HELP! Big decision to make and I'm so unsure...

[LawDeeDa]

Hello,

Here's the situation:

I finished my first year at Tier 4 school ranked top 5.1%

I applied to USD, Loyola, UCLA, and USC as a transfer.

Then my own school offers me a 3/4 tution scholarship, automatic on for law review, and a job as a tutor for 1st year students. This would save me about $50k over the next two years off of the tuiton, albeit I would be graduatiing from a Tier 4 school.

Loyola and USD both accepted me (haven't heard back from the other two). But neither of these shcools (Tier 2) offer scholarships to transfers (or at least not to me).

So.... should I stay at a Tier 4 with all the perks and the $$$ scholarship (so my tuiton would be $7k a year instead of $30k) or should I transfer to a more prestigious Tier 2 school and pay full price???

Thank you for all responses, and for taking the time to read this!

LawDeeDa

[YankyKitten]

Hello!  I actully debated a similar question because I was accepted to a few good T2 schools, and offered a full scholarship to a T4.  I'm taking the full scholarship and here are my reasons:

1.  I will not graduate with any debt, so I can look for a job a want not one that will pay my bills.

2.  Where you graduate from will get you interviews, but it is you and your rep that you develop during law school that will get you the job.  Furthermore, someone who performed so well their first year (congrats) will make opportunities for themselves.

3.  My T4 school ranks very high in Health Care Law and outperforms T2 and T14 schools at national moot court events.

Congrats again!

[ruskiegirl]

Hello,

Here's the situation:

I finished my first year at Tier 4 school ranked top 5.1%

I applied to USD, Loyola, UCLA, and USC as a transfer.

Then my own school offers me a 3/4 tution scholarship, automatic on for law review, and a job as a tutor for 1st year students. This would save me about $50k over the next two years off of the tuiton, albeit I would be graduatiing from a Tier 4 school.

Loyola and USD both accepted me (haven't heard back from the other two). But neither of these shcools (Tier 2) offer scholarships to transfers (or at least not to me).

So.... should I stay at a Tier 4 with all the perks and the $$$ scholarship (so my tuiton would be $7k a year instead of $30k) or should I transfer to a more prestigious Tier 2 school and pay full price???

Thank you for all responses, and for taking the time to read this!

LawDeeDa

This really depends on what you want to do and where you want to practice.

[GA_Kristi]

I agree with the last poster, it depends what you want to do.  I'm leaving my T4 for a T1 both for geographic and prestige reasons.  If my T4 offered me a full scholarship I still wouldn't go back.  I have interviews with firms that auto-rejected me last year simply because I have a T1 school on my resume now.  The name of your school can open huge doors for you, though you still have to do a lot of work after that point.  I know for me, staying at my T4 wasn't an option once I had a better opportunity.  Those doors would have never opened. 

However, if you want to do public interest, I can see how going tuition-free to a T4 would be a smart idea.  Then you could take whatever kind of job you want and not worry about money.  However, if you're looking to go into a big firm, or into a practice area that is hard to get into, I'd say going to the higher ranked school is worth it in the long run.  I've run numbers and the kind of money I can make coming out of my new school more than makes up for the student loan debt. 

Are you a CA resident?  I would think in-state tuition at any of those schools would make it worthwhile to transfer, as the debt wouldn't be all that large.

Again, it all just depends on your situation and what you want to do after law school.  Best of luck!

[btideroll]

it depends on your region, where you want to practice, and the law school density of your area.

T4 v. T1 isn't really that bad as long as you can get interviews the the same firms. Of course it always helps to be in an area that doesn't have a law school every 10 feet (northeast, or california).

if money is an issue stay, if you can still get chances at firms you are interested in stay....if doors are totally locked because of your school (which is a sad truth by the way) then you should probably try to move up the ranks

goodluck

cacheofreason.blogspot.com

[Contract2008]

i think it also matters which tier 4 school you attend(ed). some tier fours can be solid regional powerhouses (suffolk and william mitchell come to mind) whereas others just don't get any respect at all (like cooley). if the latter is the case, then without a question transfer out of there!

BAFF, is that you?

[jjason]

Here we go with the Cooley *&^% again. I get so tired of hearing about how awful Cooley is. What about Golden Gate Univeristy? Why doesn't anyone trash on that school? They had a bar passage rate of 28% recently in a state with an average first time passage of 68%. At least Cooley's 51% passage rate for a 75% state is better than 28:68. For some people, Cooley is a viable option. So they give everybody a chance and are trashed for having a high attrition rate. There are plenty of successful people from Cooley you can find throughout the political and legal community. You can't make a sweeping generalization just because of the name of a school.

Anyway - as far as T4 w/ money versus a T1/T2 without money - as most have suggested, it is entirely up to your short-term/long-term goals. Where do you want to practice? What kind of law? Do you have great connections with your current professors, or will professors from the new school have connections that are valuable to you? True, you will be debt free, but if you want a big law job with good money, that may be a more difficult option for you coming out of your T4 school, thus jeopardizing a long-term goal. (Or not). That is a difficult question for anyone to answer without any background information. I think you should sit down with a pro/con list myself!