JD; UM vs. NW Forum

[superqq]

Dear all,
Really appreciate for all of your advice, which I value a lot.

I would like to update my post as I get an offer from UM (have not applied for scholarship yet). Now, Im struggling between NW (NO scholarship) and UM.

Background: I am an international student with around 1 year work experience in an international law firm. I also did a master prior to work. So I have been out of college for three years in total.

Career goal: After careful consideration, I would like to work for a big law in NYC or CA after graduation. I am general fine with any practices except for compliance or litigation. But would appreciate if my future work will have international character, e.g. international transactions, antitrust.

Questions:
1. Im wondering if JD is financially a wise choice for me. I need pay the $80k tuition & living expenses out of my own pocket. Currently, I make bt $70k -80k per year after tax. Though this is far less than the 160K global salary, my living expense is really low (I own a property so there is no rent. I also cook at home, etc. )

2. Im wondering which school is better for me, NW or UM?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[cavalier1138]

Because of your background, I'm not 100% sure about the programs you're applying to. Would this be for LLM study? Or just a JD? Because that makes a huge difference.

Edit: Also, when you say you want your work to have international character, what kind of international character do you want it to have? Trade? Arbitration? Human rights? You mention human rights, but you also mention firm law, and those are generally radically different fields with different schools that feed into them.

[Mikey]

How much debt will you have from these 2 schools?

[silenttimer]

Background: I am an international student with around 1 year work experience in an international law firm. I also did a master prior to work.

Are you already working at this international law firm as a lawyer (I know that certain countries you can be a lawyer with an LLB)? If so, why do you want to go to law school in the U.S. and are you going for a JD or LLM?

[Rigo]

How much debt will you have from these 2 schools?

[superqq]

Because of your background, I'm not 100% sure about the programs you're applying to. Would this be for LLM study? Or just a JD? Because that makes a huge difference.

Edit: Also, when you say you want your work to have international character, what kind of international character do you want it to have? Trade? Arbitration? Human rights? You mention human rights, but you also mention firm law, and those are generally radically different fields with different schools that feed into them.

Thank you so much for the reply. I applied for the JD program. Also, when I say "international character," I mean international trade or antitrust, etc. As I plan to move back to my country eventually, I would like to focus on an area which is not localized. I am also interested in human rights, but I don't plan to do an NGO after graduation as JD is so expensive...

[superqq]

Background: I am an international student with around 1 year work experience in an international law firm. I also did a master prior to work.

Are you already working at this international law firm as a lawyer (I know that certain countries you can be a lawyer with an LLB)? If so, why do you want to go to law school in the U.S. and are you going for a JD or LLM?

Yes. I am applying for a JD. Cuz I want to explore more possibilities and learn more about international law.

[superqq]

How much debt will you have from these 2 schools?

Almost the same. 80K $ (tuition plus living expenses).

[Londonbear]

I can tell you that GT has a global scholars program if you're interested in international studies and I think the students in it do really well. You can go on the GULC students ask questions forum to see if they can PM you on the program. But the huge class size really isn't that bad in my opinion, and after 1L the classes tend to get much smaller especially if you aren't doing doctrinal classes. Some seminar classes can be quite small and it does have an extensive class selection just b/c of the sheer size of the JD program. You can go onto GT's website and look at class offerings. I don't know how NW places in NY or CA but I would assume that many of the students place in the Chicago and NY markets. I do know after DC, the third most is CA for Biglaw for GT, but CA is still relatively tough without connects and without great grades, with NY being easiest. I guess one of the other things you can take into consideration is whether there's any places you'd like to intern during your JD. There's so many organizations around that it wouldn't be hard to do during the year as you're taking courses and etc.

Try and see if you can get more money from GT

[silenttimer]

Background: I am an international student with around 1 year work experience in an international law firm. I also did a master prior to work.

Are you already working at this international law firm as a lawyer (I know that certain countries you can be a lawyer with an LLB)? If so, why do you want to go to law school in the U.S. and are you going for a JD or LLM?

Yes. I am applying for a JD. Cuz I want to explore more possibilities and learn more about international law.

If you are already a lawyer at an international firm, why are you getting a JD? I would recommend taking the NY Bar and request a transfer to NY from your firm. Wouldn't that be a better way to go?

[Kinky John]

How much debt will you have from these 2 schools?

Almost the same. 80K $ (tuition plus living expenses).

Can you clarify what this means? Does this mean you'll be paying $80k out of pocket each year, or that you'll owe $80k by the end of law school? In other words, what scholarship money are you getting from each school/are you using savings?

[superqq]

How much debt will you have from these 2 schools?

Almost the same. 80K $ (tuition plus living expenses).

Can you clarify what this means? Does this mean you'll be paying $80k out of pocket each year, or that you'll owe $80k by the end of law school? In other words, what scholarship money are you getting from each school/are you using savings?

I mean i will pay out of my pocket.

[Mikey]

How much debt will you have from these 2 schools?

Almost the same. 80K $ (tuition plus living expenses).

Can you clarify what this means? Does this mean you'll be paying $80k out of pocket each year, or that you'll owe $80k by the end of law school? In other words, what scholarship money are you getting from each school/are you using savings?

I mean i will pay out of my pocket.

But is it 80k a year or 80k for all 3 years?

[superqq]

How much debt will you have from these 2 schools?

Almost the same. 80K $ (tuition plus living expenses).

Can you clarify what this means? Does this mean you'll be paying $80k out of pocket each year, or that you'll owe $80k by the end of law school? In other words, what scholarship money are you getting from each school/are you using savings?

I mean i will pay out of my pocket.

But is it 80k a year or 80k for all 3 years?

A year

[Mikey]

How much debt will you have from these 2 schools?

Almost the same. 80K $ (tuition plus living expenses).

Can you clarify what this means? Does this mean you'll be paying $80k out of pocket each year, or that you'll owe $80k by the end of law school? In other words, what scholarship money are you getting from each school/are you using savings?

I mean i will pay out of my pocket.

But is it 80k a year or 80k for all 3 years?

A year

Yeah that is way too much money for these schools. Try and squeeze out some scholarship money if you can. What is your LSAT score? It may be a good idea to wait a cycle and reapply, you don't want to be stuck paying basically sticker whether you get big law or not.

[Rigo]

Not a financially smart decision at all.