NESL/Suffolk/UNH/UCONN Forum

[dli67]

Hey everyone!
So I've recently been accepted to New England School of Law, University of New Hampshire, UCONN, and Suffolk. I got a 155 on my LSAT and have a 3.94 GPA from UNH undergrad. New England gave me a full ride, which is making it extremely tempting but I have heard that they do not have the best job prospects when competing with other schools in the Boston area. UNH and Suffolk both gave me 20k, with Suffolk being the more expensive of the two with a higher cost of living. UCONN, though my top choice unfortunately did not give me any type of scholarship. I am extremely interested in going into public interest as a prosecutor, which in my home state of MA doesn't receive the highest salary, so cost is a big deal for me. My question is whether it is worth going to either Suffolk or UNH and coming out with about120k law school debt (not including the 38k I owe for undergrad), considering I want to go into public interest law. Would accepting the full ride be a bad idea in this field, and if I decided I wanted to switch fields after a few years and move out of public interest how difficult would this be? I do intend on staying in the greater Boston area to practice.I appreciate anyone's opinion, as I am having a really difficult time deciding. Thank you!

[LawBuckeye12]

Everyone will tell you to retake. With a 3.9 GPA you should not be paying anything for these schools. Don't go

[Mullens]

Hey everyone!
So I've recently been accepted to New England School of Law, University of New Hampshire, UCONN, and Suffolk. I got a 155 on my LSAT and have a 3.94 GPA from UNH undergrad. New England gave me a full ride, which is making it extremely tempting but I have heard that they do not have the best job prospects when competing with other schools in the Boston area. UNH and Suffolk both gave me 20k, with Suffolk being the more expensive of the two with a higher cost of living. UCONN, though my top choice unfortunately did not give me any type of scholarship. I am extremely interested in going into public interest as a prosecutor, which in my home state of MA doesn't receive the highest salary, so cost is a big deal for me. My question is whether it is worth going to either Suffolk or UNH and coming out with about120k law school debt (not including the 38k I owe for undergrad), considering I want to go into public interest law. Would accepting the full ride be a bad idea in this field, and if I decided I wanted to switch fields after a few years and move out of public interest how difficult would this be? I do intend on staying in the greater Boston area to practice.I appreciate anyone's opinion, as I am having a really difficult time deciding. Thank you!

You heard they don't have good employment stats?! Have you not looked for yourself? The decision of where to attend law school is a VERY VERY VERY big life decision and will determine the entire arc of your legal career and thus life. It is not a decision that should be made lightly without properly researching the best options.

If you want to stay in Boston, at the very least you should retake and get a full ride to BU or BC. Hell you have a good enough GPA to get into Harvard. Don't waste it on this awful awful schools.

[Mullens]

https://www.lstreports.com/compare/suff ... ngland/nh/

Those schools are not worth $100k+ of debt when they give you only a coin-flip shot (or worse) at even becoming a lawyer.

[Thomas Hagan, ESQ.]

You could get a full ride/$$$ to a Boston school of your choice (including BU/BC/) if you improve your LSAT to like...a 162-163. If you got a near-perfect GPA, you should not be scoring the national average on the LSAT. Period. A 162 is perfectly doable with someone that seems as capable as you.

On the other hand, I feel like you've put almost no insightful thought into law school. None of these schools are viable options and you deserve better. Don't lowball yourself because you want to rush to law school. You're basically throwing away your perfect GPA because these are schools that people with 3.3s can get into.

When you say prosecutor, are you talking about ADA or AUSA? If you're talking about ADA, you're right, you're going to be paid peanuts. Don't go with massive debt. If you're talking about AUSA, you're not going to be an AUSA with a Suffolk, UNH, UCONN, NESL degree especially in Massachusetts

[Pragmatic Gun]

You could get a full ride/$$$ to a Boston school of your choice (including BU/BC/) if you improve your LSAT to like...a 162-163. If you got a near-perfect GPA, you should not be scoring the national average on the LSAT. Period. A 162 is perfectly doable with someone that seems as capable as you.

On the other hand, I feel like you've put almost no insightful thought into law school. None of these schools are viable options and you deserve better. Don't lowball yourself because you want to rush to law school. You're basically throwing away your perfect GPA because these are schools that people with 3.3s can get into.

When you say prosecutor, are you talking about ADA or AUSA? If you're talking about ADA, you're right, you're going to be paid peanuts. Don't go with massive debt. If you're talking about AUSA, you're not going to be an AUSA with a Suffolk, UNH, UCONN, NESL degree especially in Massachusetts

This. Dude, reconsider.

[timbs4339]

Stop being dumb. Apply for a paralegal job at the Suffolk DA and retake. One year won't kill you. Also don't let your parents talk you into Suffolk.

[cavalier1138]

None of the above.

[vcap180]

Yep, retake. No brainer

These options are all horrendous. NESL with a full scholarship and a big stipend would still be a bad option. Just consider the number of law schools in Boston and where NESL falls in the pecking order.

[Rigo]

You'd be nuts not to retake. I did with similar initial stats and my options improved dramatically.
You should at least be aiming for BU/BC for New England prosecutor. Improve 10 proints (and it's not really that hard to dramatically improve when you're starting from a mid-150's and study properly) and you're looking at full-rides.

[tinyvessels]

Did you self study or take a class for the LSAT. I'm asking because when I self studied it got me no where and then taking a class helped me increase slightly. You can PM to answer if you want.