Trouble choosing a Law School, BU & BC $30,000, USC $45,000, or UF full ride Forum

[Patssoxceltics130]

Sorry to make this post, but i'm feeling a little bit down because I honestly don't have any clue of where to go from here and need some help and suggestions of what other users would do if they were in my situation. Please give me some Top Law Schools forum level of advice even if its blunt and I don't want to hear it. I'm a 165 with 3.87 gpa. These are my offers so far:

[*]University of Southern California $45,000 scholarship each year

[*]Boston University $30,000 scholarship each year (still waiting for need based scholly)

[*]Boston College $30,000 scholarship each year

[*]University of Florida full scholarship

[*]Waitlisted at UPenn, Cornell, Duke, UCLA

[*]preferred waitlisted at Georgetown

[*]Hold Tight at NYU



I'm from New England, born and raised. I'm kinda down because with my numbers i was expecting way more cash from BU and BC. I was hoping to get into some T14's but that has basically been crushed. My mother is pushing for me to go to Florida because she's worried about debt, so am I, but the prestige of the law school also plays a role in my decision. The state of Florida doesn't really have a thriving law market like it exists up here in Boston, New York, or the West Coast. On one hand I like aspects of Florida but on the other hand i'm not entirely sure if I could live there. USC is the highest ranked school I got into but I have no family out there and am curious If I would like Los Angeles. I don't exactly know what type of law I want and I also don't know If i'm cut out for biglaw but I want to at least try for biglaw the first few years of my career and see how that goes.



Please, If you were all in my situation what would you do? what would you choose? I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place, as many of my family members are retiring and moving down to Florida and are kind of pressuring me to choose UF. I like south Florida, I don't know if i'd enjoy living there though, and North Florida is a different pace of life than what a New Englander is used to. California has always been a bit attractive, good weather, lots of different biomes, beautiful women, awesome scenery. However, there is high taxes, high cost of living, earthquakes, water problems, traffic, and I heard the people can be a tad superficial. I would literally be going on my own adventure because I have no family there. The two Boston schools were always safe bets if the T14 failed because I live sorta near them, but i was expecting more money. Are they really worth it for only $90,000 off compared to USC's ranking and job employement?



Please Help!

[SlipperyKipper]

California has always been a bit attractive, good weather, lots of different biomes, beautiful women, awesome scenery. However, there is high taxes, high cost of living, earthquakes, water problems, traffic, and I heard the people can be a tad superficial.

San Diego native here. I'm a 0L and can't help much with your question. Just wanted to say thanks for the laugh. Glad to know people think of high taxes, traffic, [and] earthquakes [redacted] when they think of California. We are actually very friendly here in San Diego. LA is another story.

[cavalier1138]

First things first, your mom is probably great, but she doesn't know the first thing about law school or legal hiring. Politely but firmly ignore her advice.

I want to at least try for biglaw the first few years of my career and see how that goes.

If that's the case, then your best option is to retake the LSAT and grind out a few more points. Your GPA puts you in a great position to get some T13 acceptances, and those are the schools you want to gun for if biglaw is your goal. A lot of your post also indicates that you would greatly benefit from a few years of life experience, which may also help you clarify your career goals.

[AdieuCali]

USC, BU/BC, and especially UF are regional schools. If you're not certain you want to live and practice in their respective regions, don't go to any of them.

Your results very closely track MYLSN predictions: https://mylsn.info/t21qux/
Tack on a couple points to your LSAT and you've got a much better outlook: https://mylsn.info/9c7xbb/
Add 5 points and you're in the running for anything between substantial scholarships to full rides at T6 and below. https://mylsn.info/4hmi05/

[objctnyrhnr]

If you’re good with practicing in boston, BC with 30k/year is TCR in my opinion.

IMO for BC and other schools that are so intensely regionally strong, even the fedclerk/biglaw numbers do not tell the whole story. (And I note that these numbers are pretty solid

Often from BC (I have some friends who went), those shooting for biglaw who don’t get it in OCI end up in midlaw or a boutique. Now anecdotally I can tell you that many use the brand to network their first two or so years doing, for example, litigation. They build up a great alumni network and, through that, are often able to jump to biglaw when the first wave of people leave for govt or whatever. Boston has become a bit of a booming secondary market (within past few years, orrick, Quinn, Kirkland, Hogan Lovells have all put down roots there and that’s just off the top of my head).

