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I have been struggling to come to any kind of conclusion on where I should go..so any help would be appreciated.

Here are some details that might be helpful..

I am from Socal and live less than an hour away from UCLA and USC. I went to UCLA for undergrad and all of my friends and family live near the area. I am interested in going into biglaw, preferably somewhere here in Southern California.

With that said, I would still love for the opportunity to move to the east coast and feel that this could be a great opportunity for me to experience living in a different city (making new friends, getting to know a different school and city, etc.)

Acceptances
- Penn
- UCLA
- Mich ($15,000 scholarhip offer)
- Duke ($48,000 scholarship offer)
- USC (expecting a large scholarship offer given that I am above both 75th percentiles)
- G'town
- Cornell

Others:
- (Also WL'd at Columbia and waiting to hear from NYU).

As of right now, I am leaning towards attending Penn, but I am still mostly undecided about which school would be best.

**Update: Thank you for all of the responses, its been very helpful. I just found that I received a 45K scholarship from Michigan.

My question is, would it be smart to try and leverage my offer from Michigan right now, in hopes of getting more from Duke and the others?

Or is it wiser to wait it out and see what other offers come through and then trying to negotiate..

Dook is TCR. You would have no problem getting biglaw in SoCal with your connections, provided you keep your grades up. Plus, there is a nice lil scholly involved. Do it.

With you acceptances I assuming you will get some $$ from mich, did you get accepted recently?

paulinaporizkova wrote:Dook is TCR. You would have no problem getting biglaw in SoCal with your connections, provided you keep your grades up. Plus, there is a nice lil scholly involved. Do it.

+1

dabbadon8 wrote:With you acceptances I assuming you will get some $$ from mich, did you get accepted recently?

Thanks for the responses guys..and yes I was accepted just this last week.

Wow, Im surprised that there is no love for Penn.

Is it that the difference between Penn and Duke for socal employment is negligible..thereby giving the edge to Duke cuz of the money?

Or is it something else?

I voted for Penn because I think it better meets your reasons for wanting to try out the east coast. The research triangle is cool but if you 've lived in LA your whole life you might get a little bored.

Wait for scholarship offers from UCLA & USC.

Take the money from Duke, and don't look back.

A lot of it has to do with self-selection, but Penn doesn't disperse its students well geographically. Two-thirds of the class ends up in NYC, Philly, and the surrounding areas. Going back to CA from Penn would be harder than doing so from Michigan, and almost everyone would take the money at Duke over Penn.

I would definitely not go to UCLA or USC. T14 schools have been doing extremely well in CA, especially for people with CA connections, from what I can tell. Being from CA, you'll probably have better options at Michigan, Penn, or Duke when it's all said and done.

I think it comes down to Michigan, which places very well in CA, versus Duke, which is offering money. I would take Michigan for the better rep, CA placement, and the fact that it's not Duke.

Duke's giving you an entire year's worth of tuition to study next to a beach. Um...?

FlanAl wrote:I voted for Penn because I think it better meets your reasons for wanting to try out the east coast. The research triangle is cool but if you 've lived in LA your whole life you might get a little bored.

Perhaps, but I don't think that justifies the extra cost over Duke.

Mich. Has the best big law prospect in cal. B/w all ur choices... I would go to Mich. Hands down specially if ur duke scolly comes with stip. Penn is the worst option it doesn't place well in cal. You r better off going to USC with big scolly than Penn if you want to work in cal.

Ash;-) wrote:Mich. Has the best big law prospect in cal. B/w all ur choices... I would go to Mich. Hands down specially if ur duke scolly comes with stip. Penn is the worst option it doesn't place well in cal. You r better off going to USC with big scolly than Penn if you want to work in cal.

I don't know if that's necessarily true, given the OP's ties.

You should go to UMich (if they didn't offer you any money initially, see if they will give you $45k and come close to matching Duke). I'm at UMich and went to UCLA for undergrad so you can pm me with any questions.

Tanicius wrote:Duke's giving you an entire year's worth of tuition to study next to a beach. Um...?

next to = 3 hours away? when OP is moving cross country and is unlikely to have a car?

I would try to get $$ from Michigan using Duke scholly, and I might still take Michigan w/o $$ over Dook. But neither one is a bad choice.

I'd wait for scholly money at USC if you get something like 90k that could easily tip the balance

Not knowing the $ at USC, I'd say Duke unless you think you might want to work in Chicago for some reason (a $48k reason)

Listen to your heart, what does it say? Mo-ney, mo-ney, mo-ney...

Wait and see what you get from USC. Right now, it's all Blue Devils. Plus, for someone from socal, living in AA can be a horrible thing.

Edit: did you try asking for money from Penn, Gtown or Cornell?

Take the money from Duke. The difference between Duke and Penn isn't that big, especially on the West Coast. Also consider Michigan if they give you scholarship money.

Penn won't even put out their non-named offers until early March, and their need-based until late march. IMO it's too early to decide without the full range of offers.

I'd like to hear the people who voted for Penn justify their votes. How do you pick Penn over Michigan, at the same cost, for CA employment?

showNprove wrote:I'd like to hear the people who voted for Penn justify their votes. How do you pick Penn over Michigan, at the same cost, for CA employment?

Egregious indifference to the OP's best interests I would think.

Follow those Benjamins OP. See you at Duke!

The employment prospects are not significantly better at MVP than they are Duke. We're talking minute differences of handfuls of students in their selection of jobs. If Duke outdoes my Michigan scholarship offer by 10 or more grand, I will seriously consider taking them up on it.

Job prospects (especially in CA with strong connections) between Penn, Duke, and Mich are very similar. Cost of attendance between the three schools is very similar. Duke is giving you $48k.

**Update: Thank you for all of the responses, its been very helpful. I just found that I received a 15K scholarship from Michigan.

My question is, would it be smart to try and leverage my offer from Duke right now, in hopes of getting more from Mich and the others?

Or is it wiser to wait it out and see what other offers come through and then trying to negotiate..