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So, I was fortunate enough to find out this week that I was extended an offer from my summer associate position. I worked in a small town for a larger firm (one of their smaller offices). This is not really the city I want to be in but I did still have a great experience and it wouldn't be the end of the world taking that offer. I have two clerkship interviews coming up, one with a magistrate judge in a big market where I'd love to live and another for a state appellate judge in my dream city across the country where I have been trying to break in since 1L year with no luck. My issue with that is that the salary for the state clerkship is veryyy low. Im not saying I would even get a clerkship offer but does anyone have any advice?? I'm now freaking out that I'd get an exploding offer and make the wrong choice. FWIW I have about 100k in loans

Take the law firm's offer.

P.S. It might help if you list the approximate salaries for each position, however.

Take the offer. I know Art. III clerks ITE that are having trouble finding jobs.

OP here.

Firm salary, $71k (low cost of living but no friends in town)
Magistrate, $63k year one $77k year two (big city)
State clerkship one year $50k (big city a tad cheaper than magistrate city but dream city).

Take the dream city IMO.

State appellate clerkship isn't as good as state supreme court clerkship, but it SHOULD land you a half-decent job after. Not saying it WILL, depends a lot on the market, but at least you'll have ties and if you did a good job at the clerkship, a judge to help you out. Perhaps not as much pull as an A3 judge or a SSC judge but still pretty nice.

20k loss for a year isn't going to kill you. Everyone that chose an A3 clerkship over biglaw is giving up a lot more than that and probably has as much as you do in loans.

Interesting choices. Does the law firm have multiple offices including one in your "dream city" ?

Since your only actual offer is with the law firm, the choice is easy.

i vote magistrate because those can sometimes lead to district clerkship. also the hours are better and the work more enjoyable. and it's only 8k less than the firm. so if you have any interest in being a district ct clerk then i think it has the biggest potential upside