Top Law Schools

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Stanford's pretty tempting either way, but more importantly, where do you want to practice? I suggest if Cali, then Stanford, otherwise, Texas may be your school.

"Probably going into govt. or PI afterward"

If this is the case, and you're 80% sure you want to stay in Texas, I say UT. You will have no problems getting a PI job in Texas at all if you get your JD at Texas. I'm sure you'd have no problem getting a similar job coming from Stanford, but why risk the debt?

I'd also evaluate how strong that 80% chance is, and I'd make sure that you really wanted govt. or PI. If your sure about both of those choices, then I say hook em.

Likewise, Texas will give you more money even if a lower ranked school gives you a lot of dough. I know of students who used full rides at Baylor as leverage for a 3-4k more a year.


Good luck!

It's Stanford. If you do well, you have a chance to be at the TOP of your profession.

I feel like that overrides a non-full scholarship in Texas. Also, your Texas ties will get you ANY job you want in Texas because of your Stanford degree. The only advantage of Texas is the scholarship, but with LRAP and possible financial aid, I feel that you can reduce your debt burden if you go to Stanford.

Get as close to a full ride as possible from UT and then go there.

gossipgirl wrote:It's Stanford. If you do well, you have a chance to be at the TOP of your profession.

I feel like that overrides a non-full scholarship in Texas. Also, your Texas ties will get you ANY job you want in Texas because of your Stanford degree. The only advantage of Texas is the scholarship, but with LRAP and possible financial aid, I feel that you can reduce your debt burden if you go to Stanford.

that part is somewhat...in question

ITE, UT isnt coming out unscathed, even though TX as a state is doing pretty well (relatively speaking)...tough choice between SLS and UT in your situation

That is a tough choice, but if you're really 80% about staying in TX, I'd probably stay in TX.

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Stanford. If you're serious about PI (esp. in Texas, where the salaries are low), LRAP should cover a huge amount (or all) of your loans. Check out the calculator on the SLS website to see if you think it will help. Furthermore, if you change your mind and want to go to a firm, all my Texas SLS friends (and I have several) have gotten slam dunk firm jobs.

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gossipgirl wrote:It's Stanford. If you do well, you have a chance to be at the TOP of your profession.

I feel like that overrides a non-full scholarship in Texas. Also, your Texas ties will get you ANY job you want in Texas because of your Stanford degree. The only advantage of Texas is the scholarship, but with LRAP and possible financial aid, I feel that you can reduce your debt burden if you go to Stanford.

Your Stanford ties will get you any job in Texas. Plus you will have national mobility, should you ever grow from 20 percent sure to 30 or 50 percent sure you'd like to leave Texas.

Don't overthink this. I'm normally a pretty blatant Texas apologist, but come on:

If you can get Texas to double your scholarship, go there. Otherwise, Stanford no question. Trust people when they say you'd rather have $200,000 in debt at Stanford w/ Texas connections than $150,000 at UT with diminished prospects.

Tough call--I would probably go UT with a full scholly, but SLS if I were having to pay upwards of 10k/yr at UT. FWIW, SLS is pretty generous with their need based aid, and I haven't looked at their LRAP policies.

showNprove wrote:If you can get Texas to double your scholarship, go there. Otherwise, Stanford no question. Trust people when they say you'd rather have $200,000 in debt at Stanford w/ Texas connections than $150,000 at UT with diminished prospects.

OP won't be in $150K in debt. In state $28K with 15K per year in scholarship money leaves 13K per year plus COL. Very very tough call. Good luck my friend.

I tried my hand at the SLS calculator using your $20k v. $70k a year figures. The LRAP is nice, but the price difference is still pretty steep, imo. And I low balled your salary. Play with the figures and compare it to UT on the finaid calculator. It sounds like you want to try your hand at SLS, and I can't say I blame you. If I made HYS, I'd have a hard time saying no. A really difficult decision, but the kind of problem many people on TLS would kill to have.