Am I crazy to want to go to USC ($$$) over UChic ($)?

[Koobideh]

enough chatter fools. lets get back to the main goal: convince the OP that UChicago is the right choice!

Dear OP, you may have better employment options EVEN in LA as a UChicago grad than a USC grad. Im sure at USC, a large majority of grads are jockeying for LA jobs. On the other hand how, many Chicago graduates do you think are vying for Los Angeles? who knows but certainly significantly less than SC...consider consider consider the advantages of going to Chicago.

[themanwithnoname]

again, georgetown guy trolling against USC, hilarious.

[rd jd 123]

enough chatter fools. lets get back to the main goal: convince the OP that UChicago is the right choice!

Dear OP, you may have better employment options EVEN in LA as a UChicago grad than a USC grad. Im sure at USC, a large majority of grads are jockeying for LA jobs. On the other hand how, many Chicago graduates do you think are vying for Los Angeles? who knows but certainly significantly less than SC...consider consider consider the advantages of going to Chicago.

There's a lot of good discussion on this topic, but I'd recommend that everyone (especially you, OP) who comes to this thread for advice ignore every word from this particular poster.

His quote earlier in the thread is telling: "Now, I love USC and will be there this fall and dont want to compete with UChicago caliber peeps, so go there. peace."

It's pretty sick for someone to continually bash his undergraduate and (probably) law school institution simply because (1) he is unhappy about the schools he got into, and (2) now that he's headed to USC, he's intent on tearing it down on the Internet to pad the upcoming curve.

Telling OP to avoid "stooping down to USC" and blasting the school as nothing more than "an old soviet style building" in "possibly the gloomiest" part of LA with anecdotes of the crime in the area -- totally unwarranted. Propagating horror stories to discourage people who may score better than you on finals is just sad.

Coming from a different undergraduate school (with a higher-ranked law school), I was initially a huge skeptic of USC. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by almost everything about USC Law during my first year here. In all honesty, I have not heard of or seen a happier class of 1L students.

Again OP, given your particular situation, I'd highly recommend you think of USC over UChicago. Of course, objectively there are some benefits to UChicago that USC simply can't offer. However, I too turned down a higher-ranked school outside of CA because I knew wanted to stay in CA forever and I'd just be happier to stay in CA. I'm pretty sure I made the right decision.

If anything, Koobideh, I truly hope that you are selected by one of your waitlisted schools so I don't have the displeasure of meeting you in the fall.

Cheers.

[SteelersandGators]

enough chatter fools. lets get back to the main goal: convince the OP that UChicago is the right choice!

Dear OP, you may have better employment options EVEN in LA as a UChicago grad than a USC grad. Im sure at USC, a large majority of grads are jockeying for LA jobs. On the other hand how, many Chicago graduates do you think are vying for Los Angeles? who knows but certainly significantly less than SC...consider consider consider the advantages of going to Chicago.

There's a lot of good discussion on this topic, but I'd recommend that everyone (especially you, OP) who comes to this thread for advice ignore every word from this particular poster.

His quote earlier in the thread is telling: "Now, I love USC and will be there this fall and dont want to compete with UChicago caliber peeps, so go there. peace."

It's pretty sick for someone to continually bash his undergraduate and (probably) law school institution simply because (1) he is unhappy about the schools he got into, and (2) now that he's headed to USC, he's intent on tearing it down on the Internet to pad the upcoming curve.

Telling OP to avoid "stooping down to USC" and blasting the school as nothing more than "an old soviet style building" in "possibly the gloomiest" part of LA with anecdotes of the crime in the area -- totally unwarranted. Propagating horror stories to discourage people who may score better than you on finals is just sad.

Coming from a different undergraduate school (with a higher-ranked law school), I was initially a huge skeptic of USC. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by almost everything about USC Law during my first year here. In all honesty, I have not heard of or seen a happier class of 1L students.

Again OP, given your particular situation, I'd highly recommend you think of USC over UChicago. Of course, objectively there are some benefits to UChicago that USC simply can't offer. However, I too turned down a higher-ranked school outside of CA because I knew wanted to stay in CA forever and I'd just be happier to stay in CA. I'm pretty sure I made the right decision.

If anything, Koobideh, I truly hope that you are selected by one of your waitlisted schools so I don't have the displeasure of meeting you in the fall.

Cheers.

:grabspopcorn:

[AmericanGunner]

Three snaps!
*snaps hand 3x, as if to say, oh no he didn't

[jammer]

enough chatter fools. lets get back to the main goal: convince the OP that UChicago is the right choice!

Dear OP, you may have better employment options EVEN in LA as a UChicago grad than a USC grad. Im sure at USC, a large majority of grads are jockeying for LA jobs. On the other hand how, many Chicago graduates do you think are vying for Los Angeles? who knows but certainly significantly less than SC...consider consider consider the advantages of going to Chicago.

There's a lot of good discussion on this topic, but I'd recommend that everyone (especially you, OP) who comes to this thread for advice ignore every word from this particular poster.

His quote earlier in the thread is telling: "Now, I love USC and will be there this fall and dont want to compete with UChicago caliber peeps, so go there. peace."

