Top Law Schools

So I applied to various schools, but have narrowed the best prospects down to three choices. I want to pursue international/human rights law, so strong international connections are very important to me. Here are my choices with full debt counts including living costs - $65k in debt with University of Minnesota, $100k in debt with University of Boston or $185k in debt with Northwestern.

Northwestern is the most obvious choice for what I want to do, but I am more than a little daunted with the high sticker price after scholarships. Anyone have any insight?

You're about to be bombarded with people telling you that international human rights law only exists for people who go to Yale.

In any case, don't pay 185k to go to Northwestern unless you're okay with working in Big Law or some relatively unprestigious public interest job.

Go to BU and take advantage of the ~8 law schools in the area and network your tail off. Or graduate w/ ~$65k in debt and work 2x harder to uncover those opportunities.

What’s your Plan B goal if a job in international/human rights law doesn’t pan out?

If you're ok with working in Minnesota or a neighboring state doing mid/small law or some state level public interest jobs, UMN would be a relatively good deal.

As for Northwestern, it would only be a good option if you want to work in big law. Otherwise, it's too expensive and will not get you into international/human rights law whatever you think that means. And I will tell you that everyone I know who came into law school wanting to do that ended up in big law.

Sls17 wrote:What’s your Plan B goal if a job in international/human rights law doesn’t pan out?

This is pretty important. Human rights law is one of the hardest fields to get a job in, especially right out of school.