Top Law Schools

So far got a full ride to Loyola (LA), Chapman, American, Penn State, and NorthEastern. Pepperdine is giving me 60K. Hastings waitlisted me. Waiting to hear back from UCLA, UCI, and UTexas. I'll most likely get rejected to all three since I got waitlisted at Hastings. With that being said, any advice on where I should go.

Also keep in mind, I don't want to retake the LSAT and I definitely want to be a lawyer. Not too interested in BigLaw, we'll see what happens when it comes to where I rank after my first semester.

Help a brother out.

What area of the country do you want to live?

Are there stipulations on any of the full rides? Can you live at home and attend any of the schools that you were awarded a full ride? Also, I second the "where would you like to work" question, as no school listed will provide much portability.

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it's good that you definitely want to be a lawyer; a lot of people shell out for law school without really wanting that.

the truth though is that to have better than a coin flip's shot at becoming a lawyer, you need to retake the LSAT. even free, these schools are not worth the opportunity cost to attend.

http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/

look into these schools' employment numbers. you need to retake.

RCSOB657 wrote:What area of the country do you want to live?

I want to live in Socal since i've been here forever. I really just applied out of state because I had a few friends doing the same thing. I would love to live in LA. Do not want to live at home (that is not an option, don't want to waste time explaining why).

And in response to SNEEZUS, I'm going to law school come Fall, regardless of how whack the employment rates are. I already have a job lined up for me as an advocate for medically appropriate healthcare for the citizens of California. The attorneys at the firm I'm working at make roughly 8k a month... given they've been working for 3+ years here. Not sure how much they made before.

Also, even though I have this job lined up does not necessarily mean I want to work here after school. I'm asking for help deciding because I am very confused. I know the unemployment rates and I know they don't look good. I know my chances of working BigLaw going to one of these schools are slim to none. That said, I'm making the decision to go to law school because I'm relying on my connects (which none are set in stone) and my intelligence to rank fairly high. This sounds absurd because I didn't get into a T-14 but I went to UCSB and partied, thus my low gpa and low LSAT. I'm ranting now, I apologize but long story short, I know the schools suck, but I'm going to one of them. Please give me some insight.

Not American. The rest could be regionally appropriate depending on where you want to work

lefty bengal wrote: I'm making the decision to go to law school because I'm relying on my connects (which none are set in stone) and my intelligence to rank fairly high. This sounds absurd

bad idea

If you've got the full-ride to Loyola, know some people in LA & want to stay there, and are really not interested in retaking the LSAT, then I'd say go with Loyola. Given the specifications you've laid out, that decision seems easy to me. Do you think you could line up maybe your 1L and definitely your 2L summer working with the place you're looking to be once you graduate? That would be a good way to solidify those connections and improve the chances of employment after graduation.

That being said, even if you don't end up hired where you want to be, your risk isn't that high, considering the full-ride. Just live conservatively while you're in school and keep COL as low as possible.

ETA: gonna echo whoever said http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=1

lefty bengal wrote:

RCSOB657 wrote:What area of the country do you want to live?

I want to live in Socal since i've been here forever. I really just applied out of state because I had a few friends doing the same thing. I would love to live in LA. Do not want to live at home (that is not an option, don't want to waste time explaining why).

And in response to SNEEZUS, I'm going to law school come Fall, regardless of how whack the employment rates are. I already have a job lined up for me as an advocate for medically appropriate healthcare for the citizens of California. The attorneys at the firm I'm working at make roughly 8k a month... given they've been working for 3+ years here. Not sure how much they made before.

Also, even though I have this job lined up does not necessarily mean I want to work here after school. I'm asking for help deciding because I am very confused. I know the unemployment rates and I know they don't look good. I know my chances of working BigLaw going to one of these schools are slim to none. That said, I'm making the decision to go to law school because I'm relying on my connects (which none are set in stone) and my intelligence to rank fairly high. This sounds absurd because I didn't get into a T-14 but I went to UCSB and partied, thus my low gpa and low LSAT. I'm ranting now, I apologize but long story short, I know the schools suck, but I'm going to one of them. Please give me some insight.

You have a job lined up that will pay over 90k a year after 3 years? Then take the full ride at Loyola LA.

But the fact that you say your connects are "not set in stone" makes me think that by the time you graduate you won't have much of a shot at working at this place over Stanford/Berkeley/UCLA/USC/even Hastings or Irvine high performers that apply there.

In other words, don't go to any of these schools unless you are 100% certain that the attorneys you work with now will hire you when you graduate (which seems unlikely).

How do you come up with 400k per year from 8k a month?

jepper wrote:How do you come up with 400k per year from 8k a month?

Reading comp fail. Thought it said 8k a week. Still, if OP knows he can get a job paying 96k/a year in what sounds like reasonably interesting work he should definitely take the full ride at Loyola and intern at this place.

Sirius Blackstone wrote:

lefty bengal wrote:

RCSOB657 wrote:What area of the country do you want to live?

