Attend T25 for free or retake for T14 next year? Forum

[Ystone97]

Hi guys,

I’m fortunate enough to have the GI bill to help me pay for school. For those of you that may not be familiar with what that means: I will get around 24k each year plus around $20k-30k each year via Yellow Ribbon program. On top of that I will get a cost of living stipend each month that varies depending on the location of the school I attend.
My dilemma is this: My numbers give me a good shot at a T30 school, but not T14 (163, 3.75). I could always retake and try my chances next year but, considering I could attend most schools for an extremely generous discount (50k-55k a year plus living expenses), and I will only have the GI Bill until I’m 26 because I have it as a dependent, I have a very tough choice to make.
1. Attend a T30 for very little to no money at all.
2. Wait until next year, retake and only have 2 years of my tuition covered by GI bill because I will be 26 by 3L. This will give me a shot at T14 at the risk of debt.

I’d love to stay in the dmv area, so GW would be best case scenario for option 1, but NYU or even GT have always been very appealing to me. I’m definitely not Big Law or bust, but I would like to be making decent money straight out of school.

I’d appreciate any advice and thank you in advance!

[QContinuum]

I’m definitely not Big Law or bust, but I would like to be making decent money straight out of school.

I’d appreciate any advice and thank you in advance!

Welcome to TLS!

It would be very helpful in advising you if you could elaborate on what you perceive as "decent money straight out of school" ($50k? $100k? $150k?) and on what kind of legal work you hope to do.

[Ystone97]

I’m definitely not Big Law or bust, but I would like to be making decent money straight out of school.

I’d appreciate any advice and thank you in advance!

Welcome to TLS!

It would be very helpful in advising you if you could elaborate on what you perceive as "decent money straight out of school" ($50k? $100k? $150k?) and on what kind of legal work you hope to do.

Thank you! My mistake, I should have clarified. If I were to go with option 1, I would say around 100k for a first job is decent for dmv cost of living, especially since I wouldn’t have loads of debt to worry about. If I were to wait until next cycle, retake, and manage to get into a T14 school, I would definitely try big law. As for the type of law I’d like to specialize in, I’m still very open to anything, but IP, employment, and immigration/international law interest me the most since I have some experience in those areas through internships/part time jobs.

[Anon-non-anon]

If you get into GW that seems like not a bad outcome at all. Others may disagree, but basically no debt, shot at big law if you do well and want it, and take advantage of internships and such during the school year + network your butt off, and I bet you'll be in fine shape. DC is notoriously hard, especially for big law, but if you expand to general DMV area, there is lots of work either in or related to the government (gov contracts in particular seems to do well).