My Final Four Forum

[AlmostOver]

Thank you for helping me decide. I'm leaning toward USC, but the cost of living is so much higher than the rest listed above. The scholarship from UT will put me in a lot of debt, but is it worth it? My ties are in the southwest so should I even consider WUSTL? ASU's tuition is lower and it's possible to gain residency. Please help! Thanks!

[gaud]

Where exactly are your ties in the southwest?

Where would you like to practice?

[AlmostOver]

I'm in the Southwest, but not in any of the states above. My ties are in California as people who know people type of connections. I'm open to practicing in any of those states or my current state.

[gaud]

WUSTL would be cheap, but I don't know if it would place well in the southwest.

ASU will likely force you to practice in AZ.

UT-Austin could give you Texas, AZ, and probably some other southwest states.

USC will give you California and possibly AZ.. maybe some other southwest states, but I'm not 100% sure.


I'd lean towards California since you do have some ties, but ultimately, it should come down to where you'd like to live and total COA.

[Doorkeeper]

I would go USC here. It's got the best connections to California (obviously), and has the best scholarship of schools that would help in Cali/Southwest. WUSTL is useless for you unless you want to stay in St. Louis...and even then it would be difficult since your ties are to California.

[romothesavior]

WUSTL is not a destination school that can place you anywhere (absent stellar grades), but the school does a solid job of getting students back to their secondary market, especially if you are one of the few WUSTLers from that market. Last night I was talking to a guy last who is from OKC and got a job there, and the firms there knew him as "the Wash U guy." They know the name, and they recognize it as a solid school, but they don't get a lot of resumes from the school. I've seen this happen with a number of my friends, especially ones without top of the class grades; they get jobs at firms (some NLJ 250, some not) in their home secondary market.

PM me if you have any questions about the school.

[t14fanboy]

USC.

[chup]

WUSTL is not a destination school that can place you anywhere (absent stellar grades), but the school does a solid job of getting students back to their secondary market, especially if you are one of the few WUSTLers from that market. Last night I was talking to a guy last who is from OKC and got a job there, and the firms there knew him as "the Wash U guy." They know the name, and they recognize it as a solid school, but they don't get a lot of resumes from the school. I've seen this happen with a number of my friends, especially ones without top of the class grades; they get jobs at firms (some NLJ 250, some not) in their home secondary market.

PM me if you have any questions about the school.

Any sense of how this plays out for people whose secondary market is California? Socal may be a bit different/more metropolitan, but everything I've seen around the Bay Area says that ties are huge, and that going to school out of state may not be the best idea unless you're at a truly national school (YLS, HLS, maybe a handful of others).

If that's true, I'd say take USC and try to use WUSTL's money as leverage to negotiate for more.

[071816]

USC. But I would try to negotiate using some of your other scholarships just for the hell of it.

[sunynp]

WUSTL 2011 employment statistics might be worth taking a look at. ( though they are confusing, I don't know what employed JD advantage means) They are on the website -I posted the link for you but I know you would have found it, it isn't hidden or anything. I don't know if all of the schools have posted 2011 data yet. I know people here who think that employment has improved since these 2011 grads did OCI. Schools should be releasing data soon. I would keep the an eye out for the data.

http://law.wustl.edu/career_services/pages.aspx?id=9112

That said, the traditional idea is that you should go to the place you want to practice.

[chup]

WUSTL 2011 employment statistics might be worth taking a look at. ( though they are confusing, I don't know what employed JD advantage means) They are on the website -I posted the link for you but I know you would have found it, it isn't hidden or anything. I don't know if all of the schools have posted 2011 data yet. I know people here who think that employment has improved since these 2011 grads did OCI. Schools should be releasing data soon. I would keep the an eye out for the data.

http://law.wustl.edu/career_services/pages.aspx?id=9112

That said, the traditional idea is that you should go to the place you want to practice.

Romo can probably speak more to this, but these numbers might be somewhat misleading if you compare them to a place like USC. I think WUSTL has made an effort over the past year to be more forthcoming and honest about their employment numbers. They're still probably fuzzy, but they're likely a lot less fuzzy than the numbers being published by similar schools like USC.

