Top Law Schools

I've narrowed down my picks to four final schools and honestly it's almost a tossup.
Illinois - Full Ride (Debt - $30,000) William and Mary - 55% tuition scholarship (Debt - $102,900) Minnesota - 58% tuition scholarship (Debt - $105,129) Indiana - 86% tuition scholarship (Debt - $56,957)

I'm currently negotiating higher scholarship offers with Minnesota and W&M. I think W&M will budge, but not sure on Minnesota. I also have not heard back from a number of T14 schools, but I do not expect much at this point. Waitlisted at GW and WashU which were my original top picks.

For career goals: Interested in International corporate or public Law, but understand that's a niche market and mostly T14 if at all(Dream job would be as a lawyer in the State Department, WB, IMF, CIA, etc... ) . Most likely aiming at business/corporate/finance in a mid to big law firm.

As far as location for my future career, I would like either to remain in the Midwest centered around Chicago (Illinois born and raised) or be in the D.C. market. In the Midwest I would gravitate towards private and in D.C. towards federal jobs.

The no brainer here would seem to be UIUC, however I'm currently an undergraduate at UIUC and have lived in the area for 9 years. I would prefer move away as I feel I need a change in environment and my comfort level to truly excel academically over the next three years. Otherwise I'll be stuck in a lull of familiarity which I'm afraid would lead to laziness and procrastination.

LSAT 166, GPA 3.67

Personally, assuming you're set on these and not wanting to retake I'd go to Illinois. That's just my opinion though.

Did you apply super late? Very surprised you didn't get into GW with money.

yes, I didn't apply to the majority of schools until early February. I sent GW a LOCI, but it has been a couple weeks and I don't expect to hear back before my other deadlines.

Considering your network is IL and you'll likely stay there, I say go to UIUC and the day you graduate college, hop on a plane and backpack solo for three months. Maybe that'll give you enough of a break from staying in IL.

you should retake but if you wont illinois in 30k total debt with chicago goals isnt the worst place to be. 166 suggests you can do better though.

UIUC is your best choice, though I'm a little bit hesitant saying this with your career goals.

You really should take a few years off, though. Not only will this allow you to leave the IL bubble, but also it will give you work experience. It'd also be worth retaking the LSAT.

Take some time to travel and/or maybe get a job in a new place to see if you want to leave before committing to IL.

reddspartan wrote:yes, I didn't apply to the majority of schools until early February. I sent GW a LOCI, but it has been a couple weeks and I don't expect to hear back before my other deadlines.

If you sit out and reapply day 1 you will definitely get more from W&M and Minnesota, but if you want to stay in IL then I would echo the advice above and say UIUC at that cost would be good.

Some of these debt totals are pretty defensible, but there's also a pretty big spread between the jobs you want and the jobs you have any reasonable chance at from these schools. You should think about that long and hard.

My $.02