Top Law Schools

So I'm in a bit of a predicament. I won't have time to visit any of the schools unfortunately, and the time to decide is coming up scary quick, so I'd like the TLS input on this one.

A little background: I'm originally from the South (Dallas) and would love to get back there, but I'm pretty open to different parts of the country. Ideally, mobility would be great, but I know that none of these schools have a ton of it (if any). But this is what I'm workin with, so here we go. The numbers listed are the scholarship amounts.

UIUC - $30,000 per year
Alabama - $28,000 but with a top-50% stipulation (that makes me kinda nervous)
IUB - $40,000
UGA - in-state equalizer for the first year

I'm also waitlisted at ND and Wisconsin and have sent a LOCI to each. I'd like a good college town, huge cities aren't really for me.

So what do y'all think? Any help is REALLY appreciated.

If you want to get back to Texas, why don't you have any Texas options?

But given your options - UIUC.

aliarrow wrote:If you want to get back to Texas, why don't you have any Texas options?

Totally understandable question, I struck out at UT, which was my first choice. But really I'm not dead-set on the Texas idea. I had Baylor as an option too, but I didn't hear great things. I am pretty open to go just about anywhere, I just know the South pretty well and grew up there. That's why I mentioned Texas.

Any reason anyone voted for UGA?

ballparkfranks wrote:So I'm in a bit of a predicament. I won't have time to visit any of the schools unfortunately, and the time to decide is coming up scary quick, so I'd like the TLS input on this one.

A little background: I'm originally from the South (Dallas) and would love to get back there, but I'm pretty open to different parts of the country. Ideally, mobility would be great, but I know that none of these schools have a ton of it (if any). But this is what I'm workin with, so here we go. The numbers listed are the scholarship amounts.

UIUC - $30,000 per year
Alabama - $28,000 but with a top-50% stipulation (that makes me kinda nervous)
IUB - $40,000
UGA - in-state equalizer for the first year

I'm also waitlisted at ND and Wisconsin and have sent a LOCI to each. I'd like a good college town, huge cities aren't really for me.

So what do y'all think? Any help is REALLY appreciated.

Did you not apply to SMU? Have you tried to get Alabama to drop their stipulation? If they drop that, I would go there if I were you since you want to end up in Dallas. Otherwise, I would probably go to UIUC. I currently go to UIUC for undergrad, so if you have any questions let me know.

Lol, I'm in the exact same situation as you are just with different waitlists. I'm from the northeast, have a preference for the south, but, all these choices seem appealing to me. I received 75k from Illinois. I think if I were you I'd be leaning more towards Illinois but I dont know if 15k is really that big of a difference over 3 years.

detectivelogic wrote:Lol, I'm in the exact same situation as you are just with different waitlists. I'm from the northeast, have a preference for the south, but, all these choices seem appealing to me. I received 75k from Illinois. I think if I were you I'd be leaning more towards Illinois but I dont know if 15k is really that big of a difference over 3 years.

Yeah I think there are aspects of each school that I really like, and it might just come down to money for me. My undergrad was way too expensive, and adding too much more to that really makes me nervous. Money aside, I think if you were to ask me at different points over the course of any given day, I'd have a different answer as to where I want to go, haha. (nervous 'haha?' nervous 'haha.')

You are not from the South. You are from Texas.

Did you not apply to SMU? Have you tried to get Alabama to drop their stipulation? If they drop that, I would go there if I were you since you want to end up in Dallas. Otherwise, I would probably go to UIUC. I currently go to UIUC for undergrad, so if you have any questions let me know.

Yeah I didn't apply to SMU, mainly just because I'm not married to the idea of being in Dallas necessarily, and I was concerned that if I changed my mind, I might be kind of up a creek. Though I guess that's pretty true at most places anymore, including my choices. I'll try to negotiate the stipulation with Bama and see how that goes. What I've heard from Alabama alumni has been pretty positive, and the lack of additional debt would be nice (if there's no stipulation). How do you like UIUC? People really seem to like Champaign-Urbana, from what I've heard.

CanadianWolf wrote:You are not from the South. You are from Texas.

Haha I've had that same argument in my seminar this year when we were talking about the South. Non-Texans apparently disagree, but you're right.

ballparkfranks wrote:

CanadianWolf wrote:You are not from the South. You are from Texas.

Haha I've had that same argument in my seminar this year when we were talking about the South. Non-Texans apparently disagree, but you're right.

Clearly Texas does not belong with the traditional "South"

aliarrow wrote:

ballparkfranks wrote:

CanadianWolf wrote:You are not from the South. You are from Texas.

Haha I've had that same argument in my seminar this year when we were talking about the South. Non-Texans apparently disagree, but you're right.

Clearly Texas does not belong with the traditional "South"

Well it looks like I've narrowed down my choices to the Klan or...Nothing. It's the new 'apples and oranges.'

Gays or bust

ballparkfranks wrote:

Did you not apply to SMU? Have you tried to get Alabama to drop their stipulation? If they drop that, I would go there if I were you since you want to end up in Dallas. Otherwise, I would probably go to UIUC. I currently go to UIUC for undergrad, so if you have any questions let me know.

