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I have an interview tomorrow with a big firm, an alumni of my school is the interviewer. A friend of mine had a mock interview with him and he said one question he always asks is why we chose our law school (it is a T2). I really only chose it because I needed to be close to home due to a family illness, I don't want to sound like I am making excuses for not going to a higher ranked school, but that is the only reason I chose it. Is it better to just be honest or bs something (I was picked for a scholarship that came with a summer internship so I could say that that was the reason), any advice is appreciated.

I think the actual reason is perfectly acceptable and wouldn't come across at all like an excuse, at least to me. Your BS reason (summer internship) would actually raise more flags in my mind. Especially if he's an alumni, I can't imagine why you'd have to make excuses for going there or defend your decision in any way.

I wanted to stay local.

actual reason is pretty hard for people to criticize, I think. It's also important to a) not disparage where you are at and 2) play up what you love about it. you know, even though you kind of HAD to be there "it ended up being the best decision for me because otherwise I wouldn't have discovered a passion for [X] or met [Professor ___] or met my fiance, etc"

Desert Fox wrote:I wanted to stay local.

Only if the firm is also in that area.

Be positive. Alumni usually like to hear that you like the place.

Imagine being cross examined on your BS reason.