Top Law Schools

About me: I'm from California and looking to return to California for my career or possibly Washington DC. Open to different career paths, but I have a definite interest in at least exploring environmental law. Open to firm work, maybe pivoting to government work down the road. Clerking also sounds interesting to me. The sweet-spot for my career would be making decent money doing work that is at least neutral to beneficial for the environment.
169 LSAT/3.8 GPA.
I'm happy with the offers I have and am not interested in reapplying. I've narrowed it down to 3 schools.

The schools w/ cost of annual tuition after scholarship awards subtracted out:
Michigan: $21,000/yr
Duke: $27,000/yr
Texas: $3,000/yr (basically full tuition scholarship)

The cost of living is more or less comparable in these places. All these schools have strong environmental law programs. Michigan and Duke seem very comparable in academics/reputation/career outcomes. Texas is a bit lower in these regards, but the price is super affordable. I have visited Michigan and Duke and like both. I've heard great things about Austin. Duke has great weather and Durham has just enough to do to keep a law student entertained. Didn't love that you need a car there (though I do own one). Michigan has an amazing campus and Ann Arbor is great. The weather is a negative but I am willing to suck it up and deal with it. I'm somewhat debt adverse so I guess the question is if Michigan is worth $18k/yr more than a degree from Texas over the long term. Thanks for your input!!

I'd go with whichever you prefer between Duke and Michigan. Both should be comparable for your goals. Even with minimal debt (and after cost of living, it's not what I'd personally consider "minimal"), I would be wary of taking Texas if you want to be in California (or anywhere that isn't Texas), while Duke and Michigan are acceptable options at that CoA. I'll mention that Duke has a nice summer internship program (Stanback) that funds certain environmental non-profit work at $5k for the summer. Michigan's LRAP has a good reputation, but unless you're truly banking on going into environmental PI straight out of law school, I don't think I would make the decision on that basis in your shoes. If you're at all wishy-washy on it or it's an eventual career plan after possibly starting off in a firm (which is the gist I get from your post), you'll feel the pull of OCI anyway, I promise.

I would suggest negotiating with Michigan based on your Duke offer.

Just as an aside. I'm not sure COL is all that comparable if you're looking at an apartment near the school. UT is in the most expensive area of town, so just be aware of that. Also you would probably want a car there tbh.

Yeah, do some more detailed TOTAL COA numbers here including interest, housing, etc.