I need help deciding between Duke and UCLA Forum

[Smlbmn91]

Hello everyone,

I would greatly appreciate some help with the decision that I am facing. Here is some background:

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I am roughly 70% certain that I want to return to LA after graduating law school, but I am also quite open to alternate destinations should the right opportunity pop up (honestly not even sure what that opportunity looks like right now, this is just my gut). Additionally if I go to UCLA, I will live at home and greatly cut down on costs, living and transportation (I can take the bus to school). Also I'm about 50/50 for private sector vs public sector after school, and then to further narrow the public service side down, I'm about 50/50 in favor of clerking vs going straight to the DA's office (I'm also admittedly naive about the employment process in public sector, so forgive me on that front). I'm interested most in constitutional and criminal law.

Here are my offers:

UCLA: $90k scholarship + in-state tuition
Duke: $81k scholarship

Thank you very much for any and all help... this is really difficult, especially because ucla just told me I can't extend my deposit deadline by a measly 3 days!

[curry1]

Hello everyone,

I would greatly appreciate some help with the decision that I am facing. Here is some background:

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I am roughly 70% certain that I want to return to LA after graduating law school, but I am also quite open to alternate destinations should the right opportunity pop up (honestly not even sure what that opportunity looks like right now, this is just my gut). Additionally if I go to UCLA, I will live at home and greatly cut down on costs, living and transportation (I can take the bus to school). Also I'm about 50/50 for private sector vs public sector after school, and then to further narrow the public service side down, I'm about 50/50 in favor of clerking vs going straight to the DA's office (I'm also admittedly naive about the employment process in public sector, so forgive me on that front). I'm interested most in constitutional and criminal law.

Here are my offers:

UCLA: $90k scholarship + in-state tuition
Duke: $81k scholarship

Thank you very much for any and all help... this is really difficult, especially because ucla just told me I can't extend my deposit deadline by a measly 3 days!

ucla if you are confident that you can and will want to live at home all three years

[rpupkin]

Could you please estimate total COA for each school? If you do, you'll likely get much more helpful advice.

When I first skimmed your post, I thought we were talking about a $10K difference, so I almost replied "Duke easily." But upon reading more carefully I see there are a bunch of factors (potentially significant tuition differences, boarding costs) that could result in a pretty large COA difference.

[hammy393]

Hello everyone,

I would greatly appreciate some help with the decision that I am facing. Here is some background:

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I am roughly 70% certain that I want to return to LA after graduating law school, but I am also quite open to alternate destinations should the right opportunity pop up (honestly not even sure what that opportunity looks like right now, this is just my gut). Additionally if I go to UCLA, I will live at home and greatly cut down on costs, living and transportation (I can take the bus to school). Also I'm about 50/50 for private sector vs public sector after school, and then to further narrow the public service side down, I'm about 50/50 in favor of clerking vs going straight to the DA's office (I'm also admittedly naive about the employment process in public sector, so forgive me on that front). I'm interested most in constitutional and criminal law.

Here are my offers:

UCLA: $90k scholarship + in-state tuition
Duke: $81k scholarship

Thank you very much for any and all help... this is really difficult, especially because ucla just told me I can't extend my deposit deadline by a measly 3 days!

Congrats on your options!

How much in loans would you have to take out from each school? That's what important when trying to compare your options

[Smlbmn91]

Thanks for the quick replies. I believe that when it's all said and done, I will be taking out roughly $120,000 loans for Duke and $58,000 in loans for UCLA. I just added 20k and 10k to my estimated shortfall at Duke and ucla respectively; happy to adjust if anyone knows more and believes that's not a fair estimate...

[grades??]

UCLA if you are committed to staying in the SoCAL area. If not 100% convinced that is where you want to be long term, Duke.