UNC vs. DePaul vs. Loyola vs. Wayne State vs. MSU HELP!!!! Forum

[jihrie]

3.513/161

15,000 per year scholarship at both Loyola Chicago and DePaul

50% tuition at MSU

100% Tuition at Wayne State University

Still haven't heard from UNC but it's my number one choice.

Haven't heard from Tulane yet either but I heard they're generous with money.

Live in Charleston, SC right now and it would be nice to go to Charleston School of Law but they are hardly even ranked and they didn't offer me any money. I really don't want to live in Michigan. I'm from there and I left to go to College of Charleston. I REALLY don't want to go back, but they're offering me so much money. My GF will pretty much follow me anywhere but Michigan. I am going crazy trying make a decision. Anyone have any insight? Please help!

[dramaticpaws]

Go to Wayne if you need to dump your girlfriend.

[jihrie]

Thanks you've been a great help...

I don't want to dump my gf and I want to be confident that if I go into debt in order to go to a higher ranked school I will be able to find a job to manage it. Higher ranking or most scholarship money??

[MSUPHL]

What are you looking for during/after law school? Where do you want to practice? If you hate Michigan (I go to MSU now and HATE michigan so I am leaving) why did you even apply to wayne/msu?

[pattymac]

Ahhh Wayne has gottt to be decent for Michigan. I mean, U of M grads probably aren't staying in MI after they graduate. Wayne is light years ahead of MSU, UDM and Cooley...

But if you don't wanna live in Michigan then yeah, don't, lol. Because Wayne isnt going to travel well.

[greengirl10]

Just attended Wayne State open house. People were nice, law school is in decent shape, the nearby neighborhoods on the other hand.......made me depressed. If you venture out a few blocks in most directions from the law school you'll see a lot of boarded up homes and trash (streets, fences, yards, etc). I don't mind a bit of city character, but Detroit may be a bit much for me. I'm undecided at this point.

[jihrie]

Thanks for the help guys. Well I applied to those schools mainly because my family is there and I got a little pressure to apply. Also, they are my safety schools. Now, how hard do you think it would be to attend Wayne and move after? Obviously U of M grads don't live in Ann Arbor and move somewhere else, but they have a T10 degree to rely on. Wayne on the other hand doesn't have a reputation beyond MI. Would it even make sense to go there and get a free degree if I don't want to live in MI? Also, what do you guys think about UNC, Charleston School of Law and Tulane? And which is better Loyola or DePaul?

[jihrie]

What are you looking for during/after law school? Where do you want to practice? If you hate Michigan (I go to MSU now and HATE michigan so I am leaving) why did you even apply to wayne/msu?

So where are you going and how hard has it been trying to find a job/internship/summer associate position elsewhere?

[XxSpyKEx]

Keep in mind the "free" degree isn't really free. Cost of living, health insurance, books, etc will run you around $50K across 3 years. Then you have to figure in 3 years worth of lost wages, career advances, etc that you could have made in that time. Therefore, it doesn't make a lot of sense to attend a regional school when you have no desire to stay in the region (because you aren't going to find a job somewhere else -- law school isn't like UG and alumni base is incredibly important). It would another story if you already lived in MI and wanted to stay there when you graduate.

EDIT- also don't go to Loyola or Depaul with less then a full-tuition scholarship. It's a tough market right now and you odds are that you aren't going to be able to crack into biglaw attending either of those schools and earn the salary you will need to repay that debt.

Lastly, be wary of the GPA stipulations. Don't count on being top 1/2, top 1/3, or to 1/4 of the class, and a lot of these TTTs attach scholarship stipulations that require just that. The last thing you want is to be paying full price at a TTT for your last 2 years (you'd probably be better off just dropping out at that point).

[PDaddy]

Loyola, DePaul or Wayne if you don't get into UNC.

[PDaddy]

Thanks for the help guys. Well I applied to those schools mainly because my family is there and I got a little pressure to apply. Also, they are my safety schools. Now, how hard do you think it would be to attend Wayne and move after? Obviously U of M grads don't live in Ann Arbor and move somewhere else, but they have a T10 degree to rely on. Wayne on the other hand doesn't have a reputation beyond MI. Would it even make sense to go there and get a free degree if I don't want to live in MI? Also, what do you guys think about UNC, Charleston School of Law and Tulane? And which is better Loyola or DePaul?

