Top Law Schools

Pepperdine w/ $18k/year
Santa Clara w/ $16.5k/year
USF w/ $15k first year (working on getting more $ with the others as leverage)

I definitely want to practice in CA, especially the Bay Area, and I am interested in business or tax law. I will only be taking out loans for tuition as my parents are kind enough to be paying for living expenses.

I have called around to a good amount of firms in the SF/Bay Area, and 1/3 said stay local, 1/3 said pepperdine as highest ranked, and 1/3 said doesnt matter, get good grades.

Help me out with your input please! But please avoid if you just want to tell me to not go because these arent T14. Thanks!

Leave Pepperdine out if you want to work in the Bay Area. So it comes down to Santa Clara vs USF. These are peer schools with similar COA's (and similar scholly offers if your USF offer gets renewed).

Using this calculator:

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/finaid/Ge ... ts1213.htm

Your debt will be at around $130,000 at graduation, which is very manageable with biglaw but will be a big burden without it.

So basically flip a coin between USF and Santa Clara, as you long as you keep in mind your chances of working in business or tax law from these schools are quite low

Also, are there any stipulations on these schollies?

@ pepperdine I have to stay in top half, santa clara top 25%, and none at USF since its not renewable

Wow, that changes everything. That is a truly awful stipulation for Santa clara. USF is definitely out. Out of all your choices, Pepperdine is best. Would you be happy working in LA? Also, would your parents still cover living expenses if you go to Pepperdine?

I think you should go to Santa Clara. Your scholarship from Pepperdine may be better, but you will have a very hard time finding work in the bay area if you go there.

I did my first year of school at Santa Clara and really enjoyed it. It's a great campus, and it's very easy to live within walking distance at an affordable apartment. The faculty is also good, and I felt that I got a very solid 1st year curriculum.

That said, it's a lower T2 school, and you compete directly with students from Stanford, Boalt, and Hastings for jobs. Unless you are top 10-15% of the class you are unlikely to get a job through OCI. You'll have to rely on other means of finding work, though from what I've seen the school has a good reputation in the area.

Mr. Somebody wrote:Wow, that changes everything. That is a truly awful stipulation for Santa clara. USF is definitely out. Out of all your choices, Pepperdine is best. Would you be happy working in LA? Also, would your parents still cover living expenses if you go to Pepperdine?

Yes, my parents will still be helping me out. And I can't say that I would be UNHAPPY working in LA since I don't really know yet (I've been in NorCal my whole life), but all my family is up here which was why I was wanting to return here after school.

nleefer wrote:I think you should go to Santa Clara. Your scholarship from Pepperdine may be better, but you will have a very hard time finding work in the bay area if you go there.

I did my first year of school at Santa Clara and really enjoyed it. It's a great campus, and it's very easy to live within walking distance at an affordable apartment. The faculty is also good, and I felt that I got a very solid 1st year curriculum.

That said, it's a lower T2 school, and you compete directly with students from Stanford, Boalt, and Hastings for jobs. Unless you are top 10-15% of the class you are unlikely to get a job through OCI. You'll have to rely on other means of finding work, though from what I've seen the school has a good reputation in the area.

I'm assuming then that you transferred? but you would still recommend going there?

nleefer wrote:I think you should go to Santa Clara. Your scholarship from Pepperdine may be better, but you will have a very hard time finding work in the bay area if you go there.

I did my first year of school at Santa Clara and really enjoyed it. It's a great campus, and it's very easy to live within walking distance at an affordable apartment. The faculty is also good, and I felt that I got a very solid 1st year curriculum.

That said, it's a lower T2 school, and you compete directly with students from Stanford, Boalt, and Hastings for jobs. Unless you are top 10-15% of the class you are unlikely to get a job through OCI. You'll have to rely on other means of finding work, though from what I've seen the school has a good reputation in the area.

Are you taking into account the horrid stipulation on the OP's scholarship?

Santa Clara's self-reported job stats are pretty horrible. 21% of the 2010 class was completely unemployed nine months after graduation. Less than 10% of the class had a job with a law firm of more than ten people. 80% of the class reported no salary information. The California legal market is a disaster. I wouldn't recommend going to any Cali law school right now other than Stanford or Berkeley with anything much less than a full scholarship.

Also, a top 25% scholarship stip isn't really a scholarship.

minigirl13 wrote:

nleefer wrote:I think you should go to Santa Clara. Your scholarship from Pepperdine may be better, but you will have a very hard time finding work in the bay area if you go there.

I did my first year of school at Santa Clara and really enjoyed it. It's a great campus, and it's very easy to live within walking distance at an affordable apartment. The faculty is also good, and I felt that I got a very solid 1st year curriculum.

That said, it's a lower T2 school, and you compete directly with students from Stanford, Boalt, and Hastings for jobs. Unless you are top 10-15% of the class you are unlikely to get a job through OCI. You'll have to rely on other means of finding work, though from what I've seen the school has a good reputation in the area.

I'm assuming then that you transferred? but you would still recommend going there?

I transferred to Boalt after the first year, but I enjoyed my time a Santa Clara a great deal. Given the three options you put forward I think it is the best one. USF is essentially a peer school; it has similar job prospects and a slightly worse scholarship. Pepperdine may be a marginally better school with a slightly better scholarship, but it has limited placement outside southern California.

The 25% stipulation on the scholarship is rough and there's a good chance you won't keep it, but if you want to go to law school and these are your options, that seems like a risk you might have to take.

nleefer wrote:

minigirl13 wrote:

nleefer wrote:I think you should go to Santa Clara. Your scholarship from Pepperdine may be better, but you will have a very hard time finding work in the bay area if you go there.

I did my first year of school at Santa Clara and really enjoyed it. It's a great campus, and it's very easy to live within walking distance at an affordable apartment. The faculty is also good, and I felt that I got a very solid 1st year curriculum.

That said, it's a lower T2 school, and you compete directly with students from Stanford, Boalt, and Hastings for jobs. Unless you are top 10-15% of the class you are unlikely to get a job through OCI. You'll have to rely on other means of finding work, though from what I've seen the school has a good reputation in the area.

I'm assuming then that you transferred? but you would still recommend going there?

I transferred to Boalt after the first year, but I enjoyed my time a Santa Clara a great deal. Given the three options you put forward I think it is the best one. USF is essentially a peer school; it has similar job prospects and a slightly worse scholarship. Pepperdine may be a marginally better school with a slightly better scholarship, but it has limited placement outside southern California.

The 25% stipulation on the scholarship is rough and there's a good chance you won't keep it, but if you want to go to law school and these are your options, that seems like a risk you might have to take.

OP has a 75% chance of losing his/her scholarship for a degree that is going to be worth very little

Its obvious youve done well but I don't see why this is a risk the OP needs to take

If you absolutely must go OP pick between scu and pepper dine and drop out if you're not in the top 20%

This is a tough call and it boils down to where do you want to work?

Pepperdine is definitely the best school of the three, and they gave you the best scholarship, but if you know you don't want to work in southern Cali then it's probably not worth it. Considered retaking? What were your numbers?

Retake bro. No good options for Bay Area.

OP: You will have to get in the top 10% of your class from any of these schools. Your desired fields are basically biglaw or bust, especially tax. I guess I would vote Pepperdine, but that's far behind retake in my mind.