Top Law Schools

Hey everyone, I have a dilemma. My girlfriend and I are going to law school together, and she made things a lot more difficult by getting into UVA today. We both have virtually full tuition scholarships to Florida State University and I would assume zero chance for money at UVA. We are trying to figure out if it is worth going into $360,000 of debt (30k/yr living) since it is a 95% chance will come back to Florida after law school. Neither of us has much interest in biglaw and we are both definitely going to the same school so we can't hedge our debt in that manner.

I need to decide if I should change to ED to try and make UVA happen. My numbers are 172, 3.54 for what it is worth and hers were 3.89, 166. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated! (Sorry for the length)

Seriously?

Seriously....

Irrespective of your girlfriend, I would ED UVA, unless you want to go some other T14 (which doesn't seem likely.) I don't want to seem like a prophet of bad news, but in the case that you guys don't survive law school, or 5 years past that, wouldn't you rather have that UVA JD?

:/.

you two want to practice in a smaller firm in Florida for a good while? Then go FSU methinks. If you want to go elsewhere UVA is a much more portable degree. If you are interested in doing something IBR or LRAP related then I'd say go UVA. You can have your loans forgiven and you will have better employment prospects. It really comes down to what you two want to do I think.

Well it is a decision we will make together. We will be married 2 years from now, I guess I should add that in.

I'm looking for Commercial Litigation or Imminent Domain (subject to reconsideration) in a midsized firm.
She is looking more public interest

Hmmm...well as you can tell from my profile I hit the ED button because I loved UVA when I visited and I wanted the ability to play lawyer with the big dogs. With that also comes the possibility I end up homeless and ducking Sallie Mae for my remaining years. Your girl could hit up the LRAP (UVA is known for having a bad one compared to other top schools but they be revamping it I hear) but you not so much. The debt is scary man I know, I still get a little freaked out thinking of the debt I'll be responsible for in 3 1/2 short years. What also scares me is my friends who went to a Tier 1 schools (think Big Ten, think football, think ranked in the 30s) who are working at the mall after passing their bar exam (no exaggeration). Legal market = located squarely in the shitter and the further from the top you are the more pressure you have to do really well to find a job. Someone on here said something that I agreed with awhile back. They told someone to follow the money while they follow the jobs. Not everyone will agree with me on this but I decided I would take the debt and turn down some nice scholarships in order to have a better chance of surviving the terrible blight in legal history known as ITE.

while i agree with most of what doritos says i think it has more to do with ppl seeking big law/out of region jobs. if ur 95% sure ur going back to florida i think state is a safe bet as uf/fsu are the top schools in fl. as long as you stay near the top of your class you should have no problem securing a good job

sooner25 wrote:while i agree with most of what doritos says i think it has more to do with ppl seeking big law/out of region jobs. if ur 95% sure ur going back to florida i think state is a safe bet as uf/fsu are the top schools in fl. as long as you stay near the top of your class you should have no problem securing a good job

Doing this is not an easy task no matter where you go to school

3Ls outside the T1 are getting killed this year when it comes to finding law firm jobs. I voted for UVA because it's going to place you well in FL and across the south when you graduate. You'll be ahead of the line looking for FL jobs, in front of everyone who goes to Miami, FSU, etc.

That'll especially be helpful since I'm assuming you're both going to want to find work in the same city when you graduate. You might both be able to find work going to FSU, but it's not as likely you'll be able to do it in the same city...

.

beesknees wrote:Also, if OP doesn't want biglaw, having that huge amount of debt could limit him to biglaw as the only means to pay off his debt (at least for 5-10 years). That's why its not a simple answer of T10. Yes, a school like FSU can be limiting in terms of types of job prospects, but so can huge debt.

Not with IBR.

EDIT: I'm not sure how IBR works for married couples...

Thanks for the thoughtful replies guys. I am surprised FSU got as much of the voting as it did. I thoguht it would be a UVA landslide

mikeh915 wrote:Thanks for the thoughtful replies guys. I am surprised FSU got as much of the voting as it did. I thoguht it would be a UVA landslide

If you do decide to go for UVA, you should E-mail the adcomms and let them know your fiancee is accepted there and she's far more likely to attend if you do too. Do this even if you ED.

