Top Law Schools

Hey everyone, I need some advice. I want to go into Criminal or Immigration Law. I have a 161 LSAT, decent softs/employment, and a somewhat decent 3.5 GPA. I am torn between school choices right now. I currently live in the DC metro area. I want to practice in Virginia, or Florida. Other than the few T14/25 lucky shot applications, I focused on applying to schools in Florida, Virginia, and Northeastern in Boston for their public interest and co-op program.


Here are the narrowed options:

Florida State (Scholarship pending);
Stetson ($102,000);
Miami ($104,000);
Northeastern (Full tuition);
Penn State (Full tuition);
Richmond (Scholarship pending); and
Washington & Lee ($99,000).

I have about $20,000 in savings that I placed aside for law school expenses while working and waiting for the market to improve. So far (I used LawSchoolNumbers to estimate scholarships for Richmond and FSU) with my 20k in savings, the cheapest schools are as follows for COA:

FSU (~25k if I become a resident before 2L)
Northeastern (~45k)
Stetson (~50k)
Penn State (~52k)
Richmond (~58k)
Washington & Lee (~78k)
Miami (~200k*)**

Now I have to decide to go for a school based on the debt or the ranking. I have been fortunate enough to get large scholarships, which makes this a less stressful decision.

I am debt averse. However, I want to have an actual job after law school too, and some schools like Penn State have not had as much success in employment lately…

Any thoughts?

*Some COA estimates for schools seem very off. The estimated cost to Miami is concerning; even with a 104k scholarship, the tuition and living expenses add up to 200k after three years! Furthermore, their good standing stipulation has me suspicious, since schools usually put all the scholarship students in one section to fight it out for the curve.
**Let's face it even if COA is off on the Miami website, Florida schools like FSU and Stetson have better scholarships, and COA.

Frankly, I'd retake and try to get in the upper 160s or 170s. It'll help you get scholarships at schools that are a little stronger.

If you're interested in PI, you're certainly smart for keeping debt at a minimum. PI is going to keep you in the $40-70k salary range out of school, especially from these schools.

Also, ignore the COA that the schools use. They're all crap. Use their tuition and fees numbers, count on a 3% or more increase each year (not covered by the scholarship), and calculate your own cost of living. It's going to be pretty much the same on all the campuses save for housing. A good rough estimate for most schools is $200k cost of living over 3 years.

How is it even possible for spending $200k over three years? I wouldn't spend that much in 3 years with my current job in DC, let alone when I spent only 15k a year back in my undergrad for living expenses in a small college town. That sounds like living like a lawyer while on a student budget to me.

So what about the current schools I listed? Northeastern and Penn State both said full tuition for three years of law school, so the 3 percent increase isn't something to worry about.

I don't think the vast majority of people are capable of calculating cost of living, they way undershoot it. I'd roll with what the school says plus a few thousand more if trying to figure out the whole year.

A good rule of thumb is about 20K a year for cost of living, give or take.

wyoming92 wrote:How is it even possible for spending $200k over three years? I wouldn't spend that much in 3 years with my current job in DC, let alone when I spent only 15k a year back in my undergrad for living expenses in a small college town. That sounds like living like a lawyer while on a student budget to me.

Yeah , my $200k is quite a bit expensive. I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe it was a typo. $100-125k is a more reasonable conservative estimate, and you could probably keep it out of 6-figures without trying too hard.

So what about the current schools I listed? Northeastern and Penn State both said full tuition for three years of law school, so the 3 percent increase isn't something to worry about.

Some full tuition scholarships don't cover increases in tuition. Are you sure that yours would?

I want to practice in Virginia, or Florida.

That should kill Northeastern and Penn State right there.

If you want to be a local ADA/PD, attend the cheapest non-TTT regional school you get into, and start hustling like you've never hustled before. If you like both states equally, Virginia may be slightly easier to get a ADA/PD government gig out of. Richmond >>>>> Lexington as a location. Make sure there are no stipulations on the scholarship.