Top Law Schools

Northwestern - $135,000 dependent on 1 yr deferral
Duke - $75,000
UChicago - $60,000

Priorities: Would like to stay in Midwest or move to Atlanta after graduation. Attaining employment in Big law is a priority, will possibly seek clerkship.

Filling in the gaps: Nothing interesting/planned to do for a year if I take the deferral. No undergrad debt. Visited both, but feel like I would be okay any of these places.

On a side not: I was W/L at Harvard. If I get rejected this cycle, and I take the Northwestern deal, does anyone know if I can reapply to Harvard next cycle?


Thanks!

Well money wise you have 3 solid choices. If moving to Atlanta is a priority, then Duke would probably serve you well. I don't know if it would have any edge in the Atlanta market, but proximity to the big law firms in that area might make a difference once OCI come around.

If you really want a clerkship Chicago might be the place to go. Keep in mind a clerkship is well within the realm of possibility at any of these schools. Personally I'd take the money at Northwestern because the thought of debt scares me, but if that isn't a bother, you have no wrong choice.

Northwestern is the best school out of the three, and you are getting the most money from them. Seems like a easy choice to me.

Do you have something productive and/or fun to do in the next year?

If not, I'd go with Chicago.

Don't forget you're also losing a year's worth of salary/career progress if you decide to defer.

tome wrote:Northwestern is the best school out of the three, and you are getting the most money from them. Seems like a easy choice to me.

Chicago?

Dominusfiki wrote:Northwestern - $135,000 dependent on 1 yr deferral
Duke - $75,000
UChicago - $60,000

Priorities: Would like to stay in Midwest or move to Atlanta after graduation. Attaining employment in Big law is a priority, will possibly seek clerkship.

Thanks!

1. Ignore the "go to Chicago 'cause you think you may want to clerk" comments
2. Live it up for a year, save some money and attend NU
3. ???
4. Profit

smashedpumpkins wrote:Do you have something productive and/or fun to do in the next year?

If not, I'd go with Chicago.

Don't forget you're also losing a year's worth of salary/career progress if you decide to defer.

This.

AngryAvocado wrote:

smashedpumpkins wrote:Do you have something productive and/or fun to do in the next year?

If not, I'd go with Chicago.

Don't forget you're also losing a year's worth of salary/career progress if you decide to defer.

This.

There is more to life than earning dollars people. Why the fuck not take off a year work for half and then travel for half or something.

Enjoy your mid-life crises people, seriously.

tome wrote:
There is more to life than earning dollars people. Why the fuck not take off a year work for half and then travel for half or something.

Enjoy your mid-life crises people, seriously.

Working for a year, or half a year, at some dead end job (what real job is going to take you for just a year?) is an incredibly painful prospect. I guess we have different tolerances for boredom.

smashedpumpkins wrote:

tome wrote:
There is more to life than earning dollars people. Why the fuck not take off a year work for half and then travel for half or something.

Enjoy your mid-life crises people, seriously.

Working for a year, or half a year, at some dead end job (what real job is going to take you for just a year?) is an incredibly painful prospect. I guess we have different tolerances for boredom.

What candidate is going to let the interviewer know about the NU scholarship?

dudester wrote:

smashedpumpkins wrote:

Working for a year, or half a year, at some dead end job (what real job is going to take you for just a year?) is an incredibly painful prospect. I guess we have different tolerances for boredom.

What candidate is going to let the interviewer know about the NU scholarship?

lol, fair enough.

There's also the problem of finding a real job, which becomes infinitely harder once your school's OCI has passed, and harder still once you graduate.

Coming from someone who is in love with Duke, and understands that Chicago provides some amazing opportunities:

NORTHWESTERN!

This.

AngryAvocado wrote:

smashedpumpkins wrote:Do you have something productive and/or fun to do in the next year?

If not, I'd go with Chicago.

Don't forget you're also losing a year's worth of salary/career progress if you decide to defer.

