John Marshall (Chicago) 2010 Forum

[merco]

Anyone here who goes/went to JMLS in Chicago want to share their experience? I recently got accepted to the school with a decent scholarship and thinking about attending.

[nitr0x99]

General consensus is that JMLS is the worst out of all the Chicago schools

U Chicago/Northwester

DePaul/Loyola/Kent

JMLS


Is there a GPA requirement for the scholarship? If you lose it and wind up paying sticker at JM, you will be in a pretty bad spot.

[samer]

General consensus is that JMLS is the worst out of all the Chicago schools

U Chicago/Northwester

DePaul/Loyola/Kent

JMLS


Is there a GPA requirement for the scholarship? If you lose it and wind up paying sticker at JM, you will be in a pretty bad spot.

TITCR. Not to mention all the surrounding schools vying for Chicago (Wash U, IU, Illinois, etc). So long as you don't want BigLaw and like the idea of low debt, go for it. Just keep in mind that you're pretty much restricted to Chicago upon graduation

[merco]

Thanks for the input. I understand it is considered the bottom of schools in Chicago, but how does it compare among other T4 schools like Howard (DC) and Valparaiso?

[kittenmittons]

General consensus is that JMLS is the worst out of all the Chicago schools

U Chicago/Northwester

DePaul/Loyola/Kent

JMLS


Is there a GPA requirement for the scholarship? If you lose it and wind up paying sticker at JM, you will be in a pretty bad spot.

RANCID NU trolling

[09042014]

General consensus is that JMLS is the worst out of all the Chicago schools

U Chicago/Northwester

DePaul/Loyola/Kent

JMLS


Is there a GPA requirement for the scholarship? If you lose it and wind up paying sticker at JM, you will be in a pretty bad spot.

RANCID NU trolling

I came for JMLS anti trolling but stayed for the pro NU trolling.

[samer]

Thanks for the input. I understand it is considered the bottom of schools in Chicago, but how does it compare among other T4 schools like Howard (DC) and Valparaiso?

I think it's difficult to compare T4s in different regions because they are all regional schools. Therefore, Valpo and JMLS don't really compete since John Marshall is pretty much restricted to Chicago, and Valpo likes to keep its grads in Indiana. However, I'm sure come Valpo grads try to work in Chicago, and to be honest, I don't know how they fare in comparison to John Marshall grads. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

If I were you, I think I'd pick the T4 with the least "big dog" competition, so to speak. So, if choosing between Valpo and John Marshall, for example, I'd probably pick Valpo since the Indiana market has less law schools competing than the Chicago market.

[patrickd139]

Anyone here who goes/went to JMLS in Chicago want to share their experience? I recently got accepted to the school with a decent scholarship and thinking about attending.

I didn't go, but turned down a full scholly + stipend and do not regret the decision one bit. JMLS's main avenues for finding employment (Chicago area government and PI jobs) were all on hiring freezes when I was going through the application process, so I didn't look into it much more after finding that out.

Advice:

1) study for LSAT
2) retake and get higher score
3) ???
4) profit

[merco]

Thank so much everyone. Still pretty much undecided as to what I should do, but appreciate all the advice.

[kcolo]

I got a nice scholarship offer from them as well and am in the same boat--accept the offer & go or wait a year or so and reapply if I don't get into Kent or DePaul.

[Kobe_Teeth]

I got a nice scholarship offer from them as well and am in the same boat--accept the offer & go or wait a year or so and reapply if I don't get into Kent or DePaul.

Only go to those 2 w/ scholly. So, depending on your numbers you might still be up for a re-take.

If JMLS is free and you have parents to live with...why not? If that's what you really want. Otherwise, re-take.

[djselm]

Anyone here who goes/went to JMLS in Chicago want to share their experience? I recently got accepted to the school with a decent scholarship and thinking about attending.

I didn't go, but turned down a full scholly + stipend and do not regret the decision one bit. JMLS's main avenues for finding employment (Chicago area government and PI jobs) were all on hiring freezes when I was going through the application process, so I didn't look into it much more after finding that out.

Advice:

1) study for LSAT
2) retake and get higher score
3) ???
4) profit

If you turned down John Marshall, where did you end up going? I got the full scholarship and living stipend from them and got a full ride for one year, then $25,000 for the next 2 years from Chicago Kent. I'm trying to decide what to do and it sounds like you were in the same boat.

[patrickd139]

If you turned down John Marshall, where did you end up going? I got the full scholarship and living stipend from them and got a full ride for one year, then $25,000 for the next 2 years from Chicago Kent. I'm trying to decide what to do and it sounds like you were in the same boat.

If I were in your shoes, I would take the money from Kent and run with it. JMLS has some strict GPA requirements to keep your scholarship, IIRC. Assuming there aren't any unrealistic (top 1/3, etc.) conditions on your Kent scholarship, then that seems to be the clear winner here. You'll make the investment back in spades. Plus, you've got an outside shot at both transferring to UChi/Northwester and biglaw if you graduate at the top of your class from Kent. Not so much from JMLS.

I ended up taking a near-full-ride from a T2 in the central part of the country. It's not going to get me into Chicago biglaw, but I'm realistic and ok about that.

HTH and good luck making your decision!