Top Law Schools

With COA between $180-$195K to each, money doesn't play a huge factor - the loans will be plentiful + some saved money. And with big law as a far reaching end point, which is a better option.... and what is everyone's thoughts on each school just in general?

Wouldn't go to any of them with that COA + biglaw aspirations. Too expensive, too unlikely to get biglaw.

Yeah, the debt isn't going to be worth it for the 30% shot at the career you want.

Do you have other career aspirations besides biglaw? If not, retake and reapply is your best path.

cavalier1138 wrote:Yeah, the debt isn't going to be worth it for the 30% shot at the career you want.

Do you have other career aspirations besides biglaw? If not, retake and reapply is your best path.

And if yes, then its a good idea to get into almost 200k in debt and end up with a job that will pay like 70k?

I would say that retake and reapply is the best path either way. Or maybe pick some cheaper option. And if you must choose one here (which you don't) I would choose Fordham because it provides the best employment potential (Nothing really beats NYC in that sense).

Retake. Those schools are all fine, but that debt is too much. Statistically, the average student isn't getting biglaw at any of those schools, so what is your backup plan when you are $200k in debt and don't have the biglaw salary to pay that back? Because that is a crap load of money to be paying back. "Loans will be plentiful" is a dumb attitude to have. This is debt you'll be paying back for years and years, even if you get a biglaw job (which you'll probably only be at for 3-5 years too).

With that said, it depends on where you want to practice. If Boston, I'd go BC. BC had a fabulous Biglaw/fed clerk rate for it's typical "rank" last year, 41.29%. BU was 34.6%. But BC won't do a great job of getting you NYC. If you want NYC go to Fordham. Fordham had a lower overall biglaw/fed clerk at 35.36%, but that is all basically in NYC.

If you are biglaw or bust, you probably need to get in to Cornell at a minimum if you have retakes on the table.

If you don't have retakes on the table and aren't biglaw or bust, just go wherever has the highest biglaw employment score+clerkship rate between the 3.

There are federal loan repayment programs that make the debt sustainable if you don't get biglaw, so the debt isn't really that big of a deal. The main concern is once you miss biglaw in fall of 2L year, you are likely not getting biglaw so you need to maximize the odds of getting biglaw in the 2L interview process.

Finally, biglaw sucks though. So does being a lawyer. Get a decent paying 60K job for now with some upward mobility and the extra 1000 hours of your life a year will be way more than worth it.

i would vote for fordham they give you the best shot at biglaw. Are you biglaw or bust?