Top Law Schools

I have a family and kids and I want to go to a law school that will produce a good experience for them as well as myself.

Right now I am considering UVa, Michigan Ann Arbor, Cornell and UCLA. My LSAT is 168 and GPA is 3.7.

Which is the best and worst out of those schools and are there any other schools ranked close to the top 15 that would be a good choice?

UT, Austin is an amazing city. Having grown up in the city I can attest to being a great place to live. If you have any questions about UT/Austin let me know.

Charlottesville was voted one of the best places to live within the last 5-6 years. The schools seem nice and I would say it is family friendly.

Ithaca is super kid friendly... unless your kids want to go shopping all the time.

Yeah, Ithaca is great for kids if you're alright with living a couple miles from campus or so.

Tiva wrote:UT, Austin is an amazing city. Having grown up in the city I can attest to being a great place to live. If you have any questions about UT/Austin let me know.

I second this.

well-hello-there wrote:I have 3 kids (a 5 year old, a 2 year old and a 4 month old) and I want to go to a law school that will produce a good experience for my family as well as myself.

Right now I am considering UVa, Michigan Ann Arbor, Cornell and UCLA. My LSAT is 168 and GPA is 3.7.

Which is the best and worst out of those schools and are there any other schools ranked close to the top 15 that would be a good choice?

I advise against UCLA in terms of kid friendliness. I will throw in BC. The BC law campus is detached from the main campus, and the surrounding area is more residential than boston.

Charlottesville, Ann Arbor, and Ithaca are all suburban areas, so they are all kid-friendly. (I would also advise against UCLA.) Ann Arbor is the biggest town out of the three. I've enjoyed living here. It's very clean, safe, and very cheap compared to living in a big city.

I am a 2L at Michigan - If you have any specific questions about Ann Arbor, feel free to PM me.

Ithaca is awesome for kids. If you go over to the "Cornell 1L taking questions" thread on the "Discuss Your Law School" board and ask about it directly, there are three 2Ls who are on here pretty frequently and who have multiple children, and can probably give you a more in depth answer than mine (I don't have kids, but have fond memories of running around in Ithaca when I was a kid).

ann arbor is a great place, kid friendly place. BUT if you want to live anywhere near central campus (where the LS is located) the housing is notoriously expensive within that one mile radius. Some cheaper than others, but for a two bedroom apt within that area, your talking a minimum of 1100 a month + utilities.

I think you're asking the wrong question. I'm sure in most of these places there are great parks, good schools, and fun family activities. More important is to ask, what percentage of the students at these schools have children? If you go to a place like Notre Dame or BYU, you're going to find a <i>lot</i> of classmates who have children. But I don't know that you'll necessarily find a lot of support at a "top 15" law school simply because there are cool parks nearby. Law students who don't have children are operating in a completely different world.

I think the better question (for those of you who weighed in on this thread) is: what percentage of students at your school have kids? Or, better yet, do you? Do these schools have vibrant and active "married, partnered, spouse, children, non-traditional"-type organizations (rather than defunct organizations listed on the Web site)? Because often times students with children can be extremely marginalized when it's largely single, unattached 20-somethings who get up at 11 am and study at the library until 1 am, when you're looking to work during day care hours and be home in the evenings.

I concur, you need to find out some specifics about the schools. Your family won't have a good experience if you have a terrible time in law school. The workload is enormous, and my impression is that having a solid pool of fellow students to fall back on for study buddies, moral support, etc, is important. So if Cornell or some other school has a higher percentage of student/parents, that could be an important tipping point. You might even be surprised to find that universities located in cities score better on this front, with some students in the course of changing careers, having significant others in jobs they can't leave, having kids already in schools they don't want to move, etc. I really have no idea though, wish I could help more.

I agree you should ask in the "discuss your law school" threads for the specific schools to get specific details. Best of luck.

2014 wrote:Charlottesville was voted one of the best places to live within the last 5-6 years. The schools seem nice and I would say it is family friendly.

Charlottesville may be awesome in every way, but does it really matter, since the poster is below both medians at UVA?

My degree granting GPA is 4.0. I know that doesn't matter for the rankings but I just re-took the LSAT on Saturday and it is very possible that I scored a 175. Also, I think an early decision application might just get me in at UVa, as I was waitlisted last cycle when I waited to apply until January 28th.

Other25BeforeYou wrote:Ithaca is awesome for kids. If you go over to the "Cornell 1L taking questions" thread on the "Discuss Your Law School" board and ask about it directly, there are three 2Ls who are on here pretty frequently and who have multiple children, and can probably give you a more in depth answer than mine (I don't have kids, but have fond memories of running around in Ithaca when I was a kid).

