Top Law Schools

I got accepted to UCLA with no scholarship ($50k/yr), and Loyola law in Los Angeles with close to a full scholarship (tuition would amount to about $5k/yr). I really want to practice in Los Angeles, and am interested in public interest law, which I understand doesn't pay as much. I have no student loans from undergrad and only a little savings. I ended up choosing UCLA since I figured my job prospects would be better there. Did I make the wrong choice choosing UCLA over $$?

Any $ from USC?

Well, if you just wanted to practice local PI/gov, then yes, it's a mistake to pay that much for UCLA.

That said, if you're comfortable that PSLF will be around for you, and if you like UCLA's LRAP (you looked into that, right?), then just get comfortable with the decade of negative amortization.

I think UCLA is the right choice! A friend of mine is graduating from Loyala Law and she doesn't really know anyone going into public interest. I think UCLA just gives you so many more options.

catalina559 wrote:I think UCLA is the right choice! A friend of mine is graduating from Loyala Law and she doesn't really know anyone going into public interest. I think UCLA just gives you so many more options.

Just because your friend doesn't know anyone going into PI, it doesn't mean it's not happening.

Yea I was a bit torn. I didn't apply to USC and wish I did. Not sure what I was thinking, but I decided to apply to law school a bit last minute and I'm kicking myself for not applying to USC (if I got $$ at USC I probably would have went there instead).

I visited loyola and they seemed to have pretty decent public interest related clinics, and I am banking on loan forgiveness if I go into PI, so hopefully that pans out...

Thanks for the advice! I still think I made the right decision, and I know I'll be in debt for awhile but it helps to know that TLSers don't think this is an obviously wrong choice.

USC is generally way more generous than UCLA, so yeah you dropped the ball on that one.
No use crying over spilt milk though I guess.