Top Law Schools

-The schools you are considering

Tulane, University of Houston, LSU, Vanderbilt, Emory, Wash U

-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.

These are per year, and I just used the COA given by each school. I'm pretty cheap, so I think I could come in under this through choosing cheaper housing, not spending extra money, etc.
After scholarships, tuition at LSU is free and WashU, Houston, Tulane come in a little over 13,000/yr, with Emory at 15,000/yr. Vandy tuition is 34,000/yr.

WUSTL: 37,153
Vandy: 59,104
UH: 33,984
Tulane: 35,434
LSU: 20,130.75
Emory: 35,434

-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings

Loans, little savings for COL for first year.

-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)

From Houston, have ties to South Louisiana (Baton Rouge/ New Orleans) and would like to work in one or the other.

-Your general career goals

Thinking big law for a few years, but interested in corporate/business work as well.

-Your LSAT/GPA numbers

167, 3.4

-How many times you have taken the LSAT

Once, took a class and worked my way up to what I got. Not planning on a retake.


I'm not interested in having a ton of debt, so I've been leaning towards the flexibility between NOLA and Houston that Tulane might give me or the better shot at Houston that UH would give me. The LSU full ride would be nice debt-wise, but I'm afraid it'd keep me out of Houston.. also with their budget as fucked as it is, I don't feel confident that tuition would stay the same. I'd hate to end up as a 2L or 3L taking out additional loans to cover LSU.

I'd love to say Vandy, but it just seems like a lot of debt with not a big shot at either NOLA or Houston, and I'd like to say I go to a T20 school, but not if it's not going to help me get a job. Thoughts?

I think as much as you don't want to hear it, a retake is going to be your best option if you want biglaw at all. You'll need a 170+ to even out that gpa, but if you put in the time and effort required you can do it. I'd head over to the lsat prep threads and get started.

If you must go to law school this fall, and that's a big if, I lean towards Tulane. Honestly, you should consider a retake and reapply. Aside from that, have you negotiated with Tulane?? None of these schools have favorable financials. Your preference for New Orleans screams Tulane, but TRY to get another 10k a year out of them.

Houston or LSU.

OhBoyOhBortles wrote:I think as much as you don't want to hear it, a retake is going to be your best option if you want biglaw at all. You'll need a 170+ to even out that gpa, but if you put in the time and effort required you can do it. I'd head over to the lsat prep threads and get started.

Agreed. Change your goals or your LSAT score, OP. If you were cool with small firms/local government, LSU for free isn't bad.

All of these schools will be more expensive than you think. You'll spend more on COL than you imagine, and you're not factoring in interest, loan origination fees, tuition increases, etc. Just purely based on cost they might all be non-starters.

Factor in the big law goals and they all are truly non-starters. Literally none of them make sense. You have to retake/reapply.

I know someone who went to LSU, top of his class, cool dude, tried to get big law in Houston. Nothing. Super limited interviewing opportunities and no offers. Once you get outside of the T14 it's just really hard to get big law. It'd be an uphill battle if you went to UT or Vandy, let alone UH or a LA school.

Also, I go to a T20 school, that designation isn't impressive to anyone. Probably the majority of people who even know what schools are T20 are TLS types and so many of them go to like T14s or T5s or whatever that T20s aren't going to impress them.

Just focus on getting the job you want, where you want it, at an appropriate cost. To that end, you really do need to retake or change your goals or not go to law school at this time.

Did you apply to Texas?

If you don't want to retake and are okay with missing big law I'd go with LSU