Top Law Schools

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rad lulz wrote:Calculate CoA using this

According to LST:

SLU is a 50/50 shot at ANY legal job, and you're not from St. Louis, which is apparently a pretty parochial place. Plus it's $75k. So that's out. Way too expensive for the job "prospects."

MSU looks like your best option due to cost, but only 40% of the grads actually became lawyers, so I probably wouldn't go there if you actually want to be a lawyer.

Minnesota is a decent place jobwise, but that amount of debt practically necessitates biglaw to pay off. However, less than 20% of Minn grads got big firm jobs or federal clerkships, so in the likely event you don't get one of those jobs, you will ruin yourself financially. Plus you said you don't want to work at a big firm. Definitely not worth $135k to try to work in a small firm or local govt. I'd maybe pay like $75k for Minnesota, if that.

In sum, if you're not willing to retake, don't go to law school.

Rad is on target, as always. None of these schools leave you in a good position. If you absolutely had to choose, MSU is the least bad option. However, if you genuinely have good reasons not to retake, not going to law school is a better option.

rad lulz wrote:Calculate CoA using this

According to LST:

SLU is a 50/50 shot at ANY legal job, and you're not from St. Louis, which is apparently a pretty parochial place. Plus it's $75k. So that's out. Way too expensive for the job "prospects."

MSU looks like your best option due to cost, but only 40% of the grads actually became lawyers, so I probably wouldn't go there if you actually want to be a lawyer.

Minnesota is a decent place jobwise, but that amount of debt practically necessitates biglaw to pay off. However, less than 20% of Minn grads got big firm jobs or federal clerkships, so in the likely event you don't get one of those jobs, you will ruin yourself financially. Plus you said you don't want to work at a big firm. Definitely not worth $135k to try to work in a small firm or local govt. I'd maybe pay like $75k for Minnesota, if that.

In sum, if you're not willing to retake, don't go to law school.

Thanks for the link on the CoA calculator.

And thanks for the advice both of you.

Retake and reapply.

No school with less than 85% full time legal employment is worth more than 150K in debt, no school with less than 60% full time legal employment is worth more than a 50K in debt, no school with less than 50% full time legal employment is worth more than full ride.

Where are you getting the 135k figure for Minnesota? My calculations put you at 175k indebtedness at UMN.

I voted SLU....reluctantly. Can you negotiate your scholarship at all?

On the one hand, you have ties to the area. On the other hand, Rad is definitely right about the odds of getting a legal job out of SLU.

Also, that's a LOT of money for Minnesota.

reyals wrote:Where are you getting the 135k figure for Minnesota? My calculations put you at 175k indebtedness at UMN.

Your calculations are correct. I redid them using the CoA calculator linked in this thread and it came u to around 175k. Way out of my comfort range, especially since I'm not interested in pursuing Big Law.

I went ahead and updated the figures. Little late though for people who have already voted.

cinnamonchurros wrote:I voted SLU....reluctantly. Can you negotiate your scholarship at all?

On the one hand, you have ties to the area. On the other hand, Rad is definitely right about the odds of getting a legal job out of SLU.

Also, that's a LOT of money for Minnesota.

And I already negotiated with SLU. They upped my scholly another 1k/yr and that's all they're willing to do.

I'm probably going to do some more talking with MSU and see about getting into contact with any alumni around the St. Louis area. LST doesn't lie and that part of MSU scares me. If I don't get a good vibe in that manner, it's looking like SLU. I have quite a bit of savings so I'd be able to partially fund my education wherever I went. At SLU, I would certainly not borrow more than the $20,500 limit from Stafford loans which would certainly lower the estimated cost above by avoiding the higher interest Grad Plus loans.

And new 2012 #'s from LST have upped SLU's Employment score to 58%.

Meanwhile, Michigan State's Employment Score has continued to linger under 40%.

Gunner22 wrote:I've tried negotiating a higher scholly already and they upped it 1k/year.

Lol what is this shit. Frankly, that's insulting.

/ragewithdraw

Crowing wrote:

Gunner22 wrote:I've tried negotiating a higher scholly already and they upped it 1k/year.

Lol what is this shit. Frankly, that's insulting.

/ragewithdraw

Yeah... it was very much a token attempt.

However, aside from the very limited number of Full Rides they give out which I almost certainly applied too late in the cycle to be eligible for, the highest scholly amount I've seen on LSN is only 1k/yr more than what I'm at. So, meh.