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Hey y'all, I hate to start another "0th world problems" thread, but I haven't seen a discussion of this particular situation.

So, what do the TLS oracles say? Yale at close to sticker or U of Chicago with the Ruby?

No savings. Minimal need aid at YLS.

Tentative career goal: Clerkship(s) --> Big Gov. Ideally right out of school (and yes, I'm aware how difficult that is.) Averse to Biglaw.

Points to consider:
-Intend to focus on economics-related law, so obviously Chicago is great at that.
-But going straight into Big Gov basically requires a clerkship, and obviously Yale is great at that.
-Minimal debt at U of C.
-Yale COAP.
-Would probably prefer the Chicago area / the Midwest for law school.
-Would almost certainly prefer actually attending YLS for 3 years (no grades).
-Yale closer to DC.

So, does Yale have enough of an edge over U of C in terms of big gov placement to warrant taking on $200k in debt? Would it be foolish to rely on COAP to get me out of the hole?

Thanks in advance, yo.

Yale seems perfect for you.

Retake.

Yale all the way. I could never see myself passing up on that opportunity and based on your career goals Yale seems like the obvious choice. Congrats.

Edited to take out crude humor.

Ruby vs. Harvard or Stanford is a different question. But Yale is Yale. If you were thinking biglaw I'd say take the money and run. But given your interests I'd go to Yale. The one caveat to this is that they are both incredible options, and you wouldn't be crazy to take the money at Chicago if you visited both schools and really preferred it here.

ChampagnePapi wrote:Yale seems perfect for you.

Justin Genious wrote:Yale all the way. I could never see myself passing up on that opportunity and based on your career goals Yale seems like the obvious choice. Congrats.

Emma. wrote:Ruby vs. Harvard or Stanford is a different question. But Yale is Yale. If you were thinking biglaw I'd say take the money and run. But given your interests I'd go to Yale.

Yale so that Ruby money can trickle down

Emma. wrote:Ruby vs. Harvard or Stanford is a different question. But Yale is Yale.

As someone who chose Yale in this situation (and will probably do at least some BigLaw), I think this is still a little silly. The difference between Yale and Stanford especially doesn't justify this kind of elevation for Yale. That said, if you really want fed gov, I agree Yale is the way to go.

One big caveat though: COAP is really not all that helpful if you're doing fed gov in a big city. It's really for people doing non profit work or state gov and making $40-50K. In a big city, coming off a clerkship, you'll start at $75K ish. COAP helps with the payments there, but you're still covering a lot. Then, you can quickly get bumped up to $89K, at which point COAP stops helping at all. If you're in it for the long haul though, you still have IBR and PAYE, which will help a lot. Just don't think that COAP will making choosing government work super easy financially.