Top Law Schools

I'm going into law school with no intention of working in big law and I don't care about landing a corporate job. I actually want to do something in government or non-profit. So I don't care about a name brand school- but I know that I would not be able to pay back significant loans. So I want to get a full or almost full scholarship to a decent school.

Is that possible with my numbers? What should my target schools be? What schools are know for being generous with scholarship money?

Thanks!!

well you're not getting into GT with substantial amount of money

LOL noted. I've changed my career trajectory quite a bit. Big law, from everyone I have spoken to, is not something I want to do. So Georgetown is no longer my #1 choice. I retook the LSAT in December. I was PT in the low 170s...

You could get good money at some schools in the T60, but they're a lot of regionals. It depends on where you want to practice and where you have ties to.

georgetownhopeful893 wrote:LOL noted. I've changed my career trajectory quite a bit. Big law, from everyone I have spoken to, is not something I want to do. So Georgetown is no longer my #1 choice. I retook the LSAT in December. I was PT in the low 170s...

If you were pting in the low 170's you should definitely retake.. That could get you substantial scholarships in the T-14 and some full rides at strong regionals. Btw, why T60? Seems like a strange cutoff.

Winston1984 wrote:

georgetownhopeful893 wrote:LOL noted. I've changed my career trajectory quite a bit. Big law, from everyone I have spoken to, is not something I want to do. So Georgetown is no longer my #1 choice. I retook the LSAT in December. I was PT in the low 170s...

If you were pting in the low 170's you should definitely retake.. That could get you substantial scholarships in the T-14 and some full rides at strong regionals. Btw, why T60? Seems like a strange cutoff.

Yeah T60 was a very arbitrary cut-off. I just want to go to a decent school so I could get a government or non-profit job with a good chance at geographic mobility. I don't want to be tied down to the same region for the rest of my life.

If you can wrangle a federal job, then geographic mobility isn't such an issue - going to DC for federal work from wherever is pretty understood (or you can change jobs to another region, probably). But the schools that give the best national mobility are the top/elite schools (T14, probably). The point of regional schools is that they place best within their region.

It is true that once you have some experience, you can look to change location by changing jobs, but at that point it will be about your experience, not your school. (Note: I'm talking about government jobs, not firm jobs.) A regional school may not hurt you if you have good experience (depending what that experience is), but won't help open doors especially.

Go to the state flagship in the state that you're from on a full ride if you can't snag a T14 for cheap. Give up on the mobility dream IMO, let's focus on you having your cake first before worrying about whether or not you'll get to eat it too.

BigZuck wrote:Go to the state flagship in the state that you're from on a full ride if you can't snag a T14 for cheap. Give up on the mobility dream IMO, let's focus on you having your cake first before worrying about whether or not you'll get to eat it too.

Hmmmmm........I'm from California so UC Berkeley and UCLA are not exactly going to offer me scholarships (or even admit me). But I suppose I can go to UC Davis. Maybe they'll give me some $$$$.

I'm going to bump this. Appreciate all the answers but just wanted to see if anyone knows what are the most/least generous schools for scholarships. Here's what I have gathered so far:

Least Generous:
Fordham
Boston College
Boston University
Georgetown

Most Generous:
Emory
Washington University in St. Louis

Well, if you're literally including every single school ranked 60 and upwards, may as well put UIUC under "Most Generous"; they are literally throwing money at people. I would be surprised if you didn't get a full tuition scholarship there right off the bat with your numbers. Borrowing for the rest could potentially leave you with less than $60k total debt at repayment, depending how frugally you live. That's a decent bit less debt than most law grads from any school carry.

georgetownhopeful893 wrote:I'm going to bump this. Appreciate all the answers but just wanted to see if anyone knows what are the most/least generous schools for scholarships. Here's what I have gathered so far:

Least Generous:
Fordham
Boston College
Boston University
Georgetown

Most Generous:
Emory
Washington University in St. Louis

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