Top Law Schools

Obviously debt is a huge factor, but so is the location of my longtime girl friend, job prospects, and connections.
Please no "retake" or "don't go" I'm going...

Here are the factors and other relevant info:

My girlfriend of 4 years who I am going to marry will be living and attending med school in New York and I'd very much like to be close to her. I am an undergrad at FSU and I really just want to get out of Tallahassee and see a new place even though Tallahassee offers a lot of great opportunities.

I really really like Miami and my girlfriend could go to Miami after one year, I would love to one day live there, but my scholarship has a top 1/3 stipulation and if I lose the scholarship after the first year that would put me a total of $155k in debt and that just seems like too much... Although my family has some law connections in Florida and I love Florida.

St Johns offered me a full scholarship, but who knows if I'd be able to keep it and I know the job prospects are pretty poor in that incredibly saturated market, especially from the 30th worst school. BUT... it is close to the love of my life, which is a large factor. Also, some connections.

UConn seems to be a beautiful law school with a nice atmosphere and even though some people have said the town sucks and it is small, the population is 900,000 which is twice as big as both the towns I have lived in, so maybe I'm missing something? I also like that it has a "market lock" since most of the Yale grads leave the state and a lot of the other New England law schools suck, so their placement in other New England states seems decent. But is a market lock on a small market worth more that much? I don't know...In addition to this, it's only about two hours from New York. No scholarship.

Temple looks pretty as well, but I don't really like Philadelphia much and all the reviews on here seem pretty negative, so I think I'd prefer Uconn for the extra bit of money to Temple regardless. unless someone wants to me convince otherwise? It is also only that cheap because of a scholarship which I would have the possibility of losing.

Rutgers is only 20 minutes away from my girlfriend, and even though their rank sucks, they are well regarded in their state. In addition to this, my family is from Jersey so I have some connections there as well. I have also heard that Newark is not a nice area and that the law school itself is not very nice. I also don't really know if I want to live in New Jersey my whole life... Any opinions on this would be greatly appreciated. I also have heard that if you are very highly ranked in your class you have a shot at a good NY job, which would actually be the most preferable scenario, but I don't know how true this is. I have seen several statistics that show that there are more rutgers grads having success in new york than BLS grads or Dozo grads, but I can't tell if that is more an effect of those schools being a complete rip off or the extensive rutgers network I have heard about? Does any one know why rutgers law rank has fallen so much since the 90s? Is now a good time to take advantage of their low rank (thus low cost and good scholarship) and use the network they've created (when they were more respected, they have such high placement in the area) at a discounted price, or am i thinking too much into this? ugh... jersey... haha

Brooklyn yikes. haven't heard a single good thing about brooklyn...

ANY ADVICE WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED AND ANY INPUT ON THESE LAW SCHOOLS NO MATTER HOW TRIVIAL WILL BE AS WELL.

Thank you very much for your time

FSU by a mile. You will be locked into FL. Your gf will have to find a job in FL. But it's easily the best offer you have.

AAARGH... but I really really don't want to be in Tallahassee any longer. It is both the cheapest and highest ranked but Tallahassee is both far from my girlfriend, far from my family, and it is honestly far from everything. The only thing that has really made these last few years in Tallahassee bearable has been my girlfriend and all my friends who are going to graduate and move away haha. What's your second choice after that mile?

curiousnole wrote:AAARGH... but I really really don't want to be in Tallahassee any longer. It is both the cheapest and highest ranked but Tallahassee is both far from my girlfriend, far from my family, and it is honestly far from everything. The only thing that has really made these last few years in Tallahassee bearable has been my girlfriend and all my friends who are going to graduate and move away haha. What's your second choice after that mile?

2nd Choice: Don't go to law school.

id pick none but if you held a gun up to my head and told me to pick a school, I would pick FSU. At least it is warm there....

Fsu or retake. The rest of those schools just aren't worth it.

FSU and it's not even that close. Relocating to attend the schools you listed in the northeast is not a wise decision.

Why is retaking not an option? If you're coming out of UG at a reasonable age then you'll have plenty of time to be a lawyer...

Seems like the thing to do would be to find a job in NY for a year doing whatever, and study your brains out for the LSAT. The schools you are looking at right now will land you in a very hard job market with a lot of debt, and you need to think hard about whether it's SO INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT to go to law school next year that it's worth taking the risk.

