With first seat deposits due soon I’m starting to get stressed about not having chosen which school to attend. Below are my offers as they currently stand, any thoughts on which route to choose? I’m interested in corporate/biglaw, but wouldn’t rule anything out. No real regional preference and no UG debt.
Michigan-WL (#1 choice)
Duke-WL
Cornell-WL
GTown-IN (still under consideration for $)
UCLA-WL
Texas-IN ($ info is on the way)
Vandy-WL
USC-WL
WUSTL-84k
GW-IN
Illinois-90k
BU-WL
MN-60k
ND-54k
Iowa-128k
Right now I’m leaning towards depositing at Gtown and hoping I get off the Michigan or Duke waitlists. I doubt I’ll get any money from the schools I’m WL at, and I think those are the only two (maybe Cornell) that I would consider at sticker in addition to Georgetown. Thoughts?
IUB-120k
WilliamMary-63k
If you want biglaw, i’d deposit at whichever of GULC or Texas gives you the most money and remain on the Michigan, Duke, and Cornell waitlists and try and get off one of them.
Honestly if you don’t get off the other waitlists, and don’t get any money from Texas or G-Town, I would be looking hard at one of the bigger scholarships. If you do very well (which you can’t determine before law school obviously, so it’s a big risk) you can still land big law. Plus you said you’re interested in other things.
Georgetown is definitely a respectable choice and a good option as well. I would just really be more scared about ending up below median at G-Town and being out of work with 200k in loans than graduating Illinois or Iowa with $50k in debt and having to work a lower paying job.
Harvard Law School
Stanford Law School
Yale Law School
Columbia Law School
NYU School of Law
University of Chicago Law School
Cornell Law School
Georgetown University Law Center
Northwestern University School of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
I’d go with G-town, but then again I am a fanboy of Gtown for sure. I think if you have a deposit deadline I would do so there and maybe at Texas too (if you can afford to deposit at both) while you are waiting to see if your WLs come through. And if Mich is your #1 choice I would definitely make that very clear to them by expressing continued interest as much as possible. Congrats on your acceptances so far!
Seriously though, I’ve been leaning towards depositing at Georgetown and waiting to see if any of the other waitlists come through. Any other thoughts? Would you rule out schools like MN and ND that gave around ~60k in scholarships? I’m starting to think the difference between those schools and Michigan, Duke, GTown is probably worth it in the long run (assuming I’m above median, I suppose).
If you can stand the midwest, I think ND with $54K (which they will bump up to $60K if you let them know of your Georgetown acceptance and UIUC scholarship most likely) or UIUC with $90K are certainly worth consideration. I wouldn’t pay sticker at GULC over either of those options.
I don’t know that I’d consider ND over Georgetown. 54k sounds like a lot, but ND is a private school and you still might end up with something like $120-130k of loans. Also, the Midwest markets are hit so hard that I would want a big scholarship to consider throwing myself into that mess.
The correct response I think, objectively, is to take Texas over Georgetown if you get $$$, and balance your want for BigLaw with your fear of debt in choosing between UT / G-Town and the big scholarships in the midwest.
That said, if you aren’t opposed to working in Texas, I might take Texas over Georgetown regardless. Less market competition and you get the hometown edge, plus it might end up a little cheaper.
I’m going to go ahead and assume that a scholarship totaling roughly 77k at Texas makes that the obvious winner? Any chance any of those schools I’m WL at would match if I was later accepted?
Probably not if they waitlisted you. Congrats, that’s a good sized scholarship! You can try to get Gtown to match but they tend to be on the stingy side, and lacking a comparable amount at Gtown Texas becomes the clear choice.