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Hi! Trying to decide between going to UVA at sticker price, Vanderbilt at a COA of about 40,000 a year, UNC at a COA of 44,000 a year or Alabama at a COA of about 23,000 a year.

I am from Nashville and my immediate family lives there. I currently work in New York and have a established a pretty solid social and professional network here, and I went to a small liberal arts college in North Carolina with a very strong alumni network. A lot of my friends from college have told me that they got their jobs after law school by using our alumni network.

I want to work in the private sector, possibly BigLaw, definitely corporate law and potentially go in-house. Long term, I want to be in a smaller city the Southeast like Nashville, Chattanooga, Charlotte, Raleigh or Richmond. Short term, I could see myself wanting to come back to NYC after law school or start my career in a larger market like DC, Atlanta or TX. I also definitely want to pursue a federal clerkship.

I love UVA and Charlottesville, and if money were not a thing I would go there. However, I am completely financially responsible for law school. I do also believe I would be happy in Nashville, Raleigh or Tuscaloosa, and I might be able to "shine" more compared to my classmates at UNC, Bama or Vandy than at UVA.

What do we think? Are the opportunities at UVA worth the sticker price?? Would Vanderbilt give me similar opportunities to UVA? Should I be seriously considering Alabama if I'm not 100% sure I can see myself staying in the state of Alabama? The main reason I include North Carolina here is that I have heard that getting a job at a firm in NC is hard at out of state schools. Is that true?

What the total CoAs? UVa would be about 90k more total than Vandy? If you are really confident in your ability to network and use connections in NC and will pursue NY hard (and it will cost 120k or less), then Vandy probably make sense. UVa will give you much better large market options however (DC, NY, Atlanta, etc). UNC is more expensive than Vandy so thats a no-go, and I wouldn't go to Bama over these choices unless it was pretty much a full-ride.

Just to give an opinion on your direct questions:

Are the opportunities at UVA worth the sticker price?? Yes, but depends on other available options and circumstances.Would Vanderbilt give me similar opportunities to UVA? Maybe for some employers (like in Nashville), but not really overall, UVa is certainly stronger in DC and NY (which would be a very helpful back-up plan form UVA) and probably a little stronger in the South generallyShould I be seriously considering Alabama if I'm not 100% sure I can see myself staying in the state of Alabama? If it was free maybe, otherwise, probably not.The main reason I include North Carolina here is that I have heard that getting a job at a firm in NC is hard at out of state schools. Is that true? NC markets are small, thus, it is probably hard to get regional biglaw there from any school. Not sure about other non-biglaw opportunities

http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/ ... c/alabama/

Also, create an account and input your financial info so you can do accurate debt projections for each school.

Vandy 1L here.

UNC and Bama should really be off your list. No way UNC is worth it for that price and I would only go to Bama if you want to practice there and nowhere else. At a full ride.

Between UVA and Vandy it really depends. Being Born in Nashville really gives you a leg up in terms of hiring here. I would think long and hard about whether you really want to start out in the major market, only to lateral back to the smaller market. There are a lot of people in NYC biglaw who are miserable because of the hours and who want to lateral to some of the smaller markets you mentioned. In my opinion, if you want the smaller market, go after the smaller market and have NYC as a backup if you don't get any offers. You're never going to get a great quality of life working biglaw in any city, but there are measurable differences between secondary markets and NYC, to be sure. Really just comes down to how much of a risk you're willing to take.