One piece of anecdotal advice: A good friend of mine went to Pepperdine over a T1 state school, because of the draw of Malibu. Near the end of the first semester he told me that he wished he'd never gone there and instead stayed at the state school for about a 1/3 of the cost. Why?? Because he realized then that he'd be taking on almost 100,000 in debt, and the job prospects looked gloomy. He said he was competing w/ USC, UCLA and Loyola over Pepperdine and couldn't even find a paying job after 1L, despite even getting his 1st semester grades yet. It's a nice school w/ a lot of draw, but think long and hard about what you want out of law school: location w/ lower pay or higher pay w/ out Cali lifestyle.... Pepperdine isn't necessarily the wrong choice, but you have to go in understanding the whole picture.