ND sticker, UIUC 10K + instate, or BLS full ride? help! Forum

[mahayes99]

Need help deciding -

Originally from Chicago but attended UG out east & love NYC and Boston, but all my family is in Chi & I would see myself settling down there in the long run.. not sure how I feel about spending 3 years in Champaign or South Bend either.

I also got into W&L with 20K/year, Loyola Chicago 12K/year, and Kent with 18K/year. WL at Fordham and WUSTL, rejected elsewhere.

I'm basically down to ND and U of I because they are the best schools I'm in and have a place in the Chicago Market, and then Brooklyn because of the scholarship and living in a city.

3.15/165, not going to retake. Any advice is welcome!

[mcdeeremitch]

With your other schools I say Brooklyn needs to be out...unless you are just extremely debt adverse

your other options are good though...I'm actually torn between W&L and ND myself right now ( Im leaning more towards w&L because i feel it would be easier for placement on the east coast)...but for Chicago I think ND is your best bet even at 10k/year more becasue it probably will have a better national reach than UIUC just in case you find yourself wanting to move outside Chicago after three years

have you tried negotiating with ND?..you might be able to pull off $7500 or $10k with your other offers

[mahayes99]

yes - tried to negotiate with both u of i and ND and there was no change

[DTDT]

Decent money considering your stats. These are the only options?

[cinephile]

So what's the total at UIUC?

If it's $10k/yr, I'd take it. Even if not, I'd still take it if you're okay with ending up in Illinois, but not necessarily Chicago.

[mahayes99]

total tuition for u of i is just under 30K a year - and I don't think I would be OK with anywhere outside the general Chicago area.

I just don't see Loyola or Kent being worth anything less than a full ride (same as Brooklyn), and Loyola denied my scholarship increase request, and I am waiting on Kent's reply.

Basically, how irresponsible is it go to to ND at sticker? do people think it's worth the risk?

[Ludo!]

Why in the world is ND in the running? Illinois by a mile

[mahayes99]

care to elaborate on why Illinois "by a mile"? just based on costs or other things?

[Ludo!]

You want to work in Chicago, Illinois places equally if not better in Chicago, and you're getting money plus instate tuition. I don't know the exact stats off hand but anecdotally based off of last year's OCI threads comparing the two schools, Illinois seemed to have more firms and more people getting offers. If ND ups their scholarship offer then maybe you have a tougher choice, but I can't imagine any ND student on here would tell you to go there at sticker.

[DTDT]

I'm still in awe someone offered the op a full ride with those numbers

[LST]

.

[blurbz]

Unless you are extremely debt-averse, to the point that you would be willing to sever your Illinois ties, I think U of I sounds like the best bet. ND isn't a bad school if you are looking to work in Chicago, but I don't think it exceeds U of I to the point that you should have to take out 190k (ND sticker COA for 3 years).

That's because ND doesn't exceed Illinois at all in Chicago placement. hth.


Besides my snark, it's pretty clear you should choose Illinois. Instead of restating it, I'll just quote the relevant post:

You want to work in Chicago, Illinois places equally if not better in Chicago, and you're getting money plus instate tuition. I don't know the exact stats off hand but anecdotally based off of last year's OCI threads comparing the two schools, Illinois seemed to have more firms and more people getting offers. If ND ups their scholarship offer then maybe you have a tougher choice, but I can't imagine any ND student on here would tell you to go there at sticker.

[LST]

.

[blurbz]

I gotcha. No big deal. I'm willing to take the position that ND doesn't exceed Illinois generally, either. They are, for all intents and purposes, nearly identical.

[noggo10]

Go to UI. Notre Dmae is way too expensive at that price.

[mahayes99]

UPDATE:

ND = 8K/year
UIUC = same
Madison = 10K/year

Right now Illinois and Wisconsin are the same price, ND about 20/20K more in total. Thoughts?

[Ludo!]

Unless ND or Wisconsin offers you substantially more than Illinois I'm not sure why you would even consider them. You want to work in Chicago, Illinois places the best in Chicago out of the 3. This seems like a pretty easy decision to me.

[BearsGrl]

UPDATE:

ND = 8K/year
UIUC = same
Madison = 10K/year

Right now Illinois and Wisconsin are the same price, ND about 20/20K more in total. Thoughts?

It should only be U of I if you want Chicago.

[CanadianWolf]

Why not calculate the total COA for each school & post those numbers ?

[mahayes99]

for loans, I would be taking out this (approximately) for each for COA:

ND ~ 125K
UIUC ~ 100K
Wisconsin ~ 100K

Brooklyn ~ 30K
Kent ~ 90K

[fogcue2]

with the difference cut in half from 50k to 25k between ND and Illinois, I think it's more of a coin flip. I would have said take Illinois for 50K less and I'm at ND, for equal price I would take ND, not sure exactly where the line falls, but as they get closer in price, its something to think about

The things that I would argue that ND does a little bit better

-I would agree that ND adds a little mobility (but that doesn't seem important to you),
-it also adds to the clerkship potential (if that's something your interested in) and many of those end up in big law after the clerkship
-also assuming you end up outside the big law calculus. I think the secondary outcomes are a little bit better from ND. Little bit more loyal network

[CanadianWolf]

When viewing the total COA for each law school, it looks like a four way race.

You wrote that you tried to negotiate with Illinois & Notre Dame, your top two--which makes sense in light of your target market of Chicago--but consider asking Brooklyn & Wisconsin to increase their offers if you are still seriously considering them.

[BearsGrl]

I'd also say to tour all of them as the feel of where they are located will be "drastically" different from one another. Without having been to U of I, I'm sure it's comparable overall in regional feel to ND, but having been to ND to check it out as a UG, you need to see the schools in order to get a feel for where you feel is best.

[romothesavior]

for loans, I would be taking out this (approximately) for each for COA:

ND ~ 125K
UIUC ~ 100K
Wisconsin ~ 100K

Brooklyn ~ 30K
Kent ~ 90K

Not really liking any of them too much at the cost, but I suppose 100k debt at UIUC isn't a bad option. It is your best option for all the reasons Ludovico has mentioned.