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(Please don't quote)

Very close to full rides at both schools, and with savings/some help from spouse, I won't have debt from either school. For personal reasons I won't go into, I can't/won't take out loans. I did get into two T-13s with a small amount of money, but not enough to get by without loans.

Stats: 3.3, 170
Goals: Very strong interest in health law/policy (I work for the federal government in that area now) and want to continue, either in regulatory or public health law. Open to biglaw but not biglaw or bust, and hope to end up back in the government long-term. I have ties to Boston and I'd be happy staying there long term, but Atlanta also has a lot to offer (as does Emory, with its close partnership with the CDC), and I'd be fine staying there long term as well (spouse's family is all in the area).

Thanks for your insight!

bump...any advice?

I'd go with BU. Emory has a slightly better national reach than BU, but in Boston BU has an outstanding reputation. I think Boston has more opportunities than Atlanta and will give you more choices post graduation.

With such a strong interest in health law and policy, BU would be a fantastic your choice with such minimal debt. There's a pretty good connection between the law school and the school of public health. In addition, there's a journal focused solely on health law and policy, there's a track for you to focus on healthcare/health policy courses, and then there is also the recent grant that was given to a professor at BU that created CARB-X which is stationed in the law school and takes on one health law student a year as an assistant. (See http://www.carb-x.org/ & https://www.bu.edu/law/faculty-scholarship/carb-x/)

ETA: I don't know much about Emory's program, but BU really pushes for health law (read: one of the professors litrally writes the book)

0L, don't take this as advice

Isn't Atlanta an important city in the world of public health? I know CDC is located there