Top Law Schools

I really want to get out of Buffalo and only come back if I need to work for my families law firm. I would like to do big law, specifically Business/international law.
COA for W&L and American its the same pretty much. But COL makes W&L better. Buffalo would cost almost nothing but like said I REALLY don't want to stay in Buffalo and fear if I go to school there I will be stuck there.
I am hoping to get off the WL at BU but for now i need to decide and withdraw deposits. Any feedback will help! Thank you.

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:

-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) + accumulated interest - scholarships. Here is a helpful calculator.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers
-How many times you have taken the LSAT

Also, you're not going to get biglaw at any of those schools.

Retake if you want big law. If you want to choose one of these three, go to Buffalo, cop DAT NEPOTISM, and work in your family's firm.

It sounds like all three options don't fit your goals, and the option that carries the least risk is the option you're most averse to. You might have to go back to the drawing board.

Buffalo for free with guaranteed job in what will probably be an easy, familiar work environment seems like TCR.

But you aren't getting BL out of any of the 3 so be realistic.

Going to law school at American or W+L isn't going to increase your chances of getting biglaw enough to be worth it, since it doesn't sound like you have any money. Either retake or go to Buffalo, hope you're only of the top few (not top few percent, but top few) who can get biglaw, if not, enjoy no debt and a guaranteed job, which is much more than the majority of students at American can hope for.

Do not go to American. http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/american/
I repeat. Do not go to American.

Retake or reapply for stronger regionals. I can think of at least a half dozen schools on a better footing that these three that you could get into without score improvement, and likely pay less, too.

timbs4339 wrote:Going to law school at American or W+L isn't going to increase your chances of getting biglaw enough to be worth it, since it doesn't sound like you have any money. Either retake or go to Buffalo, hope you're only of the top few (not top few percent, but top few) who can get biglaw, if not, enjoy no debt and a guaranteed job, which is much more than the majority of students at American can hope for.

Do not go to American. http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/american/
I repeat. Do not go to American.

This reminds me of my very first law school researching days where American was my number 1 choice....*shudder*

.

i vaguely remember wanting to go to fordham before my tls days
i had 3.42 in music from bottom of the barrel state school
thought fordham would be a reach
and a boomer lawyer i know was selling me on some ttt
'just work hard and make it into the top 10%, you'll be fine'
thank god i found this place

this is an interesting topic
where did everyone want to go b4 they found tls

Brut wrote:this is an interesting topic
where did everyone want to go b4 they found tls

BU
BC
American
Brooklyn
Temple
Villanova
Loyola LA
Pepperdine
San Diego

This was my list pre tls

Brut wrote:this is an interesting topic
where did everyone want to go b4 they found tls

San Diego.

OP, do you have any scholarships at these places other than Buffalo? If not, we need to move the conversation to stronger regionals or whether you will retake.

should-i-do-it wrote:

Brut wrote:this is an interesting topic
where did everyone want to go b4 they found tls

BU
BC
American
Brooklyn
Temple
Villanova
Loyola LA
Pepperdine
San Diego

This was my list pre tls

I was thinking of going to IU-B to pursue a JD/MBA and use it to get Biglaw in NYC (I've never been to Indiana). I actually deposited at my UG without ever being in the state that it was in and that worked out for me so I figured what the hell. Luckily my LSAT PT scores rose pretty early on so NU and Penn became my new targets pre-TLS, but I was considering taking out JD/MBA sticker debt (about 350k) so that might not have been great either.

Here are the biglaw numbers for the top 50 schools in that category.

http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202643450571

Brut wrote:this is an interesting topic
where did everyone want to go b4 they found tls

Emory was my dream skewl.

Thanks for everyones advice!

Law2017 wrote:Thanks for everyones advice!

Did anyone else read this as "I'm going to American!"

God, I hope not.

Brut wrote:this is an interesting topic
where did everyone want to go b4 they found tls

I'm super duper new, but pre-TLS UNC seemed like a pretty good idea. Go there for undergrad, fed a looooot of misinformation. One of my supervisors at work went to UNC for law school and kept going on about how with my GPA, I'd be "right at UNC range". 3.7/171. Anyways, congrats to OP on making a decision. And thank you TLS for educating me.

Haha no I am not going to American, I am withdrawing tomorrow. I realize now that I should NOT go to American. I put a deposit at W&L and am going to wait it out with BU. Decent money at W&L helped me make the decision.

I actually found TLS before I considered any schools. All I thought I knew about law schools was that Harvard was by far the best and I would need crazy softs to get in(thanks Legally Blonde).

Law2017 wrote:Haha no I am not going to American, I am withdrawing tomorrow. I realize now that I should NOT go to American. I put a deposit at W&L and am going to wait it out with BU. Decent money at W&L helped me make the decision.

Barely more than half of the W&L class of 2013 found jobs as lawyers within nine months of graduation: http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/wl/2013/

Even if "decent money" meant half of tuition, you would still graduate with more than $160K of debt at the beginning of repayment. Please think rationally and understand how utterly insane it would be to take on that kind of debt for barely more than a coin flip's chance not at desirable lawyering jobs, but at any full-time, long-term job requiring a JD. BU at sticker ($240K of debt at repayment) would also be an inarguably crazy decision.

Retake the LSAT and avoid debt slavery.

I wanted to go to Princeton Law before TLS

OP, you may want to reconsider before you fully admit to W&L. Mediocre employment stats aside, the COL in Lexington is very affordable, but the trade-off is it's an incredibly boring place to live. Only positives I can think of: W&L has a strong performing arts program and puts on a ton of shows during the school year, VMI is right next door to the law school (if you're into hooking up with hot military guys and/or gals, lol), and you're in a rural area so that might appeal to you if you're the outdoorsy type. But other than that, you'll have a dull three years, unless your only plans are to do nothing but study 24-7. Also, the school recently (as in, this week) agreed to take down Confederate flags on campus, so there's that.

Brut wrote:this is an interesting topic
where did everyone want to go b4 they found tls

When I was an undergrad discovering law school for the first time, I liked American, Brooklyn and BU.

Until recently, Richmond was my first choice. TLS and my mom's bf (who lives in the area and whose sister-in-law is an attorney) convinced me that would be a bad idea if my ultimate goal is to gtfo of Virginia.