New England Law Boston -VS- Franklin Pierce Law (UNH LAW) Forum

[eudaimonia]

NESL vs UNH Law

With the deadline approaching regarding deposits that are due in mid-April... I'm still torn between these two schools.

Background: My goal is to work and live in Boston/Massachusetts Metro Area. I've been there many times and I love the area, the town, the people, etc... When crunching the numbers and considering financial aid, both schools are nearly identically in cost. The only difference would be the cost of living in Boston is substantially higher in comparison to Concord, New Hampshire.

Other things to consider... I'm in the part time division of New England, meaning four years to complete law school. Whereas, in UNH Law I would be full time, which means three years in school.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[TheFactor]

If the GPA in your profile is accurate, you should retake.

[eudaimonia]

If the GPA in your profile is accurate, you should retake.

Not interested in retaking. I've got it down to these two schools.. any advice on which I should favor and why?

[Justathought]

I've heard more positives about New Hampshire. Plus it can't be very expensive to live in Concord. I vote UNH.

[FuManChusco]

If the GPA in your profile is accurate, you should retake.

Not interested in retaking. I've got it down to these two schools.. any advice on which I should favor and why?

Neither unless full tuition... and even then neither might still be the answer.

[TheFactor]

If the GPA in your profile is accurate, you should retake.

Not interested in retaking. I've got it down to these two schools.. any advice on which I should favor and why?

If you don't have a preference on where you want to live, go with UNH - much better job prospects. But be prepared to graduate with no job from either of these schools.

Also, the chances you will find legal employment from UNH will be severely mitigated if you aren't planning on doing patent law (i.e. if you have an engineering UG degree or PhD in one of the life sciences).

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[Justathought]

If the GPA in your profile is accurate, you should retake.

Not interested in retaking. I've got it down to these two schools.. any advice on which I should favor and why?

If you don't have a preference on where you want to live, go with UNH - much better job prospects. But be prepared to graduate with no job from either of these schools.

Also, the chances you will find legal employment from UNH will be severely mitigated if you aren't planning on doing patent law (i.e. if you have an engineering UG degree or PhD in one of the life sciences).

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The numbers from UNH actually aren't that bad. I've seen many higher ranked schools with less transparency and/or lower numbers. Compare it to god-awful Hofstra for instance: --LinkRemoved--

However, like you've said, perhaps those numbers are accounted for by people interested in IP law, with the appropriate UG degree. NELS - Boston is just abysmal.

[eudaimonia]

If the GPA in your profile is accurate, you should retake.

Not interested in retaking. I've got it down to these two schools.. any advice on which I should favor and why?

If you don't have a preference on where you want to live, go with UNH - much better job prospects. But be prepared to graduate with no job from either of these schools.

Also, the chances you will find legal employment from UNH will be severely mitigated if you aren't planning on doing patent law (i.e. if you have an engineering UG degree or PhD in one of the life sciences).

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I really appreciate the advice. That's exactly my struggle: I want to live and work in Boston but employment prospects are lower in NESL; whereas UNH job prospects are higher but I'm not pursuing patent law which could be the mitigating factor.

[sullidop]

If the GPA in your profile is accurate, you should retake.

Not interested in retaking. I've got it down to these two schools.. any advice on which I should favor and why?

If you don't have a preference on where you want to live, go with UNH - much better job prospects. But be prepared to graduate with no job from either of these schools.

Also, the chances you will find legal employment from UNH will be severely mitigated if you aren't planning on doing patent law (i.e. if you have an engineering UG degree or PhD in one of the life sciences).

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I really appreciate the advice. That's exactly my struggle: I want to live and work in Boston but employment prospects are lower in NESL; whereas UNH job prospects are higher but I'm not pursuing patent law which could be the mitigating factor.

Yeah, IP is FP's main draw. What do you want to do?

[Justathought]

I appreciate your struggle, but just looking at NELS Boston's numbers seems to indicate that they don't place any of their grads, in any field. I mean, UNH is at least doing okay for the people involved in their specialty. That's far more than NELS can say. Plus the cost of attendance will be lower, I think UNH is the way to go if you're not interested in reapplying next year with an improved LSAT.

[eudaimonia]

Yeah, IP is FP's main draw. What do you want to do?

I'm undecided. But IP law if out of the question because I don't have a BS or an engineering degree.

[eudaimonia]

I appreciate your struggle, but just looking at NELS Boston's numbers seems to indicate that they don't place any of their grads, in any field. I mean, UNH is at least doing okay for the people involved in their specialty. That's far more than NELS can say. Plus the cost of attendance will be lower, I think UNH is the way to go if you're not interested in reapplying next year with an improved LSAT.

That's a reasonable argument. My concern is mainly about UNH's ability to place it's students in Boston, because after all my goal is to end up there in the end. If any UNH or NESL grad's want to chime in, your information would be invaluable to this discussion.

[sullidop]

I appreciate your struggle, but just looking at NELS Boston's numbers seems to indicate that they don't place any of their grads, in any field. I mean, UNH is at least doing okay for the people involved in their specialty. That's far more than NELS can say. Plus the cost of attendance will be lower, I think UNH is the way to go if you're not interested in reapplying next year with an improved LSAT.

That's a reasonable argument. My concern is mainly about UNH's ability to place it's students in Boston, because after all my goal is to end up there in the end. If any UNH or NESL grad's want to chime in, your information would be invaluable to this discussion.

My impression has always been that FP really only places IP in Boston. In what might be called the most confusing statistic in legal employment, NELS places very well in Art 3 clerkships. Beyond these niches (and grades equal)...I know there are a lot of NELS grads in Boston so there's probably more opportunity there.
I'm assuming you'll probably work a little to offset the COL different in Boston.

[eudaimonia]

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[RPK34]

I appreciate your struggle, but just looking at NELS Boston's numbers seems to indicate that they don't place any of their grads, in any field. I mean, UNH is at least doing okay for the people involved in their specialty. That's far more than NELS can say. Plus the cost of attendance will be lower, I think UNH is the way to go if you're not interested in reapplying next year with an improved LSAT.

That's a reasonable argument. My concern is mainly about UNH's ability to place it's students in Boston, because after all my goal is to end up there in the end. If any UNH or NESL grad's want to chime in, your information would be invaluable to this discussion.

You're probably not going to find legal work in Boston coming from either school, so there's really no point in trying to draw a distinction there. I do know someone who graduated top 5% from NESL who would have been jobless if his father didn't end up offering him a job at his firm. I know another top 20% who would have been jobless except his father got him a job at the New England Patriots (I don't think he's really even doing any serious legal work though).

[YourCaptain]

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