UC vs. T14 ??? Forum

[Sodapressing]

Stats:
Score: 169
GPA: 3.8
Undergrad: Finance
Decent softs
Age: 22

Currently deciding if I want to go to a T14 school. I am not exactly sure what kind of law I want to practice. I am a Finance major, so Corp. Law/M&A law appeals to me. I see myself enjoying complex litigation, med mal, and criminal as well. Salary is less important to me than being happy and having (some sort of) work-life balance. Ultimately I see myself being a Judge or a Professor... I don't know if that changes anything.

I grew up in Cincinnati, went to UC for undergrad, and have a lot of friends, family and connections here. The way I see it I have 2 options:

1. Stay in Cincinnati, go to UC law for free, continue to network with my connections here

2. Go to the best law school I can (potentially T5/T10), acnticiapte acruing 150k+ in debt

**Living expenses are taken care of either way.**

• Is it worth going to a T14?
• How much better off would I be?
• Your initial thoughts/concerns about my situation...

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

There are arguments both way. Only go to UC if you are comfortable with the idea of staying in Cincinatti long term. I chose a regional school for free over several T14s and it worked out great, but obviously if you attend UC and don't get top gradea you could end up unemployed or in a job making $40-50k.

[mt2165]

im from cleveland so i may be off here, but youd get a full ride at osu, and I know at least in cleveland osu>>>>cleveland state in terms of placement. So maybe something to consider?

[fredfred]

Or go to Cornell for free. Enjoy Ithaca.

[gnomgnomuch]

Stats:
Score: 169
GPA: 3.8
Undergrad: Finance
Decent softs
Age: 22

Currently deciding if I want to go to a T14 school. I am not exactly sure what kind of law I want to practice. I am a Finance major, so Corp. Law/M&A law appeals to me. I see myself enjoying complex litigation, med mal, and criminal as well. Salary is less important to me than being happy and having (some sort of) work-life balance. Ultimately I see myself being a Judge or a Professor... I don't know if that changes anything.

I grew up in Cincinnati, went to UC for undergrad, and have a lot of friends, family and connections here. The way I see it I have 2 options:

1. Stay in Cincinnati, go to UC law for free, continue to network with my connections here

2. Go to the best law school I can (potentially T5/T10), acnticiapte acruing 150k+ in debt

**Living expenses are taken care of either way.**

• Is it worth going to a T14?
• How much better off would I be?
• Your initial thoughts/concerns about my situation...

If you retake the lsat and gain even 2-3 points you could be looking at lower t-14 full rides. Also, you have a degree in finance, why not put it to some use? If you're set on LS than I'd think long and hard about retaking and milking the test for all it's worth. A few points more and you're saving yourself roughly 150k in loans while attending an elite school.

[Clemenceau]

I am not exactly sure what kind of law I want to practice. I am a Finance major, so Corp. Law/M&A law appeals to me. I see myself enjoying complex litigation, med mal, and criminal as well. Salary is less important to me than being happy and having (some sort of) work-life balance. Ultimately I see myself being a Judge or a Professor...

This is kinda all over the place. You may want to consider taking a few years to work ft and developing a better sense of why you want to be a lawyer.

Still in ug? You have a 3.8 in finance, so you should be able to find a decent corporate gig.

[smiles123]

People were getting a lot of money from lower T14 with your #'s this year. I'd expect $$$ from quite a few as long as you get your apps in early.

[chuckbass]

I am not exactly sure what kind of law I want to practice. I am a Finance major, so Corp. Law/M&A law appeals to me. I see myself enjoying complex litigation, med mal, and criminal as well. Salary is less important to me than being happy and having (some sort of) work-life balance. Ultimately I see myself being a Judge or a Professor...

This is kinda all over the place. You may want to consider taking a few years to work ft and developing a better sense of why you want to be a lawyer.

Still in ug? You have a 3.8 in finance, so you should be able to find a decent corporate gig.

This. Based on what you're interested in, it seems like you don't really have a clear idea of what you want to do, so it's difficult to advise you. Corporate law/M&A conflicts with wanting a work/life balance, since you'd badically need to be doing biglaw to get that kind of work. If you want academia, you're going to want to go to HYS but even then that's still a longshot and not really a realistic goal.

[Well Hung Jury]

Echoing what others have said regarding your major.

As a high GPA finance major, you should be able to get the work-life balance job you want while still being paid well with a corporate finance gig. You will not have much of a work-life balance if you want to get into biglaw, which it sounds like your interests push you towards. As someone with a similar background, I recommend the finance route. Get a few years of work experience within your field to determine if you like finance. If not, you can still pursue law school and will have a nice financial cushion built up from saving.

[CanadianWolf]

OP: Work for a few years then decide whether law school or an MBA will better aid the pursuit of your career goals.

[HP5450]

People who go to mid to lower T14 schools and don't succeed in getting great jobs are disproportionately likely to have gone straight through and not had a real clear idea of what they wanted out of law school.

If you're considering medical malpractice work (questionable), criminal work (hope you have a trust fund with which to feed your family), and corporate work (you're going to tell big law firm that your experience as a what will make you a productive associate?), it sounds like you should take some time off and figure it out.

The thing about not caring about your salary. At your age, that's understandable. However you should recognize that, especially if you going into debt, you're going to care about money by the time you start thinking about a family.


Edit: under no circumstances should you go to UC Law. Nice not to care about your salary or whatever, but you should care about being employed and having options. Better to take a full scholarship at OSU.

[gnomgnomuch]

People who go to mid to lower T14 schools and don't succeed in getting great jobs are disproportionately likely to have gone straight through and not had a real clear idea of what they wanted out of law school.

If you're considering medical malpractice work (questionable), criminal work (hope you have a trust fund with which to feed your family), and corporate work (you're going to tell big law firm that your experience as a what will make you a productive associate?), it sounds like you should take some time off and figure it out.

The thing about not caring about your salary. At your age, that's understandable. However you should recognize that, especially if you going into debt, you're going to care about money by the time you start thinking about a family.


Edit: under no circumstances should you go to UC Law. Nice not to care about your salary or whatever, but you should care about being employed and having options. Better to take a full scholarship at OSU.

(you're going to tell big law firm that your experience as a what will make you a productive associate?) - if he goes to a t-14 and has solid grades it won't matter whether or not he has any work experience. Plenty of people go k-jd and land big-law without a problem. True, if you have bad grades AND no experience then that'll be a problem. But, if your grades are bad enough, you're not getting a firm job anyway.