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I need some advice. I have been accepted to Penn State with a $20,000/yr scholarship and to George Mason University at full sticker. I hope to eventually go into constitutional law and more than likely practice in the D.C. area. It seems like George Mason would be the better choice but the scholarship at Penn State is enticing. Any help would be great. Thanks.

People are going to say you needed to graduate from Yale in the 80's to practice constitutional law. Seriously though, are you a resident of Virginia? If not, what are the Penn State stipulations?

As a person who faced a similar choice (GMU v. Penn State, chose Penn St.) and who also wants to practice in DC, I can tell you it's doable from Penn st. Maybe not as easy as from GMU necessarily, but definitely a possibility. Especially if you go to the Carlisle campus. Then you're only 2 hours away. Penn St. is on the rise in the rankings and is a very strong school, and I've been very happy here. Also, if you want to do government work in general (not just for the federal gov't) Harrisburg is very close and the state capital. That's where I have my job this summer.

Best advice? If you can visit both schools, I highly recommend it. It's pretty much what sold me. I personally did not like/feel comfortable in the GMU building/area but loved the Carlisle area/law school building.

Penn State on scholarship is a good bet here. Beautiful facilities and surroundings (this is the college park anyway), motivated staff trying to move up in the world, and a strong name. The only down part I remember was that they were struggling to figure out where they fit in the market, (kept trying to sell how they are setting up DC connections, even over Philly) and the whole dual campus thing.

GM will place slightly better in DC. Penn state places better in central PA. Neither of those schools will get you a job doing Con law (which doesn't really exist as its own job anyhow). What most people think of as Con Law is appellate work. Even people from the T14 can't get appellate work in DC unless top 10% grades, CoA clerkship minimum, preferably supreme court, etc.

GMU is in no way worth sticker, but don't count on Penn State getting you very far beyond the Harrisburg/York/Lancaster area. If you want a realistic shot at DC (as well as the mythical con law beast), you'll need to retake/reapply.

mpj_3050, I am not a resident of VA, so i would pay the full $36,000/per year. The Penn State scholarship has a stipulation that i have to stay in the top half of my respective class. Thanks for the help everyone!

elvenlord21 wrote:mpj_3050, I am not a resident of VA, so i would pay the full $36,000/per year. The Penn State scholarship has a stipulation that i have to stay in the top half of my respective class. Thanks for the help everyone!

Try to get those stips dropped. I would tell them that you love the offer and are confident that you can be successful, but have also recieved an acceptance at GMU, and are worried about picking a school that's a little ways away from where you want to practice without a guaranteed scholarship.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I just got a call today and was offered a $8,000/yr scholarship with a top 1/4 stipulation by George Mason, makes the decision a little harder now!

GMU with 8k a year for top 1/4? Fucking forget it. Penn State all the fucking way to the bank.

elvenlord21 wrote:Thanks for the advice everyone. I just got a call today and was offered a $8,000/yr scholarship with a top 1/4 stipulation by George Mason, makes the decision a little harder now!

No that doesn't. I would just assume that you will not have that scholarship after the first year; potentially the first semester if they do it that way. I'm not implying you are stupid, just that everyone at school is generally smart and hard working, so grades are kind of a toss up.

Have you been to George Mason?

And, also, do you understand how ridiculous their top 25% stipulations are for scholarships? Out of all the schools I considered this cycle, they definitely disgusted me the most. Any school with a top 25% stip for scholarships that also is too cheap to feed you lunch at an ASD is immediately ruled out in my book.

Also, given that 3.8 GPA, I would say you should retake, raise your score, and get into better schools and get more money.

You should visit both schools because they are completely different environments.

wait but isnt GMU "only" 35k a year? it is a lot cheaper than most schools. Instate is 20k.

Yes but it's impossible to get instate tuition at GMU/Virginia unless you already live there. Moving there during school isn't enough time to establish residency (at least that was true last time I looked).

And I'll agree with what people have said about $8,000 for top 1/4th. That's a pretty high requirement for such a low amount of money. Visit the schools if you can and make the choice, it'll be time/money well spent.

zonto wrote:Have you been to George Mason?

And, also, do you understand how ridiculous their top 25% stipulations are for scholarships? Out of all the schools I considered this cycle, they definitely disgusted me the most. Any school with a top 25% stip for scholarships that also is too cheap to feed you lunch at an ASD is immediately ruled out in my book.

You're really sore about that lunch, eh?

I visited both schools in February. I really liked the atmosphere at the Penn State Carlislie campus. I liked the Carlislie environment better than George Mason's but I think i could be happy at both campuses though. I also really like Washington D.C. and have family that lives really close by.

Go with the feel you had. DC is only 2 hours away, it's not that far. Trust me, my fiance lives there, it's not a bad drive at all. $8,000 really isn't that much when you also factor in the cost of living and tuition differences (again, going off my memory here but i think GMU was about $4,000 more in tuition and the COA was much higher). Honestly, it was the best choice I've made coming to Penn State instead of going to GMU. I would have been miserable at GMU. That's just my 2 cents.

I think what you need to do is make a pro/con list for both schools and see if you could live with the cons of the school you pick. If you can, then that's the school for you.

General Lee wrote:

zonto wrote:Have you been to George Mason?

And, also, do you understand how ridiculous their top 25% stipulations are for scholarships? Out of all the schools I considered this cycle, they definitely disgusted me the most. Any school with a top 25% stip for scholarships that also is too cheap to feed you lunch at an ASD is immediately ruled out in my book.

You're really sore about that lunch, eh?

Top quarter stipulations are still pretty egregious.

Did you try contact Penn State to drop the stips?

Thanks for the input everyone. Yeah, i need to try and get Penn St to drop the stips.

If you're mad about ASD at GMU, you should have seen the "food" they fed the students during special events/receptions. Never any wine or beer, and never anything better than cold submarine sandwiches. Everything is just so bare-bones at GMU.