I am currently on the WL at UCLA, "Held" at NU (hold seems to be a nice way for them to word WL this semester?), and waiting on responses from NYU, Penn and USC. I am starting to doubt any of these being viable options at this point and assuming the worst.
With that said, I am choosing between GW with a 60k scholarship and 2.5 stip, Emory with a "good academic standing stip" and Cardozo with a full tuition scholarship and a top 80% stip. My estimated post-graduation debt (not counting interest) based on a combination of the schools estimated COL and my own imaginary, slightly thought out, adjusted COL are as follows:
GW- ~150 [90k tuition after scholarship + 75k COL - 15k(selling my car)]
Emory- ~150 [75k tuition after scholarship + 75k COL]
Cardozo- ~75k [no tuition, 90k COL- 15k (selling my car)]
My plans for after law school are essentially to find a job in a city which I do not hate. I'm from Florida so in the outside chance that I want to return to work in Florida after graduation, I guess Emory would give me the best opportunity to do so. I just visited Cardozo and absolutely loved the city and loved the campus. I get the feeling that if finances weren't an issue GW would be the best option for me as far as employment statistics. I guess I am essentially hung up on how much the full ride from Cardozo should influence my thinking (I am loving the idea of only paying to live, which, I would obviously have to do whether I go to law school or not, granted maybe not in one of the more expensive areas of NYC).
Basically, everything seems so straight forward until you have to start qualifying the worth of random scholarship amounts with the knowledge of the schools employment statistics! I'm just looking to hear a few opinions on my options and what people would do in my situation.