UH vs Colorado-Boulder vs Loyola Marymount Forum

[TexasOrNah]

The schools I'm considering as of now are University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Houston, and Loyola Marymount in LA

Although I'm from Texas, I could see myself practicing in Texas, Colorado, and California.

I received $105,000 from Loyola, $15,000 from Colorado, and $31,000 from Houston. I am lucky enough, however, that money isn't really too big of an issue.

As of now I am unsure of the field of law I wish to pursue but my interests include: Intellectual Property, Corporate Law, Entertainment and Sports Law, Health Law, and Civil Rights Law.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[TripleM]

This is really hard to answer without more info.

Is money not an issue because family can pay full COA at any of the schools?
Are your truly equally willing to live in any of those areas?
Do you truly not care what type of law you practice?

Without knowing the answer to any of those questions I'd say CU.

Real talk answer: I question whether this is the right time in your life to pursue law school.

[TexasOrNah]

Right I should've provided more info. Family can help with most of the cost so it really isn't a problem.
I am truly equally willing to live in any of these areas as these are areas I am familiar with.

I do care somewhat as to the type of law I practice but as someone who recently decided to attend law school (within the last year), I am still undecided in the exact field of law I wish to pursue.

Also, I know it is the right time for me to pursue law school.

[UVA2B]

If you have it covered by family with minimal loans, you're best visiting all of them and figuring out which geographic region you're happiest in long-term. If Texas, UH. If Colorado, Boulder. If CA, Loyola.

Big caveat to all of this: what outcome do you expect out of these schools? If being highly paid is most of your interest, just realize none of these schools give you a reliably decent chance of getting highly paid work. You're most likely to earn significantly less ($45k-60k a year because of bimodal salaries in law). From all of these schools, you have a statistically unlikely chance of getting highly paid work (less than 20% chance from all, and even that is being generous).

Goals will always matter when making this decision. You have cost covered, which is awesome. But knowing where you want to go, what level of compensation you're hoping for, and what type of work you'd ideally be doing is still important. Would being a small firm attorney doing personal injury, family law, and maybe small time work for businesses and corporations interest you? Would you like going into criminal law doing PD or DA work in those regions make you happy? This is particularly important, because if you're not comfortable with the most likely options available to graduates from a school, it's usually a bad idea to start a career at one of those schools, even if it is free (to you personally).

[cavalier1138]

Also, I know it is the right time for me to pursue law school.

You can't actually know that, and I'd also be curious about your salary goals. You've given a wide range of possible fields, but you need to be aware that IP requires a tech background, sports law isn't really a thing, and there are varying degrees of health/civil rights law. Most of your opportunities in those fields from these schools are going to be very small PI outfits or local hospitals.

[TripleM]

Also, I know it is the right time for me to pursue law school.

You can't actually know that, and I'd also be curious about your salary goals. You've given a wide range of possible fields, but you need to be aware that IP requires a tech background, sports law isn't really a thing, and there are varying degrees of health/civil rights law. Most of your opportunities in those fields from these schools are going to be very small PI outfits or local hospitals.

So, we're all trying to be helpful as you seem pleasant and sincere. What we're suggesting is that your question indicates that you would benefit from a little more time to think. That's because the answer to your question could change drastically based on the direction you want to take. Its not that we think you shouldn't be a lawyer, it just that you'll have a much stronger start if you spend some fleshing out these thoughts. It's sort of the homework that ace students would do at this point.

Without more direction no one is going to be able to answer your question. At this point you've given three choices and asked us to suggest the best but you've eliminated any criteria on which we might base a suggestion. No criteria, no suggestion.

I'll try to illustrate what I mean:
The schools are all regional. If you knew which region you preferred to work in then it would be easy to answer your question-- go to the school in that region. You say you have no preference, so there is no differentiation, so I'll move onto the next criteria...

Area of study. These schools likely have vastly different foci and thus knowing which of those areas you wanted to study would change which school we'd recommend. Your areas are so vague and disparate that we can't use this criteria so I'll move onto the next one...

Cost. You say there is no cost to you no matter where you go, so again we've got nothing on which to base a recommendation. 0=0=0. So no difference.

I'm not being at all sarcastic. I'm hoping you'll see that maybe the reason you're asking this question here is that you actually need to think this through more. Not saying you shouldn't go, but rather that you've still got homework to do. Not a bad thing at all.

If you're unwilling to flesh this out then you don't really need us. We can't give you an answer without meaningful criteria so you might as well just look at the rankings or draw straws (as that is essentially what we'd have to do to answer your questions).

[Johann]

Right I should've provided more info. Family can help with most of the cost so it really isn't a problem.
I am truly equally willing to live in any of these areas as these are areas I am familiar with.

I do care somewhat as to the type of law I practice but as someone who recently decided to attend law school (within the last year), I am still undecided in the exact field of law I wish to pursue.

Also, I know it is the right time for me to pursue law school.

sounds like you want to keep your options open and money isnt a concern, so either UH or Colorado depending on where you want to live for the next 5-10 years of your life.

[timbs4339]

OP: these schools are all over the map and your goals are sort of vaguely defined or unicorn type jobs. You will very like end up making about 55K -65K doing stuff like personal injury or tort law law, local/state government, criminal law, or working for a sort of jack of all trades practice. Even if not for us, you should take some time to find out what the vast majority of real working lawyers do every day.