GULC vs. Texas (76K) vs. Indiana (120K) Forum

[3547274240]

I'm still waiting to hear back from a bunch of schools, but so far my options are as follows:

Georgetown at sticker price
Texas with a $76,500 scholarship
Indiana with a $120,000 scholarship

I'm from South Jersey and my preference would be to work somewhere Philly/NYC/DC/Boston/Baltimore. I'm guessing that most people will say GULC, but the 76K (as well as lower cost of living) at Texas seems appealing considering it is only 2 spots behind in the rankings. Or does the Top 14 status of GULC completely trump that? I'd appreciate some feedback.

[bdubs]

I would hope that GULC would offer you something better than sticker, if not I would take TX unless you hate the idea of working there instead of the NE.

[Nogameisfair]

I'm still waiting to hear back from a bunch of schools, but so far my options are as follows:

Georgetown at sticker price
Texas with a $76,500 scholarship
Indiana with a $120,000 scholarship

I'm from South Jersey and my preference would be to work somewhere Philly/NYC/DC/Boston/Baltimore. I'm guessing that most people will say GULC, but the 76K (as well as lower cost of living) at Texas seems appealing considering it is only 2 spots behind in the rankings. Or does the Top 14 status of GULC completely trump that? I'd appreciate some feedback.

The correct answer is: ask Georgetown for money.

[BruceWayne]

Texas and it's not even close. Texas probably has the best reputation of any non top 14 school; frankly I think that judges and the government view Texas in the same light as they do GULC. Further the easiest market to break into is NYC; if you have good grades from UT I'm sure that you can get a firm job in NYC (many NYC firms recruit at Texas--41 according to lsn http://texas.lawschoolnumbers.com/). Besides Texas firms are doing alright and UT has a very strong in state reputation. By going to UT you open up a market that many will not have access to because of their lack of ties. Getting 76K on top of that makes it a no brainer.

[Nogameisfair]

Texas and it's not even close. Texas probably has the best reputation of any non top 14 school; frankly I think that judges and the government view Texas in the same light as they do GULC. Further the easiest market to break into is NYC; if you have good grades from UT I'm sure that you can get a firm job in NYC (many NYC firms recruit at Texas--41 according to lsn http://texas.lawschoolnumbers.com/). Besides Texas firms are doing alright and UT has a very strong in state reputation. By going to UT you open up a market that many will not have access to because of their lack of ties. Getting 76K on top of that makes it a no brainer.

As a Georgetown 3L with a job in NYC lined up, I'd tell you to think twice about UT. It's a great school and all, but I've never met a single UT Grad in NYC biglaw. UT is a great school, but it's still regional, and very heavily Texas centered (probably because of the requirement that it enroll mostly Texas residents). I would try to secure financing at Georgetown. I was in a similar spot, $90k at Vandy vs. sticker at Georgetown. I told them about the offer and asked for money. Georgetown came through. I suppose if you are open to staying in Texas after school if you happen to land at median or lower, then Texas might be the correct answer, but I assume that's not the case.

[CanadianWolf]

OP: Texas is only one spot behind Georgetown in the USNews rankings.

Assuming that you are unsuccessful at getting any significant scholarship money from GULC, then Texas might be the better option if you are willing to live there. It will be interesting to see if Georgetown admissions views Texas as a competitor and, therefore, offers decent scholarship money to counter Texas' offer, or whether Georgetown sees Texas as a regional law school with which GULC does not have to compete.

[savagecheater]

Push hard for money at Georgetown. Otherwise, Texas.

IUB should not be a consideration.

[Blindmelon]

OP: Texas is only one spot behind Georgetown in the USNews rankings.

Thats pretty irrelevant. Columbia is one spot behind Stanford, yet Stanford is definitely a better school. Boalt is one spot behind NYU, yet NYU has stronger placement power.

Anyway, TX is a great school, but its regional, and you seem to want to work outside its region. Gtown isn't exactly the most national school, but most of the places you're looking at (Philly/NYC/DC/Baltimore) are likely strong for Gtown (no idea about Boston, I've never seen a Gtown grad at any of my interviews).

[CanadianWolf]

Maybe, but I was just correcting the OP's info. contained in the original post.

[spaceman82]

Apparently, GULC's scholarship committee is only going to begin looking at student files in February, so you might get something from them yet, more probably if you use the UT scholarship for leverage.