Tulane kills all of those schools you mentioned except UNC, and has by far the most portable degree.

1) Tulane/UNC (Chappel Hill)
2) Loyola/DePaul
3) Wayne
4) Michigan St.

[84Sunbird2000]

Thanks for the help guys. Well I applied to those schools mainly because my family is there and I got a little pressure to apply. Also, they are my safety schools. Now, how hard do you think it would be to attend Wayne and move after? Obviously U of M grads don't live in Ann Arbor and move somewhere else, but they have a T10 degree to rely on. Wayne on the other hand doesn't have a reputation beyond MI. Would it even make sense to go there and get a free degree if I don't want to live in MI? Also, what do you guys think about UNC, Charleston School of Law and Tulane? And which is better Loyola or DePaul?

Tulane kills all of those schools you mentioned except UNC, and has by far the most portable degree.

1) Tulane/UNC (Chappel Hill)
2) Loyola/DePaul
3) Wayne
4) Michigan St.

I'm sorry, but in terms of regional reach, Michigan State is way above Wayne, Loyola, and Depaul in terms of portability. Look at their geographic placement in the last few classes. They put 6-9% of their class all the way to California, and out of about 200 graduates, place in 30 states. In fact, even UNC doesn't place as well as Michigan State outside their home state, but that's because of the residency quota for incoming classes (which results in a self-selection bias at the time of employment as well).

Tulane is the answer for most options all over the country, though. At that level, it's not close.

[deadpanic]

Why not South Carolina?

You would be accepted, get in-state tuition, not have far to move, and possibly get some scholarship $. It would also give you a better shot at better jobs in Charleston. Just try to use your connections from C of C to spend your summers working in Chucktown. If you get into UNC, though, that would be tough to turn down.

Don't go to Charleston School of Law. Way too expensive for a provisionally accredited law school.

[XxSpyKEx]

Thanks for the help guys. Well I applied to those schools mainly because my family is there and I got a little pressure to apply. Also, they are my safety schools. Now, how hard do you think it would be to attend Wayne and move after? Obviously U of M grads don't live in Ann Arbor and move somewhere else, but they have a T10 degree to rely on. Wayne on the other hand doesn't have a reputation beyond MI. Would it even make sense to go there and get a free degree if I don't want to live in MI? Also, what do you guys think about UNC, Charleston School of Law and Tulane? And which is better Loyola or DePaul?

Tulane kills all of those schools you mentioned except UNC, and has by far the most portable degree.

1) Tulane/UNC (Chappel Hill)
2) Loyola/DePaul
3) Wayne
4) Michigan St.

I'm sorry, but in terms of regional reach, Michigan State is way above Wayne, Loyola, and Depaul in terms of portability. Look at their geographic placement in the last few classes. They put 6-9% of their class all the way to California, and out of about 200 graduates, place in 30 states. In fact, even UNC doesn't place as well as Michigan State outside their home state, but that's because of the residency quota for incoming classes (which results in a self-selection bias at the time of employment as well).

Tulane is the answer for most options all over the country, though. At that level, it's not close.

LOL. What they don't tell you in the flyer is that those graduates are suckers went to MSU thinking that they would be able to return to their homes state and find a job doing legal work, when in reality are dining tables, working in retail, and mopping jizz off the floor at "porn preview" shops... Just look around, pretty much every TTT lists a median salary of $160K /year for their graduates, .9x% employed within 9 months of graduation, and national placement for their grads. What they don't tell you is that their median salary is based on the number of people who they solicited job placement data from and only 3 people replied, who all got into biglaw. They also list something like "96% employed within 9 months of graduation" but notice that doesn't mean that the grads are doing anything even remotely related to practicing law. I'd imagine that statastic would be high for most TTT grads since they typically can't afford to just sit around for a couple years looking for a legal job and will surely take something non-legal within 9 months.