Top Law Schools

What's the deal? I realize the "If you want Dallas go to SMU / if you want Houston go to Houston" rule but what about everything in between? Assuming (huge assumption) I get the half tuition to SMU, SMU would actually be cheaper than Houston. How do cities like San Antonio and Austin view SMU vs Houston? I wish I had a seat at the UT big boys table.

Right now, I'm leaning hard towards SMU over Houston. I think UH gets a bad rep in Texas because the UG is so bad. I went to UH for UG.

I'm interested in this as well, though I didn't apply to Houston.

I really have no input on this subject, other than data:

NALP lists 79 firms/offices at UH OCI and 100 at SMU OCI.

Law School Transparency looks a bit more complete for SMU:

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Other than that, I've got nothing.

How is SMU cheaper with a SMU half tuition scholly? UH is 21k resident and SMU is 38.5 for all. You're only saving 1 - 2k a year on tuition. UH also lists is COL to be 3k cheaper than SMU, although this could be meaningless.

Hey folks, I was also accepted to both, and for me personally, I felt like UH went out the door when I got accepted to SMU, especially after a visit. I just can't imagine three years commuting through Houston to an ugly campus. SMU is beautiful, in a lovely part of town and I think you could get housing in a good area within a ten minute drive. Plus, I feel like SMU has a much better reputation in Texas, both as a LS and undergrad. SMU just feels like a better law school to me, with better faculty, programs, and placement, and they actually give out scholarships, instead of jacking their tuition up, like UH.
I'm not saying UH is terrible, and I was considering it before other options materialized. Just my personal, subjective, slightly-informed opinions.

ihp12 wrote:How is SMU cheaper with a SMU half tuition scholly? UH is 21k resident and SMU is 38.5 for all. You're only saving 1 - 2k a year on tuition. UH also lists is COL to be 3k cheaper than SMU, although this could be meaningless.

UH is having a drastic tuition hike to $27k in-state.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 69559.html

U Houston is going up to $5,500 a year for new in-state students. That's a whopping 25% increase.

Seemed like it was $16,000 just a few years ago.

AP-375 wrote:

ihp12 wrote:How is SMU cheaper with a SMU half tuition scholly? UH is 21k resident and SMU is 38.5 for all. You're only saving 1 - 2k a year on tuition. UH also lists is COL to be 3k cheaper than SMU, although this could be meaningless.

UH is having a drastic tuition hike to $27k in-state.

Gotcha

bartleby wrote:What's the deal? I realize the "If you want Dallas go to SMU / if you want Houston go to Houston" rule but what about everything in between? Assuming (huge assumption) I get the half tuition to SMU, SMU would actually be cheaper than Houston. How do cities like San Antonio and Austin view SMU vs Houston? I wish I had a seat at the UT big boys table.

Right now, I'm leaning hard towards SMU over Houston. I think UH gets a bad rep in Texas because the UG is so bad. I went to UH for UG.

There aren't a lot of legal jobs in san antonio or Austin.

After that, barring UT, it really is do you want Dallas or Houston.

I've been accepted to both with scholarships to both so I've been thinking long and hard about this. Although SMU is ranked higher it might be important to consider the fact that UH has excellent programs in certain fields. They're number 2 or 3 (can't remember) in the nation for best health law program and number 7 for best ip law (which is what I want to do). I also think they're ranked in the top 10 for best oil and natural resource law. On the other hand SMU doesn't have any top 10 programs. So I guess if you want to go into law in any of those 3 fields then maybe Houston would be academically better than SMU.

isawhat wrote:it might be important to consider the fact that UH has excellent programs in certain fields

No, it's not.

bartleby wrote:What's the deal? I realize the "If you want Dallas go to SMU / if you want Houston go to Houston" rule but what about everything in between? Assuming (huge assumption) I get the half tuition to SMU, SMU would actually be cheaper than Houston. How do cities like San Antonio and Austin view SMU vs Houston? I wish I had a seat at the UT big boys table.

Right now, I'm leaning hard towards SMU over Houston. I think UH gets a bad rep in Texas because the UG is so bad. I went to UH for UG.

I'm at a medium-sized firm in San Antonio, and we probably have equal number of SMU and UH grads. I'd say they are viewed equally, and it all comes down to grades, of course.

kalvano wrote:

bartleby wrote:What's the deal? I realize the "If you want Dallas go to SMU / if you want Houston go to Houston" rule but what about everything in between? Assuming (huge assumption) I get the half tuition to SMU, SMU would actually be cheaper than Houston. How do cities like San Antonio and Austin view SMU vs Houston? I wish I had a seat at the UT big boys table.

Right now, I'm leaning hard towards SMU over Houston. I think UH gets a bad rep in Texas because the UG is so bad. I went to UH for UG.

There aren't a lot of legal jobs in San Antonio or Austin.

After that, barring UT, it really is do you want Dallas or Houston.

Jeez. Good info.

Any thoughts on if it would be easier at one or the other to perform better class-rank wise?

joshbauer wrote:Any thoughts on if it would be easier at one or the other to perform better class-rank wise?

No, because going in to law school planning on ranking at a certain percentage is a plan for failure.