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I am currently a rising 2L at a T2 Philly law school. I was accepted as a transfer to GW and am still waiting to here from gtown. I put a deposit down at GW, but am getting cold feet about taking the money out to attend. As it stands now, I could graduate law school with under 100K in loans undergrad and law school combined. If I attend GW I would graduate with 180K (which is high, high, high).

I missed out on LR and moot court at my current school, did not participate in first of multiple sessions of OCI (though there are only like 30 firms/organizations in total) bc I participated in GW's OCI which has soo many more employers and got a couple of interviews from it for next week. I have lived in the Philly area my whole life and wouldn't mind working there, though am a bit concerned about the lack of opportunities that seem to be there.

I have interned on Capitol Hill before law school and would like to be an attorney on a committee or in a Congressman's personal office or for the federal government. If I did this, I should qualify for IBR, and if went to school in DC would be able to create more contacts by interning during the year to help snag a J.O.B..

The move, money and fact that DC seems to have lawyers and attorneys everywhere you look is making me second-guess my decision to transfer. Should I email my current school and see if I could get some scholarship money?

Any help would be appreciated.

To me, the fact that you cant do law review or moot court at the old school is important. With no honors on your resume, it seems better to be at the higher ranked school, especially if you have a couple of interviews lined up. That being said, that is a whole lot of debt, but honestly its a substantial amount of debt at your old school as well. I would see what kind of scholarships you could get at the old school. If it would decrease your debt to like 75 or so I think I would stay. Lets face it, DC is one of the mopst competitive legal markets in the country and GW isn't even the highest ranked school there. If you get into Gtown I think you should go. GW is a much closer call. I would still go, but I'm not the most debt adverse person in the world, to me the higher ranked law school that is forever on one's resume is more important.

I am in the same situation (T2 school in Philly, accepted at GW and waitlisted at Georgetown). I was able to negotiate scholarship money from my old school and I know another person that was able to get scholarship money based on an acceptance from GW. I strongly reccomend sending an email to your old school to get a scholarship.

It was a very hard decision to leave my old school, but I decided to attend GW. In the end, it came down to GW's IP curriculum and I wanted to practice in the DC area. After talking to many people, they all advised GW because you go to law school where you want to practice. I also lived and worked in DC for several years prior to moving back to the Philly area.

Feel free to send me a private message so I can give you more information about the scholarship from the old school.

Matth0011 wrote: In the end, it came down to GW's IP curriculum and I wanted to practice in the DC area. After talking to many people, they all advised GW because you go to law school where you want to practice. I also lived and worked in DC for several years .

I assume you will attend Gtown if accepted though?