I want to live in Socal since i've been here forever. I really just applied out of state because I had a few friends doing the same thing. I would love to live in LA. Do not want to live at home (that is not an option, don't want to waste time explaining why).

And in response to SNEEZUS, I'm going to law school come Fall, regardless of how whack the employment rates are. I already have a job lined up for me as an advocate for medically appropriate healthcare for the citizens of California. The attorneys at the firm I'm working at make roughly 8k a month... given they've been working for 3+ years here. Not sure how much they made before.

Also, even though I have this job lined up does not necessarily mean I want to work here after school. I'm asking for help deciding because I am very confused. I know the unemployment rates and I know they don't look good. I know my chances of working BigLaw going to one of these schools are slim to none. That said, I'm making the decision to go to law school because I'm relying on my connects (which none are set in stone) and my intelligence to rank fairly high. This sounds absurd because I didn't get into a T-14 but I went to UCSB and partied, thus my low gpa and low LSAT. I'm ranting now, I apologize but long story short, I know the schools suck, but I'm going to one of them. Please give me some insight.

You have a job lined up that will pay over 490k a year after 3 years? Then take the full ride at Loyola LA.

But the fact that you say your connects are "not set in stone" makes me think that by the time you graduate you won't have much of a shot at working at this place over Stanford/Berkeley/UCLA/USC/even Hastings or Irvine high performers that apply there.

In other words, don't go to any of these schools unless you are 100% certain that the attorneys you work with now will hire you when you graduate (which seems unlikely).

The job is for sure lined up. They love me here. They want me to work part time in law school if possible. Both the PRES and CFO want me here after law school. I was thinking of going to Loyola with the full ride. Seems like the perfect option for me. Even if I do get into Hastings off the waitlist, I think I'd still rather choose Loyola.

The main concern I have is that everyone makes me feel like I will be unemployed or broke as F*** if I don't have a job lined up and I go to Loyola. I have not read one comment from anyone who gives me hope that if I go to Loyola I could land a decent job, yet I'm sure a lot of people on these forums are still about to go there.... bizarre

lefty bengal wrote: The job is for sure lined up. They love me here. They want me to work part time in law school if possible. But both the PRES and CFO want me here after law school. I was thinking of going to Loyola with the full ride. Seems like the perfect option for me. Even if I do get into Hastings off the waitlist, I think I'd still rather choose Loyola.

Get them to commit before you go, but this sounds like a situation where you just need the degree so you should just try to minimize costs and maximize your ability to keep working there.

id pick loyola. based on your writing you seem very immature so should consider taking some time off. dont take this as a knock. you'll get more mature. id just think about how much you want this versus how much you just want to get away from home without worrying about how you'll support yourself. if you were still lazy when you took the LSAT this is an issue you should address before going.

I'd pick pepperdine state because it's an ivy league

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AReasonableMan wrote:id pick loyola. based on your writing you seem very immature so should consider taking some time off. dont take this as a knock. you'll get more mature. id just think about how much you want this versus how much you just want to get away from home without worrying about how you'll support yourself. if you were still lazy when you took the LSAT this is an issue you should address before going.

Advice about being immature from someone who fails to use capitalization and punctuation. That is fantastic.

AReasonableMan wrote:id pick loyola. based on your writing you seem very immature so should consider taking some time off. dont take this as a knock. you'll get more mature. id just think about how much you want this versus how much you just want to get away from home without worrying about how you'll support yourself. if you were still lazy when you took the LSAT this is an issue you should address before going.

Wow, so much hate on a forum. I'm new so I didn't know we had to form mature sentences on here.

AReasonableMan wrote:id pick loyola. based on your writing you seem very immature so should consider taking some time off. dont take this as a knock. you'll get more mature. id just think about how much you want this versus how much you just want to get away from home without worrying about how you'll support yourself. if you were still lazy when you took the LSAT this is an issue you should address before going.

Also, I scored 167 on the LSAT. Don't call me lazy.

lefty bengal wrote:

AReasonableMan wrote:id pick loyola. based on your writing you seem very immature so should consider taking some time off. dont take this as a knock. you'll get more mature. id just think about how much you want this versus how much you just want to get away from home without worrying about how you'll support yourself. if you were still lazy when you took the LSAT this is an issue you should address before going.

Also, I scored 167 on the LSAT. Don't call me lazy.

I'm confused. In the Hastings thread, you said you were waitlisted with "median lsat, below median gpa".

Hastings median LSAT is 158.

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lefty bengal wrote:

AReasonableMan wrote:id pick loyola. based on your writing you seem very immature so should consider taking some time off. dont take this as a knock. you'll get more mature. id just think about how much you want this versus how much you just want to get away from home without worrying about how you'll support yourself. if you were still lazy when you took the LSAT this is an issue you should address before going.

Wow, so much hate on a forum. I'm new so I didn't know we had to form mature sentences on here.

yes. this forum is filled with a lot of very young people who are extremely elitist - such a question on here will get you nowhere. You are screwed unless you attend HY or S, you did not know that??

Obviously OP is not telling us the truth. Not good OP.

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