Deciding Between Vanderbilt/Emory/USC/Iowa Forum

[EarlofSandwich]

I'm not sure what kind of law i want to practice, but I'm planning on working in southern California. I have several related questions:

How good are vanderbilt, emory, and iowa for finding work in california?
USC is probably better than Emory and Iowa for California employment, but is it better than Vanderbilt?
Which is the best offer overall?

Total Cost of Attendance:
Vanderbilt: 162,000
Emory: 106,000
USC: 170,000
GW: 174,000
Iowa: 59,000

[bearsfan23]

I'm not sure what kind of law i want to practice, but I'm planning on working in southern California. I have several related questions:

How good are vanderbilt, emory, and iowa for finding work in california?
USC is probably better than Emory and Iowa for California employment, but is it better than Vanderbilt?
Which is the best offer overall?

Total Cost of Attendance:
Vanderbilt: 162,000
Emory: 106,000
USC: 170,000
Iowa: 59,385

USC is without a doubt the best choice for working in SoCal. If your dead set on SoCal, I wouldn't even consider Emory or Iowa, even if they were free.

If you have strong Cali ties, Vandy might be a decent option, but I'm not sure (if money is relevant to you) I'd be willing to bet $160k on it.

By far the best out of those 4 options is USC. Whether its worth the debt is your call. Curious though why no UCLA? I'm remember they were pretty generous with scholarships when I applied a couple of years ago

[BigZuck]

The only school that makes sense for CA on that list is USC

I'm also curious as to what happened with UCLA

I don't think USC is worth 170K, the job outcomes don't really justify that price IMO.

[EarlofSandwich]

Good question guys! I applied to UCLA in January but have still not heard back. I doubt they would wait this long to admit me with a scholarship though.

[LawsRUs]

Come to USC because I'm gonna be there!!
(That's a terrible reason..)

but seriously, to be honest, $170k is waaay too much.
Have you started negotiating with all of these schools?

[rahulg91]

USC is probably better than Emory and Iowa for California employment, but is it better than Vanderbilt?

USC is way better for SoCal. Or really any West Coast gig.

[EarlofSandwich]

Come to USC because I'm gonna be there!!
(That's a terrible reason..)

but seriously, to be honest, $170k is waaay too much.
Have you started negotiating with all of these schools?

I haven't tried to negotiate yet; do you think they'll significantly increase the scholarship amount? I suppose the 102k scholarship from Emory could be a decent bargaining chip but I don't think USC would give me much more than the 75k they already did.

[LawsRUs]

I'm really sorry I'm saying this to you, but I don't think they will..

[KMart]

It depends how debt averse you are and how willing you are to work in the market your school is in/NYC.

[Winston1984]

Come to USC because I'm gonna be there!!
(That's a terrible reason..)

but seriously, to be honest, $170k is waaay too much.
Have you started negotiating with all of these schools?

I haven't tried to negotiate yet; do you think they'll significantly increase the scholarship amount? I suppose the 102k scholarship from Emory could be a decent bargaining chip but I don't think USC would give me much more than the 75k they already did.

I would think your Vanderbilt offer would have more negotiation power than an Emory offer.

[EarlofSandwich]

Thanks for the input everyone. It seems like the consensus is that USC is the best choice, followed perhaps by Vandy. I'm not going to lie, I am a bit surprised that no-one would consider Emory. Shouldn't I be considering it simply for the fact that it is affordable (or is Emory really not worth 105k)? Is Emory's west coast presence really that unreliable?

[BigZuck]

Thanks for the input everyone. It seems like the consensus is that USC is the best choice, followed perhaps by Vandy. I'm not going to lie, I am a bit surprised that no-one would consider Emory. Shouldn't I be considering it simply for the fact that it is affordable (or is Emory really not worth 105k)? Is Emory's west coast presence really that unreliable?

It's a regional school thousands of miles away from your target market and not worth the cost of attendance IMO

[03152016]

is the 170k coa for usc going to be completely debt-financed

you don't have any idea of what you want to do in law?

[wolfie_m.]

.

[03152016]

this chart shows the percentage of long-term, jd-required employment that was funded by the school, year over year

[Yea All Right]

What I have to say to Emory:



USC is definitely your best option so far. But yea, see what happens with UCLA, you never know. Also take your offers from USC/Vandy/Emory (plus UCLA if you're accepted and get money) and go back and forth between them as needed to negotiate your scholarships as high as possible before making your choice.

[EarlofSandwich]

[img]<a class="vglnk" href="http://i.imgur.com/dkC2ew2.png[/img" rel="nofollow"><span>http</span><span>://</span><span>i</span><span>.</span><span>imgur</span><span>.</span><span>com</span><span>/</span><span>dkC2ew2</span><span>.</span><span>png</span><span>[/</span><span>img</span></a>]

this chart shows the percentage of long-term, jd-required employment that was funded by the school, year over year

Gotcha. That high school-funded rate definitely gave a misleading impression of their employment. Definitely disappointing.

is the 170k coa for usc going to be completely debt-financed

you don't have any idea of what you want to do in law?

I'll be paying just over 20k out of pocket, leaving me with a bit under 150k in debt. I really don't like the idea of paying over $1500 a month for 10 years, especially since I'm not counting on biglaw. That's why Iowa or Emory would be nice. However, if it's extremely hard to find west coast employment out of these schools then I suppose I don't have any options. On the other hand, I think I might prefer to gamble on the prospect of immediately getting a job in CA by going to Iowa/Emory rather than being assured a lifetime of debt. I suppose the question would then be how big of a gamble that is.

[Yea All Right]

Cross Iowa off the list, definitely not good to go there if you want to work in California.

[LawsRUs]

-How many times you have taken the LSAT

[EarlofSandwich]

Cross Iowa off the list, definitely not good to go there if you want to work in California.

Oh well.

-How many times you have taken the LSAT

I took it once and got 168 after quite a bit of studying. I'd prefer not to retake, but it's looking like that might be my only good option besides looking beyond law school.