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Both schools are in the same state and have strong employment numbers upwards of 75% 9 months after graduation (75% for the T4 and 85% for the T3).
T3 scholarship would go up to 100% if I get all A's during 1L.
I'm thinking I can always attend one of them and transfer.

Would be helpful to know what schools, what your career goals (desired practice, target market, etc.) are and what your alternatives to law school are.

Is it 75% total employment or 75% full-time, long-term employment in a JD required position? Big difference. Also bear in mind that even if it's the latter, most of those jobs probably pay in the lower mode of the salary scale ($40-$70k range)...maybe not deal-breaking if you're graduating with relatively little debt and are okay with that sort of outcome but something you should at least know going in.

Are either of these scholarships not guaranteed for all 3 years? Definitely stay away from anything like that because those sorts of schools often play games with scholarships (i.e. they set a reasonable looking threshold like 3.0 but have a median of 2.8, or they stack all of the scholarship recipients in one or two sections so some people are guaranteed to lose them). In any case I certainly would not bank on getting the 100% scholarship after 1L.

Realistically your best option is probably to sit out this cycle and retake the LSAT unless you have goals that makes sense to go to a T3/4 on a scholarship.

It sort of depends on which schools you’re talking about.

rhizomaticity wrote:Both schools are in the same state and have strong employment numbers upwards of 75% 9 months after graduation (75% for the T4 and 85% for the T3).
T3 scholarship would go up to 100% if I get all A's during 1L.
I'm thinking I can always attend one of them and transfer.

Up-to can mean many things.
All A's....waaaay easier said than done.

Toni V wrote:

rhizomaticity wrote:Both schools are in the same state and have strong employment numbers upwards of 75% 9 months after graduation (75% for the T4 and 85% for the T3).
T3 scholarship would go up to 100% if I get all A's during 1L.
I'm thinking I can always attend one of them and transfer.

Up-to can mean many things.
All A's....waaaay easier said than done.

"The scholarship will go up to 100%" is not the same thing as "the scholarship will be increase to up to 100%".

Neither unless you have a guaranteed job lined up

What are the requirements to keep the scholarship at both schools?? That’s the real question/ information we need to help you

The requirement for either scholarship is just good academic standing. There is no minimum GPA and I can't lose the scholarship as long as I'm enrolled full-time.

The T3 is Northern Illinois, and T4 is Southern Illinois-Carbondale. Both schools have bar passage rates upwards of 75%. Carbondale has employment of 75% and Northern Illinois employment of 85% 9 months after graduation.

you should probably just not be going to school at either. What are your career and salary goals? Do you want to be a lawyer, or just simply employed? the data is all available to tell you that this is not a great idea for most. And people actually fail out of these schools!

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/siu/

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/niu/

rhizomaticity wrote:The requirement for either scholarship is just good academic standing. There is no minimum GPA and I can't lose the scholarship as long as I'm enrolled full-time.

The T3 is Northern Illinois, and T4 is Southern Illinois-Carbondale. Both schools have bar passage rates upwards of 75%. Carbondale has employment of 75% and Northern Illinois employment of 85% 9 months after graduation.

Do you want a job or a job as a lawyer?

Northern Illinois has 60% of its grads get JD required and Southern Illinois has 55%

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/siu/jobs/


https://www.lstreports.com/schools/niu/jobs/

Neither school is a good option if you want to be a lawyer

rhizomaticity wrote:The requirement for either scholarship is just good academic standing.

What do they curve to? Some schools may still have B- curves. Is a C good standing? A C-?

How many 1Ls drop out due to not keeping good academic standing?

What are your own career goals? Presumably you want to be a lawyer, but that's very generic. What kind of law and where? Do you see yourself ever leaving the state? What are your stats?

The key here is what do you want to do and where do you want to do it? I'd say if you want any legal job in Chicago or any job that pays you more than $60k, don't go to either. If you are ok with working at a small firm and/or maybe a PD's office in a rural northern IL county go to NIU. Same goes for SIU if you want to work in downstate Illinois.

trebekismyhero wrote:The key here is what do you want to do and where do you want to do it? I'd say if you want any legal job in Chicago or any job that pays you more than $60k, don't go to either. If you are ok with working at a small firm and/or maybe a PD's office in a rural northern IL county go to NIU. Same goes for SIU if you want to work in downstate Illinois.

If none of those are appealing options, retake and go to at least U of I on scholarship