Top Law Schools

ok so here is the deal.

Assuming that the 'leaked' USNWR ranking is real, I now have a dilemma on my hands.

I have put down a deposit at Tulane. Tulane just fell three spots and getting a job out of there is a increasingly competitive. I fear that they may keep slipping. I have 25k year schlry. Plus, I like the city both for the academic and business reasons. Right now I do not want to work in LANO aftr graduation.

UF. I have instate residence plus it would place well into Miami, a place I would not mind working aftr graduation. very cheap. But, I hate the city and would not like living there for three years. I think it would be terrible.

GWU WL. I might get off this. however, part-time program is going to cost me 250k. That is sooo much! I like the school, tho I have some things I dislike about the University in general (not LS). Plus, it adds another year that I have to be in LS.

Also, I have considered retaking LSAT in June to see if my score goes up and if it does waiting till 2011 cycle. I prob will do that.

thoughts?

Hey bud, for what its worth, congrats on all your options and good luck with you choice. I can shed some light on UF only. I studied there for 1 semester and it was the best semester of my law school career. I wanted to stay there until I graduated by my LS only allows one semester of visiting study credits.

A lot of people assume that they won't like Gainesville because it is a small, sort of southern type town surrounded by a lot of very small and rural counties. The atmosphere at UF is awesome and this goes for the law school as well. It is very laid back, not terribly competetive, and enjoying yourself is on the top of everyones list. The one thing I always heard from law students is that law school goes by too quickly and I found that my semester went by way too quickly.

I understand your concern about UF being ranked higher and rising. I know UF rose bc their class size dropped, and it will continue to drop for at least the next two years. So keep that in mind. I have no idea about Tulane, but UF and Tulane are so close in rankings I wouldn't let that concern you too much. If you wait till next year, best of luck. But from someone who spent some time in law school at UF, I only have good/great things to say.

I would go to UF. Gainesville isn't so bad that you can't make the most of it and come away with a degree from the best school in the state in which you want to practice. If it is that bad, go to Tulane.

You would be crazy to pay that much for GW.

Tulane is ok, but if you want to leave LA, I would question attending a LA school.

Do you want to practice in Florida? If so, UF would be a great choice. Low debt and the strongest law school in the state. Unless you hate living in the suburbs, I don't know why you would hate Gainesville.

Tulan Grads don't end up in Louisiana. While it may not be a nationally portable degree, it is a southern portable degree. Most Tulane grads do not stay in Louisiana. So don't worry to much about that factor.

However, if you want miami and it saves you money, why not go to Florida. Plus, don't put too much stock in rankings. They are useful, but not absolute by any measure. Falling 2 spots could be a result of someone sneezing during a job interview from Yale (seriously). On fewer person gets hired at Yale or one more student gets hired from the bottom can lead to shifts of up to 5 spots in other schools in the top 50. Thats because they try to normalize the rankings by putting them on a scale of 0-100 where someone has to have a 0 and someone has to have a 100. The best schools gets worse, and the whole scale changes, some if the worst school gets better. Two spots means nothing.

Tulane has always been T50 except for one year.

The prospects really haven't/won't change.

UF is a good school for FL.

If you really really want to practice in FL, go to UF.

If you would want to practice elsewhere or UF after graduation Tulane would be a good choice.

The costs between the two schools -after scholarship - would be about the same, no?

If that is the case, I would highly recommend Tulane over UF.

Pros of Tulane:
Established reputation (in FL too)
National recognition
Nationally recognized Environmental program (disregard the retarded methodology of US News Specialty rankings)
Internationally recognized Maritime program (#1 in the world)
You like the city for academic/business reasons
You would be able to get job elsewhere if you wanted to and no one would look at you like, WTF you went to University of X public school; my firm doesn't have an office in state X.

Pros of UF:
Established reputation in FL
Growing reputation in GA
Nationally recognized tax law program
Nationally recognized environmental law program (I'm assuming)
You would be able to find a job in FL
You would have to "hustle" to get a job elsewhere

Pros of GW:
N/A (you are not accepted yet/even if you were, it's not worth that much)

OP, talk to FL attorneys from Tulane if you are interested in returning to FL after graduation

Here is a list of the 363 graduates practicing in FL: http://www.martindale.com/Results.aspx

UFMatt wrote:Tulane is ok, but if you want to leave LA, I would question attending a LA school.

This is an interesting statement. I'm not trying to pick on you or anything. If this logic was applied universally, there would be no point in students going to schools like Duke, Michigan, Yale, Harvard, BYU, Vanderbilt, and UVA unless they planned to practice in the states that these schools exist in.