Top Law Schools

1)UCLA (in state tuition plus $90k scholarship) vs. possibly sticker price at NYU and CLS (not sure yet whether they will give me much in the way of grants)? I don't have strong preferences about where I live during or after law school.

2)Would CLS and NYU be impressed by the UCLA scholarship or is it not enough of a peer in their eyes?

lawskyandhutch wrote:1)UCLA (in state tuition plus $90k scholarship) vs. possibly sticker price at NYU and CLS (not sure yet whether they will give me much in the way of grants)? I don't have strong preferences about where I live during or after law school.

2)Would CLS and NYU be impressed by the UCLA scholarship or is it not enough of a peer in their eyes?

Not enough of a peer, I would think. It sounds like CLS/NYU > UCLA if you don't want to be in LA. If you do, this becomes tougher.

Isn't UCLA resident tuition about 35K? So a 90K scholly is virtually a free ride? Grab it unless you suddenly become deadset on East Coast Biglaw. CLS and NYU are supposedly better schools, but they aint $100k+ better.

Congrats on having these great choices.

Thanks everyone. I think in-state tuition at UCLA is around $40k, so I basically got a 75% scholarship. It's not clear where a risk-averse person should go. The choice of CLS brings more debt, but the choice of UCLA brings more chance of unemployment.

Current UCLA in-state tuition is around 40k, though I'd expect this number to rise a bit due to CA budget woes.

http://www.law.ucla.edu/current-student ... dance.aspx

bk187 wrote:Current UCLA in-state tuition is around 40k, though I'd expect this number to rise a bit due to CA budget woes.

http://www.law.ucla.edu/current-student ... dance.aspx

"A bit" is up in the air right now. I attend UCLA for undergrad and there are talks of another 40% increase in tuition. I don't know if that translates to law school but "a bit" might be selling it short.

Curry wrote:"A bit" is up in the air right now. I attend UCLA for undergrad and there are talks of another 40% increase in tuition. I don't know if that translates to law school but "a bit" might be selling it short.

Boalt was looking at something like 45-50k for in-state, iirc.

I don't see 40% happening to the law school (56k in-state? lulz) as it would be too much. It makes more sense for undergrad as tuition for in-state is only 10-11k for the UC's.

bk187 wrote:

Curry wrote:"A bit" is up in the air right now. I attend UCLA for undergrad and there are talks of another 40% increase in tuition. I don't know if that translates to law school but "a bit" might be selling it short.

Boalt was looking at something like 45-50k for in-state, iirc.

I don't see 40% happening to the law school (56k in-state? lulz) as it would be too much. It makes more sense for undergrad as tuition for in-state is only 10-11k for the UC's.

Yeah I don't see it going up to that much for in-state but its not going to be a tiny increase, me thinks. <3 you twin

Curry wrote:Yeah I don't see it going up to that much for in-state but its not going to be a tiny increase, me thinks. <3 you twin

Hmm, I guess I see anything under 10k/year as "tiny" in the grand scheme of things.

bk187 wrote:

Curry wrote:Yeah I don't see it going up to that much for in-state but its not going to be a tiny increase, me thinks. <3 you twin

Hmm, I guess I see anything under 10k/year as "tiny" in the grand scheme of things.

Yeah this is warranted, although while attending, that 10k makes a big difference.

I'm in the same boat except I'm out of state and my scholarship is 120,000 at UCLA. I'm keeping it around in case I can use it to negotiate money somewhere, and then use that money to negotiate somewhere else etc etc. But I will most likely be attending 1 of NYU or CLS.

Not to hijack this thread but where (if anywhere) do people think money at UCLA can be used to negotiate money from another (higher) ranked school??

eaa1537 wrote:I'm in the same boat except I'm out of state and my scholarship is 120,000 at UCLA. I'm keeping it around in case I can use it to negotiate money somewhere, and then use that money to negotiate somewhere else etc etc. But I will most likely be attending 1 of NYU or CLS.

Not to hijack this thread but where (if anywhere) do people think money at UCLA can be used to negotiate money from another (higher) ranked school??

+1

In a similar boat... 90K at UCLA v. CLS or 45K at mich...
anyone know if Chicago negotiates? Or when they make any offers at all?

lawskyandhutch wrote:The choice of CLS brings more debt, but the choice of UCLA brings more chance of unemployment.

I guess I just don't see UCLA as a significant unemployment risk. It's the top-ranked school in one of the country's three main legal markets. I know times are tough, but if they're so tough that UCLA is an unemployment risk, then so is Columbia. Or at least, I don't think the difference in unemployment risk is enough to pass up 100K. Just my 2 cents.

Robespierre wrote:

lawskyandhutch wrote:The choice of CLS brings more debt, but the choice of UCLA brings more chance of unemployment.

I guess I just don't see UCLA as a significant unemployment risk. It's the top-ranked school in one of the country's three main legal markets. I know times are tough, but if they're so tough that UCLA is an unemployment risk, then so is Columbia. Or at least, I don't think the difference in unemployment risk is enough to pass up 100K. Just my 2 cents.

What if you don't necessarily want to stay in LA after graduation? In this case I think it'd be worth it to turn down the $$$, especially since graduating from UCLA means you have 2 better ranked schools to compete against for placement in CA.

eaa1537 wrote:What if you don't necessarily want to stay in LA after graduation? In this case I think it'd be worth it to turn down the $$$, especially since graduating from UCLA means you have 2 better ranked schools to compete against for placement in CA.

NorCal and SoCal are pretty much two separate states.

supersar wrote: In a similar boat... 90K at UCLA v. CLS or 45K at mich...
anyone know if Chicago negotiates? Or when they make any offers at all?

In your case, I would take 45K at Mich

OP: I voted for CLS. 90K is not worth a mobility and prestige CLS gives you. COL in LA and NYC are very much the same.