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If anyone could give me some advice it would be really helpful..

I'm in at BU with 45k total scholly and on the wl at UCLA. I would really like to attend UCLA and would love to live in Cali, maybe practice there for a while, but if I ever wanted to come back to the east coast and NYC would BU be the better bet?

I've heard BU>UCLA for nyc and obviously UCLA>>>>>>>>>BU for Cali, but if I wanted to keep both options open (with a realistic preference towards NYC) then would BU be the right choice? I know I'd have to be top 10-20% to have a shot at NYC from BU, but how bout from UCLA?

I'm considering sending UCLA a LOCI communicating my unequivocal intent to attend if offered a spot off the wl but I'm having second thoughts...not to mention I probably would get no money coming of the wl which def sucks.

Sticker at UCLA is peculiarly scary because the tuition there could well be $60k a year by the time you're a 3L.

I gather you are an east-coaster. Take the BU scholly. That's a decent investment. You aren't safe just by walking into UCLA and nice as California is, you hardly want to be stuck thousands of miles from home, 200k+ in debt, and with piss poor narrowly localized job prospects.

Def BU

Thanks for the replies. Is the money at BU the major selling point here? All I here is that it's t14, then UCLA, USC, UT, Vandy, and then a significant drop of and THEN the quasi-national, strong regional's. I'm wondering whether that drop off is worth 45k in the long run.

Correction: It would be about 70K total difference IF the UCLA tuition doesn't rise at all. If tuition hits 60K like Derrickrose suggests then the difference between BU and UCLA could hit 90 to 100K.

If you are not from CA, take the $$ at BU.

Really appreciate all your replies, and it definitely means something that you're all telling me the same thing lol. Would you mind sharing your reasoning?