Top Law Schools

CA2CO wrote:Hi there,

I'm an undergrad in California, but graduate this May. I'm accepting a job that is moving me to Denver, Colorado and will likely live there until I attend law school (if I attend law school). I've been looking at going to law school my entire life and have been doing some intensive research in the last month or two. What I can't seem to find out is what price tag can justify law school. That is, how much debt is worth taking on from law school to justify attending in the first place?

I keep looking at scholarships statistics and 9-month employment statistics for law schools (obviously grouped together), combined with employment prospects for the region. I can't seem to come up with a reliable way to determine if the median debt can justify the median first year salary out of law school. Any opinions on the matter?

TL;DR

what is the maximum debt worth taking on from law school in relation to their employment/salary prospects?
Schools I'm looking at (if it matters at all):

University of Denver
University of Colorado
Southern Methodist University
University of North Carolina

"The general rule of thumb for student loan borrowing is that the total amount of student debt should not exceed the borrower's anticipated annual salary for the first year out of school," says Allesandra Lanza, spokeswoman for American Student Assistance, a nonprofit based in Boston.

gnomgnomuch wrote:This is a very very hard question to answer. It depends on your GPA/LSAT, how much debt you currently have, how much debt you are comfortable with having, family obligation, preferred location, desired work outcome - and even thinking ahead in terms of what kind of career do you want 20 years after you get your JD, because 20 years down the line, where you went to Law School might STILL matter.

Of the 4 schools you mentioned, I would cross of SMU completely.
The other three - you'd need connections, and I wouldn't be comfortable having more than 50-60k TOTAL debt. (Full COA + previous debt.) And, if I had a family, that number would go down to like 20-30k.

BigZuck wrote:Probs any of those are fine on a fully but I wouldn't go more than 100K into debt for suresies

twenty wrote:I would pay somewhere in the region of 70k-100k for any school on that list. Closer to 70k if you're a K-JD with no other marketable skills, not really sure what kind of law you want to do, etc., and maybe closer to 100k if you have several years of work experience you can fall back on, have an SO that can support you if the shit really hits the fan, etc.

Keep in mind that's 70k-100k total, so if you're thinking 20k-25k a year in cost of living and interest alone, that basically mandates a full ride scholarship.

jbagelboy wrote:first year salary (multiplied by chance of landing an offer for that salary) is actually a pretty decent proxy for acceptable debt load, for most people.

CA2CO wrote:thanks for all of the comments and replies. I've been struggling lately the more and more time I spend reading on this forum. I've wanted to go to law school most of my life and obviously become an attorney, but tuition is getting scary expensive. I'm still pretty sure I want to be an attorney, but I'm at the point of trying to justify it financially before I make the leap to study for the LSAT.

gnomgnomuch wrote:This is a very very hard question to answer. It depends on your GPA/LSAT, how much debt you currently have, how much debt you are comfortable with having, family obligation, preferred location, desired work outcome - and even thinking ahead in terms of what kind of career do you want 20 years after you get your JD, because 20 years down the line, where you went to Law School might STILL matter.

Of the 4 schools you mentioned, I would cross of SMU completely.
The other three - you'd need connections, and I wouldn't be comfortable having more than 50-60k TOTAL debt. (Full COA + previous debt.) And, if I had a family, that number would go down to like 20-30k.

UGPA is going to end up 3.15. LSAT, no idea because I haven't even begun to prep yet. I will do my due diligence and score as best possible, but I haven't even taken my cold test yet. I'm not debt averse, but I also don't want to put myself in an unmanageable debt situation. That's basically the point of this entire post, I want to see if there is any hard line way of determining what is unmanageable...

Interesting that you crossed off SMU, but my only connection would be to Colorado. I'm moving there for work and already know an attorney in the area. Would attempt to network from there for the 2-3 I'm working prior to entering law school.

Not to be that guy, but a 3.15 is pretty low. For all I know you're majoring in Chem.Enj and a 3.15 is actually an astoundingly great GPA - but law schools won't see it that way. A 3.15 shuts you out at MOST schools worth going to, unless you're above the 75th percentile in LSAT. Even then, you're looking at minimal scholarship money.

You'd actually get in at schools like UVA/U.MICH/NU with a 170+ LSAT and work experience (especially NU).

BigZuck wrote:Probs any of those are fine on a fully but I wouldn't go more than 100K into debt for suresies

I don't think I'll get a full scholly from any of them even with a 180 LSAT. However, I do know the applications have been trending down; I guess anything is possible. But see above, 3.15 GPA and unknown LSAT.

twenty wrote:I would pay somewhere in the region of 70k-100k for any school on that list. Closer to 70k if you're a K-JD with no other marketable skills, not really sure what kind of law you want to do, etc., and maybe closer to 100k if you have several years of work experience you can fall back on, have an SO that can support you if the shit really hits the fan, etc.

Keep in mind that's 70k-100k total, so if you're thinking 20k-25k a year in cost of living and interest alone, that basically mandates a full ride scholarship.

I'm not going to be K-JD, I'll have solid full-time work experience prior to entry. I would venture to guess that I'm ball parking 100k debt after those schools, so I guess that's a comforting thought. As far as type of law, I think I want to get into some type of health law. I had a heart attack at age 21 (never done any drugs in my life) from random causes and I've since been interested in the medical field i guess. Aside from that, I have no idea what I want to practice.

mt2165 wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:first year salary (multiplied by chance of landing an offer for that salary) is actually a pretty decent proxy for acceptable debt load, for most people.

Yeah I like that too-sad thing is that means once you're in the t-14 (maximizing dem variables) you still need like a half scholly or be independently wealthy to satisfy that formula.

jbagelboy wrote:

mt2165 wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:first year salary (multiplied by chance of landing an offer for that salary) is actually a pretty decent proxy for acceptable debt load, for most people.

Yeah I like that too-sad thing is that means once you're in the t-14 (maximizing dem variables) you still need like a half scholly or be independently wealthy to satisfy that formula.

well the upshot is that's not an entirely false statement. the metric's certainly not exact, but this would be the discrete expected value sum of all outcomes, not just the best. consider. summer associate + first year compensation pretax is $205,000. a harvard, columbia, ect. student has a ~90% chance of hitting that outcome if they wanted it, 10% chance of something substantially less attractive (call it $50,000). So acceptable debt for those schools on that model would be $190,000. For a michigan, berkeley, ect. you're at 70-75% chance, so ~$160,000. For UCLA/UT/ect, call it 40-45% chance, rest in the middle hitting $50k with maybe 10% coming up with zilch, so $100,000.

I've done more complete EV computations on this in other posts in the past so I won't belabor the point

CanadianWolf wrote:As you already know, your GPA is on the low side for getting generous scholarship money at any law school with strong placement numbers. You need to sit for the LSAT exam to get a more realistic picture of your likely options. You may realize that law school is not a wise investment if you score below the mid-160s on the LSAT.

To answer your question: The maximum debt worth taking on is in the $40,000 to $60,000 range assuming that you have no other student loan debt or significant financial obligations.

TheUnicornHunter wrote:If the job you have lined up in Denver is a professional one, just forget about law school for a while. It will always be around if you want to go later on in life. Assuming you're not moving to Denver to work at a McDonalds or something, the opportunity cost of law school prep + law school alone isn't worth it right now, never mind actually giving money to those places.