[sunynp]

WUSTL 2011 employment statistics might be worth taking a look at. ( though they are confusing, I don't know what employed JD advantage means) They are on the website -I posted the link for you but I know you would have found it, it isn't hidden or anything. I don't know if all of the schools have posted 2011 data yet. I know people here who think that employment has improved since these 2011 grads did OCI. Schools should be releasing data soon. I would keep the an eye out for the data.

http://law.wustl.edu/career_services/pages.aspx?id=9112

That said, the traditional idea is that you should go to the place you want to practice.

Romo can probably speak more to this, but these numbers might be somewhat misleading if you compare them to a place like USC. I think WUSTL has made an effort over the past year to be more forthcoming and honest about their employment numbers. They're still probably fuzzy, but they're likely a lot less fuzzy than the numbers being published by similar schools like USC.

Good point. By being relatively honest, WUSTL might look bad on the surface, but the school will look much better in the long run. I don't think OP should go to WUSTL or USC, I am one of the oddballs who thinks OP might as well stay in the Southwest. But with the slight price difference, who knows?

[romothesavior]

WUSTL is not a destination school that can place you anywhere (absent stellar grades), but the school does a solid job of getting students back to their secondary market, especially if you are one of the few WUSTLers from that market. Last night I was talking to a guy last who is from OKC and got a job there, and the firms there knew him as "the Wash U guy." They know the name, and they recognize it as a solid school, but they don't get a lot of resumes from the school. I've seen this happen with a number of my friends, especially ones without top of the class grades; they get jobs at firms (some NLJ 250, some not) in their home secondary market.

PM me if you have any questions about the school.

Any sense of how this plays out for people whose secondary market is California? Socal may be a bit different/more metropolitan, but everything I've seen around the Bay Area says that ties are huge, and that going to school out of state may not be the best idea unless you're at a truly national school (YLS, HLS, maybe a handful of others).

If that's true, I'd say take USC and try to use WUSTL's money as leverage to negotiate for more.

When OP said they're from the SW, I assumed they meant like Arizona, NM, etc. If OP is from Southern Cal and wants to work in Cali, then USC all the way.

[AlmostOver]

,

[071816]

Thanks everyone for the input. It has me thinking. I don't really want to disclose where I live, but I was offered a full ride at UNLV which is about 10 minutes from my house . I've been living at home saving money for this venture. I will pay my own living expenses for the first year so I'm debating tuition and fees only. I have familial ties to longtime residents of SoCal. I applied to WUSTL when they sent me a fee waiver for Valentine's Day and was surprised to be admitted one week later. I don't know very much about WUSTL. I do have family there as well. I can't see myself working in the midwest though, and I'm allergic to cold weather. I have visited USC and one drawback for me was the surrounding neighborhood. Yikes! I also visited ASU which is also close to a full ride. Does anyone think I have any leverage with Texas?

The last thing that should be on your mind right now is USC's "surrounding neighborhood." It's your best option by far in my opinion.

[chup]

Does anyone think I have any leverage with Texas?

Doesn't really matter. Texas is too regional, given where you want to end up.

[woeisme]

What are the numbers? Total scholly?

[AlmostOver]

What are the numbers? Total scholly?

Yes, those are the scholly amounts.

[woeisme]

What are the numbers? Total scholly?

Yes, those are the scholly amounts.

What do you want to do after law school? Where do you want to do it?

[AlmostOver]

What are the numbers? Total scholly?

Yes, those are the scholly amounts.

What do you want to do after law school? Where do you want to do it?

I can't definitively answer that, but interested in Intellectual Property, Entertainment Law, and taxation. I'm open to living anywhere (not cold). My concern about working in CA is the COL.

[woeisme]

What are the numbers? Total scholly?

Yes, those are the scholly amounts.

What do you want to do after law school? Where do you want to do it?

I can't definitively answer that, but interested in Intellectual Property, Entertainment Law, and taxation. I'm open to living anywhere (not cold). My concern about working in CA is the COL.

Then probably USC, but UT is a good option too. Maybe try and negotiate for more scholarship with UT based on USC. If you're able to do that successfully, UT seems like a pretty solid pick. As is, USC makes the most sense maybe.

[JasonR]

Negotiate for more money with UT and then come ask this question again.

[t14fanboy]

The Trojan network in so-cal. USC is your best bet.

[071816]

I can't definitively answer that, but interested in Intellectual Property, Entertainment Law, and taxation. I'm open to living anywhere (not cold). My concern about working in CA is the COL.

Why? You can live cheaply in L.A. if you try. My COL is low as fuck and I live there.