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bender18 wrote:I received the ~$105,900 total offer from GW. That is, 30k a year and around 16k for housing for the first year. I also received 25k a year for a total of 75k form William and Mary. Assuming that I would eventually like to work in DC, is there a clear-cut call here?

More money from GW, which is objectively better? Am I missing something?

VA resident? If so then W&M will be 45k. If not then W&M will be 75k.

GW will be 100k.

I'd say if VA resident then easily W&M. If not I'd still give a leaning towards W&M but the GW offer would be more tempting.

DC is going to be tough though and being okay with working in VA from W&M is probably a must. But that is a tradeoff you make for a much less risky proposition.

rad law wrote:More money from GW, which is objectively better? Am I missing something?

Radically different CoA's and that W&M offers in-state tuition to VA residents.

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bk187 wrote:

rad law wrote:More money from GW, which is objectively better? Am I missing something?

Radically different CoA's and that W&M offers in-state tuition to VA residents.

Ah, it didn't say he was in-state. Good catch dude.

bender18 wrote:Projected total cost for a year of study at GW is $70,449 while at W&M it's $49,100.

So you're out of state.

I'd say GW is slightly more risky but probably worth the risk in spite of the increased cost. It still is really risky though considering the 105k you're going to be taking on in debt despite your scholarship.

If you MUST have DC and would not be happy without it, you're gonna need to get in someplace better than GW to give yourself a good shot. That's how crazy it is right now.

If the difference is $20k TOTAL I just swallow that and go to GW honestly.

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I got awarded the in state fellowship + 10,000/year initially. then i received full-tuition from another t20 school and asked william & mary to reconsider my scholly and they bumped it up to in state fellowship + 15,000/year.

I know you want to work in DC, but FWIW...

I go to wake forest. a good portion of the places that OCI with us (at least 1l summer, Don't know about 2L summer) also oci at GW. None of them do W&M. So, yeah.

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Nicholasnickynic wrote:I know you want to work in DC, but FWIW...

I go to wake forest. a good portion of the places that OCI with us (at least 1l summer, Don't know about 2L summer) also oci at GW. None of them do W&M. So, yeah.

I have no dog in the fight between W&M v. GW, but rather than relying on one data point of anecdotal information, I would recommend going to http://www.nalpdirectory.com and do an advanced search by school to see some factual data about employers that isn't filtered through the schools. The database is current through 2010-2011 and comes directly from employers to NALP.

Straight numbers wise, GW beats W&M by a wide margin. But I would also caution against going on pure numbers-- there are lots of variables going on there (firm submits identical NALP form for each office, but only one effectively comes to OCI, etc.). On a NALP line-items/student evaluation it's still in GW's favor--roughly .6/student vs. .4/student-- but not as wide a margin as the 300+ to 80 would suggest.

This said, it looks like W&L just made your decision a bit tougher. Good luck using that to negotiate with the other two.

I'm extremely bearish on the DC market. The competition for jobs there is supposed to be insane right now. That said, if you must be in DC, might as well roll the dice with GW. Stronger placement overall plus (slight) local school boost gives you the best chance of success.

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