Top Law Schools

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I advise a retake, since you have another crack left. If you are steadfast, however, go to Catholic.

Are either of these schools well represented in the area which you hope to be employed?

Now for a mundane question, as a potential part-time student who is working full time, have you tested out the commutes from you office to each of these schools (preferably at the time of day that you would need to make the trip to class)?

haus wrote:Are either of these schools well represented in the area which you hope to be employed?

Now for a mundane question, as a potential part-time student who is working full time, have you tested out the commutes from you office to each of these schools (preferably at the time of day that you would need to make the trip to class)?

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Another difference to keep in mind between the 1L part time programs is that Mason runs a 5 night a week program compared to the 4 night per week used at the other schools on the DC area (including Catholic).

I'm not sure I understand. Do you or do you not have guaranteed employment as a JD with your current employer? (Or at least as guaranteed as anything can be looking four years into the future.)

TasmanianToucan wrote:I'm not sure I understand. Do you or do you not have guaranteed employment as a JD with your current employer? (Or at least as guaranteed as anything can be looking four years into the future.)

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I would suggest looking for examples of people within your org who have made a similar transition through local PT programs. I suspect that you will find some, but not that many. It is hard to know what things will be like four years into the future, but landing a fed gov attorney slot does not look that easy right now.

There was a thread here a few months back that stated the FDIC anticipated reducing the number of term attorney positions by something like 200 positions over the course of a year or so. There are some benefits of being on the inside (an opportunity to get to know the decision makers, already have institutional knowledge), but it is a tough market so do not take these as guarantees. If there is some specific areas of knowledge that are important to your org, especially if they are not common knowledge amount entry level lawyers in may be in your interest to have or develop this knowledge, in hopes of building a little upon the insider advantage that you might have.

But be careful with the assumption that it will be an easy transition just because you manage to pick up a JD.

Good luck,

Mason, from my memory their employment statistics are better and the difference in tuition isn't significant enough to go to the lesser school in this case as you will be getting in state after a year.

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crazydavey27 wrote:Circling back, Mason came back to me with $18,000 with good academic standing requirement, or the possibility of $20,000 with a Top 50% requirement. Any takers?

Take the money and run

crazydavey27 wrote:Circling back, Mason came back to me with $18,000 with good academic standing requirement, or the possibility of $20,000 with a Top 50% requirement. Any takers?

Not endorsing the decision to go, but I would take $18k guaranteed over $20k with a top 50% stip.

The George Mason offer seems fairly generous based on your LSAT score. Negotiate for $20,000 a year scholarship with only a "remain in good standing" stipulation. This should reduce the tuition cost to about $54,000 for all three years in total. Otherwise, Catholic seems like a good deal based on your needs & career goal.
The best answer, however, is probably to retake the LSAT & hope for an improvement that will motivate GMU to make a full tuition offer.

After further thought, pursue a large scholarship offer (more than $20,000 per year) from George Mason since you already have a suitable & generous back-up offer from Catholic & because it is clear that GMU wants you & has scholarship funds available.

Winston1984 wrote:

crazydavey27 wrote:Circling back, Mason came back to me with $18,000 with good academic standing requirement, or the possibility of $20,000 with a Top 50% requirement. Any takers?

Not endorsing the decision to go, but I would take $18k guaranteed over $20k with a top 50% stip.

Honestly, if you're going to law school and you're worried about being in the top 50% so much that you would take the guaranteed, should you be going to law school?

I mean unless the grading system is designed so that a lot of these students lose the conditional scholarship, there should be no worries.

FirmBiz wrote:

Winston1984 wrote:

crazydavey27 wrote:Circling back, Mason came back to me with $18,000 with good academic standing requirement, or the possibility of $20,000 with a Top 50% requirement. Any takers?

Not endorsing the decision to go, but I would take $18k guaranteed over $20k with a top 50% stip.

Honestly, if you're going to law school and you're worried about being in the top 50% so much that you would take the guaranteed, should you be going to law school?

I mean unless the grading system is designed so that a lot of these students lose the conditional scholarship, there should be no worries.

Stips are stips. Everyone would take 18k guaranteed over 20k with top 50% stip, even Yale. Do you even expected value?

pancakes3 wrote:

FirmBiz wrote:

Winston1984 wrote:

crazydavey27 wrote:Circling back, Mason came back to me with $18,000 with good academic standing requirement, or the possibility of $20,000 with a Top 50% requirement. Any takers?

Not endorsing the decision to go, but I would take $18k guaranteed over $20k with a top 50% stip.

Honestly, if you're going to law school and you're worried about being in the top 50% so much that you would take the guaranteed, should you be going to law school?

I mean unless the grading system is designed so that a lot of these students lose the conditional scholarship, there should be no worries.

Stips are stips. Everyone would take 18k guaranteed over 20k with top 50% stip, even Yale. Do you even expected value?

I think if the schools are relatively close, you obviously take the guaranteed, but in this case, one is a bit better than the other.

.

FirmBiz wrote:

Winston1984 wrote:

crazydavey27 wrote:Circling back, Mason came back to me with $18,000 with good academic standing requirement, or the possibility of $20,000 with a Top 50% requirement. Any takers?

Not endorsing the decision to go, but I would take $18k guaranteed over $20k with a top 50% stip.

Honestly, if you're going to law school and you're worried about being in the top 50% so much that you would take the guaranteed, should you be going to law school?

I mean unless the grading system is designed so that a lot of these students lose the conditional scholarship, there should be no worries.

Everyone thinks they'll be above median, but only 50% can be. 1L grades are unpredictable and at most law schools there is a forced curve.