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Full tuition scholarship with NO stips. How much would it hurt me that I plan on practicing in California?

This much

http://www.lstscorereports.com/?school= ... b=location

Newb2law wrote:Full tuition scholarship with NO stips. How much would it hurt me that I plan on practicing in California?

Either you have a twin or this is the second time you've asked this. Either way the answer hasn't changed. Outside the T14 and maybe WashU, Notre Dame and a few others you cannot count on a school having reach outside it's region. Penn State is certainly no exception.

Penn State seems to be doing good things, but by the time you graduate it sure as heck won't have any legitimate CA placement power. If you're not comfortable practicing in PA don't go. If you are, give it a shot if you'd like but the odds of getting back to CA will very much be against you.

Nucky wrote:

Newb2law wrote:Full tuition scholarship with NO stips. How much would it hurt me that I plan on practicing in California?

Either you have a twin or this is the second time you've asked this. Either way the answer hasn't changed. Outside the T14 and maybe WashU, Notre Dame and a few others you cannot count on a school having reach outside it's region. Penn State is certainly no exception.

Penn State seems to be doing good things, but by the time you graduate it sure as heck won't have any legitimate CA placement power. If you're not comfortable practicing in PA don't go. If you are, give it a shot if you'd like but the odds of getting back to CA will very much be against you.

How do you know this

oblitigate wrote:

Nucky wrote:

Newb2law wrote:Full tuition scholarship with NO stips. How much would it hurt me that I plan on practicing in California?

Either you have a twin or this is the second time you've asked this. Either way the answer hasn't changed. Outside the T14 and maybe WashU, Notre Dame and a few others you cannot count on a school having reach outside it's region. Penn State is certainly no exception.

Penn State seems to be doing good things, but by the time you graduate it sure as heck won't have any legitimate CA placement power. If you're not comfortable practicing in PA don't go. If you are, give it a shot if you'd like but the odds of getting back to CA will very much be against you.

How do you know this

I don't know which part you're referring to, but if it's Penn States placement power just look at their numbers. Speaks for itself.

I think this is a really, really bad plan.

You're only going to qualify for small firm/PD/DA type work, all those types of jobs require a pretty solid hustle game, and you're going to be across the country unable to get your hustle on. You will almost certainly graduate unemployed and will struggle to find work, unless you already have a job lined up.

Why would you pick this random school in a random state when you want to work in CA? At least if you went to one of the many CA TTTs (for free) you could network locally and get your hustle on and give yourself a fighting chance. Going to Penn State you would just be shooting yourself in the foot right before the race even starts.

BigZuck wrote:I think this is a really, really bad plan.

You're only going to qualify for small firm/PD/DA type work, all those types of jobs require a pretty solid hustle game, and you're going to be across the country unable to get your hustle on. You will almost certainly graduate unemployed and will struggle to find work, unless you already have a job lined up.

Why would you pick this random school in a random state when you want to work in CA? At least if you went to one of the many CA TTTs (for free) you could network locally and get your hustle on and give yourself a fighting chance. Going to Penn State you would just be shooting yourself in the foot right before the race even starts.

The above is true. If Penn State regularly placed grads in CA, there would be data to show for it. How did you fare at the dozen or so law schools in CA?

I think the importance of location is overstated if you already have ties to California. Certainly a California school would be preferable, but if there's a significant price difference between PSU and the California schools, I'd take PSU.

Just my two cents from personal experience and seeing how things worked out for classmates at my ttt. Most of those who left to go "back home" found legal work.

We Are... PENN STATE!

I'm also a full-ride applicant to Penn State, as it seems so are many others. The facilities are wonderful, the campus is a college mecca of fun, the downtown is cool enough. The school also has a wonderful reputation... in the region it's in... which is Pennsylvania.

It's only been recently that PSU Law has been back on the upswing and making headway. They've obviously been spending a ton of money on students and trying to become more prestigious, but it's still a regional school - and one that competes in the region with Temple, Villanova, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers all while being 160 miles away from where you would want to practice. You want to be in central Pennsylvania or working in Harrisburg, great (Harrisburg is an absolute shit-hole, but that's for another time) or you want to bust your ass and network into Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, fine. But it's still a regional school and not helping you land big law in already saturated California.

Penn State enjoys a great national reputation for horseplay in the showers between old men and little boys.

However, I don't think the law school's reputation is as widespread

ronanOgara wrote:Penn State enjoys a great national reputation for horseplay in the showers between old men and little boys.

However, I don't think the law school's reputation is as widespread

... Ouch. (No pun intended)

I think you should go.... Retake the LSAT and apply to CA schools (or T-14 schools).

If you know people in California that will hire you regardless of school location , then go to PSU

whm0829 wrote:If you know people in California that will hire you regardless of school location , then go to PSU

If OP already has solid job prospects in CA and has the numbers for a full ride to penn state, why would he go all the way to bumblefuck Pennsylvania for three years instead of just going to a California TTT for free?

OP, location cannot be overstated. People on this board obsess over numbers and grades and statistics, and forget that law school is 3 years long and that you spend those years fostering relationships with local prospective employers via internships, clinics, volunteer opportunities, etc. if you want to work in California, you should go to school in California. The T-14 is the only real exception to this rule.