Top Law Schools

Interests: Tax & int. law
167/3.6
Goal: only big law (since I need work visa sponsor)

Personal saving: 60k
Personal borrowing: 30k

COA for Vandy is 180k. It will lend me loan of 60k at 0 interest. (75k scholly)
Total debt upon graduation: 110-120k

COA for WUSTL is 105k (120k scholly)
Debt upon graduation: 45k-50k

I know Vandy has better chances at big law. But WUSTL has tax LLM and is way cheaper at this point. But St.Louis doesn't seem safe enough whereas Nashville looks amazing. My heart is more with Vandy and if they increased scholly just a bit more I would have had no trouble. but I am not sure Vandy would even negotiate. Retake is not an option. Waitlisted at Cornell and GULC but I will need to make only one deposit before that.

It would be really helpful if you could also post why you think either one is better. Thanks!

Where do you want to work?

Considering you need a work visa, even Vandy seems incredibly risky.

Definitely retake. The only school that gives a good shot at big law that is attainable with those numbers is Cornell.

Just another comment on the visa issue:

Even if you get AMAZING grades and you're in contention for a biglaw offer, there's still a chance that you might not get the offer. Work visa sponsorship is a strict, tedious, and expensive process, and from a firms perspective, you might not be worth the investment. Along with that, if you quit or are fired, you're immediately at risk of deportation. You only have a limited # of months to find employment that is commensurate with the position your visa requires you to hold, i.e. you can't lose your biglaw job, trawl craigslist for some wage-work, AND maintain your work visa status. You'd need to find another biglaw job, otherwise your visa status would be revoked. That being said, I don't think getting a JD as an international student is a rational decision unless you're sure you could secure employment at home.

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NYU is really the only tax LLM worth getting from what I hear. Retake.

Retake.

Please ignore everything I am about to say if you are not Canadian.

If you are Canadian though, your GPA/LSAT makes you eligible for most of Canada's top programmes if not all, so please do not go to any school below HYS (maybe CCN depending on their offer) when you could attend UT/Mcgill/UBC (which gives you just as great of a chance at Canadian biglaw as any T14 schools below HYS would with regards to American biglaw) at half to 1/5 of the price.

Post removed.

If you plan to practice in your own country, I would take the money and run with your current options. Retaking and getting into a more prestigious LS is also a decent idea here.

If you plan to practice in the U.S., either retake and get into a significantly better school (t-10?), or don't go to law school in the U.S. Getting a biglaw job is hard enough for domestic students, but add onto that the work visa fees a law firm will have to pay to hire you, it really hurts your chances.

Also, if your plan is to work in the U.S., the wisdom of going to law school depends partially on what your native language is. If it is a language that law firms are in need of, that could give you a boost in biglaw hiring. I would imagine most East and South Eastern Asian languages would be the most valuable, but I am not sure. Spanish, French, and German are common enough as second languages among law students that it won't convey a significant benefit to your chances at getting biglaw.

Best of luck!

MistakenGenius wrote:Vanderbilt is the best school outside of the T14 (That's right you UT homers, come at me).