Ohio St. vs. U Washington Forum

[ellieroot]

Trying to decide between Ohio State and University of Washington, any insight would be appreciated.

Ohio State:
-In-state tuition all 3 years plus a very significant scholarship
-Really like the school and got a really good feeling when I visited
-No long-term interest in living in Ohio/Midwest

Washington
-Have a little scholarship money, but not a ton
-Didn't get a great feeling from the school when I visited, but they do have classes in every single area of the law I could be interested in while OSU does not
-On quarters, which seems like it could be really stressful
-Would ideally like to live on the West Coast or in the Mountain West

The other big thing factoring into my decision is that my boyfriend will graduate from law school in Oregon in a year. We both grew up in the Midwest and neither of us really want to move back there. Ohio has bad bar reciprocity, so moving there for a couple of years really isn't ideal. Since he's in Oregon, he'll definitely have more connections to jobs in the Seattle area. However, if he wasn't in the picture, I'd probably be going to OSU because of the money and because I like the school, even if I'm not thrilled about its location.

[dr123]

UW, since you wanna work in the West.

[mrtoren]

UW, since you wanna work in the West.

Exactly. You're probably not going to go from Ohio to Washington with OSU or vice versa with U Washington. You want West? U Washington it is.

On a side note, make sure you're not going out there for the boyfriend. Last thing you want is to start at U Washington, break up, realize you want to be back home near family, and end up dropping out. Happens more often than you would think.

[ellieroot]

Though it's impossible to not factor him in, the move is definitely more for me than him--I used to live in Montana and would love to be west of the Rockies again.

In terms of more specifics about cost, I have $12,000/yr and 3 years of in-state tuition at OSU compared to $4,000/yr and 2 years of in-state tuition at UW. I would think it would be cheaper to live in Columbus, but OSU actually has higher numbers for cost of living expenses than UW, so who knows.

[protein]

instate tuition + good scholarship = ohio state for me

[3ThrowAway99]

I have $12,000/yr and 3 years of in-state tuition at OSU compared to $4,000/yr and 2 years of in-state tuition at UW.

I don't know that you can count on getting in-state for years 2 and 3 at UWashington. I'm at a school in a state where I have lived a total of more than 5 of the last 8 years and am having a whole lot of difficulty changing from out-of-state to in-state. I even worked for the state government here. But I think this state is kind of notorious (it is not WA), so hopefully it won't be as problematic for you.

[3ThrowAway99]

Even with the cheaper cost of Ohio St., I prob would go with 'Udub' (i think that's what the locals call it) given that it is in the region you prefer. Also, although they are basically rankings twins, I believe UWashington may in fact be a bit of a stronger program academically (this may not be an accurate impression of the law schools though; I think it comes in part from the fact that UW has some of the top academic programs in the country in other fields, and I am not sure that the same can be said of OState).

[Redfactor]

.

[ellieroot]

Washington has a program for grad students where you get a scholarship to make up the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition your after your first year assuming you meet all of the requirements of residency other than moving to Washington for non-academic persons. According to people in the admissions/financial aid office, it's pretty much automatic.

Thanks for all of you help so far.

[cinephile]

This was probably mentioned above, but what about the COL difference between Columbus and Seattle? This would likely make UW even more expensive. Still, if you're positive that you want to end up in the Northwest, UW is the best choice.

[kristyk]

UW, since you wanna work in the West.

Exactly. You're probably not going to go from Ohio to Washington with OSU or vice versa with U Washington. You want West? U Washington it is.

On a side note, make sure you're not going out there for the boyfriend. Last thing you want is to start at U Washington, break up, realize you want to be back home near family, and end up dropping out. Happens more often than you would think.

Agree 100%. Don't move out there for a dude! Move out there because you like the area and would want to live/work there regardless of who you may or may not end up with.

[mrtoren]

According to people in the admissions/financial aid office, it's pretty much automatic.

Nothing's automatic unless its in your paperwork and the school is bound by law to uphold it. Without a GUARANTEED tuition equalizer, its a no-go from my perspective.

[ellieroot]

Here's the official wording from Washington: http://www.washington.edu/students/reg/ ... ional.html