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Any and all advice is appreciated.

Schools I'm considering and debt at repayment (via LST calculator w/ 3% annual increase):
Michigan - 225k
Virginia - 270k
Georgetown - 300k (awaiting scholarship notification)
Minnesota - 60k
Also held at Columbia and pending at NYU

I'm from the south, but I'm not keen on remaining here. I'm open to moving anywhere outside of the South/Texas. Ideally, I would like to work do impact litigation for an environmental nonprofit. Understandably these positions are far and few between (and I'm sure competitive). I'm also open to the prospect of BigLaw in the event that PSLF and a school's respective LRAP is canned. I think I can rely on PSLF, but I'd like to put myself in the position of managing my debt in the event it's gone. I will be using loans to finance everything.

3.5 GPA and 171 LSAT (3rd try)

Earlskies wrote:Any and all advice is appreciated.

Schools I'm considering and debt at repayment (via LST calculator w/ 3% annual increase):
Michigan - 225k
Virginia - 270k
Georgetown - 300k (awaiting scholarship notification)
Minnesota - 60k
Also held at Columbia and pending at NYU

I'm from the south, but I'm not keen on remaining here. I'm open to moving anywhere outside of the South/Texas. Ideally, I would like to work do impact litigation for an environmental nonprofit. Understandably these positions are far and few between (and I'm sure competitive). I'm also open to the prospect of BigLaw in the event that PSLF and a school's respective LRAP is canned. I think I can rely on PSLF, but I'd like to put myself in the position of managing my debt in the event it's gone. I will be using loans to finance everything.

3.5 GPA and 171 LSAT (3rd try)

What about the rest of the lower half of the T14?

existentialcrisis wrote:What about the rest of the lower half of the T14?

I was rejected at Berkeley, waitlisted at Duke, and didn't apply to Northwestern or Cornell.

Earlskies wrote:

existentialcrisis wrote:What about the rest of the lower half of the T14?

I was rejected at Berkeley, waitlisted at Duke, and didn't apply to Northwestern or Cornell.

I'm not really clear on what your goals are, but regardless I really don't think UVA is worth 50k more than Michigan.

That being said, I hope you understand that you're probably going to need to make the biglaw v.s PI decision relatively early in your law school career.

existentialcrisis wrote:

Earlskies wrote:

existentialcrisis wrote:What about the rest of the lower half of the T14?

I was rejected at Berkeley, waitlisted at Duke, and didn't apply to Northwestern or Cornell.

I'm not really clear on what your goals are, but regardless I really don't think UVA is worth 50k more than Michigan.

That being said, I hope you understand that you're probably going to need to make the biglaw v.s PI decision relatively early in your law school career.

PI environmental law for a nonprofit is my goal. I only mention biglaw in the event PSLF comes under fire in the next year or so (which I don't anticipate). I'm fully commited to PSLF and I'm leaning toward Michigan, UVA, and Georgetown for loan repayment assistance. I'm just not entirely sure if there are significant enough differences in the 3 schools to justify any difference in price. I've included Minnesota because the debt would at least be manageable - even if I've sacrificed the opportunity to work with national environmental litigation nonprofits.

I absolutely wouldn't do Georgetown if they don't give you a significant amount of money.

Michigan is probably the most PI-focused school on your list, so if their LRAP is solid I'd go there.

Happy to answer any questions about Michigan you might have.

Earlskies wrote:I've included Minnesota because the debt would at least be manageable - even if I've sacrificed the opportunity to work with national environmental litigation nonprofits.

Are you sure that going to Minnesota would mean that you've sacrificed the opportunity to work with national environmental litigation nonprofits? If someone shows they're committed to working in environmental litigation, are they really at a significant disadvantage if they attend Minnesota instead of, say, UVA? This is not a rhetorical question. I'm not sure of the answer. But before I took on $200K+ of additional debt to attend a school other than Minnesota, I'd want to figure this out.

rpupkin wrote:

Earlskies wrote:I've included Minnesota because the debt would at least be manageable - even if I've sacrificed the opportunity to work with national environmental litigation nonprofits.

Are you sure that going to Minnesota would mean that you've sacrificed the opportunity to work with national environmental litigation nonprofits? If someone shows they're committed to working in environmental litigation, are they really at a significant disadvantage if they attend Minnesota instead of, say, UVA? This is not a rhetorical question. I'm not sure of the answer. But before I took on $200K+ of additional debt to attend a school other than Minnesota, I'd want to figure this out.

That is definitely one of my concerns. I'm not exactly sure what the ceiling is for a median candidate from Minnesota. They way I've rationalized it (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that I expect to be a median candidate at any school I attend. If median at Minnesota - I'm not sure whether I'll be sacrificing my career goals. If median at a T14, I'll have most (if not all) options open. Although it comes with significantly more debt, LRAP and PSLF will be the equalizer.