This vs. that vs. the other one - help a brother out. Forum

[kalvano]

Time to choose - Wake ($$) vs. SMU ($$) vs. UConn ($$).

While I am leaving my options open, I really want to pursue prosecution work, hopefully USAO one day. I'm also very interested in a clerkship after school.

I really don't like Texas and have no desire to stay here. I have wanted to move for a long time. BUT...my wife has a job here that she loves, and we have a house here. If we go somewhere else, she takes a pay cut, $6K in Connecticut, $8K- $10K in North Carolina. No guarantees of a job either, or of being able to find a suitable rental house that can accommodate us and our 3 pets (including two big dogs).

But on the other hand, I love New England. I could happily spend the rest of my life there. It's my favorite part of the country.

The cost of the schools breaks down like this (just tuition, not cost of living) -

UConn - $61,186 for 3 years.
SMU - $59,958 for 3 years.
Wake Forest - $58,098 for 3 years.

Due to its high cost of living and lower ranking, I'm kind of putting UConn 3rd, unless there is a valid reason not to.

So, is it worth to pack up everything and go to Wake? Or should I stay here in Texas and go to SMU, then look for a job elsewhere once I am out of school? After I graduate, would a Wake degree carry me farther?

Wake seems to do better with clerkship placement, but SMU does very well in Dallas.

Thoughts, mockery, helpful hints, cruel words?

[blerg]

I think finding a rental that will take your dogs would be the least of my concerns. I live in Boston & the majority of my friends rent and the majority of us have 1+ large dogs.

If you love New England, I say come up here. I'm from OK and I don't regret having moved for a second.

[keg411]

If you really really really want to get out of Texas and really really love New England -- get out now and go to UConn. Once you're in school at SMU it's going to pretty much bind you to Texas and you'll still have to deal with your wife's concerns. The only way you should go to Wake is if you want NC. Also your wife, no matter what she does, would have a better chance of getting a higher paying job in Connecticut than in Winston-Salem.

You really need to talk to your wife and decide how important it is for you to get out of TX. Because if you don't leave now you aren't going to.

[Borhas]

conventional wisdom says SMU, all their placement data seems to show them doing better than their ranking would have you believe. Don't know much about UCONN but New England seems to be massively saturated, so I'd probably avoid that area unless I got into BU/BC. Don't know anything about Wake Forest, except that it has a very nice campus, and generally attractive female UG population.

sorry I can't be more help

[kalvano]

I think it's going to be WF versus SMU.

From either one, I will be looking at moving a few years after I get my degree and get an initial job.

Which one would be better for that? Or at that point, does school name even matter? Is it more your quality of work and recommendations from current employers?

[YEM]

I think it's going to be WF versus SMU.

From either one, I will be looking at moving a few years after I get my degree and get an initial job. ...

If you really think Texas is a black hole of suck - or however you put it to the kid thinking about Baylor over UT in that other thread - then you might give Wake a closer look. But then, I think you also complained in yet another thread about hating "the South" - and Carolina is definitely the South.

For whatever it's worth, I've met SMU lawyers all over the country; don't think I've ever met a Wake lawyer - but that's just limited anecdotal non-data in support of SMU's portability.

Of course, if you could soften your hatred of Texas you might benefit from the trends identified in this article from last summer, originally published in National Review: http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=12310

Or this more recent one: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/citie ... -is-easing

Determining which locale will make you least uncomfortable should be a key consideration b/c neither SMU nor Wake will be an auto-admit to the cosmopolitan Halls of Awesome of NYC, Boston or DC. Face it - where you go next fall is where you'll be for 7-10 years. It's more about where you can be happy.

My four years in the Northeast were enough to put me back in Texas till I die. And who knows - that sort of Texas pride may be one of the reasons you hate it here so much. A lot of folks who can't imagine bragging about the state they come from think it's completely absurd that Texans love Texas so much. Having also spent a lot of time in the Southeast, I can assure you that Carolinians aren't nearly so proud of their state as Texans are of ours ... if that happens to matter to you.