Anyone know how IBR works for those married?

vanwinkle wrote:

mikeh915 wrote:Thanks for the thoughtful replies guys. I am surprised FSU got as much of the voting as it did. I thoguht it would be a UVA landslide

If you do decide to go for UVA, you should E-mail the adcomms and let them know your fiancee is accepted there and she's far more likely to attend if you do too. Do this even if you ED.

Would that give a boost for admission? Did you mean if I don't decide to ED send it?

mikeh915 wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:

mikeh915 wrote:Thanks for the thoughtful replies guys. I am surprised FSU got as much of the voting as it did. I thoguht it would be a UVA landslide

If you do decide to go for UVA, you should E-mail the adcomms and let them know your fiancee is accepted there and she's far more likely to attend if you do too. Do this even if you ED.

Would that give a boost for admission? Did you mean if I don't decide to ED send it?

Do this even if you ED.

beesknees wrote:

Doritos wrote:

sooner25 wrote:while i agree with most of what doritos says i think it has more to do with ppl seeking big law/out of region jobs. if ur 95% sure ur going back to florida i think state is a safe bet as uf/fsu are the top schools in fl. as long as you stay near the top of your class you should have no problem securing a good job

Doing this is not an easy task no matter where you go to school

Yes, but you cannot do poorly at a top law school, either. If I were slightly below median at UVA, I'd be sweating balls come OCI time because I'd be thinking of Sallie Mae.

What's more, you can easily invert the argument and say well, sucking at law school is a possibility no matter where you go, so having less debt will minimize the consequence of this suckage and not make you a slave to debt.

Also, if OP doesn't want biglaw, having that huge amount of debt could limit him to biglaw as the only means to pay off his debt (at least for 5-10 years). That's why its not a simple answer of T10. Yes, a school like FSU can be limiting in terms of types of job prospects, but so can huge debt.

I agree, it's not an easy decision that is why there are intelligent people who make opposite decisions every cycle. My personal thinking is that, yes I could end up finding out i'm not as special as my mom always told me and I'm a below median student at UVA. I would have loads of debt and not stellar grades. I would have more options to find legal employment at UVA than below median at FSU. I would have lots of debt but IBR and LRAP can go a long way in enabling me to stay out of the poor house. Below median at FSU I may struggle to find ANY law job but I'll still have that COL debt. That, plus my Ugrad stuff would put me at 75k which is nothing to sneeze at. Like I said, I know people who are working at THE MALL with JDs from Tier 1 schools (not to say anyone not in T14 will end up there but its not just some hyperbolic situation) so I want to maximize my chances of finding a decent paying law gig and if I fail at that I can utilize LRAP and IBR. I'm not saying this is TCR but just my reasoning for my situation and anyone can feel free to apply to their own.

I voted UVA because you'll bolster our medians.

mikeh915 wrote:Anyone know how IBR works for those married?

I believe it counts both of your incomes for the 10% (after Obama) payment amount which is unfortunate.

booboo wrote:Irrespective of __________.....wouldn't you rather have that UVA JD?

this.

I'm in the same boat as you, except its a boyfriend, and UF. It's not as easy a call as everyone on here seems to think it is "seriously...", its about where you want to be. I'm not too attatched to florida.

This is kinda unrelated, but I'm leaving a SO 400 miles away to go to UVA. I could have gone to the local state school for free but instead decided to follow my head/heart to UVA. In 30 years will you regret passing up a once in a lifetime chance to go to such a great school?

jawsthegreat wrote:This is kinda unrelated, but I'm leaving a SO 400 miles away to go to UVA. I could have gone to the local state school for free but instead decided to follow my head/heart to UVA. In 30 years will you regret passing up a once in a lifetime chance to go to such a great school?

Having trouble parsing this. Are you saying you're leaving her back home while you go to law school, or that you're leaving her?