Top Law Schools

As seat deposit deadlines are only a few days away, I am still undecided about where I should attend and decided I would let the unforgiving a brutally honest community of TLS give their opinions. The tuition amounts in the poll are what I would pay per year in tuition after deducting any scholarships I have been awarded. PLEASE HELP, I HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION!! As a side note, I am a Georgia native and attended undergrad in GA as well. I also do not have aspirations for big law, small to mid size firm in mid to decent sized city in the Southeast is more what I'm shooting for, if that makes a difference while casting your votes.

In addition, this cycle is my last hoo rah with applying to law school. I applied straight out of undergrad, decided against attending to take a job and make some decent money for a while. I worked for 2 years in the Finance/Accounting field, retook the LSAT (for the third and final time, so retake is not an option for a while), reapplied for admission this cycle and if I do not attend this fall I'm going to hang up the law school dream, bite the bullet and go CPA/B-School route. The above poll is my last resort for attending law school and becoming an attorney. Thanks for the help.

Keep job, retake, apply to better schools next cycle.

WokeUpInACar wrote:Keep job, retake, apply to better schools next cycle.

It sucks. But it's true. If your GPA is even half decent, a good LSAT can get you full rides to these schools, and get you into way better ones.

..

Voted to keep your current job but I would add re-take and apply early to the better Georgia Schools (UGA and I guess Georgia State). Much better choices and cheaper too.

Seeing as those aren't options... I would just really discourage Mercer as a choice. Of those choices, Ole Miss is the best one by far. Low cost and its the best school in the state of Mississippi.

Lawdog12355 wrote:I probably should have stated this in my original post. This cycle is my last hoo rah with applying to law school. I applied straight out of undergrad, decided against attending to take a job and make some decent money for a while. I worked for 2 years in the Finance/Accounting field, retook the LSAT (for the third and final time, so retake is not an option for a while), reapplied for admission this cycle and if I do not attend this fall I'm going to hang up the law school dream, bite the bullet and go CPA/B-School route. The above poll is my last resort for attending law school and becoming an attorney.

My vote is for B-school

Almost the same difference, attending a B-school that's not top tier (I have no idea what kind of B-school I could get into, I have not taken the GMAT and still lack about 2 years of work experience before I could even apply to anywhere worth going) is like attending a mediocre law school. Both expensive and risky.

How much did you actually study for the LSAT man? Having these options after 3 takes seems ridiculous.

what's your current job? if it pays close to decent and has any , any chance of future growth, then keep the job, if the job is a terrible dead end, then OLE Miss,

Meepo wrote:what's your current job? if it pays close to decent and has any , any chance of future growth, then keep the job, if the job is a terrible dead end, then OLE Miss,

Not if you're from GA

Do you have ties to SC? Would you be okay working there? If so, I think you should go there. I came really , really close to depositing there actually, but I have ties to the region and like the South. It has decent employment stats and can get you placed in SC if you have ties. I know some people don't agree, but I'm from the region and I absolutely love the Columbia area and the campus is gorgeous. Actually as I'm typing this I'm kind of sad I didn't deposit there myself! I really liked the administration there and the people I met were really friendly. Plus living in Columbia can be done pretty cheaply and I personally love walking around the area, so if you got an apartment near the school you could walk or bike to school to save gas money (I know that's nothing in comparison to law school costs but I feel like any little bit helps). Feel free to PM me if you have other questions.

I really do like SC and I would be cool with living in SC for a while with intentions of getting back to GA eventually. But as far as that goes I wouldn't be upset getting stuck in SC or MS for a while until I gain some experience. And honestly despite the negative outlook from TLS (I've been lurking on this site since undergrad, so I was/am well prepared for the type of responses that I knew I would get with this type of thread) on getting back to GA from either of these schools, I have many fraternity brothers and family friends with successful practices that have given me a lot of encouragement that if they couldn't hire me when I was ready they would go out of their way to help me out (even though I'm very skeptical by nature and take those kind of statements with a grain of salt). Having said that I really don't buy into the doom and gloom of the T14 or unemployed forever attitude presented here. I have friends that have graduated from all over the spectrum of the US Newsweek rankings (including the notorious John Marshall ATL all the way to the T14) and out of all of them, I only know one person that was a product of firm downsizing and another that was unemployed for a short stint (less than 6 months) who now works clerking for two judges making at least a livable wage. I'm not trying to imply that there aren't hardship cases out there because obviously there are, just in my experience and research I haven't ran across any truly terrible "law school ruined my life" situations outside of internet horror stories.

Also just to reiterate, I really have no intentions of going big law. It just doesn't appeal to me, not saying that my perception wont change but it has never been my ultimate goal.

HTH

dood solid gif

rad lulz wrote:dood solid gif

For real!

Depends on how much you hate your job. I'd say Ole Miss if anything.

For your B-School idea, the GMAT IMO is much easier to do well on than the LSAT as long as you're pretty good at math (I've taken both). I think you're totally right about B-School still being a huge risk.

For the CPA, as long as you pass the test and get a Masters in Accounting (12 months-18 months depending on your UG experience) you pretty much have a job. You just have to find an exciting hobby outside of work so you don't die of boredom.

Good luck on your decision!