Boston University ($15k/yr) vs UC Davis ($30k/yr) Forum

[Decimal]

(I created a poll of two different options before but things have changed since then)

Boston University: $45k scholarship total for three years
UC Davis: $90k scholarship total for three years

I have lived in LA (suburbs), the SF Bay area (Berkeley), and central New Jersey and loved the Bay area the most because of the weather, public transit, and diversity (culture, food, political views, etc). With that in mind, I am guessing Boston might be a closer match for me in terms of preferred type of location since Davis is supposedly a small town far from everything except Sacramento...and I am not sure if the capital is a great source of jobs with the state's budget crisis and all. I am open to practicing in either California or the Northeast, whichever has a better legal market so I can pay off loans asap. I'm leaning towards public interest or healthcare law if that helps. I've been poring over employment statistics and it appears that Boston surpasses Davis when it comes to how well they each do in their respective regions. I'm wondering if this difference is enough to justify taking on more debt at Boston, both early on (I really would like a good 1L summer job and not have to commute too far to do it) and post-graduation. I know cost of living would be lower in Davis but Davis raised its tuition to $50k and Boston's is at $43k. Thanks!

[bk1]

Davis doesn't lock you into Sacramento. It places throughout the state. It's also only an hour from SF. You're right that BU does better than UCD in its region (mainly due to the state of the respective economies). That being said, that's a huge chunk of debt to take on from BU.

What would your projected CoA's with interest be from these schools?

[Decimal]

Davis is an hour from SF but I despise driving and would rather not have to invest in a car (currently car-less and commute to work via bus). I see a lot of posts about how California's economy is in such dismal shape and I want to avoid competition from a load of other schools (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Hastings). But I have no idea how Boston's economy fares in comparison.

CoA's from the two schools would probably be something like:
BU ($62k x 3) = $186k - $45k = $141k
UCD ($67k x 3) = $201k - $90k = $111k
(Taking the budgets from BU's and UCD's websites but without accounting for yearly tuition increases or interest from loans)

[Golden Bear 11]

When did you receive your offer from Davis?

[Decimal]

When did you receive your offer from Davis?

Beginning of this week.

[bk1]

Would you not get in-state tuition from UCD years 2/3?

That's just way too much for BU, imo. You'd be at almost 170k debt at graduation once you factor in interest. If you got in-state at UCD I'd lean that way but it's still meh all around.

[Aberzombie1892]

Davis is an hour from SF but I despise driving and would rather not have to invest in a car (currently car-less and commute to work via bus). I see a lot of posts about how California's economy is in such dismal shape and I want to avoid competition from a load of other schools (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Hastings). But I have no idea how Boston's economy fares in comparison.

CoA's from the two schools would probably be something like:
BU ($62k x 3) = $186k - $45k = $141k
UCD ($67k x 3) = $201k - $90k = $111k
(Taking the budgets from BU's and UCD's websites but without accounting for yearly tuition increases or interest from loans)

Ouch. If you decide that you must go to law school in the fall, and that you would not consider retaking/waiting, BU would probably be the better choice given the difference in price between the two schools. However, I'm not convinced that BU is worth that much in abstract.

How much would UCD be if you were considered in state for years 2/3?

[Decimal]

Haha, sadly, those numbers ARE the CoA for Davis at in-state tuition.

I've already taken the LSAT twice and was prepping for a third attempt but wasn't making enough headway for it to drastically alter my options so I've made up my mind to go this fall.

[concurrent fork]

I want to avoid competition from a load of other schools (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Hastings)

There are a shit ton of law schools in NE too. The only places where you will find comparatively less competition are in flyover markets.

[Tadatsune]

I want to avoid competition from a load of other schools (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Hastings)

There are a shit ton of law schools in NE too. The only places where you will find comparatively less competition are in flyover markets.

Is that really an accurate assessment?

I mean, most Harvard kids don't stick around Boston, leaving BU and BC to duke it out for most of the jobs there, or so I've been told...

[concurrent fork]

I want to avoid competition from a load of other schools (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Hastings)

There are a shit ton of law schools in NE too. The only places where you will find comparatively less competition are in flyover markets.

Is that really an accurate assessment?

I mean, most Harvard kids don't stick around Boston, leaving BU and BC to duke it out for most of the jobs there, or so I've been told...

Off the top of my head, schools feeding into Boston include: UVA, Cornell, BU, BC, Suffolk, Northeastern, UConn, UMass, VT, NELS, 10% of the class at Harvard and Yale, a sprinkling of other T-14s. I'm sure there are many more schools feeding into CA, but Boston is a much smaller market.

[buzzbuzz2727]

Hard to answer because it depends on where you want to practice. If you want to practice in Boston, go to BU, and vice versa. I go to Hastings and our OCI employers are practically the same as Davis's. There were almost NONE interviewing for Boston. Not sure if OCI employers interview for CA at BU, but that's something to look into.

[Aberzombie1892]

I want to avoid competition from a load of other schools (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Hastings)

There are a shit ton of law schools in NE too. The only places where you will find comparatively less competition are in flyover markets.

Is that really an accurate assessment?

I mean, most Harvard kids don't stick around Boston, leaving BU and BC to duke it out for most of the jobs there, or so I've been told...

Off the top of my head, schools feeding into Boston include: UVA, Cornell, BU, BC, Suffolk, Northeastern, UConn, UMass, VT, NELS, 10% of the class at Harvard and Yale, a sprinkling of other T-14s. I'm sure there are many more schools feeding into CA, but Boston is a much smaller market.

