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I'm currently a 1L at Lewis and Clark in Portland, 1 week into classes. My top choice has always been UW, and I was accepted off the WL today. I am perfectly fine with living in either Seattle or Portland, however I'll be doing electrical patent prosecution, and I believe Seattle will be better for this (microsoft, amazon, etc). I was told by the admissions director that he would try to give me as much scholarship money as possible, however I have no idea what this figure could possibly be. With my scholarship at L&C right now, I will graduate with about $60k in debt total. At UW, if I receive no scholarship, tuition alone would be $90k+. Plus any sort of COL difference between Seattle and Portland. Anyways, looking for advice on what to do, I have until tomorrow evening to decide.

clintone88 wrote:I'm currently a 1L at Lewis and Clark in Portland, 1 week into classes. My top choice has always been UW, and I was accepted off the WL today. I am perfectly fine with living in either Seattle or Portland, however I'll be doing electrical patent prosecution, and I believe Seattle will be better for this (microsoft, amazon, etc). I was told by the admissions director that he would try to give me as much scholarship money as possible, however I have no idea what this figure could possibly be. With my scholarship at L&C right now, I will graduate with about $60k in debt total. At UW, if I receive no scholarship, tuition alone would be $90k+. Plus any sort of COL difference between Seattle and Portland. Anyways, looking for advice on what to do, I have until tomorrow evening to decide.

Not sure if this matters for you, but you heard that UW's doing away with the residency voucher right? That will impact your bill a lot if you're out of state.

I asked the admissions director and he said that next year they will be doing away with it, but that students entering this year will receive it for 2nd and 3rd year.

I would go to UW if I were in your shoes, but I don't know enough of the details about L&C to be able to support my recommendation.

One thing to consider is the overall size of the legal market. The link below has the number of BigLaw lawyers in Seattle at 1,100. I would be surprised if Portland had half of that (there just aren't many firms and the ones that are there are smaller). UW is the undisputed best school for employment in Seattle.

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... 2491269007

UW is tcr

bdubs wrote:I would go to UW if I were in your shoes, but I don't know enough of the details about L&C to be able to support my recommendation.

One thing to consider is the overall size of the legal market. The link below has the number of BigLaw lawyers in Seattle at 1,100. I would be surprised if Portland had half of that (there just aren't many firms and the ones that are there are smaller). UW is the undisputed best school for employment in Seattle.

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... 2491269007

To be clear, Perkins Coie and Davis Wright Tremaine make up roughly 1/3 of that figure: between them they hired perhaps 15 SA's in 2011. Whether you choose Portland or Seattle, you are targeting a very small legal market.

I wouldn't take anything a salesman says as gospel especially in regards to free money that he doesn't control. UW is not known for the size of their scholarships.

But...for what you want to do...UW is clearly the better school.

So I would add up the costs. Cost of Living in Seattle vs Portland is easily findable. And see if the extra 100k of debt is worth it for you. Plug this into your excel =Pmt(7.5%/12, 10*12, 160000, 0, 1) 1900 a month approximate payment for UW. 700 approximate payment for L&C.

off the top of my head that means your break even is 15-20 years of legal practise, assuming you get the same job at the end of both. You have to factor in your odds of making the lottery of big law and whether that is the lifestyle you want for the years necessary to pay off the difference in loans between the two schools.

Hard headed business decision...not gee wouldn't it be great if...

Go to UW, period. As a Pacific Northwesterner, I would imagine that UW offers much better career prospects.

And Seattle > Portland.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I got $10k/year, no stips, so I'm moving to Seattle.

clintone88 wrote:Thanks for the advice everyone. I got $10k/year, no stips, so I'm moving to Seattle.

Nice! You're making the right move, I think.

Absolutely the right move.

clintone88 wrote:Thanks for the advice everyone. I got $10k/year, no stips, so I'm moving to Seattle.

Congrats, enjoy it. UW has a great campus and fun neighborhood.

Youre making the right move. Job prospects out of L&C are bleak bleak bleak. Don't know what it's like out of UW, but I imagine there are substantially more opportunities. Good luck.