Top Law Schools

time for another choosing thread! so I was lucky enough to get off both S and H's waitlist (somehow). Here's my situation:

COA: roughly same for either, combination of savings/working SO/family help should keep debt under 100k for either.

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

If biglaw then plan on shooting right now for either best firm in NY I can get into, or Chicago. From Michigan but close to chicago so sort of my home market. Family/have lived in Texas as well.

-Your general career goals

Most likely is biglaw, also interested in MBB/business stuff but background is in nonprofits so likely hard to break in. Vaguely interested in silicon valley/startup shit but also DC fed gov stuff (been watching a lot of the xfiles).

So basically I'm from the midwest and don't have a coast preference so makes it a bit harder.

Opinions? Pro/cons?

Mack.Hambleton wrote:working SO

Does this person have a preference?

ETA: It seems like everything else is equal.

OhBoyOhBortles wrote:

Mack.Hambleton wrote:working SO

Does this person have a preference?

ETA: It seems like everything else is equal.

nope they are from my hometown and only have family here and really dont care either way.

Your career preferences are vague enough that neither school really has an edge. Cost being equal, I'd choose based on the intangibles here- things like quarter va semester system, small vs large school, where your SO wants to live and where it'll be easier for them to get a job, etc. Congrats on having such amazing choices!

I'd take the full ride at Penn, but if not, I'd go to Stanford, because of that CA weather, which beats the MA climate even when you're in NorCal.

Thanks Leslie! based on what I've read (but mostly for uchicago) I think I'd prefer semester..

It will be easier to clerk from Stanford (if you're interested in Lit and/or Academia). I have also heard that the weather is more temperate in Palo Alto. Harvard name generally goes farther in TX from what I have seen, but that could just be me. Even small firms seem to recruit at one if they do at the other, but I've yet to see any firm that do Stanford and not Harvard.

Mack.Hambleton wrote:time for another choosing thread! so I was lucky enough to get off both S and H's waitlist (somehow). Here's my situation:

COA: roughly same for either, combination of savings/working SO/family help should keep debt under 100k for either.

Unless you're planning to break up with your SO after you finish law school, any money that goes towards your education is your money too, dude. It still counts.

It looks like you're going to pay sticker (or very close to it) at S or H. Given that your primary goal is big law, and assuming that you got full rides to schools lower in the T14, I don't see how this choice makes much sense.

rpupkin wrote:

Mack.Hambleton wrote:time for another choosing thread! so I was lucky enough to get off both S and H's waitlist (somehow). Here's my situation:

COA: roughly same for either, combination of savings/working SO/family help should keep debt under 100k for either.

Unless you're planning to break up with your SO after you finish law school, any money that goes towards your education is your money too, dude. It still counts.

It looks like you're going to pay sticker (or very close to it) at S or H. Given that your primary goal is big law, and assuming that you got full rides to schools lower in the T14, I don't see how this choice makes much sense.

parents are contributing a good bit (and it shouldnt be a stress on them at all). SO will basically be covering COL

Id personally go with Stanford... only because I think its cooler.

Even though both Harvard & Stanford will result in under $100,000 total student loan debt for all three years, it is unclear as to whether or not this is the best option for you because we don't know your other options.

Simply between Harvard & Stanford should, in your case, be based on personal preference since you have no driving desire or goal which suggests that one law school would be better at helping you to achieve your career objectives.

Whatever you want, your goals are too undirected for them to substantiate a decision here. I'm not saying this as a criticism, it's good at this stage of your career to be flexible and have diverse interests. I'd always go SLS here but the quarters would suck ass. Idk, new england can be pretty awful and Harvard is a huge school which has its perks but a lot of downside

I can't help but comment on the irony of one of the more die hard low-debt full-ride posters winding up ditching the money for H v S as soon as the options opened up. Rich parents yolo

wait, your career goal is biglaw?????

jbagelboy wrote:
I can't help but comment on the irony of one of the more die hard low-debt full-ride posters winding up ditching the money for H v S as soon as the options opened up. Rich parents yolo

jbagelboy wrote:Whatever you want, your goals are too undirected for them to substantiate a decision here. I'm not saying this as a criticism, it's good at this stage of your career to be flexible and have diverse interests. I'd always go SLS here but the quarters would suck ass. Idk, new england can be pretty awful and Harvard is a huge school which has its perks but a lot of downside

I can't help but comment on the irony of one of the more die hard low-debt full-ride posters winding up ditching the money for H v S as soon as the options opened up. Rich parents yolo

Why in general? Just QOL/weather etc?

yeah if it was 300k debt vs lower T14 debt free I'd certainly go that option (or if I had actually gotten any of CCN full tuition offers) but I am very fortunate to be able to not have to make that decision.

also to be clear I wouldn't say I'm set on biglaw, it's mostly that I just have no idea what I want to do and biglaw seems like the easiest option with good exit opps, and I don't want to be a public defender or whatever

I think the right call here is giving the participants of the SLS and HLS waitlist threads the opportunity to come up with suitable bribes and then seeing which one you like more.

lol thats a good idea to fund my tuition


also I've read in the past that S has an advantage over H in general biglaw placement, how true is this?

Mack.Hambleton wrote:lol thats a good idea to fund my tuition


also I've read in the past that S has an advantage over H in general biglaw placement, how true is this?

Not really true.

if i had the choice (which i dont) i'd pick stanford, especially if you're interested in clerking.

Mack.Hambleton wrote:lol thats a good idea to fund my tuition


also I've read in the past that S has an advantage over H in general biglaw placement, how true is this?

While H can send 15-20 students to Cravath/S&C each, people with LPs (still actively given out) at H have a lot of issues at OCI. I personally know of many 2Ls who didn't get even 1 offer from OCI. Students near the bottom of S's class does not have analogous issues.

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I think quarters are a plus: quarters = more opportunities to take more classes with less overall commitment required per class. That's a bonus especially if you're unsure of exactly what you're interested in (because quarters give you far more flexibility to experiment to find out). But I think it's a bonus regardless, and I should know: I experienced both quarters and semesters in undergrad and in grad school. That said, not everyone prefers quarters, in part because (IMO) quarters are, on the whole, harder than semesters; and, therefore, all things being equal, I think a school with quarters might have a marginally lower QOL than a school with semesters. But, all things are not equal and I imagine that just about everyone here would agree that despite the fact that it's on quarters, SLS offers a substantially better QOL than Harvard.

tl;dr: quarters have some big advantages, and if the main minus for SLS in your mind is that quarters negatively impact the QOL, I think that strongly weighs in Stanford's favor. It's like deciding between vanilla ice cream and saltine crackers for dessert when you have a slight preference for chocolate ice cream over vanilla.

I choose H and am thrilled but S would have been great. Went to a small and incredible undergrad and S Law felt sort of the same. Kind of isolated but not necessarily bad (clearly the rest of Stanford is there and has lots going on in the college sort of way). I will be on the lookout for all the horrible people here that landshoes describes. Haven't seen them yet but they must be here somewhere. Not sure there are a lot of humble YHS'ies but we live in hope.