Home state school or GULC Forum

[Anonymous User]

Recently accepted to my home state law school that is the only school in the state (ND/WY/MT/ID). I have a lot of ties in my home state. SO is moving back to my (our) home state and I had planned on returning until I was accepted to GULC. I am conflicted about attending GULC alone for the next 2 years or attending my home state school which is in the location where I would like to end up after school.

Don't necessarily need Big Law and my current debt is 80k. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

[mojangles]

none of the potential home states you listed have any sort of major, or even really moderate legal market. if you really want to return back to your home-state, personally i think GULC is a waste.

even if you get a full ride to GULC, that almost ensures you will get a full-ride at your state school. but there are things to consider:

1. you will have employment prospects with extremely low (relatively) starting salaries - probably in the ballpark of $50k-60k.

2. you are giving up 3 years of your life to attain these prospects, and that's considering if you find a job with your JD

if you really want to pursue a JD and work in your home state, considering the size of the legal markets i really don't think GULC offers any real advantages and you will likely end up paying a significantly larger amount of money to attend.

[mojangles]

i apologize, i may be mistaken about ID... they may have a moderate legal market in some cities? i have no clue. ND, WY, and MT won't though.

[Nova]

How much debt at graduation if you stay? How much if you transfer?


Based on what you have posted, gulc does not sound like it would be worth taking on substantially more debt

[Typhoon24]

How much is each giving you? I'm assuming that your home school is giving you a lot and gulc is giving very little. Either way, if your home school tends to place its graduate well in that northwest region then it would be a better idea. I have absolutely no idea how the legal market is in those states, so feel free to ignore my advice.

[Anonymous User]

It'd be sticker at both schools plus living expenses. Home state school is around 25k for my 2nd year and then residency would make it around 10k for my 3rd year.

Thanks for all the replies!

[jkay]

Deleted.

[jbiresq]

none of the potential home states you listed have any sort of major, or even really moderate legal market. if you really want to return back to your home-state, personally i think GULC is a waste.

even if you get a full ride to GULC, that almost ensures you will get a full-ride at your state school. but there are things to consider:

1. you will have employment prospects with extremely low (relatively) starting salaries - probably in the ballpark of $50k-60k.

2. you are giving up 3 years of your life to attain these prospects, and that's considering if you find a job with your JD

if you really want to pursue a JD and work in your home state, considering the size of the legal markets i really don't think GULC offers any real advantages and you will likely end up paying a significantly larger amount of money to attend.

This is the transfer forum. OP won't get money from the state school, though GULC might give you some.

[Nova]

ok im guessing this is roughly going to put you at 220k (100k tuition + 40k col) before interest at gulc and 145k (35k tuition + 30k col) before interest at the state school.

Both are not good. However, 145k is much less worse. Since you are unlikely to get a super high paying job, even if you stayed on the coast, IMO you should stay where you are at.

[mojangles]

none of the potential home states you listed have any sort of major, or even really moderate legal market. if you really want to return back to your home-state, personally i think GULC is a waste.

even if you get a full ride to GULC, that almost ensures you will get a full-ride at your state school. but there are things to consider:

1. you will have employment prospects with extremely low (relatively) starting salaries - probably in the ballpark of $50k-60k.

2. you are giving up 3 years of your life to attain these prospects, and that's considering if you find a job with your JD

if you really want to pursue a JD and work in your home state, considering the size of the legal markets i really don't think GULC offers any real advantages and you will likely end up paying a significantly larger amount of money to attend.

This is the transfer forum. OP won't get money from the state school, though GULC might give you some.

my bad, i followed the link from the home page and didn't notice what forum we were in

[jkay]

OP should push the state school hard for in-state tuition. I know these schools have seen declining out of state enrollment recently, and they really like dat foreign $$$, but they'd rather have in-state than nothing.

I have no idea how many people actually want to transfer in to these schools, however.

You can definitely live for less than $15k/year in those states, too.

[jone7007]

I faced this same choice and choose GULC. Some of those states let student who stay over the summer gain residency. For example Idaho, would be $44k the first year and $31k for the second year before any scholarship. If OP got into GULC they probably would get $$$ at home state and graduate with little debt. ID/MT have some of the lowest ratio of graduates to jobs (about 2 or 2.1 graduates to 1 jobs). WY is a about 1 to 1. Though the quality of those jobs can be limiting. For me it was really a question of quality of life. I would love to spend the rest of my life in the northern Rockies. Someday I'll live there again but I couldn't stand the small practice/DA work year in and year out. A GULC J.D. is so much more portable.

[Nova]

I hear that but OP has a lot of debt.


220K debt is crushing. Odds are against OP landing the 160k job.

So is 140k debt on a 50k salary though.

So idk.

This should probably come down to a risk & reward analysis to be able to pay off debt, rather than a personal preference.