Help me make important life decisions, Internet! Forum

[No13baby]

Assuming I don't get into Stanford (a very, very safe assumption with my numbers), I'll most likely be choosing between University of Washington and University of Michigan.

Here is the deal. I currently live and work in Seattle and am very happy here; this is the place I want to spend the rest of my life. I've been accepted to both UW (in-state) and M. M is obviously the better school, but I'm concerned about missing out on the local connections I'd get if I attended UW. Although the NALP website lists a handful of larger Seattle firms that interview/resume collect at M, or did at some point, I have no idea what my class rank would have to be to get an interview with those firms at OCI. I'm afraid that if I strike out with the few Seattle firms who come to M, I'll be stuck doing the job-hunting by myself from three time zones away, which would probably put me at a pretty big disadvantage. I have a handful of connections to respectable firms here, but none so strong that I'd feel comfortable relying on them if no other jobs came through. What should I do?

Other factors to take into consideration:
-My family and boyfriend (marriage material?) all live in Seattle
-I hate being cold
-M gave me a scholarship that would make the cost of attendance more or less equal to UW in-state, so money isn't really a factor. I should have around $45k saved up by the time I matriculate.

Thanks. This is stressing me out a lot.

[lsatcrazy]

Assuming I don't get into Stanford (a very, very safe assumption with my numbers), I'll most likely be choosing between University of Washington and University of Michigan.

Here is the deal. I currently live and work in Seattle and am very happy here; this is the place I want to spend the rest of my life. I've been accepted to both UW (in-state) and M. M is obviously the better school, but I'm concerned about missing out on the local connections I'd get if I attended UW. Although the NALP website lists a handful of larger Seattle firms that interview/resume collect at M, or did at some point, I have no idea what my class rank would have to be to get an interview with those firms at OCI. I'm afraid that if I strike out with the few Seattle firms who come to M, I'll be stuck doing the job-hunting by myself from three time zones away, which would probably put me at a pretty big disadvantage. I have a handful of connections to respectable firms here, but none so strong that I'd feel comfortable relying on them if no other jobs came through. What should I do?

Other factors to take into consideration:
-My family and boyfriend (marriage material?) all live in Seattle
-I hate being cold
-M gave me a scholarship that would make the cost of attendance more or less equal to UW in-state, so money isn't really a factor. I should have around $45k saved up by the time I matriculate.

Thanks. This is stressing me out a lot.

1. Will UW give you a scholly/free ride?
2. Everything points toward UW, as you seem set on Seattle.

[Hawkeye Pierce]

What are your goals? Do you want to work in a big firm? If so, then UW doesn't give you a very good chance at that, and by extension wouldn't be a very good school for reaching those goals. The Seattle market, as I'm sure you know, is very small and saturated.

My guess is that you'd have to be similarly ranked at Michigan to get a good Seattle firm position (top 10-~15%?). Of course, Michigan would also open up many non-Seattle firms (and those firms would dig deeper into the M class).

[No13baby]

1. Will UW give you a scholly/free ride?
2. Everything points toward UW, as you seem set on Seattle.

1. I doubt it - looking at their past scholarships on LSN, they seem to have been pretty stingy, especially with in-staters. I'll definitely apply but I'm not getting my hopes up.
2. I thought that too, but UW's employment numbers are pretty scary. I don't want to count on being in the top 10% for a job.

[Campagnolo]

I'm in the same position, but with Portland (and other T14 schools that aren't M... at least not yet!).

After speaking with people in the big firms here in town, and overwhelmingly they say go to the top school you get into. Let me put it this way: do you want to bank on one market? Or do you want to be able to look for work anywhere in the country, including the NW?

The calculation is pretty simple when you look at it that way. You know, except for the debt and whatnot.

[ahduth]

1. Will UW give you a scholly/free ride?
2. Everything points toward UW, as you seem set on Seattle.

1. I doubt it - looking at their past scholarships on LSN, they seem to have been pretty stingy, especially with in-staters. I'll definitely apply but I'm not getting my hopes up.
2. I thought that too, but UW's employment numbers are pretty scary. I don't want to count on being in the top 10% for a job.

I'd think about Hawkeye's question. Michigan is definitely safer if you can't land a job in Seattle, especially at equal-ish money (remember the COL in Ann Arbor is very low).

[ben4847]

Michigan gives you way more safety, in terms of what happens if you don't land you Seattle job.
Now, on a different topic, have you all seen Washington's Art III clerkship numbers? It's like 18%- as good as Harvard.

