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I'm looking at four things here... 1) layman's prestige 2) 250 employment opportunities 3) location 4) future debt load

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I might take a full ride from USC. If it's a small amount of money, I would pick GULC. But I am biased since I went there.

usc full ride! especially if you want to stay in Southern CA

1) GULC wins for lay prestige
2) Cornell wins for NLJ 250 placement (granted this is from 2005 http://www.law.com/pdf/nlj/20080414empl ... trends.pdf)
3) GULC and USC are a tie for location (IMO). I love DC to death, but SoCal has to be nice
4) USC wins for debt load (obviously)

Verdict: If you want to do BigLaw in Southern California, and you have a full ride (or very substantial scholly) from USC, go there. BigLaw prospects for GULC and Cornell grads seem to be mostly east coast, but if you have connections in Cali (and therefore California firms will be more likely to hire you from these schools) then that might make Cornell or GULC worth the debt.

OP, just curious, why is lay presitge one of the 4 things you're looking for?

jfb wrote:OP, just curious, why is lay presitge one of the 4 things you're looking for?

Because he's a dumbass. USC for west coast. GULC for east coast. No one wants to be in Ithaca.

FuManChusco wrote:

jfb wrote:OP, just curious, why is lay presitge one of the 4 things you're looking for?

Because he's a dumbass. USC for west coast. GULC for east coast. No one wants to be in Ithaca.

This. Although I'd do USC for west coast, GULC for DC, Cornell NYC. Without knowing where you want to practice, this is futile.

Well layman's prestige is clearly best at GULC and from what I gather from here employment is best from Cornell. Location depends on what you are looking for -- I'd probably prefer Cornell myself but I'm weird like that.

It's hard to tell what your $$$ means. But if USC were free (or you got more than a 50% scholarship) that is a good deal, if you didn't mind staying in Southern California, that may be the deal you should take. It will somewhat decrease your mobility and chances at landing a NLJ 250 position, but being debt free gives you some freedom.

Disclaimer: I go to Cornell but I really like living in Ithaca (at least for 3 years). I think our employment is very slightly better than G-town. We also seem to get more interviews at OCI than they do @ Georgetown. I think either of the t-14s would give significantly better chances at Biglaw than USC. All the people I know here from the West Coast got SAs there, but this is a small sample.

I am not sure about lay prestige between Georgetown/Cornell.

Georgetown has the most lay prestige (pretty sure the courthouse librarian thought Georgetown was on par with Harvard), but Cornell has the best job prospects.

I'd go to Cornell and ditch the other two unless I knew I wanted LA. Between Cornell and Georgetown at sticker, Cornell all the way. (Georgetown 2Ls averaged only 11 OCI screening interviews this year.)