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I have to decide between a close to full ride at IU-Maurer and sticker at Northwestern. My career goals are big law in a Chicago firm. So is it possible to go biglaw out of IUB or do I have to suck it up and pay for Northwestern? FYI: Asked for more at Northwestern and didn't get anything.

On LST, IUB's 500+ firm placement is ~3%... so like 4 people. Biglaw overall (100+) is close to 8%. Those are pretty steep odds. Also, my guess is the 100-400 attorney people (~6%) are mostly Indy/Louisville, meaning You literally have to be in the top 5 students to get BigLaw Chicago....

Obv. self-selection interview skills etc.. so screeners may go a little deeper than that. But not much.

Don't go to Indiana for biglaw

yossarian71 wrote:On LST, IUB's 500+ firm placement is ~3%... so like 4 people. Biglaw overall (100+) is close to 8%. Those are pretty steep odds. Also, my guess is the 100-400 attorney people (~6%) are mostly Indy/Louisville, meaning You literally have to be in the top 5 students to get BigLaw Chicago....

Obv. self-selection interview skills etc.. so screeners may go a little deeper than that. But not much.

could be staff attorneys, too

no way of knowing if those are legit associate positions -- a lot of the lower ranked schools produce staff attorneys at big firms, too

Yeah, IUB is not going to get you Chicago big law. For Chicago big law it goes UChi/NU plus HYS>>rest of t14>>ND/UIUC>WUSTL>>>>Loyola/Kent and everything else is really small. I personally wouldn't pay sticker at NU, but compared to IUB if Chicago is what you want it is a no brainer

Yea, everyone pretty much echoed my own thoughts. I just wanted to make sure before I make the $200k+ plunge.

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flinton5180 wrote:I have to decide between a close to full ride at IU-Maurer and sticker at Northwestern. My career goals are big law in a Chicago firm. So is it possible to go biglaw out of IUB or do I have to suck it up and pay for Northwestern? FYI: Asked for more at Northwestern and didn't get anything.

I had a friend who went to IU and another who went to U Chicago. They both ended up working at the same big law firm in Chicago. I know this isn't the norm and I wouldn't disregard what other people here have posted, but I just wanted to point out that it's not impossible.

Estreetshuffler wrote:I had a friend who went to IU and another who went to U Chicago. They both ended up working at the same big law firm in Chicago. I know this isn't the norm and I wouldn't disregard what other people here have posted, but I just wanted to point out that it's not impossible.

Agreed. There are a handful of people from my IU class at big firms in Chicago. But it will be much easier coming from Northwestern. The transfers to Northwestern from my class mostly ended up at the same firms as top students who stayed at IU.

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Re - take. Big law from Bloomington looks like a pie in the sky dream. And if you lose the OCI game from northwestern re paying sticker looks impossible. Even if you do end up on the right side of the numbers i can still only imagine what a pain it would be. Northwestern is so expensive and in an expensive area to boot

I'd go with Northwestern. It's not really 200k if you plan to drop out if below median given your goals. You really only lose 150k picking Northwestern if you're top 10% as you'd likely be at least that at IUB, and would have had a full ride. Debt can be a good thing. I'm not sure I'd have worked as hard if I had a full ride, and didn't need a job to avoid poverty.

PepperJack wrote:I'd go with Northwestern. It's not really 200k if you plan to drop out if below median given your goals. You really only lose 150k picking Northwestern if you're top 10% as you'd likely be at least that at IUB, and would have had a full ride. Debt can be a good thing. I'm not sure I'd have worked as hard if I had a full ride, and didn't need a job to avoid poverty.

People say this.. but does anyone actually do it? I feel like once you're in law school you'll end up feeling pot-committed and there's a certain stigma that comes with telling your friends/family that you dropped out.

john7234797 wrote:

PepperJack wrote:I'd go with Northwestern. It's not really 200k if you plan to drop out if below median given your goals. You really only lose 150k picking Northwestern if you're top 10% as you'd likely be at least that at IUB, and would have had a full ride. Debt can be a good thing. I'm not sure I'd have worked as hard if I had a full ride, and didn't need a job to avoid poverty.

People say this.. but does anyone actually do it? I feel like once you're in law school you'll end up feeling pot-committed and there's a certain stigma that comes with telling your friends/family that you dropped out.

Its really really hard to do.

something something sunk cost fallacy

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Estreetshuffler wrote:

flinton5180 wrote:I have to decide between a close to full ride at IU-Maurer and sticker at Northwestern. My career goals are big law in a Chicago firm. So is it possible to go biglaw out of IUB or do I have to suck it up and pay for Northwestern? FYI: Asked for more at Northwestern and didn't get anything.

I had a friend who went to IU and another who went to U Chicago. They both ended up working at the same big law firm in Chicago. I know this isn't the norm and I wouldn't disregard what other people here have posted, but I just wanted to point out that it's not impossible.

I see what you're saying man. But just so that logic doesn't resonate with OP, I know someone from UVA who is a SCOTUS clerk and someone from Yale who is a SCOTUS clerk. That doesn't change the fact it would be silly to choose UVA over Yale.