Top Law Schools

California Western offered me a full scholarship and a 1,000 stipend for books. Pace offered me a full scholarship

I do not know where i would prefer to live and work so advice on lifestyle differences between Cal/NY would be appreciated

Go to California. It's warmer and you can sleep under a bridge after you fail to find employment from either of these places.

Seriously, what?

john1990 wrote:California Western offered me a full scholarship and a 1,000 stipend for books. Pace offered me a full scholarship

I do not know where i would prefer to live and work so advice on lifestyle differences between Cal/NY would be appreciated

Any strings on that scholarship money? And does it automatically renew?

Also, could you switch to part-time. If you can graduate with $0 debt it may be acceptable to take the Cal Western route... but it is a close call. I personally would not do it, but it is close.

Neither one. Unless their are no stips on that scholarship, they pay for your COL, and you literally come out not one penny poorer.

COL is not covered. The scholarship at pace requires top 80% and at California Western top 50%. I was in the top 15% at my undergrad university so i feel good about my chances of keeping them.

I could switch to Part-Time and work during school

My undergraduate degree is not helping me find work and this route definitely increases my standard of living for the next three years at least. I am also hoping to finish well in class and transfer. I have known people to do this

TheSpanishMain wrote:Go to California. It's warmer and you can sleep under a bridge after you fail to find employment from either of these places.

Seriously, what?

Yea, but that wont be for three years. I could even do a joint degree to stay a forth year

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:

-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) + accumulated interest - scholarships. Here is a helpful calculator.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers
-How many times you have taken the LSAT

timbs4339 wrote:In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:

-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) + accumulated interest - scholarships. Here is a helpful calculator.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers
-How many times you have taken the LSAT

Cost of Attendance will be about 20,000 a year due to COL which i will finance with loans. I will likely work during the summer which will help and i might work during the year. My COA is probably around $10,000

I do not know if i prefer NY of Cal and my goal is business law

john1990 wrote:

TheSpanishMain wrote:Go to California. It's warmer and you can sleep under a bridge after you fail to find employment from either of these places.

Seriously, what?

Yea, but that wont be for three years. I could even do a joint degree to stay a forth year

Wait, so you don't care about employment outcomes, you just want access to student loans to live off of? Is this what you're getting at?

john1990 wrote:Cost of Attendance will be about 20,000 a year due to COL which i will finance with loans.

john1990 wrote:My COA is probably around $10,000

No.

john1990 wrote:The scholarship at pace requires top 80% and at California Western top 50%. I was in the top 15% at my undergrad university so i feel good about my chances of keeping them.

You may want to look into how this works. Start here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... wnload=yes.

john1990 wrote:My undergraduate degree is not helping me find work

In all likelihood, neither will your law degree.

http://www.lstscorereports.com/?school=calwestern
http://www.lstscorereports.com/?school=pace

john1990 wrote:I am also hoping to finish well in class and transfer. I have known people to do this

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... ransfer+up



I'll leave the rest of the possible points of conversation for the rest of the peanut gallery.



Also....trollin'?

My COA is probably around $10,000 because i will finance it while working as well and i know i will lose the scholarship if i drop below 50% but as i said i think i can place in the top half since i have strong numbers

Basing this off of my friends' who went to law school in San Diego (one at USD, the other at TJSL):

San Diego has a very small legal market. Outside of biotech or biomed, there's not a whole lot out there in the legal market. Many graduates of SD schools latch on to boutiques or solos.

Of all the schools there, USD's grads are favored and have the edge in employment. My buddy who graduated from there about a few years back told me in 1L, he was at a networking event with a bunch of local law students, attorneys, and judges. A judge (who was an alum of USD) saw my buddy's name tag (indicating he was a USD student) and stopped talking to the attorney he was conversing with (who went to Cal Western) and immediately went over to my buddy and said hello. My buddy went on to say that USD>Cal Western> TJSL in terms of rep and employment prospects. And this was before the recession. He's now at a boutique law firm.

My friend from TJSL graduated 2 years ago. Still has not found a jerb outside doc review.

My two cents: unless you get a full ride with NO STIPS, its not worth going to any of those schools. Based on my experience looking for jobs in both the Bay Area and Southern California, its tough to find a job out here unless you place in top of your class at a lower ranked school, have incredible work experience in a field or useful degree (engineering, biomed, etc.), or went to Stanford-Boalt-USC-UCLA- and maybe Hastings/Davis. The other T2 schools in CA face an uphill climb to find jobs; possible, but just difficult. The T3 and below? You need virtually 0$ debt, and then some, for it to be worth the investment of 3 years.

john1990 wrote:

TheSpanishMain wrote:Go to California. It's warmer and you can sleep under a bridge after you fail to find employment from either of these places.