This.

tome wrote:

AngryAvocado wrote:

smashedpumpkins wrote:Do you have something productive and/or fun to do in the next year?

If not, I'd go with Chicago.

Don't forget you're also losing a year's worth of salary/career progress if you decide to defer.

This.

There is more to life than earning dollars people. Why the fuck not take off a year work for half and then travel for half or something.

Enjoy your mid-life crises people, seriously.

As you may be ignorant of, finding work isn't exactly easy in this economy. The work that you may find (Best Buy, etc) may not be an experience that everyone wants to go through for a year.

As for traveling, not everyone has a mommy or daddy to pay for their European vacations. Some of us aren't from families that can throw money at us to go on half year long vacations.

Saying "OMG WORK AND THEN TRAVEL" isn't as easy and/or obvious as you make it sound.

gossipgirl wrote:

tome wrote:

AngryAvocado wrote:

smashedpumpkins wrote:Do you have something productive and/or fun to do in the next year?

If not, I'd go with Chicago.

Don't forget you're also losing a year's worth of salary/career progress if you decide to defer.

This.

There is more to life than earning dollars people. Why the fuck not take off a year work for half and then travel for half or something.

Enjoy your mid-life crises people, seriously.

As you may be ignorant of, finding work isn't exactly easy in this economy. The work that you may find (Best Buy, etc) may not be an experience that everyone wants to go through for a year.

As for traveling, not everyone has a mommy or daddy to pay for their European vacations. Some of us aren't from families that can throw money at us to go on half year long vacations.

Saying "OMG WORK AND THEN TRAVEL" isn't as easy and/or obvious as you make it sound.

That may be true, but you'd also get an extra $75000 in scholarship money from Northwestern on top of whatever you make during the course of the year. I say:

1. go work some BS job
2. hang with your friends for a year instead of working on law school stuff
3. go to law school at Northwestern for free
4. ???
5. Profit!

I think Northwestern's your best option here. That's a huge scholarship, and a difficult one to pass up. Also, in my opinion, it can't hurt to put off everything for a year to hopefully distance yourself a bit from the terrible OCI/hiring state right now. There's no guarantee it'll get better, but even if it doesn't - you've got a $135,000 scholarship to keep you out of debt.

Northwestern is a no-brainer here. Whatever delta there is in placement between NU and U of C will probably be largely eaten up by allowing for the extra year for the market to recover before OCI. And the free money on top of that.

gossipgirl wrote:As you may be ignorant of, finding work isn't exactly easy in this economy. The work that you may find (Best Buy, etc) may not be an experience that everyone wants to go through for a year.

You only need a few of thousand dollars to finance a trip to South East Asia or South America for a few months.

gossipgirl wrote:As for traveling, not everyone has a mommy or daddy to pay for their European vacations. Some of us aren't from families that can throw money at us to go on half year long vacations.

OMG, you are actually paraphrasing Sarah Palin to make a point. Really? REALLY?!?!

I have traveled around the world multiple times. My parents never paid for shit and the only job I had before I first traveled around the world was working in a bar. Don't blame your parents for your lack of opportunities, blame them for failing to instill in you an imagination or any sense of adventure.

gossipgirl wrote:Saying "OMG WORK AND THEN TRAVEL" isn't as easy and/or obvious as you make it sound.

Yes, it really is. Not being boring apparently is the hard part.

Again, enjoy your white picket fence and mid-life crisis.

Dominusfiki wrote:Northwestern - $135,000 dependent on 1 yr deferral
Duke - $75,000
UChicago - $60,000

Priorities: Would like to stay in Midwest or move to Atlanta after graduation. Attaining employment in Big law is a priority, will possibly seek clerkship.

Thanks!

If by midwest you mean in the city of Chicago, northwestern is the clear winner.

tome wrote: I have traveled around the world multiple times. My parents never paid for shit and the only job I had before I first traveled around the world was working in a bar. Don't blame your parents for your lack of opportunities, blame them for failing to instill in you an imagination or any sense of adventure.

