Please delete Forum

[meggy1993]

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[Rigo]

Where are you actually from and what are your career goals?

[meggy1993]

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[Rigo]

Where are you actually from and what are your career goals?

I'll PM you.

Uhhh...why does it have to be some big secret?

[meggy1993]

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[Rigo]

The career goals question still stands.

[Rigo]

Just so you know, we cannot offer you advice unless you answer some very basic questions. Questions that everyone is asked to answer if they post a Choosing thread.

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.
-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

I'm actually being very respectful because the obvious response here is that you need to retake, and if you refuse to retake, neither school is worth attending because the costs are way too great. But I'm keeping quiet on that front since you explicitly said you're not taking the LSAT again.

[Ref]

Okay, I won't PM you. I don't like to put a ton of information on the internet. Weird, right?

<Puts name and year of birth in username>

TCR is retake, even if you don't want to. A modestly good LSAT will get you some serious money at IA.

[BigZuck]

If you're not from either state I wouldn't go to either

No one is going to think Iowa>Oklahoma unless they are from Iowa. Someone from New Mexico is going to think both are equally big dumpster fires compared to the hallowed University of New Mexico School of Law.

US News is a junk publication and the only people who care about its law school rankings on a national level are adcoms and (some) applicants

[meggy1993]

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[Okie25]

I don't care where I work. I'm not retaking the LSAT. Money is not an issue (and I've never taken out any loans and will never have to).

Sent you a PM

[Dr. Nefario]

More specifics is gonna be the only way to get better input.

[Rigo]

Received your PM. Go to your state flagship or don't go at all.
Both Iowa and Oklahoma make zero sense for you.

[BigZuck]

I don't care where I work. I'm not retaking the LSAT. Money is not an issue (and I've never taken out any loans and will never have to).

Not caring where you work is all well and good but do you care about whether you will actually get an opportunity to work? If you're from Florida, go to school in Iowa, and have a husband who is in the military (or whatever), Iowa small law firms (which is pretty much a best case realistic scenario) aren't going to be lining up to hire you because you're a rando from out of state who is going to bolt in a couple years. They are going to hire the kid born and raised in Iowa over you. And then, when you move to Virginia because of your husband's job, a small firm there isn't going to care that you went to a T30 and they're just going to hire the kid who went to Richmond.

I think going to a regional school you don't have ties to could maybe make sense in some small minority of cases but there needs to be a plan in place. This doesn't sound like much of a plan based on the limited info you have provided.

[meggy1993]

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[Ron Don Volante]

I don't care where I work. I'm not retaking the LSAT. Money is not an issue (and I've never taken out any loans and will never have to).

Then why are you here?

I don't care that you're going to make an asinine decision, because you seem like an asshole, but if I were going to give sincere advice, I would say that both schools are terrible if you do not have a full ride and are not from the respective state, and that paying near-sticker price for either is akin to setting a pile of money on fire.

godspeed bro

[meggy1993]

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[meggy1993]

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[Dream_weaver32]

I seem like an asshole by stating the facts and that I'm not picky where I work? Sounds laid back to me.

You've come to the wrong place. You aren't going to get the answer you want. No point in trying to argue.

[Rigo]

Just because you are from a certain state doesn't mean you have ties to that state. You make the ties by interning, etc.

To be honest, ties are a lot about where you went to high school and where your parents live. Basic stuff like that.
If you have a spouse, his ties can be transferred to you.
But all of the smaller markets (everywhere other than NYC & DC) REALLY CARE about ties. Iowa employers will look at your very skeptically and will most likely favor someone with Iowa or even Upper-Plains/Midwest ties over you.

[BigZuck]

Just because you are from a certain state doesn't mean you have ties to that state. You make the ties by interning, etc.

Is this nugget based on your own legal job search?

Look, Iowa is no different than almost any other state flagship. They don't do a better job of getting their grads jobs, and the degree won't be any more portable.

You assume a lot of things, such as US News matters, employment percentage is directly translatable to your own personal percentage chance of getting a job, legal employers don't really care where you're from as long as you intern there, etc. That flies on the face of what I have seen in my own time in law school. But if you've already got it figured out, then by all means go for it.

[Rigo]

At the very least, negotiate. Leverage your Iowa acceptance to get more money out of Oklahoma. Paying sticker is unacceptable, especially in this buyer's market.

[meggy1993]

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[A. Nony Mouse]

Just because you are from a certain state doesn't mean you have ties to that state. You make the ties by interning, etc.

No, being from a certain state absolutely means you have ties to that state, in the eyes of employers, who care a great deal about ties. You can make ties, if you're focused and good at networking and have a plan to stay in that state and whatnot, but you have know what you're doing going in, and when employment is tight it can make a difference between who gets a job and who doesn't.

[hoos89]

I'm not really sure where you're from, but from context I gather that it's neither Oklahoma nor Iowa. Just going to law school in the state and doing some 1L internship is not going to be enough to convince people that you aren't a flight risk. You will be fighting an uphill battle against your peers who have literally never left the state. You've never actually attempted to find a job in law school, and yet you insist that you know more about it than people who have? Trust me, if you don't have legitimately compelling reasons to live and work in the market long term, every interview is going to get extremely awkward when the employer inevitably asks you "So...why Iowa City?" or whatever. Merely responding "I don't care where I work" will not fly.

Also, please realize that while Iowa does have ~75% non-school funded full time legal employment, very few of those jobs would justify attending the school for sticker price. A significant chunk of those jobs are at shitlaw firms doing personal injury or DUI defense or something that will pay $30-$50k. Why would you pay $120k and waste 3 years of income to get that kind of job? You should also bear in mind that your lack of ties to the state probably means that you have more than a 25% chance to be on of those "unlucky" ones who doesn't find full time legal work.

Frankly, neither of these schools makes any sense. Why will you not retake the LSAT when it could potentially make the difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars of income in your career (or at least save you tens of thousands in COA)? Also, do you not have any prospects besides law school?