Seriously, what?

Yea, but that wont be for three years. I could even do a joint degree to stay a forth year

Why do a law degree for 3 years? You could do a PhD and increase your standard of living for 7 years.

john1990 wrote:My COA is probably around $10,000 because i will finance it while working as well and i know i will lose the scholarship if i drop below 50% but as i said i think i can place in the top half since i have strong numbers

Many law schools, particularly lower ranked ones from T2 and down, have dubious practices to make you lose your scholarship. One of the more common ones is placing you, and a bunch of other people with similar numbers, in the same section. Essentially, you will be competing against your section, who will mostly boast similar numbers (can even be higher) to stay in that 50% range. So unless you are coming into Pace or Cal Western with numbers in the higher echelon of the 75%, DO NOT OVERESTIMATE YOUR NUMBERS.

Yeah, and on a PhD, you won't have to take out loans since the whole thing should/will be covered by the school.

Okay, seriously, wtf, weren't you just talking about in another thread how undergrads are making oodles?

Quit trolling brother, it's not even the right time of year for this bit.

..

OP is a known troll.

Ti Malice wrote:OP is a known troll.

OP is the best troll.

twentypercentmore wrote:Yeah, and on a PhD, you won't have to take out loans since the whole thing should/will be covered by the school.

Okay, seriously, wtf, weren't you just talking about in another thread how undergrads are making oodles?

No i said the opposite

And your making this decision the first week of Oct how?

TheWeeIceMon wrote:

john1990 wrote:

TheSpanishMain wrote:Go to California. It's warmer and you can sleep under a bridge after you fail to find employment from either of these places.

Seriously, what?

Yea, but that wont be for three years. I could even do a joint degree to stay a forth year

Why do a law degree for 3 years? You could do a PhD and increase your standard of living for 7 years.

Because i have a full scholarship

whatsyourdeal wrote:

john1990 wrote:My COA is probably around $10,000 because i will finance it while working as well and i know i will lose the scholarship if i drop below 50% but as i said i think i can place in the top half since i have strong numbers

Many law schools, particularly lower ranked ones from T2 and down, have dubious practices to make you lose your scholarship. One of the more common ones is placing you, and a bunch of other people with similar numbers, in the same section. Essentially, you will be competing against your section, who will mostly boast similar numbers (can even be higher) to stay in that 50% range. So unless you are coming into Pace or Cal Western with numbers in the higher echelon of the 75%, DO NOT OVERESTIMATE YOUR NUMBERS.

Thanks, but I am above the 75% percentile

whatsyourdeal wrote:Basing this off of my friends' who went to law school in San Diego (one at USD, the other at TJSL):

San Diego has a very small legal market. Outside of biotech or biomed, there's not a whole lot out there in the legal market. Many graduates of SD schools latch on to boutiques or solos.

Of all the schools there, USD's grads are favored and have the edge in employment. My buddy who graduated from there about a few years back told me in 1L, he was at a networking event with a bunch of local law students, attorneys, and judges. A judge (who was an alum of USD) saw my buddy's name tag (indicating he was a USD student) and stopped talking to the attorney he was conversing with (who went to Cal Western) and immediately went over to my buddy and said hello. My buddy went on to say that USD>Cal Western> TJSL in terms of rep and employment prospects. And this was before the recession. He's now at a boutique law firm.

My friend from TJSL graduated 2 years ago. Still has not found a jerb outside doc review.

My two cents: unless you get a full ride with NO STIPS, its not worth going to any of those schools. Based on my experience looking for jobs in both the Bay Area and Southern California, its tough to find a job out here unless you place in top of your class at a lower ranked school, have incredible work experience in a field or useful degree (engineering, biomed, etc.), or went to Stanford-Boalt-USC-UCLA- and maybe Hastings/Davis. The other T2 schools in CA face an uphill climb to find jobs; possible, but just difficult. The T3 and below? You need virtually 0$ debt, and then some, for it to be worth the investment of 3 years.

I would likely have little or no debt and i don't mind working in a small firm

I dont troll. A few just call me a troll when they disagree with me and i continue to respond to their trolling