tjeff10 wrote:I'm an Oregon native deciding between Oregon Law and ASU Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.
Oregon provided me with 10k scholarship. ASU no money, although esems like they have a wider array of concernations available as I'm not exactly sure the type of law I want to practice. I'm initially thinking something science related given my biology background. ASU has a center for science, technology, innovation.
My concern with Oregon is the terrible job market in Portland. I'm willing to stay and work in Phoenix/SW for some time after graduation, but eventually would like to settle back to Portland.
I've toiled over this decision for several weeks now... including two deposit deadline extensions. Any ideas or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope you're all doing well!
TJ
I was faced with this same decision as an out of state (California) resident. I visited both Oregon and ASU during the ASW. I received a guaranteed $15k scholarship for 1L only at ASU. Oregon gave me $6k per year (scholarship eligible for all 3 years) assuming I remained in the top 1/3 of my class. Here is how I evaluated these 2 choices:
Facilities:
Oregon won hands down. They had the nicest law school facilities out of all of the schools I visited. I was not impressed with ASU's facilities outside of their library.
Student Body:
Talking to the prospective students and current students at each school I got the impression that ASU students were brighter and more intelligent than Oregon's. ASU's prospective students were more articulate, seemed more confident in themselves as to why they were going to law school (at Oregon a few incoming 1Ls admitted they were just going because their parents wanted them too and/or they didn't know what else they would do with their liberal arts degree). Also, ASU's students were deliberating on offers from more reputable schools (Arizona, Texas, UC Hastings, Wake Forest, USC, etc) than Oregon's students (Lewis & Clark, Seattle U, Gonzaga, Willamette, etc).
Location:
This is going to come down to personal preference. I went to college in the Pacific Northwest (University of Washington) and was looking to attend law school and start my legal career in a warm location. Naturally, Arizona was a better fit for me than the state of Oregon. Also, I'm not the biggest fan of Eugene. Its an okay city and has enough activities (esp outdoor) to keep you happy but I preferred Tempe, Scottsdale, Phoenix given the plethora of nightlife, entertainment, and outdoor opportunities available.
Employment:
Both schools are regional schools so in all likelihood you will be starting out your career in the state of the school you attend. One of the factors that drew me to Oregon was the opportunity to work in Portland
after law school. However, from talking to current students at Oregon, I got the impression that Oregon wasn't even the top dog law school in Portland (Surprising for the state's flagship public law school). Students mentioned Portland firms, and non-profits preferred Lewis & Clark to Oregon and the University of Washington had infiltrated Portland as a secondary market to Seattle.
This contrasted greatly with ASU. Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the country and ASU is the
only accredited law school in the Phoenix metro area! ASU students really hammered home that they get first dibs in Phoenix and the only consistent competition they face is from a comparably ranked, yet smaller law school (enrollment), in the University of Arizona. So in terms of market saturation, ASU kicked Oregon's butt. If you go to ASU, you should feel very confident that at the worst you will be able to secure a legal job in Phoenix shortly after graduation (I think the percentage is 99.7% within 9 months). Can't say the same thing about Oregon in Portland. Given the financial risks of law school, this was the biggest factor in my decision and ultimately helped me pick ASU over Oregon for law school.
Hope that helps!