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Is UVa still worth sticker judging simply as a financial investment ITE? Not as opposed to getting a great business job, but if you want to go into a legal career, is UVa at sticker a good choice? You have two votes.

Info: CoA is around $69,000 a year.

Please discuss.

The answer to this question inextricably depends on what the applicant wants to do with her degree, where she wants to work, what other schools she has been accepted to, and how much in financial aid she has received from other schools (in-state / out-of-state status also matters).

But to answer your questions, simply put: Yes, for many, UVA is well worth the sticker price. This will continue to be true as hiring increases in the DC area and nationwide.

I'm interested in this topic..

Malcolm8X wrote:I'm interested in this topic..

+1

Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

r6_philly wrote:Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

I think that the OP is hoping people will do it for him/her lol

blink wrote:

r6_philly wrote:Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

I think that the OP is hoping people will do it for him/her lol

Need more info then.

This question gets asked a lot.

Short answer: It depends.

blink wrote:

r6_philly wrote:Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

I think that the OP is hoping people will do it for him/her lol

No I'm not. What I am trying to do is get a sense of tls' opinion on the value of the degree and the opportunities that it gives you. I have heard differing opinions. I'll make a true choose the best choice poll later if I need to, but now I am just trying to get a sense if a UVa degree is a good investment at sticker. Its an important question for a lot of people.
Thus:

Is UVa still worth sticker judging simply as a financial investment ITE? Not as opposed to getting a great business job, but if you want to go into a legal career, is UVa at sticker a good choice?

r6_philly wrote:Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

What if you have a 75k earning potential but really wants BigLaw? Still worth it?

beachbum wrote:This question gets asked a lot.

Short answer: It depends.

Ok. clearly. Discuss please.

Let me ask you a similar question:

Can I afford to buy this car? It cost $30,000 and comes down to about $450/month?

LLB2JD wrote:

r6_philly wrote:Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

What if you have a 75k earning potential but really wants BigLaw? Still worth it?

Do you mean 75k earning potential straight out of undergrad? If so, take whatever that job is for a few years and save some money. Then "sticker" won't matter because you'll be able to offset some of it yourself. If you are already working in the job with 75k earning potential, then stick at it for a few more years, save some $$$ and again, offset sticker price yourself.

keg411 wrote:

LLB2JD wrote:

r6_philly wrote:Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

What if you have a 75k earning potential but really wants BigLaw? Still worth it?

Do you mean 75k earning potential straight out of undergrad? If so, take whatever that job is for a few years and save some money. Then "sticker" won't matter because you'll be able to offset some of it yourself. If you are already working in the job with 75k earning potential, then stick at it for a few more years, save some $$$ and again, offset sticker price yourself.

If you want a quantitative comparison, lay our your expected income as an increasing cashflow, compare the PV of that stream against the NPV or the stream of biglaw salary minus the sticker+COL for 3 years. Your age makes a huge difference there. Do it like you compare investments.

ETA: qualitative comparison is out of scope obviously.

keg411 wrote:

LLB2JD wrote:

r6_philly wrote:Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

What if you have a 75k earning potential but really wants BigLaw? Still worth it?

Do you mean 75k earning potential straight out of undergrad? If so, take whatever that job is for a few years and save some money. Then "sticker" won't matter because you'll be able to offset some of it yourself. If you are already working in the job with 75k earning potential, then stick at it for a few more years, save some $$$ and again, offset sticker price yourself.

If you do the math, I believe you actually lose money.. You won't save much at $75K/yr after CoL (maybe like $20-30K) AND you lose two years of earnings after UVA degree. In essence, I believe it's best to go to law school immediately rather than just save up a few measly thousands dollars..

Law Sauce wrote:

beachbum wrote:This question gets asked a lot.

Short answer: It depends.

Ok. clearly. Discuss please.

We need a lot more information from you before we can begin to assess its value at sticker.

Are you coming straight from undergrad?
What is your degree in?
What does your current debt look like?
What are your career goals (desired job, location, career path, etc.)?
What other schools have you applied to, and what offers have you received?

Personally, I made the decision that MVPDN are worth sticker, and I'll likely be attending Duke at full cost. But it took a lot of careful thought and review before I came to this conclusion.

beachbum wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:

beachbum wrote:This question gets asked a lot.

Short answer: It depends.

Ok. clearly. Discuss please.

We need a lot more information from you before we can begin to assess its value at sticker.

Are you coming straight from undergrad?
What is your degree in?
What does your current debt look like?
What are your career goals (desired job, location, career path, etc.)?
What other schools have you applied to, and what offers have you received?

Personally, I made the decision that MVPDN are worth sticker, and I'll likely be attending Duke at full cost. But it took a lot of careful thought and review before I came to this conclusion.

Fair enough, That decision is the one that I have been wanting to come to for the last few months but I am not sure if I can make it, and not sure if i should. I was more hoping to inspire a discussion of the school and its merits from people that go there or understand the market well (I mean yes I have seen all the stats from the last year or so), but it is true that no one makes this choice in a vacuum. I guess thread was a bit too vague. Thanks for the thoughts tho. At least the poll seems to be getting some interesting results.

