Top Law Schools

Hey everyone, for some background I am from the Chattanooga, TN area with strong ties to Knoxville TN and Nashville TN. To make things easier and so yall don't have to read too much, below are the schools I applied to and their offers in order of their US News ranking, for whatever those are worth. I have a 165/3.59 lsat/gpa.

#14: Texas - Rejected
#15: Georgetown - "non-preferred" waitlist
#17: Vanderbilt - waitlist
#18: WUSL - waitlist
#20: Notre Dame - waitlist
#22: Emory - accepted w/ $108,000 merit scholarship (~75% ride)
#23: Boston U - no decision
#30: George Washington - accepted w/ $75,000 (~50% ride)
#57: Tennessee - accepted w/ $80,000 (full ride)

Basically I just want to know where I should go/which waitlists I should pursue getting off of, if my goal is to make the highest gross salary possible out of law school. Thank you everyone who takes the time to reply.

italianstallion wrote:Hey everyone, for some background I am from the Chattanooga, TN area with strong ties to Knoxville TN and Nashville TN. To make things easier and so yall don't have to read too much, below are the schools I applied to and their offers in order of their US News ranking, for whatever those are worth. I have a 165/3.59 lsat/gpa.

#14: Texas - Rejected
#15: Georgetown - "non-preferred" waitlist
#17: Vanderbilt - waitlist
#18: WUSL - waitlist
#20: Notre Dame - waitlist
#22: Emory - accepted w/ $108,000 merit scholarship (~75% ride)
#23: Boston U - no decision
#30: George Washington - accepted w/ $75,000 (~50% ride)
#57: Tennessee - accepted w/ $80,000 (full ride)

Basically I just want to know where I should go/which waitlists I should pursue getting off of, if my goal is to make the highest gross salary possible out of law school. Thank you everyone who takes the time to reply.

Well this is an incredibly vague description...does this mean Biglaw? Because the most likely "highest gross salary possible" out of Tennessee or even Emory is definitely below biglaw salary.

Also where do you want to work?

Kellyann Conway went to GW.

By highest grossing salary I mean which school should I attend/invest the most energy into getting off the waitlist given my GPA and LSAT to put myself in the most statistically feasible scenario in which I make the most amount of possible, if I do not care where I want to work. I just want a solid answer for where I am most likely to make the most money at graduation, so that I can consider where I want to work with a better picture of the financial realities I will be facing at graduation.

I also want to know how much money I should be willing to take out in loans given the most statistically likely employment outcome at each school.

Thank you all again for responding.

zot1 wrote:Kellyann Conway went to GW.

SOLD

italianstallion wrote:By highest grossing salary I mean which school should I attend/invest the most energy into getting off the waitlist given my GPA and LSAT to put myself in the most statistically feasible scenario in which I make the most amount of possible, if I do not care where I want to work. I just want a solid answer for where I am most likely to make the most money at graduation, so that I can consider where I want to work with a better picture of the financial realities I will be facing at graduation.

I also want to know how much money I should be willing to take out in loans given the most statistically likely employment outcome at each school.

Thank you all again for responding.

Where do you want to practice eventually?

bitter_melon wrote:

zot1 wrote:Kellyann Conway went to GW.

SOLD

Ugh. It shouldn't be but that's a strong argument.

italianstallion wrote:Hey everyone, for some background I am from the Chattanooga, TN area with strong ties to Knoxville TN and Nashville TN. To make things easier and so yall don't have to read too much, below are the schools I applied to and their offers in order of their US News ranking, for whatever those are worth. I have a 165/3.59 lsat/gpa.

#14: Texas - Rejected
#15: Georgetown - "non-preferred" waitlist
#17: Vanderbilt - waitlist
#18: WUSL - waitlist
#20: Notre Dame - waitlist
#22: Emory - accepted w/ $108,000 merit scholarship (~75% ride)
#23: Boston U - no decision
#30: George Washington - accepted w/ $75,000 (~50% ride)
#57: Tennessee - accepted w/ $80,000 (full ride)

Basically I just want to know where I should go/which waitlists I should pursue getting off of, if my goal is to make the highest gross salary possible out of law school. Thank you everyone who takes the time to reply.

If you're dead set on practicing in TN your TN option looks pretty good.

