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Choosing between the University of Wisconsin and the University of Illinois. I have a locked, full ride scholarship to Illinois. My scholarship to the University of Wisconsin will require me to pay a little over 10k a year. Ideally I would like to work at a private law firm in Chicago, post graduation. It looks like Illinois produces far more Illinois employed grads than Wisconsin (however I don't know how many of those are in Chicago). However, Wisconsin ranks higher than Illinois. Any insight/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

When you say "private law firm", how big of a firm are you talking about? And what kind of salary are you expecting?

The only answer here is Illinois or neither, but Wisconsin makes zero sense for Chicago goals.

A full ride at UIUC is definitely the better bet if you're aiming for Chicago. You should be aware going in though that Chicago is by no means a guarantee out of Illinois, and its more likely than not that you won't get biglaw. UIUC is one of the better non-T13's for Chicago though, so if you aren't biglaw or bust, going there debt free is probably a good option.

UIUC is the no brainer. It is cheaper and will give you a way better shot at a job in Chicago

Screw rankings; trust in numbers. For an almost identically-sized population, UIUC placed twice as many students in biglaw (going by 100+) last year (56 vs. 27) and 5 times as many were employed in Illinois (109 v. 21). That's pretty much a no-brainer.

For 500+ lawyer firms, it's 34 v. 9. If you want to end up in Chicago, all signs point to Illinois.

what's holding you back from going to UIUC?

I should say go to Wisconsin, go against the odds.

with what you have told us, there is no meaningful reason to consider UW over UIUC