Law Sauce wrote:Is UVa still worth sticker judging simply as a financial investment ITE? Not as opposed to getting a great business job, but if you want to go into a legal career, is UVa at sticker a good choice? You have two votes.

Info: CoA is around $69,000 a year.

Please discuss.

If you get a good job, it's worth it. If you don't, it's not. HTH.

More seriously - I'd guess that over 50% of people paying sticker are very happy with the decision to do so. But probably not much over 50%.

RVP11 wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:Is UVa still worth sticker judging simply as a financial investment ITE? Not as opposed to getting a great business job, but if you want to go into a legal career, is UVa at sticker a good choice? You have two votes.

Info: CoA is around $69,000 a year.

Please discuss.

If you get a good job, it's worth it. If you don't, it's not. HTH.

More seriously - I'd guess that over 50% of people paying sticker are very happy with the decision to do so. But probably not much over 50%.

Interesting, that sounds kind of bleak. Do you think that that could change going forward or unlikely? I understand that you can't really bank on that happening.

Law Sauce wrote:

RVP11 wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:Is UVa still worth sticker judging simply as a financial investment ITE? Not as opposed to getting a great business job, but if you want to go into a legal career, is UVa at sticker a good choice? You have two votes.

Info: CoA is around $69,000 a year.

Please discuss.

If you get a good job, it's worth it. If you don't, it's not. HTH.

More seriously - I'd guess that over 50% of people paying sticker are very happy with the decision to do so. But probably not much over 50%.

Interesting, that sounds kind of bleak. Do you think that that could change going forward or unlikely? I understand that you can't really bank on that happening.

Class of 2012 has had it much better than Class of 2011 and things are getting better for each class. If you're considering attending as Class of 2014, I think you have to take some of the horror stories you hear from current 3Ls with a grain of salt. I'm in a great position today and I certainly wouldn't be if I had listened to all of the naysayers when I was a 0L and let them scare me into not attending a T10.

TBF, its a much better decision this year than it was last year or the year before.

RVP11 wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:

RVP11 wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:Is UVa still worth sticker judging simply as a financial investment ITE? Not as opposed to getting a great business job, but if you want to go into a legal career, is UVa at sticker a good choice? You have two votes.

Info: CoA is around $69,000 a year.

Please discuss.

If you get a good job, it's worth it. If you don't, it's not. HTH.

More seriously - I'd guess that over 50% of people paying sticker are very happy with the decision to do so. But probably not much over 50%.

Interesting, that sounds kind of bleak. Do you think that that could change going forward or unlikely? I understand that you can't really bank on that happening.

Class of 2012 has had it much better than Class of 2011 and things are getting better for each class. If you're considering attending as Class of 2014, I think you have to take some of the horror stories you hear from current 3Ls with a grain of salt. I'm in a great position today and I certainly wouldn't be if I had listened to all of the naysayers when I was a 0L and let them scare me into not attending a T10.

Well that is nice to hear at least. Thanks for the help.

keg411 wrote:

LLB2JD wrote:

r6_philly wrote:Depends on the alternatives, both in terms of LS, and outside of LS. If your earning potential is $25k/year and your next best option is U. of Richmond, it may well be worth it. If you are choosing between UVa sticker and Med school, maybe not.

Look at it as an opportunity cost evaluation.

What if you have a 75k earning potential but really wants BigLaw? Still worth it?

Do you mean 75k earning potential straight out of undergrad? If so, take whatever that job is for a few years and save some money. Then "sticker" won't matter because you'll be able to offset some of it yourself. If you are already working in the job with 75k earning potential, then stick at it for a few more years, save some $$$ and again, offset sticker price yourself.

Not really great advice. If your potential is 75K with ceiling at 100K and you know you want Biglaw then you should go right away. There is no reason to work a few more years just because someone with bad advice said too on a website.

RVP11 wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:

RVP11 wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:Is UVa still worth sticker judging simply as a financial investment ITE? Not as opposed to getting a great business job, but if you want to go into a legal career, is UVa at sticker a good choice? You have two votes.

Info: CoA is around $69,000 a year.

Please discuss.

If you get a good job, it's worth it. If you don't, it's not. HTH.

More seriously - I'd guess that over 50% of people paying sticker are very happy with the decision to do so. But probably not much over 50%.

Interesting, that sounds kind of bleak. Do you think that that could change going forward or unlikely? I understand that you can't really bank on that happening.

Class of 2012 has had it much better than Class of 2011 and things are getting better for each class. If you're considering attending as Class of 2014, I think you have to take some of the horror stories you hear from current 3Ls with a grain of salt. I'm in a great position today and I certainly wouldn't be if I had listened to all of the naysayers when I was a 0L and let them scare me into not attending a T10.

As another UVA 2L paying sticker, I agree with RVP11.

Snape wrote: Not really great advice. If your potential is 75K with ceiling at 100K and you know you want Biglaw then you should go right away. There is no reason to work a few more years just because someone with bad advice said too on a website.

BigLaw is not a lifetime gravy train. Most people are in it for 3-4 years and go take something much lower-paying.