American, Cardozo, USF Forum

[kwalsham]

I am trying to decide between American, Cardozo and USF. I currently live in Oakland, CA with my partner and our dog, and would stay in my current home if I attended USF. I am willing to relocate for law school, but likely will return to SF/Bay Area thereafter and I'm wary of losing local-school points from American/Cardozo if I do. Also, my partner and our dog would not follow me during the first year if I move across the country. While this will give me space to study, it will be an emotional hardship and will mean trying to make ends meet for two households instead of one.

Added wrinkle - I have yet to hear from Hastings and will undoubtedly go there if admitted. At this point though I need to fully weigh my options as they stand.

[jetlagz28]

Do you have any more info on the USF scholarship?

[A'nold]

IMO- USF by a landslide.

[Great Satchmo]

I'm surprised you're in Cardozo with money but only got the one-time $26k at USF (I have the same at USF, but WL'd at Cardozo).

Anyhow:

If it's important to stay in SF, I'd say focus on USF and wait out Hastings. However, if locale isn't as big of a deal, I, personally, would go with Cardozo.

[kwalsham]

Do you have any more info on the USF scholarship?

It's a merit scholly. USF does their 2L scholarships based only on class rank with no preference for previous $$ recipients. I'm therefore not considering it a renewable scholarship.

Also. Does anyone know prospects of transferring from any of those schools?

[Great Satchmo]

IMO- USF by a landslide.

Why would you say that?

[Great Satchmo]

Do you have any more info on the USF scholarship?

It's a merit scholly. USF does their 2L scholarships based only on class rank with no preference for previous $$ recipients. I'm therefore not considering it a renewable scholarship.

Also. Does anyone know prospects of transferring from any of those schools?

Well, it's a one time payment and it's non-renewable. I understand they offer new opportunity for merit based scholarship in 2L, but I do believe they offer some students a renewable scholarship.

[kwalsham]

Well, it's a one time payment and it's non-renewable. I understand they offer new opportunity for merit based scholarship in 2L, but I do believe they offer some students a renewable scholarship.

If they do their dean of admissions did not divulge that information when I spoke with him at length about scholarships. And regardless, I don't have one.

[Great Satchmo]

Well, it's a one time payment and it's non-renewable. I understand they offer new opportunity for merit based scholarship in 2L, but I do believe they offer some students a renewable scholarship.

If they do their dean of admissions did not divulge that information when I spoke with him at length about scholarships. And regardless, I don't have one.

In an e-mail, it was explained that "your academic indices fell a bit short of the level we considered for a renewable scholarship for new first year admits". So, one of us is getting incomplete/incorrect information. Oh well, I suppose.


I've been considering USF for a while, but my fears of being at the school in such a dense market haven't subsided as of yet.

[nodummy]

Why does American have such a bad rep on TLS? I know it's expensive* but after visiting the school and library a few times it seems like an amazing place. The building is new and away from the rest of campus, which means you're only surrounded by other law students for the most part. And the students I met (who aren't reps or counselors) are happy with their choice of attending WCL over other programs.

I've toured a few law schools this year...GULC, Miami, etc...and American is the nicest place I've seen. Sure, GULC is a better program and Miami isn't bad but American was by far the nicest place.

*Does anyone have any real reasons for hating American other than cost complaints? I know it's not GULC or GW but it does outrank GMU, Catholic and Howard.

[tadams86]

They hate on it because of the cost mainly. Being in a "saturated" market makes it an easy target. Since it is considered more of a regional school as well, most people think that because of the market, you will find it near impossible to find a job. The same thing is usually said about USF, but when I toured the school, I found this to be inaccurate by account of some of the 3L's there. Remember people on this board are not the say all be all of job employment prospects. Granted having almost 200k in debt from American will present a steep challenge, I wouldnt let people here discourage you from there.

[Great Satchmo]

They hate on it because of the cost mainly. Being in a "saturated" market makes it an easy target. Since it is considered more of a regional school as well, most people think that because of the market, you will find it near impossible to find a job. The same thing is usually said about USF, but when I toured the school, I found this to be inaccurate by account of some of the 3L's there. Remember people on this board are not the say all be all of job employment prospects. Granted having almost 200k in debt from American will present a steep challenge, I wouldnt let people here discourage you from there.

What did students at USF report for job prospects?

The assumption is that USF, being around SLS, Boalt, Hastings, with SCU and Davis coming as well as many others, that it has to be an extremely difficult uphill battle. That's my assumption, although the employment data (albeit, usually only giving part of the picture) doesn't seem terrible.

[tadams86]

They hate on it because of the cost mainly. Being in a "saturated" market makes it an easy target. Since it is considered more of a regional school as well, most people think that because of the market, you will find it near impossible to find a job. The same thing is usually said about USF, but when I toured the school, I found this to be inaccurate by account of some of the 3L's there. Remember people on this board are not the say all be all of job employment prospects. Granted having almost 200k in debt from American will present a steep challenge, I wouldnt let people here discourage you from there.

What did students at USF report for job prospects?

The assumption is that USF, being around SLS, Boalt, Hastings, with SCU and Davis coming as well as many others, that it has to be an extremely difficult uphill battle. That's my assumption, although the employment data (albeit, usually only giving part of the picture) doesn't seem terrible.

I should preface by saying that obviously I did not talk to the class as a whole, but this was/is one of my concerns about the school. And the students leading the tours both had secured employment upon graduation from previous associateships they had held, and were also confident that others in their class had done the same. As far as I could tell these students were not top 5-10% in their class. Hope this helps. I know you cannot count on a job, but for me this was extremely encouraging. Plus USF has some cool externship programs, including one to geneva.

[Great Satchmo]

They hate on it because of the cost mainly. Being in a "saturated" market makes it an easy target. Since it is considered more of a regional school as well, most people think that because of the market, you will find it near impossible to find a job. The same thing is usually said about USF, but when I toured the school, I found this to be inaccurate by account of some of the 3L's there. Remember people on this board are not the say all be all of job employment prospects. Granted having almost 200k in debt from American will present a steep challenge, I wouldnt let people here discourage you from there.

What did students at USF report for job prospects?

The assumption is that USF, being around SLS, Boalt, Hastings, with SCU and Davis coming as well as many others, that it has to be an extremely difficult uphill battle. That's my assumption, although the employment data (albeit, usually only giving part of the picture) doesn't seem terrible.

I should preface by saying that obviously I did not talk to the class as a whole, but this was/is one of my concerns about the school. And the students leading the tours both had secured employment upon graduation from previous associateships they had held, and were also confident that others in their class had done the same. As far as I could tell these students were not top 5-10% in their class. Hope this helps. I know you cannot count on a job, but for me this was extremely encouraging. Plus USF has some cool externship programs, including one to geneva.

It may just be a real world, non-internet doom and gloom response.

I've been agonizing between USF, USD, and SCU. I feel like in job prospects, it's USD, then SCU, then USF by slight margins. Locale it's a toss-up between SCU and USF, with USD trailing. For money, it's USF, USD, SCU.

Basically, I need a three sided coin to figure this one out.

[tadams86]

It may just be a real world, non-internet doom and gloom response.

It's a t14 world and we are just living in it!