LF Guidance. Prestige vs Costs.
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 7:06 am
Hello, I am getting ready to take the LSAT and am currently reviewing which law schools to apply for once I finish. The main two factors I am focused on is costs vs employment. Me and my friend(who's currently about to apply for law) were discussing possibilities, and I reviewed a few articles/posts on this forum and saw that some universities offer scholarships and such for students to attend their institute?
I am a little confused by this, and hope that someone would help elaborate this for me. From my understanding, if you are considered a good candidate, some lower institutes will offer you full scholarships to attend their law program where your costs will be low compared to top tier schools who require top rates. If my understanding is correct, is there a site that has information regarding this? I also would like to know what schools would offer scholarships and what GPA/LSAT is usually required before a school would go about doing this.
Another question of mine is simply a ongoing debate and really, I am not even sure if I should ask it.
It's centered on what I am sure everyone here is aware of, the ongoing debate that law is a over-saturated market, and getting a job is difficult for new graduating personal unless it is from a T14 school. My problem with this is finding reliable sources. I have contacted both professionals working in the field and advisers, and to be honest, the consensus seems to be split.
Simply going by US NEWS it seems there are institutes which fare pretty well, but I have been told by others, that a lot of these institutes mis-lead their numbers on purpose, in order to reflect this on purpose. So really, I am not sure on who to believe because it is a constant debate between parties which seems to be a factor only true to some. (Hopefully this will end this: http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/20 ... on-notice/)
I will simply explain my situation, and understanding, and hope to get some guidance. I am currently a resident of Georgia, and have the option of attending Georgia law schools for a cheaper rate. The main institute I was looking at was UGA (http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... rgia-03042) whom only charge 15.8k per year for in-state students. They are ranked 35th and I would imagine they would be considered a "average" law school program. According to their statistics however, they have a 84% employment rate, with a average salary of 130k. I found this to be great, but also suspicious, because Emory(GA school) which is ranked 30th has only a 65% employment rate.
Comparing this to NYU and Vanderbilt, the costs are on separate levels. So really, is the almost triple debt worth the 10% employment rate gained from this? Because I am well aware that on paper NYU will open doors to any law firm, but really, I am having a hard time convincing myself to do all that debt for simply that extra 10% employment rate gained. And it also is coming down to the ongoing debate, how important is it to graduate from a T20, or T14 school? I also would not like to factor in graduating "top of my class" because everyone has this goal in mind, and it would be arrogant of me to believe that I have a advantage over anyone else, however, I will try my hardest in order to achieve this.
Thanks for any guidance.
I am a little confused by this, and hope that someone would help elaborate this for me. From my understanding, if you are considered a good candidate, some lower institutes will offer you full scholarships to attend their law program where your costs will be low compared to top tier schools who require top rates. If my understanding is correct, is there a site that has information regarding this? I also would like to know what schools would offer scholarships and what GPA/LSAT is usually required before a school would go about doing this.
Another question of mine is simply a ongoing debate and really, I am not even sure if I should ask it.
It's centered on what I am sure everyone here is aware of, the ongoing debate that law is a over-saturated market, and getting a job is difficult for new graduating personal unless it is from a T14 school. My problem with this is finding reliable sources. I have contacted both professionals working in the field and advisers, and to be honest, the consensus seems to be split.
Simply going by US NEWS it seems there are institutes which fare pretty well, but I have been told by others, that a lot of these institutes mis-lead their numbers on purpose, in order to reflect this on purpose. So really, I am not sure on who to believe because it is a constant debate between parties which seems to be a factor only true to some. (Hopefully this will end this: http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/20 ... on-notice/)
I will simply explain my situation, and understanding, and hope to get some guidance. I am currently a resident of Georgia, and have the option of attending Georgia law schools for a cheaper rate. The main institute I was looking at was UGA (http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... rgia-03042) whom only charge 15.8k per year for in-state students. They are ranked 35th and I would imagine they would be considered a "average" law school program. According to their statistics however, they have a 84% employment rate, with a average salary of 130k. I found this to be great, but also suspicious, because Emory(GA school) which is ranked 30th has only a 65% employment rate.
Comparing this to NYU and Vanderbilt, the costs are on separate levels. So really, is the almost triple debt worth the 10% employment rate gained from this? Because I am well aware that on paper NYU will open doors to any law firm, but really, I am having a hard time convincing myself to do all that debt for simply that extra 10% employment rate gained. And it also is coming down to the ongoing debate, how important is it to graduate from a T20, or T14 school? I also would not like to factor in graduating "top of my class" because everyone has this goal in mind, and it would be arrogant of me to believe that I have a advantage over anyone else, however, I will try my hardest in order to achieve this.
Thanks for any guidance.