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Long time stalker, first time poster
I am a 0L hoping to go into environmental law or policy (unrealistic, I know). Ideally, I would work for the EPA in a regional office (hopefully region 5 in Chicago) or work for another organization that does regulation or environmental legal advocacy in the Midwest.
I am from Illinois and have ties here, Iowa, and Indiana. I am extremely debt adverse and will be financing my legal education entirely through loans. As someone in this situation, I have been leaning heavily towards attending a lower ranked school and hoping to keep my debt low. At the same time, I worry about PI hiring at lower ranked schools relative to higher ranked schools. Currently, I am strongly considering 4 schools and have listed the COA next to each.
Iowa - $40,000 (probably) full tuition and guaranteed RA, but would have to cover cost of living. Could probably live cheap as this is closest to home.
Indiana - $50,000 (same deal as Iowa, minus RA, but would likely be more on my own with expenses)
Illinois - $40,000 (estimated). Not full scholarship as of now, but I'm sure I could talk them down. Also, significant resources in CU which will allow me to cut costs.
Virginia - $230,000. Small scholarship per year. Covering everything else

I have also gotten into WUSTL, Vandy, GW, and CU Boulder. They are options, but none have offered full tuition and are out of region. With me being debt-averse, I am hesitant to jump. At this point it seems to me that I either take on little debt, take on a lot load of debt, or sit out. Held, WL, or dinged at Berkeley, GULC, Duke, and NW.

My stats are 3.98 (LSAC: 4.0+) and 162. I have taken the LSAT once (June 2013). I studied for three months leading up to the test and took a TestMasters prep class. For the last month of that, I studied around 70+ hours a week and watched every video and listened to every explanation TestMasters had on file. I never PT'd higher than a 164. I am concerned that even if I do retake and do better, I would subject myself to diminishing returns as I have heard, anecdotally for TLS, that even with superior scores, elite schools do not tend to give out full tuition. Therefore, I am considering whether to jump now and work my ass off to get PI (while avoiding debt) or retake and hope that I could get a similar offer at a better school with superior job placement and PI statistics. I am hesitant to use LRAP as new loan structures look to be on the way in Washington that will screw our kind. I have had 2+ years of work experience at the UG level while in school, and have likely benefited from good LORs. I am open to taking a year off, but worry that the same offers may not be there if I apply next cycle. I do not have any jobs lined up for next year and have struggled so far to find one. Worst case scenario, I'm sure I could find something.

tl;dr: Is it better to take the debt and better opportunities at UVA or network like hell at a strong regional?

Spiderface wrote:Long time stalker, first time poster
I am a 0L hoping to go into environmental law or policy (unrealistic, I know). Ideally, I would work for the EPA in a regional office (hopefully region 5 in Chicago) or work for another organization that does regulation or environmental legal advocacy in the Midwest.
I am from Illinois and have ties here, Iowa, and Indiana. I am extremely debt adverse and will be financing my legal education entirely through loans. As someone in this situation, I have been leaning heavily towards attending a lower ranked school and hoping to keep my debt low. At the same time, I worry about PI hiring at lower ranked schools relative to higher ranked schools. Currently, I am strongly considering 4 schools and have listed the COA next to each.
Iowa - $40,000 (probably) full tuition and guaranteed RA, but would have to cover cost of living. Could probably live cheap as this is closest to home.
Indiana - $50,000 (same deal as Iowa, minus RA, but would likely be more on my own with expenses)
Illinois - $40,000 (estimated). Not full scholarship as of now, but I'm sure I could talk them down. Also, significant resources in CU which will allow me to cut costs.
Virginia - $230,000. Small scholarship per year. Covering everything else

I have also gotten into WUSTL, Vandy, GW, and CU Boulder. They are options, but none have offered full tuition and are out of region. With me being debt-averse, I am hesitant to jump. At this point it seems to me that I either take on little debt, take on a lot load of debt, or sit out. Held, WL, or dinged at Berkeley, GULC, Duke, and NW.

My stats are 3.98 (LSAC: 4.0+) and 162. I have taken the LSAT once (June 2013). I studied for three months leading up to the test and took a TestMasters prep class. For the last month of that, I studied around 70+ hours a week and watched every video and listened to every explanation TestMasters had on file. I never PT'd higher than a 164. I am concerned that even if I do retake and do better, I would subject myself to diminishing returns as I have heard, anecdotally for TLS, that even with superior scores, elite schools do not tend to give out full tuition. Therefore, I am considering whether to jump now and work my ass off to get PI (while avoiding debt) or retake and hope that I could get a similar offer at a better school with superior job placement and PI statistics. I am hesitant to use LRAP as new loan structures look to be on the way in Washington that will screw our kind. I have had 2+ years of work experience at the UG level while in school, and have likely benefited from good LORs. I am open to taking a year off, but worry that the same offers may not be there if I apply next cycle. I do not have any jobs lined up for next year and have struggled so far to find one. Worst case scenario, I'm sure I could find something.

tl;dr: Is it better to take the debt and better opportunities at UVA or network like hell at a strong regional?

I was in a similar situation before. I am debt averse and wanted Chicago, but not necessarily big law, so I went to UIUC for the big scholarship and am very happy with my decision. With that said, I was a splitter with a low GPA and a good LSAT. Do not waste that great GPA. Retake, take as many practice tests as you can and get into UChi or NU with money. Don't waste that GPA

Anyone else have thoughts on this? I want to make a decision before April 1st if possible.

Spiderface wrote:Anyone else have thoughts on this? I want to make a decision before April 1st if possible.

I would cross off Indiana and Virginia. The prices at Illinois and Iowa aren't terrible, and they aren't bad schools. But you really would be wasting that GPA if you didn't retake. 6 or 7 more points puts most of the T14 in play, and if you were still worried about debt you would have good money at Wash U, Vandy, Cornell, GULC.

Spiderface wrote:I am concerned that even if I do retake and do better, I would subject myself to diminishing returns as I have heard, anecdotally for TLS, that even with superior scores, elite schools do not tend to give out full tuition.

Don't know where you got this impression, but it's absolutely not true. With the exception of HYS (which only do need-based aid), most T14 schools offer a fair amount of merit-based aid, including full-tuition (or close to it) scholarships.

Given your goals, I think you should retake. You have an exceptional GPA. If you can bring your LSAT score up, I think you will have some phenomenal options next cycle.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the TLS mantra of retake. It's usually right. And I would generally say 3 months is too short a study time. But, I gotta say that if you never tested higher than a 164 in a three month period, you scored basically as high as you PTd, and you outperformed your #s this cycle, I kinda don't think retake is the best advice. If OP doesn't feel confident s/he'd score higher, I don't know that it makes sense.

UVA at >$200k for PI is a tough sell. But, it is a great school. If you'd be willing to do biglaw for 3 years to shave off $90k+ of your debt, maybe you wouldn't be crushed by your debt forever. But that's still rollin' the dice.

IUIC is the only real choice here for Chi. UI is too regional and too far from Chi. IU (also too regional) placed okay in Chi pre-recession, but it's really really hard to get there now. Add that to extra $10k, and there is basically no reason to choose Maurer. Arguably if you were interested in a dual degree, IU-SPEA's enviro programs are good. But dual JDs are pretty worthless w/out the perfect combo of pre-school WE and luck. Good luck in your decision making. Really tough choice. Feel for ya.

I can't fathom studying anything for 70 hours a week. Is that true or an exaggeration?

I would definitely retake June. Apply Noodley's guide for retakers. If you want to hedge and deposit at one of these schools in case you don't score higher then do that too.