While that's true, far fewer people target Boston the same way they target NY or CA.

[Decimal]

Off the top of my head, schools feeding into Boston include: UVA, Cornell, BU, BC, Suffolk, Northeastern, UConn, UMass, VT, NELS, 10% of the class at Harvard and Yale, a sprinkling of other T-14s. I'm sure there are many more schools feeding into CA, but Boston is a much smaller market.

While that's true, far fewer people target Boston the same way they target NY or CA.

Top three places that UVA and Cornell grads go to are DC, NY, and CA. Some do work in Boston but is Boston's market really so small that it would significantly hurt BU's employment prospects?

[Decimal]

Hard to answer because it depends on where you want to practice. If you want to practice in Boston, go to BU, and vice versa. I go to Hastings and our OCI employers are practically the same as Davis's. There were almost NONE interviewing for Boston. Not sure if OCI employers interview for CA at BU, but that's something to look into.

A BU student told me that there's a fairly extensive BU network in CA but again, I'm open to either region so wherever employment is more likely is more of a priority for me.

[concurrent fork]

Off the top of my head, schools feeding into Boston include: UVA, Cornell, BU, BC, Suffolk, Northeastern, UConn, UMass, VT, NELS, 10% of the class at Harvard and Yale, a sprinkling of other T-14s. I'm sure there are many more schools feeding into CA, but Boston is a much smaller market.

While that's true, far fewer people target Boston the same way they target NY or CA.

Top three places that UVA and Cornell grads go to are DC, NY, and CA. Some do work in Boston but is Boston's market really so small that it would significantly hurt BU's employment prospects?

Right -- but you both realize NYC and CA are significantly larger markets than Boston? The fact that there are more students feeding into NYC and CA doesn't mean that it is harder to find a job there than in Boston (which is the proposition I am refuting above). This is just not something that should factor into your decision between the two schools.

[Aberzombie1892]

Off the top of my head, schools feeding into Boston include: UVA, Cornell, BU, BC, Suffolk, Northeastern, UConn, UMass, VT, NELS, 10% of the class at Harvard and Yale, a sprinkling of other T-14s. I'm sure there are many more schools feeding into CA, but Boston is a much smaller market.

While that's true, far fewer people target Boston the same way they target NY or CA.

Top three places that UVA and Cornell grads go to are DC, NY, and CA. Some do work in Boston but is Boston's market really so small that it would significantly hurt BU's employment prospects?

Right -- but you both realize NYC and CA are significantly larger markets than Boston? The fact that there are more students feeding into NYC and CA doesn't mean that it is harder to find a job there than in Boston (which is the proposition I am refuting above). This is just not something that should factor into your decision between the two schools.

Who said it's harder to find a job in NYC/CA than Boston?

Regardless, so you are supporting the BU choice? I ask because using that logic, Davis would certainly be a worse choice than BU given that CA is already home to local T14s that place significant amounts of their grads instate (50%ish?) and local non-T14s that do better than Davis in state, and is the #1-#3 destination for non-local T14 graduates.

BU, on the other hand, is essentially tied as the second best school in state (The best school in state sends 90%+ of its grads elsewhere, unlike any of the four best schools in CA), and not that many T14 students target Boston. It's obviously true that the Boston legal market is certainly a lot smaller than the markets in CA, but that doesn't change the fact that BU does not face anywhere remotely near the same level of competition as Davis, even after you account for difference in size of the legal markets. As a direct result of that, and, what's most important here, BU consistently provides significantly more desirable outcomes for its graduates than Davis.

If this were BU/BC vs. USC/UCLA at equal price, or BU at $100K debt vs. Davis $40K debt, it would be more of a comparison. Because BU is only marginally more expensive than Davis ($10K/year), and the OP has no preference (and presumably wants to attend law school in the fall), it doesn't make sense for the OP to turn down BU for Davis in this instance.

[concurrent fork]

Who said it's harder to find a job in NYC/CA than Boston?

OP suggested he could avoid "competition" (presumably for jobs) by going to school in Boston as opposed to CA:

I want to avoid competition from a load of other schools (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Hastings).

Regardless, so you are supporting the BU choice?

I'm not supporting either choice. A 0L is using what I believe to be a faulty criterion for choosing between these two schools. I made a post to address that.

It's obviously true that the Boston legal market is certainly a lot smaller than the markets in CA, but that doesn't change the fact that BU does not face anywhere remotely near the same level of competition as Davis

I think you're confusing my comparison between markets for a comparison between individual schools. I recognize that BU has, for example, 10% lower LT unemployment vs. Davis. This is a separate (and certainly valid) criterion. However, even if a school places better than others in its market, it still competes with them. So, it's not accurate to generalize from placement data that Boston is a less competitive market than CA. I'm not sure how you would even prove this unless you could get a ratio for each market (total 2L interviewees / total SA positions).

[bk1]

Right -- but you both realize NYC and CA are significantly larger markets than Boston? The fact that there are more students feeding into NYC and CA doesn't mean that it is harder to find a job there than in Boston (which is the proposition I am refuting above). This is just not something that should factor into your decision between the two schools.

It is harder to find a job in CA. Just look at how much of UCD/UCH's classes are unemployed/underemployed compared to BU/BC's classes.