Tier 3 Full Ride vs. Tier 1 or 2 at sticker Forum

[patrickd139]

Yes, but I'm not set on being in Chicago. At all really. It's great and I like it, but I also like moving around. I'm not married and don't have family in Chicago so I'm not tied there other than through friendships. I would entertain going back if my connections there afforded me the opportunity, but wouldn't stay just for that reason. If I was certain I wanted to be here, you better believe I'd be all over Kent. My Adcomm friend there said I'd qualify for at least 20K there probably and I think its a great school. But yeah, not set on being there.

Also, now I'm really shying away from the term "biglaw." I could work in Indianapolis, or Sacramento, or New Orleans or some other mid-large sized city at a solid firm and be very happy I think. I don't necessarily mean NYC/Chicago/SF/LA when I'm talking about the sort of jobs I'm interested in. Perhaps I'm mis-using the term a bit...

My apologies. Somewhere in this thread I picked up the idea you wanted to practice in Chicago. If not, then by all means attend the best regional law school you can afford (whichever metrics you want to use to make that determination).

Preemptively, though, don't expect to be able to graduate from a T1 law school that services all of Indianapolis, Sacramento and New Orleans. You're going to be better off picking a region, esp. that far apart.

[algren]

No worries, you're questions have been really helpful by making me think through things a bit more specifically.

At this point it seems like I should just wait on what other acceptances come in, pray for a decent scholly at a Tier 1 or maybe a Tier 2, or the long shot of a T-14 acceptance. Anything is possible. I'll post some more info on my cycle here if anything relevant to the topic comes up.

[jelly]

If the tier 3 you are referring to is Chicago Kent, do it. Within Chicago, if you want to do IP they have a great/growing reputation for being strong in this area. The full scholarship is something they give out a lot too, they seem to be generous enough with money that as you said, maintaining the scholly shouldn't be a problem.


*edit: I mean "strong" only in the context of being a tier 3 and being known for anything besides being a waste of money.

The above poster is misinformed. Chi-Kent is a strong tier 2 with solid Chicago connections/placement and is growing in placement outside of Chicago.

[GradPath2011]

take the full-ride.