Anyone heading to Baylor?

[tiredofwaiting]

Just wanting to know some people thoughts/feelings on going to Baylor. UH is my 1st choice but have not heard from them. If I have not heard by this Monday, I am signing on the dotted line at Baylor where my classes start May 12th.

Any fellow Bears? Advice, etc.?

[mm1405]

I'm in a similar situation, only I got accepted to Baylor's spring class so I dont have to make up my mind right away. Waiting on Houston though. If you see my thread about Interesting about Texas schools... I emailed a ton of people, and just included a few on there.  I just had a paralegal of 20 years for a big firm email me and said #1 Baylor, #2 SMU, #3 Houston - I was suprised by that.  Waco very small, 1.5 hours from big cities, practical experience...$28k/yr w/o schcolarships,  Houston in HUGE city, much larger class size, $17k w/o scholarships. Depends on the atmosphere you like, the prgrams you like... if you want to be a trial lawyer? Thats what I've been told so far anyways. I'm visiting both this weekend.

[tiredofwaiting]

Hi, well I just got my acceptance to UH on Friday! That is where I am heading. Between Baylor, UH and SMU - what I have heard is the SMU is best in the Dallas market, UH in the Houston market and Baylor is second best in Dallas and Houston in terms of placement.  I know that US Ranking wise - it is UT, SMU and this year Baylor and UH will be tied for 55.

Let me know what happens on your end. Good Luck.

[I LOLd in my pants]

tag

I tried to start a similar thread in the accepted and decided section, but it was a disaster. I'm going to the Open House tomorrow and am 99% sure I'll be there in the fall. I still have SMU pending, but I'm expecting a WL. Even if I got accepted there I don't know how I can justify paying sticker for SMU over my 1/2 scholarship at Baylor.

It's hard trying to cope with the idea of Baylor's third year program when you have little to no interest in litigating.

 

[Betty_Crocker]

tag

I tried to start a similar thread in the accepted and decided section, but it was a disaster. I'm going to the Open House tomorrow and am 99% sure I'll be there in the fall. I still have SMU pending, but I'm expecting a WL. Even if I got accepted there I don't know how I can justify paying sticker for SMU over my 1/2 scholarship at Baylor.

It's hard trying to cope with the idea of Baylor's third year program when you have little to no interest in litigating.

 

When you go, ask and see if they are doing a transactional program. Rumor has it that Baylor is going to provide a transactional track for people who don't want to do litigation. I'm assuming that instead of Mock Trial and all the procedural classes you would have to take, you could take courses on contract drafting and a moot negotiations class.

[mm1405]

I visited UH Sunday, Baylor monday, and SMU Thursday. I find it hard to justify the extra $13,000/yr price tag of SMU or Baylor over UH (assuming I get no scholarship from any of them... I still havent heard from SMU or UH).  I liked Baylor more than SMU, which I was not expecting.  I may have just visited SMU on a bad day... bad weather and finals coming up... but it seemed that the people at Baylor were much friendlier.  Becky, the assistant daen of admissions, gave us a tour, and most students we passed by knew her by first name.  She two students who took us to lunch were very friendly and answered evevry question we wanted to know. Waco is bigger than I thought, plenty to do, but obviously not as large as Dallas or Houston.  They said you definately have to put your leg out there and put forth an effort to get clerkships, jobs, etc.  One great thing, in my opinion, was that because the school runs on quarters rather than semesters, you can clerkship somewhere in the winter or spring or fall rather than summer so the opportunities are much less competative.  Negative being there are only so many opportunities in Waco and most likely you'll be doing it in Austin or Dallas. Oh yea and all classes are socratic, which I guess in the end only helps you prepare for "on the spot" moments in trial.  They did not mention a transactional plan, she said all students are required to take the practice court during their 3rd year and that 80% of your schedule is given to you because they believe in a broad schedule and enforcing real-world practice.  Interested because I spoke to an attorney in Houston who said that unless you are certain you want to be a trial attorney... its probably best to go to a law school where you can pick more electives, and the firm that will hire you will likely train you for 6 months on how to survive in court.  All in all, I liked Baylor... I just cant personally justify the cost (having no scholarship) compared to Houston.  If they were equal in price... I'd have much more to consider. HOpe that helps...

[Mosely owes me 8%]

I tried to start a similar thread in the accepted and decided section, but it was a disaster. I'm going to the Open House tomorrow and am 99% sure I'll be there in the fall. I still have SMU pending, but I'm expecting a WL. Even if I got accepted there I don't know how I can justify paying sticker for SMU over my 1/2 scholarship at Baylor.

It's hard trying to cope with the idea of Baylor's third year program when you have little to no interest in litigating.

 

I just got in at SMU after being deferred for early admission.  I'm with you LOLd, I can't justify going to SMU when I have a half tuition scholarship to Baylor.  I withdrew from SMU.  I got accepted to UH with a small scholarship as well, but Houston is not the place for me.  I'm heading to Baylor in the fall, and I'm excited about it.  I want to be a litigator, so this should be a good fit for me.  I visited Baylor, and it is beautiful.  However, Waco is not the prettiest city.  Who else will be starting in the fall?  Does anybody have any apartment suggestions?  I'm heading down there at the end of May to get an apartment.  I'm just glad that I won't have to be a customer service rep for a trade show company for the rest of my life....

[dolemite01]

Grew up in Waco.  Do not live near campus.  Its 2 - 3x the cost and its hardly justified.  There's a road called Lake Shore Dr.  Don't be fooled by the name, the area closer to Valley Mills is decent set of apartments and isn't hiked by the campus location.   It is literally 10 minutes to anywhere in Waco, never any traffic, period.   Stay off Waco Dr and the area of Valley Mills near IH 35, furthermore, no where on Lasalle is good.   I married a Baylor girl who didn't research and she was suckered into moving to LaSalle when she moved to waco, horrible area - of course most of waco is.

[lawandethan]

Some thoughts:

SMU and UH have the best placement and virtually non-existent attrition.

Baylor has a great bar passage rates, but its BIGLAW and Clerkship placement is not up to par with SMU and UH.  Attrition is between 5-10% each year.

As for costs -
I think the key is just keeping your costs down.  You don't want to go into more than ~75,000 because at a reasonable starting salary (i.e. NOT biglaw) the payments can be made.

If either of these schools are going to put you into more debt than 75k - I wouldn't attend.  Period.