Top Law Schools

Hello, I just heard about this forum today so I apologize if there is any vague/missing information.

The three law schools I am currently deciding between are University of Colorado-Boulder, Loyola Marymount, and University of San Diego
I have received $108,000 from both Loyola and San Diego but only $15,000 from Colorado. I will be financing my CoA via family help and some loans.

I am from neither California nor Colorado but I have visited both on numerous occasions and would be more than happy to live in either state.

My career goals are currently flexible but I hope to study in one of three concentrations: Entertainment (I know it's not a job you get right away but I hope to work towards this), Corporate/Business, and IP Law (trademarks, copyright, patents). Furthermore, I wish to enter the private sector.

Loyola - has a good program for preparing students who wish to follow a career path involving entertainment law. Also has a concentration in intellectual property law
San Diego - has concentrations in both business and IP law
Colorado - has concentrations in both business and IP Law

Currently I am leaning towards Colorado solely because of its US News ranking compared to Loyola and San Diego. However, after visiting Law School Transparency reports, I noticed that the median salary for Colorado graduates was slightly lower than San Diego and Loyola. Furthermore, I noticed a huge discrepancy in the # of graduates employed in the private sector between these schools. I am unsure if Colorado graduates prefer the public sector or if public sector jobs are the only ones they can get.

US News has Colorado ranked #36, Loyola ranked #65 and San Diego ranked #77. Is the wide gap between these rankings significant enough for me to choose Colorado over these other two schools with no extra thought?

How'd you settle on that username?

How much debt will you be taking on and where do you want to practice?

Also, look closely at the numbers from LST. 80% of CU graduates reported a salary. Only 48% of University of San Diego graduates reported a salary. This is obviously going to impact the medians reported in a big way.

If you have received a 108k scholarship from Loyola and a 15k scholarship from CU, wouldn't that still leave CU as the more affordable school? Unless you come from money, I would not go into that type of debt at either school.

@BigZuck I may have been in the bathroom when registering

@LRM I, luckily, have family that is taking care of a good amount of my law school expenses (especially living).

I noticed the difference in reported salaries as well but wanted to include it anyways as it was causing me to have doubts.

I should've listed the total CoA after scholarships which would be
57K - Loyola
105K - CU
45K - San Diego

Not necessarily saying Boulder is the right option, but you should be able to apply for more aid 2L and get in-state tuition, if you didn't already include that in your calculations.

If you're serious about living in Colorado, you might want to also apply to DU. I think they are still accepting apps and who knows, maybe you'll get more scholly from DU than CU.

@Tr3 That is true, I hadn't factored that into my calculations. It would reduce my CoA by about 16-20k which is definitely helpful. I was accepted into DU but I did not receive any money offers.

Concentration offerings are meaningless.

How much money do you anticipate making as an attorney? And when you say you want to enter the "private sector", are you referring to in-house work?

@cavaliers are they meaningless? It seems a lot of the advice I've read online has mentioned areas of study as an important factor in choosing a law school. With my current choices I am assuming I'll make somewhere between 50K to 80K depending on how well I do. By private sector I mean non-government work such as law firms.

ShitterLawStudent wrote:@cavaliers are they meaningless? It seems a lot of the advice I've read online has mentioned areas of study as an important factor in choosing a law school. With my current choices I am assuming I'll make somewhere between 50K to 80K depending on how well I do. By private sector I mean non-government work such as law firms.

Where have you seen advice saying that "areas of study" are important to school selection? They literally mean nothing. At all. Zilch. Zip. Nada.

Also, just be aware that $80k is on the generous end of what you can expect. If you're taking out six figures in debt, then you need to take a hard look at what loan repayment looks like with that career path.

Colorado.

If you come from money then take CU, no question. Great place to go to school.