Top Law Schools

-The schools you are considering:
Cornell with 45k a year or UVA with 25k a year

-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each:
Cornell: $34,429 per year with my scholarship

UVA: $50,823 per year with my scholarship

-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings:
mostly loans, although I have money saved that will be enough to cover living/book expenses for all three years

-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any):
I'm from Maryland so I would prefer to be able to return and work in DC/Baltimore; not really interested in working in NYC

-Your general career goals:
Biglaw for a few years then PI job--state's attorney

-Your LSAT/GPA numbers:
applied with a 171/3.67, rose to 3.71 by January so a week before I got an aid offer from UVA and months before I got offered from Cornell--idk if that mattered

-How many times you have taken the LSAT:
once

I'm thinking that UVA will be better since I would like to work in DC, but the aid from Cornell is also compelling...help!

erinnoel wrote:-The schools you are considering:
Cornell with 45k a year or UVA with 25k a year

-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each:
Cornell: $34,429 with my scholarship

UVA: $50,823 with my scholarship

-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings:
mostly loans, although I have money saved that will be enough to cover living/book expenses for all three years

-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any):
I'm from Maryland so I would prefer to be able to return and work in DC/Baltimore; not really interested in working in NYC
-Your general career goals:
Biglaw for a few years then PI job--state's attorney

-Your LSAT/GPA numbers:
applied with a 171/3.67, rose to 3.71 by January so a week before I got an aid offer from UVA and months before I got offered from Cornell--idk if that mattered

-How many times you have taken the LSAT:
once

I'm thinking that UVA will be better since I would like to work in DC, but the aid from Cornell is also compelling...help!

UVA--especially since they gave you such a great aid package.

UVA does not guarantee DC, even if it gives you a better shot than Cornell. Median at both, absent IP, will probably be walking through the door at a big NY firm. Go to Cornell and pay less for the same job.

I think UVA is justified. Its a less expensive school, which narrows the cost differential. Ultimately I think this is within the range where other factors can enter into the decision, and you should go where you prefer, although UVa does place better into your target region.

jbagelboy wrote:I think UVA is justified. Its a less expensive school, which narrows the cost differential. Ultimately I think this is within the range where other factors can enter into the decision, and you should go where you prefer, although UVa does place better into your target region.

Why should OP pay 15k more per year for a school that places an identical amount of students in biglaw and federal clerkships?

Source: http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/cornell/uva/

As per usual, the OP confuses me

Will UVA be 15K more expensive total? Or like 50K more expensive total?

If the former, UVA. If the later, I think Cornell is the most justifiable call based on money alone unless staying away from Ithaca or staying closer to home is a priority

I will need to pay 51k per year for UVA and 35k for Cornell, so about a 48k difference for three years. Plus however much tuition increases

I'd probably go to UVA given your interests, keeping in mind you likely won't get DC from either school. Also, I'm not sure your math adds up on total COA, but whatever.

Damn Cornell gave out a lot of money to a lot of people.

You should take uva though.

dabigchina wrote:Damn Cornell gave out a lot of money to a lot of people.

You should take uva though.

I'm surprised it can afford it considering how small its class size is. Maybe Cornell is going to go broke soon.

.

downbeat14 wrote:

redsoxfan1989 wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:I think UVA is justified. Its a less expensive school, which narrows the cost differential. Ultimately I think this is within the range where other factors can enter into the decision, and you should go where you prefer, although UVa does place better into your target region.

Why should OP pay 15k more per year for a school that places an identical amount of students in biglaw and federal clerkships?

Source: http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/cornell/uva/

Um... this is not true. If you look at the LST link you posted, Cornell places 67.9% into BL + FC, whereas UVA places 62.9%. So I think your question should be, why should OP pay significantly more for worse odds... softball?

I don't think that UVA gives you worse odds than Cornell at getting BL+FC. I'd guess that the percentage of students getting BL+FC from Cornell is higher because a larger percentage of Cornell students are probably all targeting and bidding on NYC firms whereas I'd bet that a much larger percentage of UVA students that are targeting not only DC but also secondary markets. If you were to control for bidding and difficulty of the markets that UVA students are targeting compared to Cornell, I'd bet that UVA would have better placement percentages than Cornell. Just look at where Cornell grads practice versus UVA grads, according to the LST score reports 57% of Cornell students end up in NY (likely NYC) whereas only 17% of UVA grads do the same. UVA actually places 18% of its class in DC versus 6% for Cornell. Could Cornell close that gap some if as many of their students bid DC as UVA students do? Maybe a bit but I'd doubt they'd be able to close 12 percentage points. I think that UVA's reach into DC BigLaw is much stronger than Cornell's. OP has stated that she'd much rather work in DC than NYC. A better opportunity to work in her target market may be worth 15K/year to her.