Top Law Schools

It's been posted all over TLS that paying sticker for schools out of a certain ranking is just not worth it. I totally agree with this, but I'm wondering if people have any opinions on whether paying sticker for a less prestigious school could end up being less dangerous than paying sticker at a higher ranked school?

What I mean is, obviously paying sticker is typically not recommended. But would it possibly be more dangerous to pay sticker at a school like GW (a good school in a city that has a more prestigious law school, and in a market that many students from much higher ranked schools are going to be gunning for) than at a school like UPitt, UMiami, etc. (an obviously less prestigious school but the best one in its region, and located in a market that most students coming from HYS are not really going to be looking at)? It seems like at least with paying sticker at the lesser ranked school, your competition in that region will not be as bad (and you might have more of a chance of paying off that debt) than someone at a more highly ranked school.

This isn't necessarily my opinion, I was just curious about what people thought about the topic.

1) How many jobs in Miami, Pitt, and other such cities that pay enough to justify $200k debt. Not many. Miami for example places like probably just 10%-15% into big law firms.

2) Some of those schools aren't really the best in the region. Take Miami. In this legal economy, there are people from UF, Emory, Vandy, Duke, UVA, and indeed HYS, who have enough ties, and would like to work there. No joke.

The main thing that affects whether paying sticker is a good idea at the schools in the range you're talking about is how much 'sticker' is.

Paying sticker at Florida State is fine, since it costs like nothing.

rad law wrote:1) How many jobs in Miami, Pitt, and other such cities that pay enough to justify $200k debt. Not many. Miami for example places like probably just 10%-15% into big law firms.

This is really important. The justification for paying sticker is the liklihood of biglaw or an incredible LRAP. The "less competition" factor doesn't overcome the fact that if you get a degree from Pitt, your odds of a job that can pay off the debt are not good enough to justify sticker.