Top Law Schools

I'm in, but none of them have offered me any money yet and I will be living entirely off of loans, so I will be taking on a lot of debt.

Interest: Litigation, constitutional law, jurisprudence.

Berkeley: I have always wanted to live in California and I'd like to end up on the west coast some day. I'm also quite liberal and I'm attracted to what seems like a liberal environment. I'll be coming from Indiana, though, so it would be a very BIG move both logistically and mentally...
Michigan: Seems extremely collegial in its correspondence. I'm eager to visit for Student's Weekend.
Chicago: Unbeatable in terms of employment stats. I've heard it is one of the more competitive schools and I'm a bit intimidated.

(I also have a full ride to IU-Bloomington, but I went there for undergrad and I am pretty sure that I want to take a shot at one of my T-10 options.)

Thoughts/insights?

Career goals? total COA? Ties?

pcthenls wrote:Career goals? total COA? Ties?

Career goals: Undecided but I'm interested in litigation/conlaw and ultimately I would like to be a federal judge.
COA: Equally astronomical in all 3 cases. (70-80k per year)
Ties: Family in Indiana. A couple of friends who live out in the bay area.

kaitlyn00 wrote: Interest: [...] jurisprudence.

I'm intrigued.

Chicago offers the best potential returns on the investment of your time & money.

Chicago. Michigan and Berkeley aren't worth in-state sticker let alone out-of-state sticker.

When were you accepted at Mich?

kaitlyn00 wrote:

pcthenls wrote:Career goals? total COA? Ties?

Career goals: Undecided but I'm interested in litigation/conlaw and ultimately I would like to be a federal judge.
COA: Equally astronomical in all 3 cases. (70-80k per year)
Ties: Family in Indiana. A couple of friends who live out in the bay area.

I think you need to spend more time learning about what a legal career actually involves.

Berkeley has a nice law school but Berkeley itself an absolute dump and not a place you want to live for three years.

Michigan is not as friendly as its scam marketing materials indicates. It also has weak employment numbers.

Chicago isn't that competitive so I wouldn't worry about that. However you should probably wait for financial aid to come out before worrying about this decision.

I'd obviously try and leverage scholarships first. Between these three at sticker, Chicago.

That said, it's painfully apparent you're not well-versed on what exactly an attorney does. Please do yourself a huge favor and figure that out before you take out 250k+ in student loan debt.

twenty wrote:I'd obviously try and leverage scholarships first. Between these three at sticker, Chicago.

That said, it's painfully apparent you're not well-versed on what exactly an attorney does. Please do yourself a huge favor and figure that out before you take out 250k+ in student loan debt.

Actually, these are perfectly reasonable interests to have. They're just not especially lucrative ones.

People on TLS think that if you aren't interested in transactional work or drowning is discovery, you probably don't know what it means to be a lawyer. They assume biglaw lawyers are the only attorneys worth being. There's nothing in OP's post to suggest she/he doesn't understand that most attorneys do not do constitutional or philosophical jobs.

These are three great and (in my opinion) relatively similarly situated schools. I think a decent scholarship at any one of them would be enough to chose it over the others.

HP5450 wrote:

twenty wrote:I'd obviously try and leverage scholarships first. Between these three at sticker, Chicago.

That said, it's painfully apparent you're not well-versed on what exactly an attorney does. Please do yourself a huge favor and figure that out before you take out 250k+ in student loan debt.

Actually, these are perfectly reasonable interests to have. They're just not especially lucrative ones.

People on TLS think that if you aren't interested in transactional work or drowning is discovery, you probably don't know what it means to be a lawyer. They assume biglaw lawyers are the only attorneys worth being. There's nothing in OP's post to suggest she/he doesn't understand that most attorneys do not do constitutional or philosophical jobs.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Most people don't really know what different types of lawyers really do when they go to law school. As long as they are going to a good school, are flexible, and are open to work hard, its not really an issue. Thus, I see nothing wrong with OP's goals, they may look different by the end of law school, or they maybe will not.

Now about the question, I'd wait for scholarships and go to wherever you get the most from. It seems that you like Berkeley so I would go there if is close to the same as michigan and cheaper than Chicago. If you end up at similar costs, however, I would take Chicago because it will maximize your potential employment outcomes.

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