[BruceWayne]

OP: Texas is only one spot behind Georgetown in the USNews rankings.

Thats pretty irrelevant. Columbia is one spot behind Stanford, yet Stanford is definitely a better school. Boalt is one spot behind NYU, yet NYU has stronger placement power.

Anyway, TX is a great school, but its regional, and you seem to want to work outside its region. Gtown isn't exactly the most national school, but most of the places you're looking at (Philly/NYC/DC/Baltimore) are likely strong for Gtown (no idea about Boston, I've never seen a Gtown grad at any of my interviews).

Except for Stanford and Columbia, you chose a bad set of schools for that comparison. There is a substantial difference in most every career field between SLS and CLS. There's no difference between Boalt and NYU for anything but NYC firm placement and California firm placement, where each school is better in their respective markets. GULC is only ahead of UT for DC and NYC firms. Even then a lot of that comes from UT students wanting to work in Texas (understandably). If you look at the prestige scores and clerkship placement you quickly start to realize that the difference between GULC and UT has more to do with the taste of the student body than the schools' placement abilities.

[CanadianWolf]

@Blindmelon: That was neither my point nor my intention. I was just correcting an error in the original post which asserted that Texas was ranked two spots behind Georgetown. I realize that the proximity of rankings is not relevant to the OP's predicament.

[RMstratosphere]

As other posters have said, TCR is "leverage $ from GULC." Otherwise, for your purposes:

UT > IU-B > GULC

[Aberzombie1892]

I would go with Texas.

At least with Texas, you could fall back on Texas or wherever you have ties to.

With Georgetown, you could only fall back on where you have ties to (and not DC).

Throw in $76,000, and the right choice is clear.

[mr_toad]

Exact same boat as OP. Have already contacted Georgetown and they certainly seemed willing to consider other acceptances and offers. But what's our best case scenario from Georgetown? COA is still probably going to be 40-60 more than UT (with 76k, COA should be about 110-120k, right?).

[granger]

I'm in a similar position, although with a little bit more money from Texas. I'd like to at least try to get some money from Georgetown. Is it appropriate to contact them before they've started giving out scholarships? I don't know the protocol with this, really.

[mr_toad]

They told me they would be happy to receive information about other offers. Go for it.

[BeachandRun23]

Exact same boat as OP. Have already contacted Georgetown and they certainly seemed willing to consider other acceptances and offers. But what's our best case scenario from Georgetown? COA is still probably going to be 40-60 more than UT (with 76k, COA should be about 110-120k, right?).

Thats what I was afraid of. COA in DC has got to be around 30-40k more for the three years. Add the scholly and its hard to choose GULC when its going to cost around 110k more than UT and it doesnt even really have superior placement. Made me shy away from GULC.

[mr_toad]

Willing to pay more for better job placement but not for more prestige (not synonymous). Problem is is that UT is offering good scholly money for people that are median or lower for G-town. I mean, I can't see me being worth more than 30-45 to G-town, which makes it a 180k proposition vs. 120k or so at UT. IS Gtown worth 60k more? Lots of people choose that path, but it doesn't pay off for everyone...

[Younger Abstention]

GULC. You'll still be in a ton of debt from Texas, and you might end up not liking the region for law school, or not being able to get back to where you want to be after graduation. TX isn't for everyone. GULC is nationally known and you should have more breathing room in terms of class rank for NYC placement.

[showNprove]

Texas is definitely the best value. If you want to be in the Mid-Atlantic, though, GULC will do significantly more for you than Texas (except maybe in NYC).

Try to get some money out of GULC. If you can't, then open yourself up to working in Texas. If you can't, then pick GULC.

[holdencaulfield]

Texas

[Nogameisfair]

I would go with Texas.

At least with Texas, you could fall back on Texas or wherever you have ties to.

With Georgetown, you could only fall back on where you have ties to (and not DC).

Throw in $76,000, and the right choice is clear.

But he doesn't want to live in Texas... Take a look at the number of Texas grads in the region OP wants to work.

[flyhigh_]

Texas.

Texas is a national school and my guess is it places very well in Texas and reasonably well in other markets.

[D. H2Oman]

Take GULC unless you're completely open to working in Texas. Try to get some money out of GULC, I think your chances are decent.