I would wait a year and try to get either scholarship $ or in-state tuition.  Tulane is a good school but I'm not confident that it is worth $150k.  Rutgers-N I usually recommend only for NJ residents because of the reduced cost.

If you go to a lower ranked school, you will need to market yourself very heavily to get a job.  If you're the entrepreneurial type and very outgoing, I think you would be ok at either school.  You might not get the job you want, but you'll be able to find something. 

Make absolutely sure you want to be a lawyer if you choose to go.  Talk to as many people as you can, including those who made it big and those who left the profession.  And be wary of career services.  Really ask the hard questions about placement for those who aren't at the top of the class.

If you're willing to sign a 12-month+ lease in NJ before school starts then RU-N will consider you a resident.

Quote from: salty on May 14, 2007, 11:36:24 AM

Lewis & Clark.  Who the hell do those people think they are?

Yeah, Lewis and Clark must think that they are an Ivy or something. After sending me a fee waiver they decided to defer me. I then received an e-mail asking if I was still interested in attending on April 31st. After calling them up I was told that I had been waitlisted and that I could be taken off the waitlist "from next week to late August". This was just absurd so I withdrew. Maybe they sent me the fee waiver because they wanted to lower their acceptance rate.

I thought that Santa Clara or the University of San Diego would have been on this list but they gave me a decision and never played any games with my head. I applied to Lewis and Clark because I thought that the California schools would shun me but the opposite happened. I was actually really excited about going to Portland but I think that I will be much happier in San Diego. USD has made me feel better about the whole thing though because I had just come back from visiting them when I got the Lewis and Clark e-mail which said that I had to respond by May 4th or I would be withdrawn. On may 4th I received a $16,000 scholarship from USD so I guess that worked out. Similarly, when Loyola had waitlisted me, USD took me in so I guess it was meant to be. They were my third choice and the first two rejected me. I should have never wasted my time with Lewis and Clark because they are the ones who got my hopes up and then treated me poorly. Case Western Reserve accepted me a few days ago but they took forever. I'm going to USD anyways so I guess it doesn't matter.

Santa Clara: Applied:  10/27/06
                         Complete: 11/29/06 (over a month that early in the cycle)
                         Decision: 05/11/07 (196 days from transmit to decision and NOTHING in between)

I was by no means an auto-admit, but I'm just annoyed about waiting so long.

I ran across this on Volokh, they're painting a really scary picture.

With the search function still gone....here are some links to recent threads about this dilemma:

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,85603.msg2116728.html#msg2116728
http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,84084.msg2055650.html#msg2055650
http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,81142.0.html

I should say upfront that I'm both a big city guy, and also from Seattle. I've travelled to LA, NYC, Chicago, Houston, Dallas....basically most of the 30 biggest cities in the US and I didn't feel any less safe in Newark than I had anywhere else. If you're in the wrong spot in ANY of those cities it isn't safe. While safety isn't a concern for myself, it is a top priority for me when considering a school because I will be bringing my fiance with me. She'll be working in a school, and probably working late as a first year teacher. Neither of us left Newark with a bad impression. Boring, yes, dirty, yes....but no more unsafe than anywhere else we've been. I'll be attending RU.