Need your advice here... Forum

[easylv]

I've got accepted to American and Temple so far, and waiting on UC Davis, U of Wisconsin, Washington and Lee, Cardozo. (I have a 162 LSAT and 3.44 GPA) Initially, I wanted to end up somewhere close to D.C. or New York, so I applied to all top 30 schools in the region, but I got rejected by all of them. If I get accepted to Washington and Lee(which doesn't seem very likely), I think I'll go there. If Washington and Lee rejects me, but if UC Davis accepts me, I think I'll choose it over American despite the location. If I get rejected by both, things will be a bit more complicated....

Assuming I get accepted to Wisconsin and Cardozo, which one would you choose among the four(American, Temple, Wisconsin, Cardozo)? American is attractive because it's in D.C., but I've heard from so many people that it's overpriced and overrated, and you have to compete with people from Georgetown and George Washington. Temple seems to be pretty reputable in the Philly area, but I'm a bit worried about the neighborhood and the fact that it's a T2 school. As of Wisconsin, I went to a big state school in Midwest, so I'm hoping to get out of there, but it's ranked higher than the other schools. Cardozo seems to have similar issues to American...

What do you think? I'd really appreciate any opinions on this...

[vanwinkle]

Temple's a good school, I believe it's the second-best in Philly, and a lot of the Penn grads don't want to stay in Philly. NYC is a larger market, but it's also got CLS, NYU, Fordham, and everyone coming in from other T14s trying to go there.

If you're okay with the idea of living in Philly for a while, I'd go to Temple.

[TTH]

Temple's a good school, I believe it's the second-best in Philly, and a lot of the Penn grads don't want to stay in Philly. NYC is a larger market, but it's also got CLS, NYU, Fordham, and everyone coming in from other T14s trying to go there.

If you're okay with the idea of living in Philly for a while, I'd go to Temple.

Seems credited, but the Philly legal market is shrinking rapidly. Keep that in mind. Do you have any shot at money from any of those? I'd look at managing your debt while going to a market you'd be interested in working in.

[World B. Free]

My Cousin goes to Temple (albeit dental school). They don't mind the area... they do live about 15 min from campus and they LOVE it.

[UCInfo]

Do you have any shot at money from any of those? I'd look at managing your debt while going to a market you'd be interested in working in.

+1. Among the choices you mentioned, tuition should be a factor.

If you're set on working in D.C., I'd pick American of those four. It's a T1 located where you want to work. Sounds like you're worried that people say American is overpriced and has to compete with Georgetown and GW, but the three other choices you mentioned will likely have worse problems for entry in the D.C. market. I wouldn't worry too much about ranking differences among the T1 schools you mentioned unless you're comparing two schools within a given regional market and the higher-ranked school has an advantage in access to jobs.

[FunkyJD]

Initially, I wanted to end up somewhere close to D.C. or New York ...

If you want to work in the Mid-Atlantic, but you don't specifically have to work in a given city in the region -- that is, if Philly, DC, and New York are equally acceptable -- then Wisconsin is out. Choosing from WCL, Cardozo, and Temple -- if the money ends up being roughly equal, my instinct would be to go to Temple.

NYC and DC are obviously hella competitive markets. And you have to look beyond the resident powerhouses (Columbia, NYU, Fordham in NYC; GULC and GW in DC) and expect that grads from the other T14 schools will flood into those markets as well. On the other hand, by comparison, I don't get the sense that too many Harvard, Michigan, or UVa grads would target Philly over DC or NYC, unless they had personal connections to the area. (No offense to Philly -- just sayin'.) So, Philly seems less competitive than DC or NYC, even with the ongoing issues in its legal market, no?