Top Law Schools

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You left out the most important part: the $$$.

romothesavior wrote:You left out the most important part: the $$$.

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taw856 wrote:My bad. Money is roughly even. $5K more in scholarship money at UMN plus, what, $4K cheaper tuition?

$27K total difference over 3 years if my math is right.

How much total at each?

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taw856 wrote:My bad. Money is roughly even. $5K more in scholarship money at UMN plus, what, $4K cheaper tuition?

$27K total difference over 3 years if my math is right.

How expensive is COL in Minnesota? St. Louis is dirt cheap (I got an apartment for $500 a month). Not that it would be a big difference either way.

This is a tough call. Depends on where you want to be. WUSTL will give you more portability, and Chicago (if that is your goal) is more likely from WUSTL. But both schools had OCI bloodbaths, and Chicago is really tough to get into right now. But it is the number one market for Wash U.

Have you visited each? Do you like one more than the other?

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taw856 wrote: Chicago is sorta the ideal goal, but I won't consider LS a failure if I can't get there. I've lived all over before and any sort of city life is in and of itself a massive improvement to some past stops.

Definitely agree here. This is why Illinois (provided I got in) was always a little down on my list compared to my other options.

taw856 wrote: I get the impression Minneapolis is more progressive, and I do like the Big Ten, but those strike me as silly reasons to pick a school.

I don't think they're all that silly when you're comparing these two schools. The differences in cost pretty much neutralize the slight differences in placement. Both schools are good choices. If you think you'll be happier in a certain city because of politics or entertainment value...well...your happiness isn't a trivial issue if you're comparing schools where parsing out differences in employment outcomes is akin to splitting hairs.

I wrongly ignored cultural and quality of life concerns when I moved all the way across the country to take the job I have now...and I made a huge mistake. No amount of pay could make me happy here.

Can you handle the cold up in MN?

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I'm gonna vote UMN but I don't think there is a clear winner here. I'm just voting UMN to counteract my prevailing WUSTL bias.

UMN. $13K/year is significant, and I do like the Twin Cities better than STL (if you can handle those winters, that is). Given that you don't have a strong market location or biglaw preference, the money and school location are the biggest factors here.

C'mon, I can't be the only one thinking it:
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DerrickRose, fashionably late with his trolling I see...

Taw, do you have a UIUC acceptance?

DerrickRose wrote:C'mon, I can't be the only one thinking it:
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DerrickRose: Do you really like Illinois that much? I'm from the West Coast and really haven't heard anything about the school. They are very transfer friendly and my #'s are in line for them.......it just seems on first glance that they are incredibly overranked. Can you offer reasons why they deserve their rank/you like them so much? I really want to know!

A'nold wrote:

DerrickRose wrote:C'mon, I can't be the only one thinking it:
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DerrickRose: Do you really like Illinois that much? I'm from the West Coast and really haven't heard anything about the school. They are very transfer friendly and my #'s are in line for them.......it just seems on first glance that they are incredibly overranked. Can you offer reasons why they deserve their rank/you like them so much? I really want to know!

I troll more because it keeps me interested than anything else. But seriously, I see someone who wants to be in Chicago trying to decide between scholarships from peer schools and my Bat Signal goes up.

If you want a job on the west coast, I would focus on west coast schools. They do definitely accept transfers, but someone coming from a lower ranked school transferring and paying full price trying to get back to Cali is not a good idea. Overranked/underranked has nothing to do with it.

A'nold wrote:
DerrickRose: Do you really like Illinois that much? I'm from the West Coast and really haven't heard anything about the school. They are very transfer friendly and my #'s are in line for them.......it just seems on first glance that they are incredibly overranked. Can you offer reasons why they deserve their rank/you like them so much? I really want to know!

If you want to prosecute and you don't mind being in the Midwest after graduation, I can't think of a better school for you. Chicago may be hard to get, but there are lots of cities in the ~100,000 range in downstate Illinois with state's attorney's offices that are chock full of UIUC grads. Depends on if you are really striving for a city or not, but UIUC would be a good school for prosecution overall, I would think.

PM WassAnch as he was making precisely this decision last cycle. He took WUSTL (with a sizable scholly) over a full-ride at UMN.

Last cycle, I would have advised WUSTL. This cycle, even with $ being the same, I would take UMN. WUSTL really struggled to place last OCI.

chadwick218 wrote:PM WassAnch as he was making precisely this decision last cycle. He took WUSTL (with a sizable scholly) over a full-ride at UMN.

Last cycle, I would have advised WUSTL. This cycle, even with $ being the same, I would take UMN. WUSTL really struggled to place last OCI.

And UMN didn't? There has been a Minnesota 3L on TLS the last few weeks railing about how terrible things have been at UMN. Both schools are struggling mightily.

I would take the money, if I had no preference for market.

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chadwick218 wrote: WUSTL really struggled to place last OCI.

WUSTL certainly didn't struggle as much as Minnesota, if the NALP directory is correct about which firms do OCI where.

taw856 wrote:Appreciate all the input.

(On the waitlist at UIUC.)

Oh, if you don't get in, or if you don't get any money when you do, your other options are better.

Given all of that, I would vote for Minnesota.

So, I've already applied to WUSTL, with my new lower rank should I hit up Illinois and Minn. as well? I wasn't looking into UIUC but what romo says makes me wonder.

A'nold wrote:So, I've already applied to WUSTL, with my new lower rank should I hit up Illinois and Minn. as well? I wasn't looking into UIUC but what romo says makes me wonder.

I mean, I know you are looking to prosecute... but what are some other considerations you've got in mind? Would you be set on Chicago, or does the city not matter as much? And you are married, right? How hard would it be for your wife to find a job?

Also, I'm just a n00b 0L so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I swear it seems like every downstate PD/SA went to UIUC or Southern Illinois.