ASU (full) vs Miami ($8k a year) Forum

[Amarillo]

Situation: I'm trying to choose between Arizona State University and University of Miami. ASU offers me a full ride and Miami offers me a $40,000 scholarship (I'll have to pay exactly $8k for 1L).

Background: I've lived in Miami for the past 6 years and I already got to know some lawyers working for big and medium sized firms. My wife has a decent job in Miami (almost six digits a year) and if I move to Phoenix, she would be able to join me in December and find another job in Phoenix (which, as she's saying, is not a big problem in her industry). Also, we have a 2 year old son, and if I choose ASU, I would want him to live with me for at least some time and for some time with my wife (I have a family member that can help me take care of him in Phoenix). In other words, is going to ASU worth having your family separated for 4-5 months (August-December)?

Goals: My goal is to work for BigLaw. In Miami, ~10% students go to big law and in ASU it's ~12% (both are 2014 numbers). ASU takes lots of transfer students (1/3 of 2L class) from Arizona Summit (or sth like that) and their true BigLaw numbers are ~18% (because I assume that transfer students do not really compete with the students who are accepted for 1L for the same pool of jobs). I love Florida, but I love the Southwest even more; in the future I would want to work in these regions or SF, LA, DC, NY area.

Any advice?

[hairbear7]

If you want to work in big law don't go to these schools.

[Good Guy Gaud]

Don't go to ASU unless you want to live in Arizona. And like the above poster said, you probably shouldn't go to either school if you want biglaw. Biglaw out of ASU really isn't out of the question but it becomes more difficult if you don't have connections in AZ.

ASU doesn't place very well in any of the cities you want to end up (SF, LA, DC or NY). Can't speak from experience but I would hazard to guess Miami is the same. If practicing in one of those areas is truly your goal, you should go T14 or to a school that is actually in one of those areas.

(is ASU law grad)

[Mikey]

For biglaw? Neither

[Shootin]

I mean, obviously these schools don't place well in biglaw, but OP is aware of that, so saying neither feels like a non-advice in this situation. UM seems like the right choice here. You got some networking and ties to the area, which should be helpful. Your family doesn't have to go through a bunch of changes. Realistically, I would say that you need to be like top 5% to get big law from these schools (top 10% could go either way), because its not always top 10% (or whatever) that get these jobs. Some students who are way below that but have a daddy (or other connections) working there will land a job.

So, like a few posters here suggested, biglaw will be hard to get. You will need a stellar gpa. Make sure you have a solid back up plan (ie what will most likely happen) that you would be happy with.