It's pretty sick for someone to continually bash his undergraduate and (probably) law school institution simply because (1) he is unhappy about the schools he got into, and (2) now that he's headed to USC, he's intent on tearing it down on the Internet to pad the upcoming curve.

Telling OP to avoid "stooping down to USC" and blasting the school as nothing more than "an old soviet style building" in "possibly the gloomiest" part of LA with anecdotes of the crime in the area -- totally unwarranted. Propagating horror stories to discourage people who may score better than you on finals is just sad.

Coming from a different undergraduate school (with a higher-ranked law school), I was initially a huge skeptic of USC. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by almost everything about USC Law during my first year here. In all honesty, I have not heard of or seen a happier class of 1L students.

Again OP, given your particular situation, I'd highly recommend you think of USC over UChicago. Of course, objectively there are some benefits to UChicago that USC simply can't offer. However, I too turned down a higher-ranked school outside of CA because I knew wanted to stay in CA forever and I'd just be happier to stay in CA. I'm pretty sure I made the right decision.

If anything, Koobideh, I truly hope that you are selected by one of your waitlisted schools so I don't have the displeasure of meeting you in the fall.

Cheers.

Amen.

I think...no, wait, I KNOW I have more respect for people who are confident in themselves enough to overlook prestige and rank to go to a place that fits their needs/career goals. I glad you did it, and I hope the OP does the same, because it sounds like they WANT to go to USC. You can play the % games all you want talking about which school will get you Biglaw or clerkships, but at the end of the day YOU are the one applying for a job, not a percentage. There's no shame in taking a "lower ranked" school if it's a good school that you like.

[AmericanGunner]

Three snaps!
*snaps hand 3x, as if to say, oh no he didn't

That icon is wonderful.

[Koobideh]

enough chatter fools. lets get back to the main goal: convince the OP that UChicago is the right choice!

Dear OP, you may have better employment options EVEN in LA as a UChicago grad than a USC grad. Im sure at USC, a large majority of grads are jockeying for LA jobs. On the other hand how, many Chicago graduates do you think are vying for Los Angeles? who knows but certainly significantly less than SC...consider consider consider the advantages of going to Chicago.

There's a lot of good discussion on this topic, but I'd recommend that everyone (especially you, OP) who comes to this thread for advice ignore every word from this particular poster.

His quote earlier in the thread is telling: "Now, I love USC and will be there this fall and dont want to compete with UChicago caliber peeps, so go there. peace."

It's pretty sick for someone to continually bash his undergraduate and (probably) law school institution simply because (1) he is unhappy about the schools he got into, and (2) now that he's headed to USC, he's intent on tearing it down on the Internet to pad the upcoming curve.

Telling OP to avoid "stooping down to USC" and blasting the school as nothing more than "an old soviet style building" in "possibly the gloomiest" part of LA with anecdotes of the crime in the area -- totally unwarranted. Propagating horror stories to discourage people who may score better than you on finals is just sad.

Coming from a different undergraduate school (with a higher-ranked law school), I was initially a huge skeptic of USC. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by almost everything about USC Law during my first year here. In all honesty, I have not heard of or seen a happier class of 1L students.

Again OP, given your particular situation, I'd highly recommend you think of USC over UChicago. Of course, objectively there are some benefits to UChicago that USC simply can't offer. However, I too turned down a higher-ranked school outside of CA because I knew wanted to stay in CA forever and I'd just be happier to stay in CA. I'm pretty sure I made the right decision.

If anything, Koobideh, I truly hope that you are selected by one of your waitlisted schools so I don't have the displeasure of meeting you in the fall.

Cheers.

Good god bud, you are taking things too seriously. It is not "sick" on my part (as you have put it) to tell some truths about USC, simply because i went there for undergrad does not mean i should blatantly lie about the school. The law building is definitely an old Soviet bomb shelter, the area is competing to be one of the gloomiest in LA and crime is a serious issue at USC.

And I am certainly not "propagating" horror stories. DPS (the campus police department) does send out weekly emails detailing a variety of robberies and assults involving USC students as victims.

This is not a personal issue and you should not make it so, in my sincere opinion i think the OP would be wise to attend UChicago, particularly if USC doesnt cough up more scholarship money.

With that said, looking forward to meeting you in the fall.

[themanwithoutaname]

USC is terrible. At everything. HTH

You're going to Georgetown! Its USC with worse weather.

patently false.

USC ≠ Georgetown.  USC > Georgetown.

Reasons:
Weather
Market
Class size
Sports
Coast (west coast > east coast)

[Allen]

USC can definitely get you to the same firms and the same salary that Chicago can get you. If you want to clerk or be a professor, without a doubt go to Chicago. For BigLaw in L.A., doesn't matter so much. If you do well at USC you'll have no problem - and it's not like Chicago is Yale where it doesn't matter how well you do. You can probably have worse grades at Chicago and go into BigLaw, but grades still matter. And you might have a better chance of getting good grades at USC, so hard to say which is better.

However, I would say though that you probably have a significantly better chance of getting a 1L gig from chicago than usc - you can get a 1L gig from usc, but it's difficult. That extra $30K makes up the difference. 

Cost of living is also cheaper in Chicago.

Personally I'd take 3 years in L.A. over 3 years in Chicago, no question, but that's just me. Wasn't worth it to me to even apply there.