Looking to go into public interest, needing some perspectives
Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 4:40 pm
Hello all,
I'll try to keep the facts of my situation pretty straight-forward:
-Numbers: 170 / 3.9, graduated summa cum laude from University of MN (not sure if my honors mean anything to law schools, but I did write a 60+ page thesis presented in front of a faculty committee to get it)
-Great LORs (two members of my thesis committee who were also professors and loved me as well as my current boss--I am a legal assistant for him at a very small local law firm)
-Worked through most of college, graduated Dec 2015 and will continue working until starting school Fall 2017; internships at local immigration law nonprofits
-Gap year between high school & college when I lived abroad, volunteering
-I have applied to most of the T14, as well as University of MN (since I love Minneapolis & my undergrad was great there) and UCLA (applied for the PI program)
-I am married, and my husband has a great job in the Twin Cities (currently making ~70k but might be offered a job this week at 90-100k - he is in business), but he is willing/wants to move anywhere that I want to go to school. Due to the nature of his work, he is confident he could find a good job (or transfer within his company--he works at a Fortune 500) pretty much anywhere.
-I want to go into public interest law, probably specifically immigration law (although I'm not dead-set on the immigration part)
-My parents have generously told me that no matter where I go to school, or what kind of scholarship offer I get, they will cover half my tuition cost (after scholarships have been applied--so for instance, if I get a 50% scholarship somewhere, my parents will pay a remaining 25% of the tuition and I'll be responsible for the remaining 25%)
I know that I will probably be offered a significant scholarship at MN (if not a full-ride), at least based on talking with my adviser at MN and my numbers. I absolutely love the Twin Cities, and where I live is exactly half-way between my parents and my husbands' parents, so great location. However, I also know I can get in to higher ranked schools (already accepted at GULC), and I am really excited about the idea of living somewhere new. I don't want to stay in MN just because it's nice and easy. I know that I would love living in plenty of other places, too, and I really don't want to look back at life and think "what if I had just tried to live somewhere else for a while?"
I applied for the Root-Tilden-Kern scholarship at NYU, but I have no idea if I have any shot (I'm a white, upper-middle-class girl from WI...not exactly diverse). It would be amazing, though, and if I were to get it, that would easily be my first choice.
What are your opinions about what I should do? Do I have any real shot at the Root-Tilden? Is it worth it to stay in Minnesota with a significant scholarship, but never experience anywhere else? Is MN a good school to attend if I am super interested in public interest? Are HYS worth it at all, if I were to get accepted (caveat: I didn't apply to Yale--just Harvard and Stanford)? What about Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, or NYU (w/out the scholarship)?
I'll try to keep the facts of my situation pretty straight-forward:
-Numbers: 170 / 3.9, graduated summa cum laude from University of MN (not sure if my honors mean anything to law schools, but I did write a 60+ page thesis presented in front of a faculty committee to get it)
-Great LORs (two members of my thesis committee who were also professors and loved me as well as my current boss--I am a legal assistant for him at a very small local law firm)
-Worked through most of college, graduated Dec 2015 and will continue working until starting school Fall 2017; internships at local immigration law nonprofits
-Gap year between high school & college when I lived abroad, volunteering
-I have applied to most of the T14, as well as University of MN (since I love Minneapolis & my undergrad was great there) and UCLA (applied for the PI program)
-I am married, and my husband has a great job in the Twin Cities (currently making ~70k but might be offered a job this week at 90-100k - he is in business), but he is willing/wants to move anywhere that I want to go to school. Due to the nature of his work, he is confident he could find a good job (or transfer within his company--he works at a Fortune 500) pretty much anywhere.
-I want to go into public interest law, probably specifically immigration law (although I'm not dead-set on the immigration part)
-My parents have generously told me that no matter where I go to school, or what kind of scholarship offer I get, they will cover half my tuition cost (after scholarships have been applied--so for instance, if I get a 50% scholarship somewhere, my parents will pay a remaining 25% of the tuition and I'll be responsible for the remaining 25%)
I know that I will probably be offered a significant scholarship at MN (if not a full-ride), at least based on talking with my adviser at MN and my numbers. I absolutely love the Twin Cities, and where I live is exactly half-way between my parents and my husbands' parents, so great location. However, I also know I can get in to higher ranked schools (already accepted at GULC), and I am really excited about the idea of living somewhere new. I don't want to stay in MN just because it's nice and easy. I know that I would love living in plenty of other places, too, and I really don't want to look back at life and think "what if I had just tried to live somewhere else for a while?"
I applied for the Root-Tilden-Kern scholarship at NYU, but I have no idea if I have any shot (I'm a white, upper-middle-class girl from WI...not exactly diverse). It would be amazing, though, and if I were to get it, that would easily be my first choice.
What are your opinions about what I should do? Do I have any real shot at the Root-Tilden? Is it worth it to stay in Minnesota with a significant scholarship, but never experience anywhere else? Is MN a good school to attend if I am super interested in public interest? Are HYS worth it at all, if I were to get accepted (caveat: I didn't apply to Yale--just Harvard and Stanford)? What about Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, or NYU (w/out the scholarship)?
