Top Law Schools

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What are your numbers?

Where do you want to work and want type of work?

What are the stipulations (if any) to the Mercer scholarship?

What is the total cost of attendance of each?

UGA is a better bet, but it is not worth 60k+, which is the bare minimum it would cost you, if not close to 100k.

(Also, FYI, Macon is not particularly a great town)

For someone who wants to practice in small town Georgia for the next 40 years, my gut tells me that UGA is probably worth a bit of money over Mercer. However, on the front end, that's a lot of debt for your job prospects, especially if you're going to self select out of the jobs that pay a lot of money.

So I would think retaking for a better scholarship at UGA would be advantageous. You could also use this year in-between to save up some money to avoid more cost of living loans. Otherwise Mercer on a fully is probably OK for someone in your position.

deadpanic wrote:What are your numbers?

Where do you want to work and want type of work?

What are the stipulations (if any) to the Mercer scholarship?

What is the total cost of attendance of each?

UGA is a better bet, but it is not worth 60k+, which is the bare minimum it would cost you, if not close to 100k.

(Also, FYI, Macon is not particularly a great town)

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If you're fine staying in GA and want to do small-firm work, then Mercer makes a bunch of sense.

I recently saw the 2014 employment statistics and UG was pretty good. Mercer was anything but good. You should check before deciding.

zombie mcavoy wrote: So I would think retaking for a better scholarship at UGA would be advantageous. You could also use this year in-between to save up some money to avoid more cost of living loans. Otherwise Mercer on a fully is probably OK for someone in your position.

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Very tough choice. I think a full ride at Mercer with the stipend is a good option if you are ok with working in a small-town in Georgia (assuming by North Georgia you mean other than Atlanta), but as you probably know UGA is king of Georgia by a large degree and everyone I know who went to Mercer did so because they couldn't get into UGA. The UGA grads I know always stress how much being a UGA grad helps in Georgia. That being said, sticker at UGA, while reasonable compared to many law schools, is still a large sum of money. I think it just depends on your goals.

SimbaJayward wrote:I've lived in Ga my whole life, and . . . I freaking hate ATL and am not looking at getting stabbed.

You're not going to get stabbed, but whatever.

Not wanting to live or practice in Atlanta makes either school feasible. UGA at sticker isn't obscene. Mercer with your scholarship isn't obscene. If you didn't go to undergrad in either city, consider spending two days in a row in either Athens or Macon to see if you could live there.

Saddle Up wrote:I recently saw the 2014 employment statistics and UG was pretty good. Mercer was anything but good. You should check before deciding.

http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/georgia/mercer/
Look fine to me.

SimbaJayward wrote:

zombie mcavoy wrote: So I would think retaking for a better scholarship at UGA would be advantageous. You could also use this year in-between to save up some money to avoid more cost of living loans. Otherwise Mercer on a fully is probably OK for someone in your position.

Hey man, I appreciate the reply. Unfortunately, I cant really take another year off. I've already been out of undergrad for a year working and have saved up a good bit of money. That being said, this job isn't really where I want to be. Ha I need to start law school in the fall

Yeah, I get it. It's really how much you want to pay to have the state flagship school on your resume/be in that network for the rest of your career. It's probably an important boost for someone in your position, but is it worth 80K?

If you suck it up for a year, that price tag is a lot lower, but it's your call. You'll be fine either way; good luck.

Also you're not going to get stabbed in atlanta

Winston1984 wrote:

Saddle Up wrote:I recently saw the 2014 employment statistics and UG was pretty good. Mercer was anything but good. You should check before deciding.

http://www.lstscorereports.com/compare/georgia/mercer/
Look fine to me.

They do. I was talking about the 2014 stats. They're out but not yet posted on LST.

futago wrote:Very tough choice. I think a full ride at Mercer with the stipend is a good option if you are ok with working in a small-town in Georgia

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SimbaJayward wrote:

futago wrote:Very tough choice. I think a full ride at Mercer with the stipend is a good option if you are ok with working in a small-town in Georgia

Honestly, doing biglaw has never interested me. My hometown and areas surrounding it has some good opportunities, and the benefits of working reasonable hours and having a 10 min commute to work are definite positives for me. I want to put my JD to work and make a respectable living, but becoming crazy rich has never been one of my life aspirations.

You are likely not going to get rich at all being a lawyer, and definitely not "crazy rich." If you are fine going back to the hometown and doing divorces, petty theft cases, etc. and making low 40s, especially with only minimal debt, I would say Mercer is a decent option here. I don't think UGA would give you a huge leg up over Mercer if you are simply going back to your hometown to practice small town law. You are probably going to get those jobs from connections anyways. Good luck.

zombie mcavoy wrote:

SimbaJayward wrote:

zombie mcavoy wrote: So I would think retaking for a better scholarship at UGA would be advantageous. You could also use this year in-between to save up some money to avoid more cost of living loans. Otherwise Mercer on a fully is probably OK for someone in your position.

Hey man, I appreciate the reply. Unfortunately, I cant really take another year off. I've already been out of undergrad for a year working and have saved up a good bit of money. That being said, this job isn't really where I want to be. Ha I need to start law school in the fall

Yeah, I get it. It's really how much you want to pay to have the state flagship school on your resume/be in that network for the rest of your career. It's probably an important boost for someone in your position, but is it worth 80K?

If you suck it up for a year, that price tag is a lot lower, but it's your call. You'll be fine either way; good luck.

