Iowa vs. Denver Forum

[RexStout]

My decision has essentially come down to the University of Iowa vs the University of Denver. I am originally from the midwest and wouldn't mind ending up here, but CO is certainly appealing.

Iowa (OOS)
Denver (w/$10,000 Scholarship)

Is there a significant difference in the quality of education between these two?

Are Iowa's better career prospects/USNWR ranking difference (26-80)/reputation enough to justify choosing it over DU?

I feel Iowa is #1 its state and does relatively well in the region, whereas Denver doesn't even dominate its home state. Of course I would rather have a decent job in the midwest than no job in CO.

Thanks for the opinions.

[BarbellDreams]

Denver isn't a very strong school. Not that Iowa is amazing or anything but they will give you better options than Denver. 10k isn't a lot, I would go to Iowa if those two were my only options.

[BrianGriffintheDog]

I think $10,000 / yr means pretty much means nothing when you compare a tier-1 school that is dominant in its region and a non-tier 1 school (i.e. Denver) that is not the most dominant school in the region. You'll have a lot less time and stress competing with students from other schools.

[bk1]

If you want to work in Iowa then go Iowa considering it is top school in its state.

[mrwarre85]

My decision has essentially come down to the University of Iowa vs the University of Denver. I am originally from the midwest and wouldn't mind ending up here, but CO is certainly appealing.

Iowa (OOS)
Denver (w/$10,000 Scholarship)

Is there a significant difference in the quality of education between these two?

Are Iowa's better career prospects/USNWR ranking difference (26-80)/reputation enough to justify choosing it over DU?

I feel Iowa is #1 its state and does relatively well in the region, whereas Denver doesn't even dominate its home state. Of course I would rather have a decent job in the midwest than no job in CO.

Thanks for the opinions.

Denver is a destination city so it doesn't have a hard time attracting top faculty even though it is tier 2. The only real difference will be at the bottom of the class, as both schools will have tons of scholarship kids at the top that will be bright and ambitious. At the bottom, there were be kids at Denver who could not have gotten into Iowa. Both schools surely provide the chance at a great education.

Iowa opens up more cities to you, but Denver has a strong reputation in Denver and in Colorado (most attorneys in Colorado attended DU). If you graduate at median at DU, you will get a JD required job. That's true for a lot of people below median too. If you graduate top 20 % or so, you could get a very nice well paying job in a part of the country were COL is reasonable. That money will go along way. If you do well in your first job, of course moving out of state is possible.

Iowa is a safer bet for job. You must put in the leg-work though-- Iowa City is not a major legal market like Denver, and you will have to network in different cities in the midwest to try to get that first job. You can't rely on OCI despite Iowa's ranking.

[colorando]

If you're interested in Colorado in general I would seriously think about CU-Boulder. Iowa and CU's # are pretty similiar and cost of attendance for DU vs CU is heavily in favor of CU. You can establish residency after your first year and living in boulder is simply a better environment than Denver, but still close enough to take advantage of the big city opportunities. If you haven't applied, you can still apply to CU... deadline is march 1st.

[RexStout]

Thanks for all of the help. I was waitlisted at CU-not too optimistic that will work out but we'll see.

I understand CU>DU, but from some other posts on TLS it seems the difference isn't as great as the rankings would suggest?

Can anyone speak to Iowa's perceived portability in the Midwest? My biggest concern is that Iowa doesn't have a strong home market--that I would be going to Iowa, in order to go somewhere else (KC, St. Louis, Minneapolis, etc.).

Other than simply choosing a region (Midwest/IA vs. Mountain West/CO), do you see any significant reasons to choose Iowa over DU (or vice versa)?