Help! UCLA vs. USC vs. Duke vs. UVA Forum

[whatshouldidohelpme]

I am having a really hard time making a decision right now and I don't have much time left! I would greatly appreciate any opinions. Thank you!
I have lived in California all my life and love it here (born and raised in LA, went to undergrad at Berkeley), and probably would like to work here if the offer is good. All of my family is here, and I feel at home in California. At the same time, I want to go to a law school that has the most national reach to keep my options open. Money is, of course, also a big consideration. Here are the choices:

UCLA (sticker, in-state)
UVA (30K per year)
USC (25K per year)
Duke (18K per year)

I would appreciate any help at all. Right now, I think it's mostly a battle between UCLA and UVA...

[im_blue]

UVA is the no-brainer choice here. It's the best school on your list, has the most national reach, places the best in CA (yes, even compared to UCLA/USC), and gave you the most money.

[forty-two]

Have you tried to negotiate with UCLA to get a scholarship? A friend of mine had similar scholarships from similar schools and got UCLA to go from sticker to 20K per year. However, if they don't give you any money, I'd have to agree that UVA is your best option. I personally don't particularly like USC, by the way, but if you like the school it might be worth considering. I think UVA would open more doors, but that is a very good scholarship and USC's alumni network really is amazing.

[creamedcats]

What battle? UVA is the better choice here by far.

That said, if UCLA matches (or comes close) UVA's scholarship offer, you could take UCLA and be happy with it. They still give you some national reach. Negotiate and see what happens.

[Bosque]

UVA is the no-brainer choice here. It's the best school on your list, has the most national reach, places the best in CA (yes, even compared to UCLA/USC), and gave you the most money.

I would argue that Duke places about as well as UVA, but I will still say UVA is your no-brainer choice here. They gave you the most money. Provided you liked it when you visited, the choice is obvious.

[lshopeful3232]

UVA!

[holydonkey]

UCLA should give you money. Negotiate with them to match UVA or USC. If they do, go to UCLA. If they don't, I'd probably go with UVA.

[flyingpanda]

At the same time, I want to go to a law school that has the most national reach to keep my options open.

Based on this, UVA is definitely the choice. You already have ties to CA so you'll be able to get a job here without going to UCLA. UVA offers much more national reach. Even if UCLA matches the scholly, I think UVA is still the best option.

[FlightoftheEarls]

At the same time, I want to go to a law school that has the most national reach to keep my options open.

Based on this, UVA is definitely the choice. You already have ties to CA so you'll be able to get a job here without going to UCLA. UVA offers much more national reach. Even if UCLA matches the scholly, I think UVA is still the best option.

[270910]

At the same time, I want to go to a law school that has the most national reach to keep my options open.

Based on this, UVA is definitely the choice. You already have ties to CA so you'll be able to get a job here without going to UCLA. UVA offers much more national reach. Even if UCLA matches the scholly, I think UVA is still the best option.

[lakerfanimal]

I was going to say USC but UVA is even cheaper for you it looks like.. I'd say out of those two go to the one you think you'll be able to enjoy and do better at, I don't think there's a huge difference placement wise for LA.

[RVP11]

WTF is up with some of the people in this thread? Even if UCLA/USC was cheaper, UVA is the right choice. The fact that UVA is less does nothing but put a big fat cherry on top.

[whatshouldidohelpme]

Thank you everybody for the helpful replies! I'm definitely leaning towards UVA now.

I just wanted to clarify (since there doesn't seem to be a consensus), in terms of placement in California/LA area, would UVA have an advantage over UCLA/USC? Or are they on the same level?

Thanks so much!

[lakerfanimal]

Thank you everybody for the helpful replies! I'm definitely leaning towards UVA now.

I just wanted to clarify (since there doesn't seem to be a consensus), in terms of placement in California/LA area, would UVA have an advantage over UCLA/USC? Or are they on the same level?

Thanks so much!

This is old and an extremely small sample size in terms of the number of firms, but it does give you some idea about UCLA vs UVA and UCLA and USC are fairly equal in LA...

http://www.calvin.edu/admin/csr/student ... w/data.htm

[270910]

Thank you everybody for the helpful replies! I'm definitely leaning towards UVA now.

I just wanted to clarify (since there doesn't seem to be a consensus), in terms of placement in California/LA area, would UVA have an advantage over UCLA/USC? Or are they on the same level?

Thanks so much!

At a school like UVA, once you fall outside of the range where you will be competitive in CA/LA you will still have a good chance at a big NYC firm. The better national school will always go tit-for-tat with the almost as good more-local school, but its placement strength will then continue down.

Let's put it this way: It doesn't matter where you want to work, you would MUCH rather be median at UVA than median at UCLA, even ITE.