Top Law Schools

Unfortunately my T14 dreams were murdered by the application process (save for a wait list at Cornell). I troll here a lot but I figure I would turn to you people for advice (which is probably a bad idea) as to which school -- of the two -- I should really be considering.

I have a full tuition scholarship for Cardozo Law guaranteed for 3 years, with no academic requirements. I also have a half-tuition scholarship for Loyola Los Angeles that requires me to be in the top third of the class to maintain scholarship eligibility.

Here's some information about my situation and goals: I've been working for the past 3-4 years and have a lot of existing student debt from undergrad (thanks UCLA!). I currently live in LA and my ultimate goal is to practice in Los Angeles. Obviously both schools are decidedly T2 (and I'm sure some of you would call them TTT) and are not "national law schools."

Do I take the additional debt for a Loyola degree to stay in LA or do I take the money and run at Cardozo?

Tough call only because you want to practice in LA. I would still say Dozo because a free legal education in a world where its tough to find legal jobs, is well...priceless. Ideally you want to come out of law school to pursue any area of the law, whether big law or PI, but if you rack up a ton more debt, you won't be able to pursue PI and other lower paying jobs that people find personally rewarding. Just try to intern both summers in LA to build your own connections through networking.