If there's some factor we don't know about, then it might make sense, but the conventional wisdom of 'retake' is the conventional wisdom for a reason: the LSAT is a REALLY HUGE part of your application, and a few extra points can make a pretty big difference in terms of the options available to you.

If you gotta pick one, FSU

FSU is objectively the correct choice.

But if you feel for the sake of your relationship you need to be in New York, I would go St. Johns over Brooklyn because of the reduced debt. The forums are full of suicidal unemployed Brooklyn grads with huge debt being crushed by the NY cost of living ...although its possible all the St. Johns people have already killed-self and that's why we don't hear from them....

Seriously dude, the cost of living difference between where you are and your girlfriend is, is massive. In this terrible job market, the name of the game is keep your debt load down so you're able to take an initial low paying legal job without being crushed by debt

Maybe you should get a job where your girlfriend is in school, wait until she is in her residency and you know where you want to settle permanently. The extra work experience will help you with schools and maybe you can save up some money.
Law school isn't going anywhere.
You should know that none of these school are good options at the level of debt you have.

sunynp wrote:Maybe you should get a job where your girlfriend is in school, wait until she is in her residency and you know where you want to settle permanently. The extra work experience will help you with schools and maybe you can save up some money.
Law school isn't going anywhere.
You should know that none of these school are good options at the level of debt you have.

Plus you get out of Tallahassee and can be close to your SO. Sounds like a win win to me

sunynp wrote:Maybe you should get a job where your girlfriend is in school, wait until she is in her residency and you know where you want to settle permanently. The extra work experience will help you with schools and maybe you can save up some money.
Law school isn't going anywhere.
You should know that none of these school are good options at the level of debt you have.

This. You shouldn't go now, which is not to say you should never go, but these options all honestly suck. I don't know anyone personally at Rutgers, but I do at BLS, and things are kids bleak and depressing for everyone there as most face the prospect of graduating unemployed. I imagine it's a similar scene at Rutgers, and St. Johns; honestly things don't look great for you coming from any of these schools. Florida didn't miss the recession, either.

Also, your girlfriend will have a much better chance of finding solid work than you, so as a couple you should probably focus on what's best for her and make your own decisions from there.

Going to law school right now could be a terrible mistake, not only financially, but for the strain it puts on your relationship and the limits it puts on you geographically. You really are better off waiting, given these options.

sunynp wrote:Maybe you should get a job where your girlfriend is in school, wait until she is in her residency and you know where you want to settle permanently. The extra work experience will help you with schools and maybe you can save up some money.
Law school isn't going anywhere.
You should know that none of these school are good options at the level of debt you have.

+1

These are all poor choices. Yes, FSU is the least bad. But 100k debt for a Florida school? Very risky. The NYC options are financial suicide. Don't drag your wife-to-be into the poorhouse with you. Retake.

...

arhmcpo wrote:FSU is objectively the correct choice.

Why do people on this website use "objectively" so often? It makes no sense

definitely move to NY and work for a few years and murder the LSAT. There are no other good options

kwais wrote:definitely move to NY and work for a few years and murder the LSAT. There are no other good options

You have come a long way, young grasshopper.

MTal wrote:

kwais wrote:definitely move to NY and work for a few years and murder the LSAT. There are no other good options

You have come a long way, young grasshopper.

Since you don't want to retake, then don't go to law school. However, if I were you, I would move to NY, work, be with girlfriend, study for a retake. While you're there you can subsidize her living expenses, and when she graduates, she can then subsidize yours , and if you don't want to wait a couple years to go to school, you can just wait a year and go to a good school in NY...this way you guys would graduate at the same time (if she is going into her first year this fall, that is). IDK, a lot to think about. But the one thing you need to do is retake. You obviously know that you need to retake if you're telling people not to tell you that.

Dude, saw you had a 161/3.6.

Looked on LSN, and it looks like 163+ with your GPA will get into Cardozo with big money. Do that.
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/ohvai/jd

Re-taking is the best option. However, seeing as you're practically about to get married, and start a family, maybe law school isn't a good idea right now. Perhaps just settling down and getting a job is the best option. I don't mean to trample your dreams or anything, but if you really don't want to retake then taking on all that debt for these schools with a young family is not really justifiable imho. Shit's getting real, I understand, what does your gf think you should do? Seriously though, these schools are not worth it.

Retake.

With your GF in med school in NY you should aim for a NY school. Idk if Columbia or NYU are out of reach but Fordham with a scholly seems like a decent option for your situation.