[ahduth]

Michigan gives you way more safety, in terms of what happens if you don't land you Seattle job.
Now, on a different topic, have you all seen Washington's Art III clerkship numbers? It's like 18%- as good as Harvard.

I bet that has something to do with the 9th Circuit having 29 judges or whatever it is. Total speculation and I'm too lazy to look it up though.

[Campagnolo]

Michigan gives you way more safety, in terms of what happens if you don't land you Seattle job.
Now, on a different topic, have you all seen Washington's Art III clerkship numbers? It's like 18%- as good as Harvard.

No... they answered the questionnaire incorrectly. That's for all clerks (Fed, state, and local). Fed is somewhere down around like 3% or 4% like you'd expect.

Remember, if it's too good to be true, it isn't true.

[ben4847]

Michigan gives you way more safety, in terms of what happens if you don't land you Seattle job.
Now, on a different topic, have you all seen Washington's Art III clerkship numbers? It's like 18%- as good as Harvard.

No... they answered the questionnaire incorrectly. That's for all clerks (Fed, state, and local). Fed is somewhere down around like 3% or 4% like you'd expect.

Remember, if it's too good to be true, it isn't true.

Haha. That's funny. I saw the chart a while back and I hit the ceiling.

[BiglawOrBust]

Try to coerce Washington into giving you a better scholarship with your Michigan acceptance.

[BadgerDad]

You only get one chance to pick where you go to law school, and the choice stays with you forever. Other things in life come and go...

[094320]

..

[No13baby]

What are your goals? Do you want to work in a big firm? If so, then UW doesn't give you a very good chance at that, and by extension wouldn't be a very good school for reaching those goals. The Seattle market, as I'm sure you know, is very small and saturated.

My guess is that you'd have to be similarly ranked at Michigan to get a good Seattle firm position (top 10-~15%?). Of course, Michigan would also open up many non-Seattle firms (and those firms would dig deeper into the M class).

I'd definitely like to work in a medium-to-large firm. I couldn't care less about the biglaw preftige, but I'd like to be able to pay down my loans relatively quickly and buy a house at some point, etc. and I know that working in a bigger firm provides the best chance to earn that kind of salary.

[dawrp]

You should go to Michigan. You should not underestimate how hard it will be to be at the top of the class, and you don't want your job prospects to depend on it. With your ties to Washington, you could always make your way back once you have job experience. (And that's assuming you wouldn't be able to get a job in Washington straight out of law school.)

If the overall costs are the same, this shouldn't even be a question. Especially if you want a high paying job.

[Hawkeye Pierce]

Yeah, I think Michigan is the right choice here.

[apollo2015]

If you know you want to live in Washington, go to University of Washington.

[chasgoose]

Unless Washington comes through with a scholarship that makes it significantly cheaper than Michigan, you should go to Michigan. You clearly have the ties required to get back to Seattle if you want, but if you don't do well enough to make it back (and you can do slightly worse at Michigan), you have other options from Michigan that UW won't afford you.

[charliep]

Unless Washington comes through with a scholarship that makes it significantly cheaper than Michigan, you should go to Michigan. You clearly have the ties required to get back to Seattle if you want, but if you don't do well enough to make it back (and you can do slightly worse at Michigan), you have other options from Michigan that UW won't afford you.

is your name a play on choose goose?

[Blessedassurance]

-I hate being cold snow

It hasn't snowed but it' still pretty damn cold in Seattle. Maybe it's colder elsewhere, I don't know. Anyways, I have nothing to contribute, I wish you the best of luck as I'm in the same position and only want to practice in the Seattle/Bellevue/Tacoma/Olympia area. I'm wondering how a YHSCCN degree will get me back to Seattle.

Best city in the World. Well, not the city proper, the suburbs...Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah etc.

I went through Perkins Coie's attorney bio's and they seem to have a healthy representation of T14 grads but I know next to nothing about the Seattle legal market in general.

[Shooter]

I personally vote Michigan, and I think BadgerDad makes a good point. It's usually not advisable to base life choices off of boyfriends/girlfriends/etc.

If Michigan is similar in price, 3 years of temporary relocation will give you much, MUCH more flexibility with regard to job prospects (preftigious and otherwise).

HTH a little bit.

[traehekat]

A bit of a tough choice, but I would go with Michigan unless you can manage some significant money out of Washington.

[No13baby]

Thanks all. I was leaning toward Michigan, but it was nice to have my doubts dispelled.