Moreover, 30k/year is a good deal from there.

I’m a guy who’s typically on the retake train and I mean that’s almost always the objectively credited response.

But from those specific options, if you’re good to practice in boston, BC seems the obvious play.

[QContinuum]

USC, BU/BC, and especially UF are regional schools. If you're not certain you want to live and practice in their respective regions, don't go to any of them.

Your results very closely track MYLSN predictions: https://mylsn.info/t21qux/
Tack on a couple points to your LSAT and you've got a much better outlook: https://mylsn.info/9c7xbb/
Add 5 points and you're in the running for anything between substantial scholarships to full rides at T6 and below. https://mylsn.info/4hmi05/

Seconding all of the above. Given OP's vague BigLaw aspirations and general desire to keep their options open, IMO retaking's the best option. They're not far off from T13 admissions with $. Going to USC/BU/BC/UF will lock OP into their respective regions for the rest of their career, and while those four aren't bad schools by any stretch (especially USC/BU/BC), they do not come close to guaranteeing BigLaw. In fact, the average USC/BU/BC/UF student will not land a BigLaw position.

[The Lsat Airbender]

USC and UF both seem foolish based on your lack of connection to those regions. BU and BC wouldn't be shoot-yourself-in-the-foot stupid at that price but I agree with most of this thread that you'd be much, much better off taking some time to work and improve your LSAT score.

A modest improvement would get you a full ride at BC or Cornell. A big improvement would get you a full ride at Cornell, or Harvard/Yale. I can't imagine why you wouldn't make a sustained effort at getting better options here.

[Sls17]

You’re interested in California for the “beautiful women” but concerned that “the people can be a tad superficial”?

Anyway, +1 for Boston or retake.

[Patssoxceltics130]

First things first, your mom is probably great, but she doesn't know the first thing about law school or legal hiring. Politely but firmly ignore her advice.

I want to at least try for biglaw the first few years of my career and see how that goes.

If that's the case, then your best option is to retake the LSAT and grind out a few more points. Your GPA puts you in a great position to get some T13 acceptances, and those are the schools you want to gun for if biglaw is your goal. A lot of your post also indicates that you would greatly benefit from a few years of life experience, which may also help you clarify your career goals.

My only issue with retaking is that I would feel like I am putting my life on hold. I could still get a mediocre job to work at while I study, but it would basically be an entire year of doing nothing but studying and working minimum wage. Plus I dropped a lot of money on applications, put a lot of effort in my essays and such, would I be able to reuse these essays at all? I agree that I want the best possible outcome for myself though.

Another concern is how much would I be able to improve on the LSAT? Studies show that at best people are able to improve by one or two points on a retake on average. The only hope that I have which points to room for improvement is that I went from a diagnostic of 151 to a 165 on the lsat in around five weeks of studying. I absolutely grinded for the test each and every day between may 7th to the June 11th test date. I would have taken the july lsat instead but I got the opportunity to study in England. If I gave myself more time do you think I could push my score up? I heard it can take a long time to break into the 170 threshold, even if one can score 169.

[cavalier1138]

My only issue with retaking is that I would feel like I am putting my life on hold.

Would you rather feel like you were "putting your life on hold" for a year, or not be able to get the job you want? And not to put too fine a point on it, but you're really, really young. Law school isn't going anywhere, and you'll benefit a lot from living as an adult for a year (or two!).

Another concern is how much would I be able to improve on the LSAT? Studies show that at best people are able to improve by one or two points on a retake on average.

No, they don't. I know which numbers you're referring to, and those are the average scores for all retakers, not the average improvement experienced by retakers. Not remotely the same.

You already showed that you could make strong improvements from your diagnostic. The LSAT Prep forum here has plenty of useful tips/guides for getting your score up, most of which involve studying smarter, not harder.