Top Law Schools

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DJ5 wrote:Had planned on attending Mason, but letter came in today from Pepperdine with 20k Dean's Scholarship. Any thoughts, praise or criticism for either school?

inb4 retake LSAT, etc.

Kind of stupid to say "in before..." if you are the op. Also, how can we tell you to retake if you won't say what you have?

In order to answer your question, you need to provide us with more info.


1. Where are you from?
2. Where do you want to work?
3. How much is pepperdine with scholly + C.O.L. ?
4. Stips on scholly?

5. How much is GM. Are you out of state or in state?
6. Are you aware that DC is the most desired legal market in America?
7. Are you aware that yale, harvard and the rest of the t-13 target DC?
8. Are you aware schools like Georgetown and GW target DC?
9. Are you aware that top students from all over the 1st and 2nd tier east coast schools will be aiming for D.C.
10. Are you aware that going to GM at sticker price out-of-state is probably a bad idea, unless you plan to do pi/gov't and lrap it?

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Do you have any other market you want to be in? If you are DC or bust its basically retake.

G.M.'s only market is D.C. They have only very recently obtained a good ranking (like within the last 7 or 8 years). I don't think they can go outside of D.C. D.C. is so hard, I'd be cautious.

I would say take pepperdine, the cost would be a lot better... but stipulation is horrible.. so toss up.. Why not try to bargina with pepperdine for better stip, use GM acceptance?

If you could get stip to say top 66%, i'd say go pepperdine. But with a currently 66% chance of losing your pep scholly if you go... too risky...

If I were you I'd stay on east coast and goto GM. That's if you HAD to pick one. GM oos sticker is bad though, and so is pepperdine.

I want to make clear I think these are both good schools... just not worth O.O.S. sticker (few schools are). I don't know pepperdine's #s, but GM is like top 10% big law. If you are 200k in debt, with a 10% chance of paying it off you have 3 options- unemployment, soul-crushing debt at small firm, or lrap with crappy salary doing gov't/pi work.

If you were going to be say, 100k in debt, then sure go to GM, and get a small law job paying 60k, or a pi with 45k and lrap... but for what I imagine is around 200k + interest... easily could be up to 250-300k... just NOT worth it unless you go hardcore for gov't/pi- and PI is not easy- and gov't is harder. Although, PI and Gov' work would not be out of reach, like BigLaw is.

DJ5 wrote:4. Stips - renewable as long as in top 1/3 of class

no good. getting in top 1/3 is not as easy as you think. 1 f'd up exam can put you on the bubble. speaking from experience, but luckily the stipulation on my scholarship is sweet. or else i would be a stressed out wreck this semester. just saying.

DC is probably one of the hardest (if not the hardest) market to break into. If it were me, i'd be retaking and trying to get GULC if you're deadset on DC. Not sure about the Cali market--you might have an easier time getting a job in Cali from Pepperdine than you will getting a job in DC from Mason.

Pepperdine. Ask for a top 50%, rather than top third, class rank stipulation. The only reason I suggested Pepperdine is because of the scholarship.

Pepperdine is in SoCal. No SoCal firm will hire you in their right mind unless you are absolutely at the top of your class. You're from NY...remember that..

Scuse me while i bump.

maybe do a poll:

1. George Mason - ____k (debt upon grad)
2. Pepperdine - ____k (debt upon grad)
3. Take time off to get more WE, retake and reapply more broadly.
4. Don't Go to Law School

I'm voting 3 or 4 but if you have to go this year- I'd probably go with taking the $ at Pepperdine but if its true that firms in SoCal are reluctant to hire you because your from NY, then you don't have a good option right now. I think taking time off and retaking might actually be the best option here.

What about a local NY school with instate tuition like UB with its cheap COL? I think that option would easily beat out pepperdine and george mason at these costs no matter what you wanted to do or where you wanted to end up.

After visiting GMU I ask: why would you want to go there even with scholarship? Most of the students there didn't want to be there.

East Coast with a job or West Coast with no job.

Where do you want to live & work ?

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What are your career goals?

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unemployment rate for lawyers and radiation level are too high in California.

Don't go to law school until you have some idea of what want out of it. It's one thing to attend mediocre school, but it's quite another to do so with no game plan, and no sense of what might result.

You should treat the Pepperdine scholarship as a one-off discount, because top third is a beastly stipulation. You probably won't retain any of that scholarship.