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Please help me

I am currently torn between the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia.

UA's tuition for out-of-state is $38,820.00 and in-state $22,760.00. UA has offered $28,000.00 each year, and that scholarship would drop to $18,000.00 if I changed my residency to Alabama. In total, if I changed residency, I'd pay around $20,340.00 for three years. ($10,820.00 + $4,760.00 + $4,760.00).

UGA has not offered me any scholarships, but I'd be paying in-state tuition since I reside in Georgia and went to UGA for undergrad. I would pay around $57-59K for the three years.

My dream is to work in New York, but by going to UA and UGA, I know I have a really low chance of achieving that. Having applied in late March/early April, I did not get to apply to many northern schools. Since I know that I may not be able to go to New York, my secondary plan is to work in Atlanta. I'm not sure if the extra $30-40K by going to UGA is worth it.

What are your thoughts? I am really split evenly 50-50, but I know some of you have more knowledge about the law schools than I do, so I'd like to hear from you. Also, I'm only looking at tuition rates as of now because I know cost of living would be similar.

Thank you so much for the help.

What kind of job do you want? Law firm? government? Public interest?

Even though COL may be similar, it shouldn't be ignored in comparing schools/deciding on the best option. UGA will run you ~$100k minimum for the three years, and UA would be more like ~$70k in debt.

You've expressed interest in working in NYC, applied really late, and didn't provide LSAT/uGPA. We can't fully advise you on what to do without all of the relevant info stickied at the top of this forum. But the likely answer is going to be retake the LSAT for better options for NYC. If you're comfortable working in AL long-term (which UA could send you to Georgia/Atlanta, but statistically you're unlikely to be able to do that), then UA is a reasonable amount of debt.

Yeah, I'm confused about why you're rushing this. You applied way too late for this cycle, and you're shooting yourself in the foot by forcing yourself to go right now.

You should reapply for next year in September (and probably retake while you're at it, even though I don't know your numbers).

Applying in March/April is almost always a bad idea. If you got money you probably don't have terrible stats, what are they?

Agree with others that you should apply early next cycle. That being said, if you won't wait, you can't rely on getting NY from either school. If you're okay with that being off the table, go to school where you want to practice. If that's Atlanta, go to UGA.