But if you're a big city, East Coast kind of guy, you might give UConn another shot - what's a few more thousand dollars if it means you don't have to put up with inbred hillbillies like me for the foreseeable future?


...cue the banjos... that sure is a pretty avy-tar.



Edited for subject/verb agreement.

[kalvano]

I didn't get the scholarship I thought I would, so tack on another $5,000 to the cost of UConn.

I can't stand Texas. Nothing to do with the South, just Texas.

[YEM]

I didn't get the scholarship I thought I would, so tack on another $5,000 to the cost of UConn.

I can't stand Texas. Nothing to do with the South, just Texas.

Then you've got your answer. Wakey, Wakey...

By the way, sorry to have painted you with the anti-regional thing; I must have confused you with some other "I-hate-this-other-part-of-the-country-because-it's-not-just-like-the-place-I-come-from" forum poster. Should have checked (too lazy to do research? - should serve me well in law school).

Good luck, anyway - now you have to break it to the wife.

[kalvano]

By the way, sorry to have painted you with the anti-regional thing; I must have confused you with some other "I-hate-this-other-part-of-the-country-because-it's-not-just-like-the-place-I-come-from" forum poster. Should have checked (too lazy to do research? - should serve me well in law school).

No worries. I'm not a huge fan of living in the South, and I might have said something about it before. But it's mostly Texas.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards Wake.

[Borhas]

By the way, sorry to have painted you with the anti-regional thing; I must have confused you with some other "I-hate-this-other-part-of-the-country-because-it's-not-just-like-the-place-I-come-from" forum poster. Should have checked (too lazy to do research? - should serve me well in law school).

No worries. I'm not a huge fan of living in the South, and I might have said something about it before. But it's mostly Texas.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards Wake.

why didn't you apply to west coast schools?

[kalvano]

By the way, sorry to have painted you with the anti-regional thing; I must have confused you with some other "I-hate-this-other-part-of-the-country-because-it's-not-just-like-the-place-I-come-from" forum poster. Should have checked (too lazy to do research? - should serve me well in law school).

No worries. I'm not a huge fan of living in the South, and I might have said something about it before. But it's mostly Texas.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards Wake.

why didn't you apply to west coast schools?

Don't want to live there outside a few specific places, and not California at all.

[GordonGekko]

SMU was also one of the schools I was weighing with Wake before I sent in my deposit last week. In the end, I chose WF for the following reasons:

1) cost- I got a better scholarship to Wake, but COL is also significantly cheaper. Saving $$ on loans is a big deal for me.

2) portability- Yes, I know Wake is a largely regional school. However, it is a different kind of 'regional' from SMU. SMU kicks butt in the Dallas market, and that's it. No chance in hell at Austin, and it travels poorly to Houston and even San Antonio as well.

Wake, on the other hand, offers you Greensboro, Raleigh and Charlotte. Additionally, if you have your heart set on Charleston or Atlanta and work hard from day one to latch onto something in those cities, it seems that you have decent odds. Throw in longshot possibilities at DC or NYC if you own exams...I feel like this selection of destinations gives me the best bang for my buck.

3) people- The folks in the admissions office are just incredible. However, I found on my visit that the students were terrific as well. And these weren't just student ambassador types who were giving tours- they were kids who had no clue who I was, nor did they have any incentive to show kindness or visit with me/show me around like they did. Really super people.

In the end, my decision came down to Minnesota, Wake Forest, Iowa and SMU. I visited all except Iowa. I couldn't be more excited to become a Demon Deacon this fall!!

[Nicholasnickynic]

In terms of wake portability, about 1/3 of their grads go to georgia/va/ny. Yes its heavily regional, but like poster above said, if you try, you can get out.

The only thing with wake that I would say is make sure you visit WS. I don't think its a bad town, I found it quite nice, but its NOT for everyone.

Grats on your choices and Good Luck!!

[moandersen]

Just make sure the 10k you save going to wake over uconn is worth sacrificing the quality of life it seems you'll be missing out on if you arent living in the NE. To me, its worth it to spend a little more to be in a place that makes me happy. So if I were you, I would go to uconn. But im not you.