Top Law Schools

I need something else to do besides continually checking status checkers, so I'll do this!

Would you pick:

Chicago-Kent - Total Estimated Cost: $113,000 w/ a 3.25 GPA
DePaul - Total Estimated Cost: $115,000 w/ a 3.20 GPA
Baylor - Total Estimated Cost: $115,000 w/ a 2.50 GPA
St. John's - Total Estimated Cost: $60,000 w/ Top 50% of Class
Rutgers- Total Estimated Cost: $90,000 - $102,000 w. 3.0 GPA (Unable to predict exact cost without knowing if I can get in-state residency first year or not.)

I think the choice here is narrowed down very quickly, but what do you think?

Estimated cost includes cost of living + tuition for 3 years.

Is none of the above an possibility?

If I had to take one, probably St. Johns just b/c you won't be able to pay back the loans from any of the other schools. Probably not at St. Johns either, but it's easier to pay back 60k than twice that.

Thanks for that insight!

I should add: Please only answer if you are not going to try and answer 'none'. I do not actually care if you would want to go to law school with my numbers or not.

If your goal is to practice in the private sector then choose St. John's or retake the LSAT

If you want public, go to the school with the best public connections and LRAP

Unless I'm missing something, Baylor is ranked reasonably high (~#55) compared with the other choices. I would expect Baylor to place well in Texas.

I've heard decent things about St. Johns, I'd take the scholly and not look back. Not sure which Rutgers you were talking about, but last year for Rutgers Newark if you signed a 1 year lease before school started you were in state.

Yeah, Newark, sorry.

My thoughts so far:

I think, clearly, DePaul is not worth twice as much money compared to St. John's. It would also require a 3.20 GPA which would be difficult to maintain. If I really wanted to live in Chicago, I would probably choose Kent over DePaul since everything else is about equal, although I do not think the gap between the schools is as wide as some people seem to imply.

As far as Baylor is concerned, it really stands alone out of the schools that I applied to. I was not going to apply, but got an early fee waiver and felt like throwing it in. It is the highest ranked school I have been accepted to thus far, but that by itself is not enough to account for a larger price tag. On the plus side, it has a 2.50 GPA to maintain the scholarship and a lower cost of living. I may have overestimated the costs of living in the total cost figure, but I am going by what I was able to find online. Looking at apartments in the area, they are at least somewhat cheaper than they would be in Chicago and Queens.

My primary concern, and I think the primary concern of most people looking at these range of schools, is controlling costs. The job prospects between these schools will not be dictated by their rank. You may want to knock points off of the chicago and new york schools due to competition. Either way, I think I have to plan on a modest starting salary out of school --- especially since private practice is not my goal at the moment. Someone mentioned LRAP, and that is important, but from what I understand school sponsored LRAP programs are only vaguely helpful, and we would really be depending on the national programs (which some people believe are not dependable for the long term, although I haven't seen specific reasons why.)

Being from New York, out of these choices, and having a full scholarship there I would probably choose St. John's slightly over Rutgers at the moment. If Rutgers cost is only 30k more than St. John's, it might come down to which school impresses me more.

Still waiting to hear back from 8 schools, so obviously this could all change. Good luck to everybody and thanks for the advice.

Between Baylor and St. Johns for me.

If I were you I would choose Baylor or maybe St Johns. If I were me, giving unwanted advise, I would say none of the above.

Waco is going to be ridiculously cheap to live in compared to Chicago or Queens, but 1) you will need to own a car, and 2) unless you enjoy being surrounded by fundie Xtians you will have trouble going 3 years without wanting to killself.

OTOH, you'll probably have at least decent job opportunities in Texas (which has a strong economy compared to the rest of the country right now) when you graduate.

Baylor.