Top Law Schools

Hey all,

I am not sure what kind of law I want to practice but leaning towards working with the federal government/United Nations. Vanderbilt law school is the only T-20 I got into. However, I did not get a scholarship. I am looking at $180K debt. On the other hand, I have a full-tuition scholarship to a local law school that ranks in the 130s but is well-known here. Do you guys think Vanderbilt is worth the debt?

rkn4rt wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 28, 2022 1:58 am

Hey all,

I am not sure what kind of law I want to practice but leaning towards working with the federal government/United Nations. Vanderbilt law school is the only T-20 I got into. However, I did not get a scholarship. I am looking at $180K debt. On the other hand, I have a full-tuition scholarship to a local law school that ranks in the 130s but is well-known here. Do you guys think Vanderbilt is worth the debt?

If you're more than 50% sure that you'll spend the majority of your legal career in the same geographic area as the local law school, then go there. If you don't think you'll spend the majority of your career in the same geographic area as the local law school, and (1) you're not opposed to working in the public interest for 10 years to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and/or are willing to qualify for Vanderbilt's LRAP; or (2) are willing to work in a high-paying biglaw job for years after graduation to pay the debt, then go to Vanderbilt. You also might want to consider retaking the LSAT and reapplying next year. Fedgov and UN positions can be hard to get, even from a T6 school.

I would do some serious soul-searching about why you want to go to law school. Talk to lawyers who work in the federal government/UN positions that you're interested in and get a feel for their professional trajectories.

Can you be more specific about your career path? T2 law schools will not get you to the UN, and unless "federal government" for you includes Transportation or other less popular agencies, that will also be unrealistic.

Vanderbilt is a great school, but what are your stats? There's no reason to be deciding between sticker at Vandy and a local T2/T3. My guess is that you can retake the LSAT to solve your problem.

Vanderbilt managed to place 60% of their class in BL this year. I'm not sure if it's a paradigm shift or anything, but that suggests that medians are pretty safe. Not sure if the BL numbers will just drop next year, but it almost makes me think that it's worth sticker.