Top Law Schools

Would like some input regarding which school to attend.

Very likely going to end in biglaw; not much interest in PI. Am interested in possibly clerking before work.

Would prefer to live in a city, but could see myself happy in Durham.

No strong personal ties to any of the areas.

Will also have about 30k in savings to spend first year. I'm not wild about debt, but I suppose it comes with the territory.


(I don't have my Georgetown scholarship response yet, but I didn't want to wait any longer to ask. If there's a number for Gtown that should make me choose them over the stated options, please let me know.)

Thanks!

From what I've gathered, your choice seems to lie towards Chicago. The 24k difference is not great enough, between Duke and Chi, to (IMO) justify taking Duke. Chicago has the environment that you prefer and does a better job with placement, overall.

I would narrow it down to either Chicago, Vandy, or USC (and I only mention the second two because of the significantly greater scholarship amounts, and your hint of reluctance towards debt).

Edit: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... ctive=true

UChi has been killing biglaw plus clerkships recently.


With your savings you'll probably come out about 200k in debt by the time you graduate versus about 70k at USC.

38% USC grads getting what you want (probably in cali) versus ~74% of UChi. It really depends on how much debt scares you and how much prestige matters to you. Both can be defended as the better option imo.

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm definitely leaning Chicago. Just wanted to ask here to see if I am overlooking something significant.