Top Law Schools

Hey guys, feeling pretty confused/panicky about deadlines coming up next month. If I go to law school I am totally set on PI work of some sort and would be happy with PD/Legal Aid. ACLU/HRW would be the dream.

I am considering the following five schools. Figures given are total indebtedness at graduation:

Berkeley - $280,000
New York University - $300,000
Georgetown - Probably around $200,000 (still waiting for scholarship details)
UofA - $40,000-45,000 (full ride + cheap COL)
Northeastern - $90,000 (nearly full ride + more expensive COL)

I was thrilled to get into Berkeley since I would love to work in the Bay and it was a long-shot with my numbers but at full price, and with my goals (I am completely unwilling to work biglaw under any circumstances), i'm just not sure it makes sense. Before I was thinking that PSLF+LRAP was an insane good deal, now I'm thinking that its probably too good to be true. NYU is sort of the same story, but a bit less appealing in terms of location.

Also, its possible that I could get $50,000 or a bit less of need-based aid at Berkeley, won't find out for awhile, but at this point I'm not sure if this would even change the equation. Not sure how anyone could pay off anywhere near this much debt.

I have lived in Arizona for several years and wouldn't mind living there for the foreseeable future, although I would prefer California. Not sure if I can realistically get a PI job out of U of A though, especially as they don't offer postgrad fellowships or summer funding.

3.6/173 - took the LSAT only once but getting higher up into the 99th doesn't seem like it would help me out much with my GPA. Also, I am currently underemployed in the service industry and don't have good prospects for getting a decent job without going back to school. Humanities/social science major. Maybe I should just forget about the law school thing and get a teaching certificate?

Are these your only options or did you apply elsewhere?

Vote Berkeley, it seems like a solid PI-focused school, rely on Lrap etc, the opportunities will be much better than from UofA.

What kind of PI and where do you want to live?

Berkeley

"What kind of PI and where do you want to live?"

Not sure where I want to live - my parents live in northern california and landing a job in the bay area would be amazing, I would be okay with working in Arizona. Not exactly sure what kind of PI - would be happy doing public defender services or legal aid services in a small market but a dream job might involve impact litigation around the rights of the incarcerated.

"Are these your only options or did you apply elsewhere?"

Waitlisted at Michigan, Duke, and Columbia. Didn't apply anywhere else. Maybe I should have applied more broadly to lower ranked schools in CA.

For those who said Berkeley: do you have a sense of what the worse case scenario is, if PSLF disappears, and the interest on my loans accrues at over $20,000 a year, and I have a job making $40,000-$60,000 a year? Obviously I would never be able to pay this back...its just not clear what would happen. I guess I could never buy a home and my wages would be garnished at a certain point? And then twenty-five years from when I entered repayment the debt would be forgiven (and the debt would be like $1,000,000 or something at this point) and I would have some massive tax liability on this? Do I understand correctly?