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I need advice on this predicament I am in.

On one hand I am from Philly and going to Nova would enable me to stay close to my family for free.

On the other hand GW is offering a 15k grant, but would still be very expensive.

I am not sure what I want to do in terms of a career but think that GW may provide more opportunities.

Any advice would be highly appreciated.

Where do you want to practice? Philly or DC? It really all depends on that. (If you want to practice somewhere else, say NYC, you'll gotta do more research. I don't know who places better in other areas.)

If you want to stay in the Philly area, Nova hands down. Consider that school-wise, Philly is a much less saturated market. Penn (and I bet a lot of their students leave Philly), Temple, Nova. Maybe Drexel. DC has GULC, GW, GMU, American, Catholic, etc.

Dude, that's a mighty conundrum you have there.

Like manbearwig said, it all depends on where you want to practice.

If your answer to that is "I don't care" or "I don't know" go to GW. It's higher ranked and there is always steady government work on top of biglaw. Also, while the market might be more saturated, GW is close to the top of the pack, behind GULC but in front of GMU, American, Catholic, etc.

Just the 2 cents of an anonymous forum poster.

When do you have to decide by? I thought Villanova's deadline was April 15. I'd have to agree that if you didn't know where/what you wanted to go, GW would probably provide more opportunities.

Thank you all for the opinions.

I'd have to say that if I was going to work for a law firm, I'd like it to be in Philly. However, I'd like to have the option of clerking for a year after I graduate and working for the government.

Pretty big rankings disparity - any acceptances with decent $ from schools in between? If not, I'd definitely say 'Nova. It's a free ride at a decent school. GW is good, but it's not T14. At the end of the day, a 'Nova JD will look just as good in Philly as a GW JD will look in DC.

Unless you have your heart seat on practicing in Philly GW all the way.