Cardozo with $$$ or GW with $$ Forum

[paralegal4eva]

I had a 3.04 GPA from a good liberal arts school with little grade inflation and a 167 LSAT.
Currently trying to decide between Cardozo with $42,000 a year or GW with $20,000 a year. The Cardozo scholarship has no stipulations about GPA and would leave me will a total of approx $35k in debt for all three years (not including interest), and GW would be more like $80k.

For background: I've worked as a paralegal for 5 years, and have worked at boutique firms, a big firm, and am currently in-house -- I've worked in telecommunications law, commercial / real estate, and am currently doing contracts and other work at a media company. I want to do transactional law (commercial real estate is fine) with some regulatory work mixed in, and would be happy to go boutique or big law right after law school because the ultimate goal is to be in-house counsel somewhere interesting. I hate billing hours and the incentives it creates but am perfectly comfortable doing it for a few years if I have to. I was on the fence about law school for years and now am 100% sure I want to be a lawyer.

I know Cardozo's job stats are so-so, but I've lived in both DC and New York and would much rather be in New York for law school. Any advice or thoughts are much appreciated.

[acr]

I am not sure how you're coming to the conclusion that you will graduate GW with only $80K debt with a $20K/year scholarship. According to GW's website, cost of attendance for one year is $82,900. So over three years of attendance, that totals $248,700. If you subtract the $60K in scholarship money, then that's approximately $188,700. Yes, I did the math. And remember that this figure is based on a school-year calendar in one of the highest COL areas in the country and does NOT factor in interest. If you attend GW with that scholarship, your debt will likely be over $200K (assuming you're debt-financing everything). Even if you are paying out of your savings, GW is not worth that outrageous sum of money. Georgetown, which is a T14 in the same city as GW, recently posted a troubling 44% big law+federal clerkship employment rate, and GW fares no better.

Given your low GPA, there are not many options other than to retake for 172+ and hopefully get a full ride at a stronger school. I'm not sure if that's realistic given your GPA and others will have to weigh in.

Unless you can at least get a full scholarship to GW, then I personally think that going to law school would be a terrible mistake for you.

[paralegal4eva]

I can't take the LSAT again. I was kind of burnt out the first time I took it and got a 157 -- studied a bunch and got a 168; then took it again two months later and got the same score. I would have to wait several years to take it again.

I also got waitlisted at a number of schools -- Northwestern, Fordham, UT-Austin, UCLA, etc. I also got large scholarships from William and Mary, Catholic U, etc.

Also -- I wasn't including room & board for GW because I'm from DC, and could figure out a cheap (or free) living arrangement. I went to college on a full ride and therefore some of the money my parents had set aside for college is available to me. So it really is not that much more than $80k.

[acr]

I could not in good conscious recommend either of these options to anyone.

But it is ultimately something that you will have to decide for yourself. Your previous work experience might help, but I don't think either of these schools gives you a realistic opportunity to achieve your goals.

The three years of stress and debt simply are not worth it sometimes, and I think that is the case here. If it were me, I would wait until I had better options or not go at all.

But again, I'm only a random stranger on an Internet forum. You'll have to make the decision yourself.

Good luck.

[Dr. Nefario]

OP how are you financing and will any of your current paralegal connections lead to a particular job? If you have the potential to use those connections well and having significant savings, I could see an argument for Dozo possibly, but that kinda info may help those with knowledge of the school. You may be able to get cardozo to negotiate up to a full tuition plus and then itd be even more possible.

[cavalier1138]

I can't take the LSAT again. I was kind of burnt out the first time I took it and got a 157 -- studied a bunch and got a 168; then took it again two months later and got the same score. I would have to wait several years to take it again.

Even assuming that you took all those LSATs in the past year, you would still only have to wait a year and a half to take it again. Not "several years".

The fact is that you have a low GPA to overcome. That means your LSAT needs to be higher to compensate. And even without that, just taking more time off school will lower the weight of that GPA more and more.