Tough choice Forum

[UGHilbert]

Scholarship $$ following school name.

I'd like to practice in the DC area after school, but I'm flexible enough. Got rejected from GULC and GWU, WL'd at American, in at George Mason but without a scholarship.

That desire might not be ideal, but I'd like to hear what people have to say about my existing options.

Interested in public interest/human rights law, but not averse to practicing in other areas. Plus, everyone's interested in public interest before they get to law school, correct?

[vanwinkle]

The DC market is saturated, and even in a good economy it's always highly competitive to get jobs there. T14 grads from all over battle for many of the government jobs as well as spots in DC law firms, and because the criminal prosecution and defense there is federal, they tend to be highly sought jobs too. I would not pay sticker to go to Mason if I were you.

[UGHilbert]

bump for bumping. would love some comments.

[pearl_earrings]

.

[democrattotheend]

Are you a Virginia resident? If so, Mason is a good deal. Otherwise I wouldn't pick it.

[MrKappus]

WL'd at American but accepted to Vanderbilt. This entire process, even after doing it twice and now attending law school, continues to baffle me.

Go to Vanderbilt. This is not a tough choice.

[tangential886]

FWIW, Atlanta has a great non-profit community that would offer great clinical opportunites and experience. There's a large refugee population here and The Carter Center, one of the top human rights organizations in the US, and Emory do a lot of work together. I don't know anything about connections to DC specifically, but Emory certainly offers plenty of great opportunities while you're here. The cost of living around Emory is also dirt cheap compared to DC and I think it's even cheaper than Nashville.

[bceagles182]

I'm not an expert, but Emory is a great school and you've got a decent scholarship offer. It will probably be a little tougher to practice in D.C. coming out of Atlanta... 19% of 2008 grads ended up in the South Atlantic (DC, FL, MD, SC, NC, VA, WV)... but I just feel like Emory gives you reasonable employment options with quite a bit less debt. How debt averse are you?

These are my feelings as well.

[UGHilbert]

I'm not completely debt-averse; unlike someone who is coming straight out of college, I graduated several years ago, and have saved up some money. I'll be at Emory this weekend for the ASW. Looking forward to it.

I'm not a Virginia resident, unfortunately. Looks like Mason is just a bad choice.

Re: American, yeah...... that was surprising. Their call, though.

Thanks for the info on Atlanta non-profit and opportunities therein.

[BarbellDreams]

Vanderbilt by a LOT. I don't think this is too difficult of a choice honestly.

[General Tso]

it's definitely either Emory or Vandy. If you aren't debt averse go with Vandy.