Vandy at Sticker?? Forum

[miamiman]

Assuming you have NO other (legal education) options available to you, is vandy worth it at sticker price? If no, please provide a reason. My friend is making precisely this decision and I wasn't sure how to advise.

No science/tech background; open-minded to region of practice; leaving a shitty, low-paying job; paying for it entirely via loans (little to no parental support)

[MJMD]

If his family is wealthy and can easily afford it, sure.

Edit:

...paying for it entirely via loans (little to no parental support)

Well, then, maybe not.

But then again: no other options; leaving an awful, low-paying dead end job; presumably wants to be a lawyer; pretty darn good school.

I guess it's worth it if wanting to be a lawyer is worth it.

[merichard87]

Vandy is definitely one of the better horses in this law school race but it would depend on the person as far as paying sticker.

Did they just barely get into Vandy? Or did they just apply late? If they reapplied next year would you expect them to have better choices?

[miamiman]

Vandy is definitely one of the better horses in this law school race but it would depend on the person as far as paying sticker.

Did they just barely get into Vandy? Or did they just apply late? If they reapplied next year would you expect them to have better choices?

applied super late. for reasons that escape me, has no other options available for law school. applied pretty extensively across the board.

[Regionality]

I think it's worth it if you're not already in a lot of other debt from undergrad/credit cards/car loans/etc. Vandy is amazing and I would pay sticker.

It's enough of a borderline call that if you want to go to law school and it's the only option you have, I would never skip going to law school bc this isn't a T14 no-brainer. If you got a 5k/yr scholly ppl would jump all over it, but 15k less in debt is nothing. Vandy is worth sticker.

[merichard87]

I would probably pay a little under sticker for Vandy but if he applied super late I would tell him to wait and reapply first day next cycle.

[Regionality]

I would probably pay a little under sticker for Vandy but if he applied super late I would tell him to wait and reapply first day next cycle.

See what I mean!?! Arbitrary distinction...things are not so obviously black and white regarding financial risk and benefit of attending law school... "A little under sticker" is so arbitrary...15k in savings, or whatever, is not enough to make a school worth it or not. 30k or more seems like a reasonable chunk of change to choose one school over another...under that and the financial difference of COA are essentially equivalent in terms of risk analysis.

[MJMD]

I would probably pay a little under sticker for Vandy but if he applied super late I would tell him to wait and reapply first day next cycle.

See what I mean!?! Arbitrary distinction...things are not so obviously black and white regarding financial risk and benefit of attending law school... "A little under sticker" is so arbitrary...15k in savings, or whatever, is not enough to make a school worth it or not. 30k or more seems like a reasonable chunk of change to choose one school over another...under that and the financial difference of COA are essentially equivalent in terms of risk analysis.

The question is this: if he had to slave away at his current job for another year before finding out if things had improved a teeny-tiny bit for him (e.g., maybe a 5k scholarship), from what is already not a bad situation, would he kill himself before ever seeing the inside of a law library? I've asked this question of myself this year, and know the answer: I quit.

Personally, I think there's something liberating about having only one choice (when it's a good one).

[motiontodismiss]

So I'm guessing the answer would be a yes if one has full parental support, has no credit card or student debt, applied early in the cycle, and the other option is unemployment or a useless Econ MA?

[romothesavior]

Depends on the person's goals, but I would say yes. But only if you REALLY want to be a lawyer you can't improve your LSAT at all. That is the absolute lowest I would go for sticker though.