Top Law Schools

Hey folks, so to start off, I'm extremely debt-averse. I have really good grades, but I pretty much got what I was averaging on my practice lsats, so I'm not planning on retaking. These are my options. I think they're all really good, but I don't really know what to choose. My plans are business or taxation law, hopefully ending up down the road as in-house council for a large multinational. I might also do a joint JD/MBA. I don't have any connection/preference what part of the country I end up working in. I'm more leaning towards one option, but I want to hear other people's opinions separate from my own biases.

IIT Chicago-Kent: Honors Scholars Program (Full-ride + $10,000/yr living stipend). Also includes one on one projects with the dean. Graduates from the honors program there tend to end up with really good networking opportunities and generally graduate with good job offers in Chicago.

WUSTL: $126,000 scholarship

BYU: Full-ride scholarship

UCLA: $135,000 scholarship

What's your total CoA (calculate it with accrued interest) at graduation?

It looks like you want to work in-house at a F500... in other words, starting out on the corporate side in big law. UCLA gives you the best shot at that, but I'm hesitant to make any suggestion before seeing what your CoA figures will be.

Bronck wrote:What's your total CoA (calculate it with accrued interest) at graduation?

It looks like you want to work in-house at a F500... in other words, starting out on the corporate side in big law. UCLA gives you the best shot at that, but I'm hesitant to make any suggestion before seeing what your CoA figures will be.

I'm guessing around $80,000 for UCLA, $20,000 for BYU, $8000 for IIT Chicago-Kent, and $35,000 for WUSTL

You got into NYU... they aren't offering any money? I would say Chicago-Kent for free and pray those connections really land you where you want or NYU (costly, but better odds). NYU has a great Tax law program and much better placement. If you are going to take on a good amount of debt anyway, go with the best option.

Do you have ties to California? UCLA is the only school outside of NYU that seems to have any reasonable shot of fulfilling your goals. I think NYU at sticker is kind of crazy though.

Yeah, no scholarship $$$ from NYU, and I couldn't imagine racking up that much debt.
And no, I don't have any ties to California. Which on the downside means I don't have any connections, but on the up side I'm pretty much open to moving anywhere.

yodamiked wrote:

Bronck wrote:What's your total CoA (calculate it with accrued interest) at graduation?

It looks like you want to work in-house at a F500... in other words, starting out on the corporate side in big law. UCLA gives you the best shot at that, but I'm hesitant to make any suggestion before seeing what your CoA figures will be.

I'm guessing around $80,000 for UCLA, $20,000 for BYU, $8000 for IIT Chicago-Kent, and $35,000 for WUSTL

I'm very confused by your calculations. For example, how do you figure only 35k for WUSTL? That's like 2 years of COL... What about tuition and your third year of COL?

And have you negotiated at all for more scholly money?

Are you Mormon and/or fully comfortable following THE LAWS for 3 years/forever?

yodamiked wrote:Yeah, no scholarship $$$ from NYU, and I couldn't imagine racking up that much debt.
And no, I don't have any ties to California. Which on the downside means I don't have any connections, but on the up side I'm pretty much open to moving anywhere.

Is there no choice in between NYU at sticker and $$$ at a T1? Did you not get any money from a lower T14?

romothesavior wrote:

yodamiked wrote:

Bronck wrote:What's your total CoA (calculate it with accrued interest) at graduation?

It looks like you want to work in-house at a F500... in other words, starting out on the corporate side in big law. UCLA gives you the best shot at that, but I'm hesitant to make any suggestion before seeing what your CoA figures will be.

I'm guessing around $80,000 for UCLA, $20,000 for BYU, $8000 for IIT Chicago-Kent, and $35,000 for WUSTL

I'm very confused by your calculations. For example, how do you figure only 35k for WUSTL? That's like 2 years of COL... What about tuition and your third year of COL?

And have you negotiated at all for more scholly money?

Those numbers are really rough and only include tuition and rent. I figure food/fun/books is going to be fairly similar no matter where I go so I haven't included them in my decision criteria. But yeah, WUSTL should be a little higher. I underestimated rent (though there is a good chance I'd have a roommate or two).

Also, I am LDS so I wouldn't have any issues with the standards code at BYU.

I don't have any other offers from T14s. I was PR at Duke; still waiting on UMichigan and Cornell; held at Columbia and wait-listed at Penn.

.

ajax adonis wrote:Does BYU have a lot of connections? Like the LDS connections? If so, if the network at BYU is pretty strong and Mormons take care of e/o, I'd go BYU full ride. What are the requirements to keep all these scholarships? I can't imagine COL being that high in BYU.

COL at BYU is super cheap. The requirements at byu is top 3rd. No requirements at the other schools. Yeah, the network is great. You actually get to choose a mentor from an online database and they are expected to provide you with three job interviews in a sector your interested in. So that's pretty tempting.

If you're LDS, then probably BYU?