Top Law Schools

As everyone seems to know it's decision time. I'm still waiting to hear back from some reaches, but it looks like it's going to come down to BU or WM for me. BU is at cost and WM offered me $14,000 a year. I currently live right outside of DC and like it, but I think I can be happy in any big city. I want to do soft IP, copyright etc., and hopefully get involved in publishing later on. I'm going to be paying for school entriely in loans and I'm wondering if going to BU going to be worth the extra $25,000 a year?

+1

I'm in almost the same boat, and I'd really like to hear what knowledgeable people have to say about this.

Emandar wrote:I'm in almost the same boat, and I'd really like to hear what knowledgeable people have to say about this.

You came to the wrong place my friend.... (I am only slightly kidding there).

From what I understand, both are strong regional feeders. BU is going to get you into Boston and NY a little bit better than W&M is going to on the whole. W&M is a bit better known in Northern VA and into the South than BU. My perception is that the amount of IP work that goes on between NY and DC is about the same, but take that for what it's worth. The employment outcomes don't seem to be wildly different between the two.

If the schools themselves are no different to you, then I would go for the cheaper school. However, Williamsburg is completely different than D.C. and even more different than Boston. Take that into account when deciding.

I would go with W&M. It is much less expensive than BU, both in terms of tuition and COL, and ITE you can't really go wrong by choosing more $$$ at a solid school. Also, Williamsburg isn't as bad as most TLSers make it out to be. Sure, it isn't a big city, but it is still a short drive from Richmond and VA Beach (about an hour away) and not too far from DC/Nova (about 2-3 hours away).

There are several threads dissecting this information and they can probably tell you how much credence to give it, but NLJ250 firm placement rates for BU and W&M for the class of 2009:
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... hbxlogin=1

BU: 34.6%
W&M: 21.8%

Top 1/3 at BU, top 1/5 at W&M make "big law" or some semblance thereof for the most recent graduates.

Is that extra % chance at a big firm worth the $$ between the schools?
Will those numbers change in three years?

No one can say, because no one knows (though smart money is that both numbers will be down in the coming years, but will they rebound?). Gonna be a tough call, but those numbers are probably interesting.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure the extra 13% boost is worth the extra $75,000. Seems like a few others are in the same boat as me. Man, I though it would be a stress free ride after I got all of of my apps in haha.

Bumping this back up to get some more opinions. This decision is killing me.

These two schools are very different. One is a private school in urban area and the other is public in suburban.
I see the money differential but there's much more to it than just money in this case.

If you are risk averse, go WM. I would personally go with BU because I'm a risk taker.

Both schools are comparable once you weigh in your scholarship. Visit and decide.