Top Law Schools

This is my dilemma. I have a $10,000.00/yr scholarship at William and Mary and a full ride to St. John's. I am also waitlisted at Fordham. Of course, if I get off the waitlist at Fordham I am there. My problem is William and Mary is a better ranked school than St. John's, but if I want to work in NYC it will be harder for me to get connections or summer internships. I know St. John's has a better alumni base and for me it will be debt free, but I am concerned that its rankings are much lower than William and Mary.

Do I stop look at rankings and go for the debt free and the better alumni base, or will I be able to overcome William and Mary's less connected alumni base because the school, itself, is much more nationally known? Anyone with a few suggestions.

Lastly, I could put my deposit down at both and bide myself a little more time to become more confident with my decision. I have heard that schools can check LSAT to see if you have more than one deposit and I am not sure how that is viewed and whether or not they could rescind their offer.

Help!!!!

I would choose W&M with the realization that you may not get a job in NYC. However, you will probably get a legal job with a degree from W&M. With SJU, who knows? That is how I would decide here.

If you want to work in NYC go to St. John's for free over W&M or even Fordham at sticker, assuming you have either no or relatively weak stipulations on your scholarship. Anything above top 1/2 stipulation would have me hesitant.

Would you even go to Fordham for sticker?

Yes. I absoluely would go for sticker. That is a no brainer. I'm just stuck on which school to send my reply into now. Do I go with the better nationally ranked school or the free ride with the better alumni base?

scungileen wrote:Yes. I absoluely would go for sticker. That is a no brainer. I'm just stuck on which school to send my reply into now. Do I go with the better nationally ranked school or the free ride with the better alumni base?

Turning town Fordham at sticker is more of the no brainer. I find it hard to justify taking on $200,000 worth of debt for a school like Fordham. Yes, it's much better than St. John's, but even the majority of current Fordham grads aren't making enough to justify sticker price debt.