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Hello everyone, I want to thank you all in advance for your thoughts as I am in a bit of a quandary and was hoping you all provide me with your thoughts. My situation is as follows. I graduated from a top liberal arts college and then went on to do two, 1 year MAs (fully funded) in the humanities at Ivy League schools and then got a job in a management development program for 2 years at a very large company in Wisconsin. My 2 years is almost up and it is looking like, due to current market conditions, that the only job I could move into with this company would be outside of Wisconsin.

I do definitely want to go to law school and I really, really want to graduate with as little, if any debt at all, as possible. I have no student loans, and 50k leftover in an old college investment account. My UGPA is a 3.54 and my LSAT I took in Sept 2011 was a 158, however I have been intensely prepping for the June test and have been consistently scoring between 168-172. I am not location specific, as I have lived all around the US and Western Europe, albeit I am from Michigan and staying around the Great Lakes would be highly desirable for me. I am also considering a lot of the other schools near the bottom of the T14 (Cornell, Northwestern, Michigan), and some of the other schools in between. Again, not having debt or very, very an extremely important consideration for me after seeing how burdened many of my classmates are by it.

So to sum it up, here are the main questions in my head right now:

(1) Do I quit my job if out-of-state relocation is the only option and find a new one in Wisconsin so I can maintain my residency for in-state tuition. I am not dead-set on going to Madison, but I think it could be a good option and with my numbers after the retake I think I would stand a very good chance of getting significant scholarship money.

(2) If I did relocate with my company to somewhere else and the June LSAT goes as expected and I applied to Madison, does anybody know if they give more to out of state students to offset the high cost?

My apologies if I missed anything, but I have been up at 4 AM getting ready for a business trip! Just ask and I will give more clarity.

The main problem is that you're targeting the wrong law school. You should be aiming for Michigan & Northwestern if you want to go to law school in the Great Lakes Region. The problem with your current target, as with most non-T-14 law schools, is job placement--both quantity & quality.
The key to unlocking early opportunities in the field of law is by law school attended. The key to getting into a top law school is one's LSAT score in the high 160s or 170s.
With a high LSAT score comes acceptances to T-14 law schools, some with scholarship awards, & acceptances with full tuition scholarships to lower ranked regional law schools.
In short, don't interrupt your career path when retaking the LSAT & earning a higher score will solve all of your financial concerns about law school. Law schools buy high LSAT scores--and with you're background you should be an easy sell.

Check out lawschoolnumbers.com for more school specific information on acceptances & scholarship awards based on one's numbers (GPA & LSAT).

I wouldn't suggest going to UW unless you were OK with working at a small DUI defense firm that is not in Madison (but still in Wisconsin). Because that's about the average outcome.

With your experience and want of some geographic flexibility, Northwestern or Michigan (ideally the former) should be the goal.

Do your parents live in Wisconsin? I think some states allow you to claim in-state residency if this is the case. Might be wrong here.

Thank you all for your quick replies.

First -- my parents still live in Michigan and from my understanding of the Wisconsin statute governing in state tuition the only way I could continue to qualify for it would be to remain in state.

Canadian Wolf -- thank you for your comments. I think you make several valid points. I definitely agree that Michigan and Northwestern are targets and assuming my lsat goes as I have been practicing, they should be within the realm of possibility. My concern there still would be if I were accepted it looks like even with a solid offer I am looking at 100k of debt which to me seems like a mountain.... But maybe that is just the price I will have to pay if I want a decent
Chance at substantive employment.

Retake and ED NW

Curious -- why would you recommend NW and why Early Decision? Wouldn't that put me at a significant disadvantage to receive scholarship money?

Hornet2011 wrote:Curious -- why would you recommend NW and why Early Decision? Wouldn't that put me at a significant disadvantage to receive scholarship money?

Their ED comes with a 150k scholarship.

Your gpa is really borderline to receive that ED scholly. No harm in trying though.

Winston1984 wrote:Your gpa is really borderline to receive that ED scholly. No harm in trying though.

Not with high LSAT