But, you got a pretty damn good scholly at Emory. Also ATL COL isn't terrible. Emory might open the Atlanta market (which is much larger than TN markets) to you (as you want to do biglaw I'm assuming) as well as keep TN open for you. It might be a little hard to explain why you didn't go to Vandy if you're deadset on Nashville.

In this case I'd pick Emory (granted I don't see a total COA figure). I'm assuming tuition at Emory will be 25% of 150 (37.5k) and you'd figure another 36k for housing (73k COA) isn't too bad for Emory. I personally think Emory might be worth the extra 30k than UT, but it's a very tough decision. Hopefully Emory doesn't fall in the rankings, like GW has.

Schools I would totally ignore (barring a huge scholarship) - WUSTL, ND, Boston U, George Washington

italianstallion wrote:Hey everyone, for some background I am from the Chattanooga, TN area with strong ties to Knoxville TN and Nashville TN. To make things easier and so yall don't have to read too much, below are the schools I applied to and their offers in order of their US News ranking, for whatever those are worth. I have a 165/3.59 lsat/gpa.

#14: Texas - Rejected
#15: Georgetown - "non-preferred" waitlist
#17: Vanderbilt - waitlist
#18: WUSL - waitlist
#20: Notre Dame - waitlist
#22: Emory - accepted w/ $108,000 merit scholarship (~75% ride)
#23: Boston U - no decision
#30: George Washington - accepted w/ $75,000 (~50% ride)
#57: Tennessee - accepted w/ $80,000 (full ride)

Basically I just want to know where I should go/which waitlists I should pursue getting off of, if my goal is to make the highest gross salary possible out of law school. Thank you everyone who takes the time to reply.

Yeah, this is a tough call. Tennessee is working hard to increase their respectability. In last year's rankings, they were at #65, so that #57 ranking shows an 8-point jump. That's a pretty solid improvement. If they keep that up, they can at least climb out of the second tier and into the top 50. No debt would be nice. And if you like Knoxville enough, it's cheap as dirt to live there. A $60k starting salary in Knoxville would feel like a lot more money than it sounds like.

Also, it might be a little easier to graduate near the top of your class at Tennessee, since you'll be surrounded by people who scored in the low-to-mid 150's on the LSAT.

HarveySpecterr wrote:

italianstallion wrote:Hey everyone, for some background I am from the Chattanooga, TN area with strong ties to Knoxville TN and Nashville TN. To make things easier and so yall don't have to read too much, below are the schools I applied to and their offers in order of their US News ranking, for whatever those are worth. I have a 165/3.59 lsat/gpa.

#14: Texas - Rejected
#15: Georgetown - "non-preferred" waitlist
#17: Vanderbilt - waitlist
#18: WUSL - waitlist
#20: Notre Dame - waitlist
#22: Emory - accepted w/ $108,000 merit scholarship (~75% ride)
#23: Boston U - no decision
#30: George Washington - accepted w/ $75,000 (~50% ride)
#57: Tennessee - accepted w/ $80,000 (full ride)

Basically I just want to know where I should go/which waitlists I should pursue getting off of, if my goal is to make the highest gross salary possible out of law school. Thank you everyone who takes the time to reply.

Yeah, this is a tough call. Tennessee is working hard to increase their respectability. In last year's rankings, they were at #65, so that #57 ranking shows an 8-point jump. That's a pretty solid improvement. If they keep that up, they can at least climb out of the second tier and into the top 50. No debt would be nice. And if you like Knoxville enough, it's cheap as dirt to live there. A $60k starting salary in Knoxville would feel like a lot more money than it sounds like.

Also, it might be a little easier to graduate near the top of your class at Tennessee, since you'll be surrounded by people who scored in the low-to-mid 150's on the LSAT.

The last paragraph is terrible advice.

OP: wanting to go to law school just to make money is a terrible plan but you aren't alone. Try to figure out what you want to do and where you want to live. Going to law school with a vague plan of getting rich is extremely
foolish.

Yeah don't go to law school

HarveySpecterr wrote: Also, it might be a little easier to graduate near the top of your class at Tennessee, since you'll be surrounded by people who scored in the low-to-mid 150's on the LSAT.

Wrong.

I'd retake for Vandy scholly. Emory's not going to get you Nashville "biglaw"