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Please Do Not Quote

I've been able to narrow my final decision to Berkeley and Michigan. I was extremely fortunate in that these were the two highest ranking schools I got into and I am thrilled with the financial support they are offering.

-The schools you are considering:
Michigan and Berkeley

-Total Debt At Repayment (using the spreadsheet provided by lawschool22 stickied in this forum)

Michigan - $145,182
Berkeley - $137,653

-How you will be financing your COA:
Loans

Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
Born and raised in SoCal. All of my mother's side of the family lives in the SoCal area. Ideally would want to work in DC or CA. Wouldn't mind working in NYC one day but I don't think I would want NYC biglaw. I definitely want to leave the door open for CA someday but I'm not 100% committed to working in CA directly following law school.

-Your general career goals
Specifically undefined but I would like to clerk. After that, big law for a few years and then presumably exit into a government position.




Please Do Not Quote

This is such a toss up for biglaw and clerkship goals since they are so similar in numbers. Getting to DC from either is probably gonna be tough (but its tough everywhere). I think I would go Berkeley just based on the home body and wanting to eventually end up in CA again. Especially if you don't want to do NYC biglaw, Mich doesn't offer much to you there.

I think Berk is without much question the right way to go here. There aren't other factors I'd point out, and would instead say you seem to be considering extraneous factors that don't matter so much.

You're a Californian who wants to practice in California long-term; there are few circumstances where it would make sense to go to a school over 1000 miles away that is more expensive and has marginally worse employment stats and significantly worse comparative placement power in the particular region of interest. "having fun" at ASW (when you did not even attend the other school's?), (potentially) more interesting clinics, and incrementally cheaper COL (even though your overal COL is cheaper at Berkeley(?)) are not sufficient reasons.

Berk is the right choice and not bad at that price

I vote Boalt. You're not wrong if you choose Michigan here, obviously, but I think Berkeley gives you all the opportunities you're looking for, is ever so slightly cheaper (in any other part of life, 7K is 7K and you'd probably labor over spending that much if it wasn't backdropped by spending six-figures+ in total), and will allow you stay reasonably close to friends/family/support networks.

Good luck!

thanks guys! you have all made really great points I never considered. any other thoughts?

I wish all OP in this subforum were as chill as you

You've heard bad advice re: Cal's placement in CA. Cal places better in CA than anybody outside of HYS. Go to Cal.

Also JFC you got a lot of money for your stats. Grab the money and run.

Pragmatic Gun wrote:I wish all OP in this subforum were as chill as you

lol thanks! I think I would be happy with either choice which may be leading to less anxiety for me compared to other posters.

I would appreciate your opinion as well if you have one!

dabigchina wrote:You've heard bad advice re: Cal's placement in CA. Cal places better in CA than anybody outside of HYS. Go to Cal.

Also JFC you got a lot of money for your stats. Grab the money and run.

thank you! I should probably mention I'm also a URM. but I still think I did get way more money than what my stats called for.

I would say that you should select Boalt considering that you want to practice in California in the long-term. I echo Traynor Brah's post. I would also add that it seems like you're unsure of where you want to practice in the short-term. Since both schools have national recognition, they would both have the resources to place you in NYC or DC. Mind you, DC wouldn't be a sure thing, but it would give you a shot.