I have full tuition scholarships with top half stips at both schools.
I want to work in Michigan after I graduate (specifically Grand Rapids if possible).
I realize I wont get big law from either of these schools. I just want to know which school is the better option for finding any kind of legal job.
I’d live near campus my first year and commute from my parent’s house the 2nd and 3rd years at either school, so total COA is probably around 15-20k if I can keep the scholarship.
I’d do Michigan State, and drop out if you lose the scholarship. It isn’t bad to graduate for free from law school, and even if it was free if you can’t do top third I’d consider dropping out for time reasons.
You are looking at a solid 13% difference in employment outcomes.
That said, consider either a retake or dropping out of Wayne State if you lose your scholarship. A 51% chance of employment just isn’t that good. In fact, it’s bad.
You don’t have a coins flip chance of losing the money. People with top numbers (aka students on full-rides) almost never finish in the bottom half. Contact the school for percentages, but I doubt more than 15% lose their money with a top half stip.
There’s really not enough data to say that WSU has better outcomes. Last year almost 50% more MSU grads than WSU grads reported salary data. Some schools are thought to go to significantly greater lengths to obtain data from their highest-ranked graduates than from their other grads.
I wasn’t talking about salary data. I’m talking employment data. Look at the LST links. They’ll tell you how many people didn’t report. Even if the entire 6% “unknown” from MSU got FT/Bar-req jobs, WSU would still be 7.7% better. And we all know they don’t all have jobs.
Maybe MSU grads with jobs make better money than WSU grads… but there are more WSU grads with jobs of any kind, period, than MSU grads with jobs of any kind. I’d rather have a 50% chance to get a job paying $40K a year than a 35% chance of getting a job paying $65K a year. But, you know, whatever floats your boat.
ETA: Over 100 MSU JD grads are still unemployed at 9 months. Only about 40 WSU grads are unemployed at 9 months. That’s a difference of 40% funemployment to 25% funemployment. (source: ABA stats).
For your sake, don’t consider either of those schools unless you can get the stips removed (or lowered). They’re unreasonably demanding for the high-risk schools you’re looking into.
IDK, I’ve heard that GR is pretty insular, more so than Detroit, which is saying a lot. And it’s not impossible to get to Detroit from MSU, but it is easier from Wayne.
This is a no brainer. Michigan State is the far better choice. The MSU continues to improve year after year with better faculty, more clinical options, and higher calibre students. Wayne can’t even break into the top 100 schools, even with state subsidizing tuition rates for students. It is a tough market out there, but job rate statistics are questionable, especially because MSU has been known for being much more transparent with theirs than most other law schools in the US.
I don’t know enough about these schools to really advice OP, but this is just shitawful advice. You’ve been on TLS for 7 years and you still buy into crap like this? (i.e., better faculty, clinical options, USNWR rankings, etc.) I know your belly is full of that MSU kool-aid but let’s keep it on point here. It’s about the jobs dude.
I think his point was that the name is better known, so he would probably have a better chance a a job…not sure, but if OP is young he should maybe wait a year and retake…
Unless the OP wants to practice in Detroit, there is no advantage to going to Wayne, and even that might not be the case anymore. That was just something that used to be said, but I have not seen that to be the case in reality. Quite honestly, it seems the market in West Michigan seems to be populated by tons of Cooley grads. If that is the only info you are looking at, the OP should go to Cooley.
