keep playing all of these schools against each other. Wait to hear back on scholarship bumps.

If your final debt load at UCLA or USC is ~100K I would say that it is probably all right for your goals. I would favor UCLA over USC if costs are equal, but either is justifiable. Davis is a fine option for so little debt, but only if you're fine with modest career options. Stop considering Vandy and UT; that's stupid.

Retake and you'll have less debt or legitimate options out of California, but if you're gonna go this year I would take the risk on UCLA here. But if USC bumps you significantly (they should), that may win instead.

Can you clarify on what you mean by arbitrary dates? Seat deposits are due tomorrow at many places. I've already tried to negotiate scholarships for a few weeks now, and schools aren't budging.

Retake isn't an option for me at this point. Stuck at a very, very, lame job and feel like I've earned going to law school in the fall at this point. So unless UCLA or USC gets back to me about raising my scholarship in the next few days, it simply has to be Davis. Which is totally fine with me.

Not sure about your current financial situation and whatnot, but it may be in your best interest to deposit at both Davis and UCLA. From what I can tell, UCLA does not have any strict regulations against it (not sure about Davis). From there, you can still negotiate, especially with USC (deposit isn't for another month, IIRC). It's a gamble, but a small one in the scheme of the kinds of loans you are going to be taking out and it may pay off exponentially.

[CZorDie]

I was in a very similar situation and decided Davis with $$$ was the no-brainer option. Also, from Sacramento.

[zombie mcavoy]

deposit at all of them; that doesn't mean shit as to where you are actually going to attend. it's a small cost compared to your education.

after you deposit is another great to start negotiations up. You don't even have to dangle another school. Be relentless; admissions folk are effectively salesmen, and you're never going to speak with them again once you matriculate.

[YungSlumLord]

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[zombie mcavoy]

deposit at all of them; that doesn't mean shit as to where you are actually going to attend. it's a small cost compared to your education.

after you deposit is another great to start negotiations up. You don't even have to dangle another school. Be relentless; admissions folk are effectively salesmen, and you're never going to speak with them again once you matriculate.

Hm. Makes sense. At what COA would you say that attending USC/UCLA in my situation would be more advantageous than Davis? With parental assitance and my current savings, Davis will nearly be totally free for me

I'm not an expert on the california market. I do not know. If a fighting chance at biglaw is important to you, though, I would not go to davis. And I would say that, for someone wanting biglaw, 100K debt is probably a fair risk to take for UCLA, and probably for USC, too.

[YungSlumLord]

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[zombie mcavoy]

pretty much all of tls is gunning for biglaw/working in biglaw; that's not because most of us want to have a long career in biglaw, but because, more often than not, it's how you get a crack at the more sexy jobs (ie in-house, "midlaw," fedgov, ect) or end up in those jobs with work/life balance and not be in crushing debt. It's looked at as more of an extended training/hazing post-law school period where you can kill off your loans and try to lateral into the job you really want. Law isn't really like a "bootstraps" profession; your long-term options are relatively limited when you start off in a small firm/local govt role as compared to biglaw.

But good luck; glad we have been able to help some.

[YungSlumLord]

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[lawschool1741]

pretty much all of tls is gunning for biglaw/working in biglaw; that's not because most of us want to have a long career in biglaw, but because, more often than not, it's how you get a crack at the more sexy jobs (ie in-house, "midlaw," fedgov, ect) or end up in those jobs with work/life balance and not be in crushing debt. It's looked at as more of an extended training/hazing post-law school period where you can kill off your loans and try to lateral into the job you really want. Law isn't really like a "bootstraps" profession; your long-term options are relatively limited when you start off in a small firm/local govt role as compared to biglaw.

But good luck; glad we have been able to help some.

Also, USC just increased my scholarship to 35,000 per year. What do you think are my odds of negotiating that even more before May 1? And based on today's increase, would you still recommend placing a deposit at UCLA?

You might get another small bump before 5/1, but probably not until you get other offers to use. IMO, deposit at UCLA still - their cycle has been very conservative and I think it will show after deposits are done (and therefore will need to be aggressive w/ $$ to maintain medians). Either way, you already made back all of your deposit money x 30 with that increase from USC, that's is a good return by an measure.