Also you're not going to get stabbed in atlanta

He's not gonna get that much of a discount at UGA even if he increases his score by 5 points. I'm actually quite surprised that somebody with his stats was able to get into UGA. UGA at instate sticker is not that bad IMO. COL in Athens is dirt cheap and instate tuition is basically a 30,000/year scholarship at similarly ranked private schools.

adil91 wrote:

zombie mcavoy wrote:

SimbaJayward wrote:

zombie mcavoy wrote: So I would think retaking for a better scholarship at UGA would be advantageous. You could also use this year in-between to save up some money to avoid more cost of living loans. Otherwise Mercer on a fully is probably OK for someone in your position.

Hey man, I appreciate the reply. Unfortunately, I cant really take another year off. I've already been out of undergrad for a year working and have saved up a good bit of money. That being said, this job isn't really where I want to be. Ha I need to start law school in the fall

Yeah, I get it. It's really how much you want to pay to have the state flagship school on your resume/be in that network for the rest of your career. It's probably an important boost for someone in your position, but is it worth 80K?

If you suck it up for a year, that price tag is a lot lower, but it's your call. You'll be fine either way; good luck.

Also you're not going to get stabbed in atlanta

He's not gonna get that much of a discount at UGA even if he increases his score by 5 points. I'm actually quite surprised that somebody with his stats was able to get into UGA. UGA at instate sticker is not that bad IMO. COL in Athens is dirt cheap and instate tuition is basically a 30,000/year scholarship at similarly ranked private schools.

Instate tuition is still 20k/year alone. It is not outrageous, but it is too much. That is at least going to be 80k+ in debt (OP said it would be 90k). There is no way I would take our nearly six figures in debt for a state flagship. OP is going to be practicing small town law making 40ishk/year, good luck paying it back on that kind of salary. OP would be better off at Mercer only taking out 5ishk in debt.

Honestly this is pretty easy. Mercer is the type of school that's regularly bashed on here but you have to understand that for someone looking to do what the OP is (which is hard to relate to for most TLS posters) Mercer for free is ideal. He wants to work somewhere like Rome, Roswell, John's Creek etc. doing family/small claims/local real estate/insurance work etc. All people will care about for that type of thing is that you went to a non John Marshall GA law school in terms of objective qualifications. Beyond that it's totally about things like who he knows. Yeah even to those people UGA is better, but they won't really care. Certainly not enough to go into debt. Go to Mercer. Also having no student loan debt at all will allow him to get his life going with far less stress (i.e. buying a house, a car, getting married etc.). This is a no brainer.

Earlier I may have overstated the ’14 UG employment advantage over Mercer.

Mercer: 69.2% fulltime employment (no SFJ). 4.2% (5 grads) hired by firms with over
100 attorneys.

UG: 70.6% fulltime employment (no SFJ). 17% (34 grads) hired by firms with over 100 attorneys

BruceWayne wrote:Honestly this is pretty easy. Mercer is the type of school that's regularly bashed on here but you have to understand that for someone looking to do what the OP is (which is hard to relate to for most TLS posters) Mercer for free is ideal.

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Saddle Up wrote:Earlier I may have overstated the ’14 UG employment advantage over Mercer.

Mercer: 69.2% fulltime employment (no SFJ). 4.2% (5 grads) hired by firms with over
100 attorneys.

UG: 70.6% fulltime employment (no SFJ). 17% (34 grads) hired by firms with over 100 attorneys

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SimbaJayward wrote:

futago wrote:Very tough choice. I think a full ride at Mercer with the stipend is a good option if you are ok with working in a small-town in Georgia

Honestly, doing biglaw has never interested me. My hometown and areas surrounding it has some good opportunities, and the benefits of working reasonable hours and having a 10 min commute to work are definite positives for me. I want to put my JD to work and make a respectable living, but becoming crazy rich has never been one of my life aspirations.

My concern is this. If your aspirations change even a little, going to Mercer over UGA makes everything harder. Many people go to law school for one year and realize that they'd rather do other things than smallaw.

gregfootball2001 wrote:

SimbaJayward wrote:

futago wrote:Very tough choice. I think a full ride at Mercer with the stipend is a good option if you are ok with working in a small-town in Georgia

Honestly, doing biglaw has never interested me. My hometown and areas surrounding it has some good opportunities, and the benefits of working reasonable hours and having a 10 min commute to work are definite positives for me. I want to put my JD to work and make a respectable living, but becoming crazy rich has never been one of my life aspirations.

My concern is this. If your aspirations change even a little, going to Mercer over UGA makes everything harder. Many people go to law school for one year and realize that they'd rather do other things than smallaw.

To be fair, I don't think many 1Ls (well basically all law students) even know what practicing law is like at all, big or small law.

He is unlikely to get big law out of UGA as well, and you can't really justify UGA at 90k debt can you?

Mercer. Full scholarship, living stipend & a couple hours closer to the Florida beaches.

You won't live in Atlanta because you view it as unsafe, but you're willing to live in Macon?

I mean, I think Mercer is the best option for the average person in your situation, but if you're that crime-averse, maybe UGA would be your best bet.

I think you should go to GA State. If you're worried about crime, get a GA Weapon's Carry License.

If you're dead set against that however, how big of a town are you looking to work in? A good chunk of legal and political types in my area are Mercer grads. You said full tuition and living stipend, not sure how UGA could beat that if you're staying in state. That is unless you have the background (familial ties) that UGA could help you with. However, unless you do you won't get as much help from being a UGA Alumni as someone who had contacts.