Blame your parents for making you a huge douche and not understanding people who either may not want to travel to places in Southeast Asia for fun or want to start their eventual career early.

I totally understand that you may prefer traveling, but your holier-than-thou attitude about anything not being taking a year off and working/traveling being the wrong choice is wrong.

gossipgirl wrote:

tome wrote: I have traveled around the world multiple times. My parents never paid for shit and the only job I had before I first traveled around the world was working in a bar. Don't blame your parents for your lack of opportunities, blame them for failing to instill in you an imagination or any sense of adventure.

Blame your parents for making you a huge douche and not understanding people who either may not want to travel to places in Southeast Asia for fun or want to start their eventual career early.

I totally understand that you may prefer traveling, but your holier-than-thou attitude about anything not being taking a year off and working/traveling being the wrong choice is wrong.

I'm going to have to agree with tome here. You do yourself a tremendous amount of disservice by not taking some time off between undergrad and law school to work a job and pay bills. Sometimes circumstances prevent you from doing so, but most people can swing it if they try, and it's a huge developmental experience. Here, it's a no-brainer, NU is offering a shit-ton of money for you to take some time off and develop yourself before starting law school.

rayiner wrote:

gossipgirl wrote:

tome wrote: I have traveled around the world multiple times. My parents never paid for shit and the only job I had before I first traveled around the world was working in a bar. Don't blame your parents for your lack of opportunities, blame them for failing to instill in you an imagination or any sense of adventure.

Blame your parents for making you a huge douche and not understanding people who either may not want to travel to places in Southeast Asia for fun or want to start their eventual career early.

I totally understand that you may prefer traveling, but your holier-than-thou attitude about anything not being taking a year off and working/traveling being the wrong choice is wrong.

I'm going to have to agree with tome here. You do yourself a tremendous amount of disservice by not taking some time off between undergrad and law school to work a job and pay bills. Sometimes circumstances prevent you from doing so, but most people can swing it if they try, and it's a huge developmental experience. Here, it's a no-brainer, NU is offering a shit-ton of money for you to take some time off and develop yourself before starting law school.

Winner.

NU: "Here's $135k to go do something this year. Want it?"

rayiner wrote:

gossipgirl wrote:

tome wrote: I have traveled around the world multiple times. My parents never paid for shit and the only job I had before I first traveled around the world was working in a bar. Don't blame your parents for your lack of opportunities, blame them for failing to instill in you an imagination or any sense of adventure.

Blame your parents for making you a huge douche and not understanding people who either may not want to travel to places in Southeast Asia for fun or want to start their eventual career early.

I totally understand that you may prefer traveling, but your holier-than-thou attitude about anything not being taking a year off and working/traveling being the wrong choice is wrong.

I'm going to have to agree with tome here. You do yourself a tremendous amount of disservice by not taking some time off between undergrad and law school to work a job and pay bills. Sometimes circumstances prevent you from doing so, but most people can swing it if they try, and it's a huge developmental experience. Here, it's a no-brainer, NU is offering a shit-ton of money for you to take some time off and develop yourself before starting law school.

I can understand why taking a year off is good. I'm actually deferring my Columbia acceptance for two years to work in NY.

However, depending on one's situation, it isn't the obvious choice. One of my friends is 25, had to go to a junior college after high school before coming to my school in Southeast Asia, and so he has no interest in traveling there for half a year nor prolonging the career he knows he wants to do for a year. Another one of my friends was wondering whether to do a paralegal job or go to law school. After taking two law type classes, she realized that working in law as a lawyer would be better for her. I think for both of these people, going to law school directly makes a lot more sense.

However, I agree with Rayiner in the sense that if you have UG bills, taking a year off to pay them is great especially if they're collecting interest.

From what I have read, it appears that Chicago's job placement is significantly better than NU if you don't have real work experience, which I would not have. Assuming this is true, would any of you change your minds? Always go in thinking median at best, right? If someone would knows otherwise/has a different opinion, I am all ears.

Thanks guys!