I'll try that.

plenipotentiary wrote:

2014 wrote:Charlottesville was voted one of the best places to live within the last 5-6 years. The schools seem nice and I would say it is family friendly.

Charlottesville may be awesome in every way, but does it really matter, since the poster is below both medians at UVA?

The OP would have a good shot at UVA by applying ED and writing a great personal statement and "Why Virginia" essays. Michigan may be out of reach with a 168.

I'm going to need at LEAST a 3 bedroom (maybe 4) and the over-riding factor for location is to find a place where my wife can feel safe after dark if I have to stay late at the school. We have 2 vehicles and so living away from campus wouldn't be a big deal.

LogicGamez wrote:

plenipotentiary wrote:

2014 wrote:Charlottesville was voted one of the best places to live within the last 5-6 years. The schools seem nice and I would say it is family friendly.

Charlottesville may be awesome in every way, but does it really matter, since the poster is below both medians at UVA?

The OP would have a good shot at UVA by applying ED and writing a great personal statement and "Why Virginia" essays. Michigan may be out of reach with a 168.

You have this completely backwards. Mich's medians are lower than UVA's. Mich is 3.7/169, UVA is 3.8/170.

With their current LSAT score, OP has basically no shot at UVA. Take a look at the LSN graph yourself. Or better yet, a simple search: LSAT 168, GPA below 3.8. Not a single admit: http://uva.lawschoolnumbers.com/applica ... ,8&type=jd

Same search at Mich, five admits: http://michigan.lawschoolnumbers.com/ap ... ,8&type=jd

That said, I wish him luck on his retake!

Boston just ranked highest on a national survey of cities for "Best place to raise a family". That means any of the schools there, Harvard, BU, BC, Northeastern or Suffolk are all options.

plenipotentiary wrote:

LogicGamez wrote:

plenipotentiary wrote:

2014 wrote:Charlottesville was voted one of the best places to live within the last 5-6 years. The schools seem nice and I would say it is family friendly.

Charlottesville may be awesome in every way, but does it really matter, since the poster is below both medians at UVA?

The OP would have a good shot at UVA by applying ED and writing a great personal statement and "Why Virginia" essays. Michigan may be out of reach with a 168.

You have this completely backwards. Mich's medians are lower than UVA's. Mich is 3.7/169, UVA is 3.8/170.

With their current LSAT score, OP has basically no shot at UVA. Take a look at the LSN graph yourself. Or better yet, a simple search: LSAT 168, GPA below 3.8. Not a single admit: http://uva.lawschoolnumbers.com/applica ... ,8&type=jd

Same search at Mich, five admits: http://michigan.lawschoolnumbers.com/ap ... ,8&type=jd

That said, I wish him luck on his retake!

In recent years, UVA has only tended to accept splitters as a method of gaming the rankings. (Evidence of this: UVA's 25th LSAT is a 165 whereas Michigan's 25th LSAT is a 168.)

If OP were to bring up his LSAT to a 175, then he'd probably be yield protected by UVA, since UVA tends to yield protect every non-splitter with decent numbers.

I love how all these people "recommend against" UCLA and give NO reasons.

UCLA isn't in Compton it's in Westwood. In terms of COL, yes it is high, but its not a horrible place to raise children.

LSpleaseee wrote:I love how all these people "recommend against" UCLA and give NO reasons.

UCLA isn't in Compton it's in Westwood. In terms of COL, yes it is high, but its not a horrible place to raise children.

Westwood is a pretty terrible place to raise children...

Also, OP can probably rent a 3 story house for less than 2000 if he is willing to drive to campus in these towns, not so in LA. (My friend rented a brand new, 3 story house a couple miles away from campus in Ann Arbor for $1400 a month.) If you are willing to commute to campus, you can have a large yard/house and everything for cheap.

I think the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC area around Duke would be good for finding less expensive housing for your family than many of the other to 14 schools.

aheisman wrote: I think the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC area around Duke would be good for finding less expensive housing for your family than many of the other to 14 schools.

How does this area fit in with the family friendliness discussion. I hear mixed things on Durham.

ck3 wrote:I think the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC area around Duke would be good for finding less expensive housing for your family than many of the other to 14 schools.

Seconded. The triangle affords the best suburban lifestyle in the U.S. It's inexpensive, has a great climate, access to several world class hospitals and research universities, great public and private schools, eclectic food/bar/cultural options, etc. If you want to raise a family in a suburban setting, I can't think of a better place to do it than here. It's as if a bunch of northerners got together and built a little utopia in the south.