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Hello,
I am recent graduate and I applied to Santa Clara Law School and got in with a $10k scholarship, and got waitlisted at Brooklyn Law School, UC Davis, UC Irvine and I am still waiting to hear back from UC Hastings. If all of these schools reject me/ do not respond to me with acceptance by the time Santa Clara's second seat deposit is due, should just go to Santa Clara or should I take a year off and apply again next year?
-Hopeful 0L

This seems easy: year off. Also, none of these schools are worth it if not full scholarship. And even then they have a strong chance of being a time suck of a few years without much benefit.

JudgeMcfarlane wrote:Hello,
I am recent graduate and I applied to Santa Clara Law School and got in with a $10k scholarship, and got waitlisted at Brooklyn Law School, UC Davis, UC Irvine and I am still waiting to hear back from UC Hastings. If all of these schools reject me/ do not respond to me with acceptance by the time Santa Clara's second seat deposit is due, should just go to Santa Clara or should I take a year off and apply again next year?
-Hopeful 0L

Take a year off and study harder for the LSAT. I was in a similar position both geographically and school wise, and I went straight through. Ended up paying $$ to go to a dif school but I regret it all the time. Travel, work, study, do whatever while you prep for the LSAT, but get a better offer at a better school with some time in between, + work experience before LS = beneficial in its own right even if its a crappy job. I know the feeling of not wanting to wait after completing the unnecessarily complicated and annoying app process but trust me, imo it will only benefit you to take a year off. I wish I had taken my own advice

-Rising 3L

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Remember that. Down the road, frankly, no one cares where you went to school. It is your productivity on the job that counts the most.

Sprout wrote:

JudgeMcfarlane wrote:Hello,
I am recent graduate and I applied to Santa Clara Law School and got in with a $10k scholarship, and got waitlisted at ...
-Hopeful 0L

retiree wrote:A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Remember that. Down the road, frankly, no one cares where you went to school. It is your productivity on the job that counts the most.

Sprout wrote:

JudgeMcfarlane wrote:Hello,
I am recent graduate and I applied to Santa Clara Law School and got in with a $10k scholarship, and got waitlisted at ...
-Hopeful 0L

Of course, when you can't get any jobs because you went to a crappy school, and you're trying to claw your way out of a giant pit of debt that aforementioned unemployment is making impossible to do... yeah, the school you went to matters.

Based on your post history, you're clearly old enough to know that waiting a year to do something like this the right way is the clear choice here. I have no idea why you'd encourage someone to take on six figures of debt on less-than-a-coin-flip's chance of employment.

retiree wrote:A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Remember that. Down the road, frankly, no one cares where you went to school. It is your productivity on the job that counts the most.

Sprout wrote:

JudgeMcfarlane wrote:Hello,
I am recent graduate and I applied to Santa Clara Law School and got in with a $10k scholarship, and got waitlisted at ...
-Hopeful 0L

Uh, no. Ignore that terrible advice from retiree. Frankly, where you go to law school WILL FOLLOW YOU THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. Today, employers - big and small - run filter software to weed out applicants unless their resumes bear certain school names on them, so your likelihood of even getting LOOKED AT by a human is much lower than it probably was when retiree was practicing. It is true that where you went to school may matter less after your first job because you have experience, references and a professional network, but it's not like you do five years at BigLaw (assuming best case scenario) and suddenly your Santa Clara degree is just as valuable as someone who went to Harvard with five years at BigLaw.