American University vs Pace?? Forum

[Saph83]

Hi,

So I want to study Environmental Law, I have a 160 LSAT and 3.0 GPA and got accepted to Pace and AU. Pace gave me a 26K scholarship and AU gave me a 35K scholarship but with the difference in tuition it works out to roughly the same I'll have to make up in loans. My question is do I go with Pace which is #3 in enviro OR AU which I know is dropping in rank and therefore may not have as much pull by the time I graduate??? My family is in NY but I wen tot school in MD and have friends there so I'm flexible in where I'll end up.

Thanks!

[transferror]

uh oh

[Nebby]

Hi,

So I want to study Environmental Law, I have a 160 LSAT and 3.0 GPA and got accepted to Pace and AU. Pace gave me a 26K scholarship and AU gave me a 35K scholarship but with the difference in tuition it works out to roughly the same I'll have to make up in loans. My question is do I go with Pace which is #3 in enviro OR AU which I know is dropping in rank and therefore may not have as much pull by the time I graduate??? My family is in NY but I wen tot school in MD and have friends there so I'm flexible in where I'll end up.

Thanks!

Are you currently working and can you take the time to retake the LSAT? If not, then AU will give you a better shot solely due to its location to various agencies that practice environmental law.

[Nachoo2019]

uh oh

wait for it....

[Saph83]

Hi,

So I want to study Environmental Law, I have a 160 LSAT and 3.0 GPA and got accepted to Pace and AU. Pace gave me a 26K scholarship and AU gave me a 35K scholarship but with the difference in tuition it works out to roughly the same I'll have to make up in loans. My question is do I go with Pace which is #3 in enviro OR AU which I know is dropping in rank and therefore may not have as much pull by the time I graduate??? My family is in NY but I wen tot school in MD and have friends there so I'm flexible in where I'll end up.

Thanks!

Are you currently working and can you take the time to retake the LSAT? If not, then AU will give you a better shot solely due to its location to various agencies that practice environmental law.

Yes currently working but don't want to wait, re-take the LSAT and 're-apply to better schools for 2 reasons. 1. Took the LSAT 5 yrs ago and got a 161. All practice tests 5 yrs ago and this round were in the 157-158 range so I test up but truly doubt I'll ever go higher which I accept as the cap of my intelligence. 2. Had to wait 5 yrs to finally apply to law school due to a family illness and truly don't want to put it off any longer or stay too long and get stuck again. So currently just the decision between these two schools. Thanks for your feedback!

[Clearly]

You're very misguided about so many things law school.

[Saph83]

You're very misguided about so many things law school.

Yes I admit that I am..... What advice can you give?

[barkschool]

You're very misguided about so many things law school.

Yes I admit that I am..... What advice can you give?

What is environmental law?

[Nebby]

You're very misguided about so many things law school.

Yes I admit that I am..... What advice can you give?

Environmental law school rankings are worthless, for one. It's entirely possible to get an environmental job from AU. You gotta make sure you hustle to get good grades, use both summers to get environmental law experience, and do externships during the school year to get more exposure, experience, and connections. No one, regardless of school, is going to hand you a job in the environmental community.

What do you think environmental law entails?

[TheRealSantaClaus]

.

[Saph83]

Please don't go to Pace. I see people every year get fooled by these "specialty rankings" and attend a school thinking that they mean something for employment prospects. They don't. Find me one recent grad from Pace who is practicing environmental law. The only US News ranking that matters is the overall one- the same rankings that list Pace as a third tier school perpetually on the verge of dropping into the fourth tier.

As for AU, it gets a lot of hate on this forum for being a diploma mill and attracting (some might saying fooling) students who think they're going to practice international law after graduation. I don't think that it's necessarily a bad school, but the posters above are absolutely correct- you need to hustle and get good grades to land a decent job from there. That may seem fair enough, but you need to understand that nearly half the class is unable to find real law jobs, and you could very well be a part of that group.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Clearly]

http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/pace/2014/
http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/american/2014/

You're about to spend 200k for a 50% chance of making 50k and a 50% chance of making 0.

Seriously, if we had a deck of cards and were bored and I said hey lets play an interesting game. You put in $20 and draw a card. If its higher than my card you get back $5. If its lower, you get nothing. Would you play this game?

[Saph83]

http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/pace/2014/
http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/american/2014/

You're about to spend 200k for a 50% chance of making 50k and a 50% chance of making 0.

Seriously, if we had a deck of cards and were bored and I said hey lets play an interesting game. You put in $20 and draw a card. If its higher than my card you get back $5. If its lower, you get nothing. Would you play this game?

Thanks! This really kind of put things in perspective. Guess I have to decide how much of a gambler I am...

[Mikey]

You should retake.

[Dr. Nefario]

Pace U 4 lyfe. Dem specialta rankinz iz all dat mattas.

ETA: but seriously sit and retake.

[eikiwoo]

I do not think Pace is a good choice for every year many Chinese scholars go to Pace for environmental law and the ranking of environmental law can cheat Chinese scholars to get fund from the authority. The quality of students and teachers are not that good.

[jrass]

The specialty rankings are based on how many classes are offered in a specialty area. Law isn't like medicine where depending on your focus you'll be working with entirely different language, machines, etc. It's all predicated on the same core concepts, and if you could read and apply a statute in A then you can read and apply a statute in B. It's not going to matter how many environmental law classes you take beyond the fact you'll maybe do slightly better in classes you're interested in. Each time you apply for a job, somebody from a better school who never took a single environmental law class but is interested in it will be hired over you.

You can come out of school with a very strong academic background in environmental law, which may be useful if you'd like to start blogs on environmental law, and maybe even a social club for environmental law enthusiasts. It can be very rewarding, but you should go into it viewing law as a hobby like chess or dancing, and try to develop a career in something else with law being the "if I win lotto" dream.