Scholarship v. Ranking? Forum

[sas11]

I need an opinion on which school to attend, because I am struggling with making the right decision. The bottom line is whether a school's ranking or scholarship consideration is more important.

I received a full-ride to Cleveland State, a lower ranked school nationally (115, according to U.S. News) but a decent feeder school for the Cleveland area. I also received a half-ride to Loyola of Chicago, ranked 68.

Is it more important to attend a higher ranked school with a potentially greater and wider reaching national reputation, or to graduate law school with minimal debt?

P.S. I currently reside in Cleveland but I am not sure where I want to practice after I graduate, which is a main reason I am unsure about Cleveland State.

Any thoughts would be helpful!

[UnicornHunter]

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

(but you're not going to like the answer you get)

[mvp99]

I need an opinion on which school to attend, because I am struggling with making the right decision. The bottom line is whether a school's ranking or scholarship consideration is more important.

I received a full-ride to Cleveland State, a lower ranked school nationally (115, according to U.S. News) but a decent feeder school for the Cleveland area. I also received a half-ride to Loyola of Chicago, ranked 68.

Is it more important to attend a higher ranked school with a potentially greater and wider reaching national reputation, or to graduate law school with minimal debt?

P.S. I currently reside in Cleveland but I am not sure where I want to practice after I graduate, which is a main reason I am unsure about Cleveland State.

Any thoughts would be helpful!

Rank is meaningless after a certain point. Also, "national reach" is practically inexistent outside the top schools (yes, loyoal might have "greater" national reach but it's probably marginal).

[nick417]

The tough part is its hard to give advice unless someone knows the schools, their reputation, and their job prospect. A free ride at a school that is impossible to find a job is not worth it.

However, as you must be aware, law school is a gamble. The job market is not strong, and the costs of going to law school are high. That being said, as a 0 L, the only thing that is guaranteed is your debt or costs of attendance. This is one thing you can control, how much law school costs. As 0 L, you have no idea whether you will find a job OR how much $$$ that job will pay. Therefore, picking a school is pretty much looking at your choices and researching the costs of attendance and the job prospects.

The whole ranking versus scholarship is irrelevant. The US news ranking system is flawed (I mean they use size of library as a factor). Your goal should be to research the school and see what graduates at the school end up doing. I know this is easier said then done but that really is the only way to find the answer you are looking for.

[nick417]

I need an opinion on which school to attend, because I am struggling with making the right decision. The bottom line is whether a school's ranking or scholarship consideration is more important.

I received a full-ride to Cleveland State, a lower ranked school nationally (115, according to U.S. News) but a decent feeder school for the Cleveland area. I also received a half-ride to Loyola of Chicago, ranked 68.

Is it more important to attend a higher ranked school with a potentially greater and wider reaching national reputation, or to graduate law school with minimal debt?

P.S. I currently reside in Cleveland but I am not sure where I want to practice after I graduate, which is a main reason I am unsure about Cleveland State.

Any thoughts would be helpful!

Rank is meaningless after a certain point. Also, "national reach" is practically inexistent outside the top schools (yes, loyoal might have "greater" national reach but it's probably marginal).

Also, I agree with this. There is no "national reach" for law schools outside of the top schools. You should be going to a law school in a region you want to work.

[BigZuck]

Loyola doesn't have any national reach. It's also much too expensive to make attending worthwhile.

I don't know anything about the Cleveland market, but the fact that a school named Cleveland State is only a decent feeder into the city of Cleveland should give you some serious pause.

Check out http://www.lawschooltransparency.com and poke around the site for a while to get a sense of how different law schools do when it comes to job placement

[rpupkin]

Loyola of Chicago does not have a national reputation.

If you are fine with working in Cleveland, and if you are fine with starting out in law at a fairly low salary, then a full ride to Cleveland State is fine. Otherwise, you should not go to law school with your current options.