Yeah I didn't apply to SMU, mainly just because I'm not married to the idea of being in Dallas necessarily, and I was concerned that if I changed my mind, I might be kind of up a creek. Though I guess that's pretty true at most places anymore, including my choices. I'll try to negotiate the stipulation with Bama and see how that goes. What I've heard from Alabama alumni has been pretty positive, and the lack of additional debt would be nice (if there's no stipulation). How do you like UIUC? People really seem to like Champaign-Urbana, from what I've heard.

You definitely wouldn't be making a poor decision to go to school here. As a disclaimer though, I grew up in Central Illinois, so I'm used to the cornfields and non-big city life. Champaign's definitely a good place for school though. There's plenty of bars/restaurants and stuff of that sort. Theres plenty of nice places to live - if you end up deciding to go to UIUC, pm me and I can help you out with that. Champaign is definitely a college town though. It's a party place, which is awesome as an undergrad, but I doubt would be so awesome as a law student. In fact, you only have to be 19 to get into the campus bars, which was awesome before I was 21, but now kinda sucks cause the bars are filled with 19 year olds who are piss ass drunk (and 16 year old girls using fake ids. Story time: About six months ago I was at the bar on the dance floor and I looked to my left and saw a friends 16 year old sis grinding away on another guy that I know lol). Champaign is only about 2 hours from Chicago (on a good day), so it's pretty easy to cruise up there for a weekend getaway. As far as the law school goes, everything I've heard about it is great. I don't know if I will consider it, but that's only because I grew up somewhat close to here, went to school here for almost 4 years now, and am just ready for some new scenery. Oh, I don't know if you're used to cold weather, but it's definitely alot colder here than in Texas. And get used to the Chicaaaaaago accent, I lived in the burbs for awhile and the way they say their a's still drives me crazy.

You definitely wouldn't be making a poor decision to go to school here. As a disclaimer though, I grew up in Central Illinois, so I'm used to the cornfields and non-big city life. Champaign's definitely a good place for school though. There's plenty of bars/restaurants and stuff of that sort. Theres plenty of nice places to live - if you end up deciding to go to UIUC, pm me and I can help you out with that. Champaign is definitely a college town though. It's a party place, which is awesome as an undergrad, but I doubt would be so awesome as a law student. In fact, you only have to be 19 to get into the campus bars, which was awesome before I was 21, but now kinda sucks cause the bars are filled with 19 year olds who are piss ass drunk (and 16 year old girls using fake ids. Story time: About six months ago I was at the bar on the dance floor and I looked to my left and saw a friends 16 year old sis grinding away on another guy that I know lol). Champaign is only about 2 hours from Chicago (on a good day), so it's pretty easy to cruise up there for a weekend getaway. As far as the law school goes, everything I've heard about it is great. I don't know if I will consider it, but that's only because I grew up somewhat close to here, went to school here for almost 4 years now, and am just ready for some new scenery. Oh, I don't know if you're used to cold weather, but it's definitely alot colder here than in Texas. And get used to the Chicaaaaaago accent, I lived in the burbs for awhile and the way they say their a's still drives me crazy.

Yeah I've been in New York for the last 4 years, so I'm used to cold winters and having a pretty atypical accent for where I'm living, haha. Everybody I've talked to seems to have a different opinion on Champaign/Bloomington/Tuscaloosa/Athens. They all seem to have their pluses and minuses. I'm just glad I don't have a 16-year-old sister in Champaign, haha.

If you wanted biglaw and were ok with a shot at Chicago I'd say Illinois. I'd say Indiana if you didnt want Biglaw.

Law Sauce wrote:If you wanted biglaw and were ok with a shot at Chicago I'd say Illinois. I'd say Indiana if you didnt want Biglaw.

Yeah.... I agree. Either Illinois or Indiana are your best options, given the money offered. For what it's worth, Bloomington is probably the more classic "college town" and a bit warmer.

Illinois is going to have stronger Big Law placement, but... are you against working in a city? The biggest advantage Illinois has over Indiana is stronger placement in Chicago. If you don't want that, Indiana is probably a smart play.

danquayle wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:If you wanted biglaw and were ok with a shot at Chicago I'd say Illinois. I'd say Indiana if you didnt want Biglaw.

Yeah.... I agree. Either Illinois or Indiana are your best options, given the money offered. For what it's worth, Bloomington is probably the more classic "college town" and a bit warmer.

Illinois is going to have stronger Big Law placement, but... are you against working in a city? The biggest advantage Illinois has over Indiana is stronger placement in Chicago. If you don't want that, Indiana is probably a smart play.

You're right, and I don't think that I want Big Law, but it might be nice to have that option if I change my mind. And I'm definitely not opposed to working in a big city, and Chicago's supposed to be pretty awesome (I've heard positive things about Indy too.) If I do end up trying to work my out of the Midwest, do you think that there's any real difference between IU and Illinois? I don't think that there is, at least not one that levels out the cost difference, but I could be wrong.

Thanks to all of y'all for your help, by the way!