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Hello all,

I'm looking to get into the chicago market with a 3.46 and a 165. I come from the Madison area and would get in state tuition there, but i am also quite aware that they recently have not been placing well in Chi-town.

Obviously top Chi schools are out of reach for me, so my challenge is whether i want to go for a higher ranked midwestern school and feed in, or take a shot at lower ranked Chi schools (loyola, kent, ect.)

Questions: Knowing that i would have a higher chance of a chi job out of a chi school, is there any tangible difference down the road of opportunities between UW madison, OSU, ect. on my resume versus a Loyola or kent?

One note, i will not consider going to Illinois. I visited the school, and it is simply out of the question, despite it's chicago placement statistics.

Anyways, thanks for the help

Apply to IUB, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Chicago-Kent, and Loyola.
Compare $ offers and choose the one with the lowest debt.

im_blue wrote:Apply to IUB, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Chicago-Kent, and Loyola.
Compare $ offers and choose the one with the lowest debt.

TITCR.

Just out of curiosity, what deters you so strongly from Illinois?

So, whatever you don't like about Illinois, is it worth defining your career over? Because your decision to not consider Illinois is very likely to lock you out of the Chicago biglaw market. Granted, the C/O 2015 will be in a different conomy, and perhaps Wisconsin will be placing in Chicago again by then (though its placement in Chicago was never good to begin with,) but I doubt it.

It doesn't matter anyway, since OP has no shot at Illinois with their 3.80/167 medians.

im_blue wrote:It doesn't matter anyway, since OP has no shot at Illinois with their 3.80/167 medians.

absolutely true. No need in apply, especially if OP doesnt like the place.

Loyola and Kent may throw some decent $ your way and you have good networking opportunities, but I would focus on UW. Your numbers are competitive, your instate, and if you decide to stay in WI, you dont have to take the bar. Just write your LOCI once you get waitlisted, and you should be good to go.

FWIW, loyola threw me 100k and my gpa and lsat were lower than yours. Their initial offer was only 30k though, which was what most people were given with my numbers.