Top Law Schools

I live in California and I would like to work in California after law school, but it seems like all the California schools are either way out of reach (Stanford, Berkeley) or pretty far below where I'd like to go. The California schools that are somewhat within my ballpark are UCLA and USC(and maybe Davis).

I'm not entirely opposed to going outside of CA, but should I apply to UCLA's binding ED? Would I have a good shot if I did and would it be a bad decision to go ED at UCLA while I still have schools like WUSTL on my radar? I don't really expect that I would get a substantial amount of money until I am applying to schools where my GPA is closer to their median, so I am leaning towards applying ED at UCLA. I figure my chances of getting into UCLA through the regular cycle are slim enough and that if I get a 'no' in ED I'll still have enough time to start sending applications to the more splitter-friendly schools out of state.

I guess I just want to know if I am being too optimistic about my chances at UCLA/if I should set aside my hope of staying in state. Finally, under what conditions should I go to Davis? Its LST numbers aren't horrible and if I can't get in to UCLA or USC I might be choosing between Davis and something like WUSTL.

Tough call brah. I'm same shoes but lower numbers across the board, so if you're struggling to get into UCLA then I shouldn't go to law school.

PeanutsNJam wrote:Tough call brah. I'm same shoes but lower numbers across the board, so if you're struggling to get into UCLA then I shouldn't go to law school.

I dunno, the main problem I am grappling with is whether or not I can stay in California. My chances at WUSTL seem pretty high and that's a school I would probably be satisfied going to, if it were a little closer to home. I'm mostly just worried because some law school predictors give my chances at UCLA around 60% and others around 15%, I think due to the very small sample size. Not many people from WUSTL for example come back to work in California, but I guess that's biased because most of them are probably not planning on coming to California when they finish school.

Probably better to go to northwestern than ucla/usc ITE unless the CA schools offered near to full rides

(Although not going might also be TCR depending on your financial circumstances and goals)

What are your career goals?

EDing UCLA isn't something you should consider, sticker debt there is unjustifiable.

Don't ED. Apply the all the CA schools, the bottom half of the T-14 and T-25 schools like WUSTL knowing for throwing money at splitters and see what happens. If it comes down to sticker at UCLA or sticker at Northwestern you should either not go or take Northwestern. But my guess is you'll have better options than just those two.