Top Law Schools

No money at UCLA vs. full-tuition covered at Pepperdine (contingent on being to 1/3 of class).

I'm leaning toward UCLA right now. I had already sent in deposit for Pepperdine before I heard from UCLA, so I still have some time to decide.

What do you guys think? Is it worth the 105k dept (assuming UCLA tuition stays the same and I maintain a high class rank at Pepperdine)?

UCLA offers much better chance of BigLaw, and some mobility out of CA. Pepperdine offers very little debt, and law school in paradise (however Pepperdine is a very conservative school...not sure if this is a pro or con for you).

Most people won't post intelligent replies to your post if you don't include information such as:
-What kind of law you want to practice
-Where you want to practice
-Special considerations

siaynoqq wrote:No money at UCLA vs. full-tuition covered at Pepperdine (contingent on being to 1/3 of class).

I'm leaning toward UCLA right now. I had already sent in deposit for Pepperdine before I heard from UCLA, so I still have some time to decide.

What do you guys think? Is it worth the 105k dept (assuming UCLA tuition stays the same and I maintain a high class rank at Pepperdine)?

Be very careful with the bolded "assumption."

Oh yea, and go to UCLA. Why risk losing a scholarship and being stuck at a school with much worse placement?

ucla is tcr here, i would never take a ls scholarship contingent on class rank.

This has to be a flame.

Unless you want to do something PI-ish, and know that having very little to no debt is going to be a huge benefit in your anticipated career path, I think UCLA is the answer. Especially w/the top 1/3 req.

LOL how bad would you feel if you ranked 101 out of 300 at Pepperdine?

Job prospects would be tougher AND you would have to pay sticker for two years.

Knowing I got into UCLA, that would make me want to jump off a bridge.

hth

savesthedayajb wrote:This has to be a flame.

Why? Because this person doesn't weigh life's decisions the same way you do?

I would be very wary of taking a scholarship with such strings attached. If you don't end up top 1/3, you (a) will be paying full tuition and (b) likely won't be getting any decent job offers since anyone not in the top 1/3 at Pepperdine is probably not all that attractive to employers in this economy.

UCLA is no golden ticket either, but it's clearly the more prestigious and better placing school here.

siaynoqq wrote:...assuming UCLA tuition stays the same...

In-state tuition this upcoming year at UCLA is $40,500. The Dean at UCLA has quoted me that it'll be ~$45k for '11-'12 and ~$49k for '12-'13 in-state tuition.

For biglaw, UCLA is going to win this contest. For PI, UCLA is still the victor because you can take advantage of the safety net that is IBR. Plus, you're going to have far better PI job options with a prestigious degree from UCLA.

Don't choose Pepperdine without visiting and getting a feel for the school. Beautiful campus and all but the atmosphere isn't for everyone, as I found to my disappointment.

Unless your only concern is debt aversion. UCLA FTW.

Maybe ask the Pepperdine office how many people lose the scholarship you were offered (sounds like a Faculty Scholarship? if it came with a living stipend or maybe a Deans Scholarship for full); I doubt its very many, but still info worth knowing if you are seriously considering them.

law&golf wrote:

siaynoqq wrote:...assuming UCLA tuition stays the same...

In-state tuition this upcoming year at UCLA is $40,500. The Dean at UCLA has quoted me that it'll be ~$45k for '11-'12 and ~$49k for '12-'13 in-state tuition.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

Um there's this thing called a recession. In it California has a budget crisis that causes them to raise tuition dramatically at every UC school...oh and there's this little thing about law students NOT GETTING HIRED

Grad09 wrote:

law&golf wrote:

siaynoqq wrote:...assuming UCLA tuition stays the same...

In-state tuition this upcoming year at UCLA is $40,500. The Dean at UCLA has quoted me that it'll be ~$45k for '11-'12 and ~$49k for '12-'13 in-state tuition.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

Unfortunately, the days of the UCs being a screaming bargain are over because (a) California is in a budget crisis and (b) USNEWS doesn't reward schools with low tuition. Quite perversely, schools do better in the rankings if they charge high tuition and then redistribute most of that money back in the form of scholarships because when they do that they are "spending" financial resources on the students.

If you are from California, UCLA is still going to be cheaper than any of its peer schools (not including any scholarships that would change the figures).

For UCLA, the peers are Cornell ($51K in 2010), USC ($45k in 2009, likely high 40s in 2010), Vanderbilt ($45K in 2010), Georgetown ($45K in 2010), Texas ($46K out of state in 2010).

All of these tuition figures at the other schools are highly likely to go up each year. UCLA only looks bad on paper now because it's the only school to project the tuition raises. Short term, everyone is shocked that tuition has ascended so quickly at the UCs. But, long term, I think UC tuition for in-state students will stabilize at just slightly below what peer schools are charging. California knows there's no point is charging ultra cheap tuition when no one else is and the demand is still there.

law&golf wrote:

siaynoqq wrote:...assuming UCLA tuition stays the same...

In-state tuition this upcoming year at UCLA is $40,500. The Dean at UCLA has quoted me that it'll be ~$45k for '11-'12 and ~$49k for '12-'13 in-state tuition.

Can a mod or someone at least update the UCLA article to reflect this information so that I don't repeatedly see people shocked by this information, this shouldn't be a giant secret

I knew it was going up, but I didn't know that by 3L I'll be paying almost 50K for tuition alone. It just stings knowing people paid 30K a year in the not-so-distant past.

Maybe a recovering economy will ease the pain....

weee wrote:

law&golf wrote:

siaynoqq wrote:...assuming UCLA tuition stays the same...

In-state tuition this upcoming year at UCLA is $40,500. The Dean at UCLA has quoted me that it'll be ~$45k for '11-'12 and ~$49k for '12-'13 in-state tuition.

Can a mod or someone at least update the UCLA article to reflect this information so that I don't repeatedly see people shocked by this information, this shouldn't be a giant secret

Agreed. This is annoying since this happens in every UC thread. Here's the original thread about UC tuition hikes if anyone wants to bump it, but the numbers are now even higher than what was proposed a few months ago.
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3#p1593493