U of Arizona 2L taking questions...

[norcal]

I am currently deciding between U of A and University of San Francisco. I would like to work in Northern California after I graduate but USF is way more expensive than UA in terms of living expenses and tuition.  With that said, if I were to go to Arizona would I be able to relocate back in to Northern California with ease or would be it be more intelligent to just go to USF and make connections while I am in school.

[iaone]

What's the culture of the students there?  Is it cut throat etc...

[azlaw09]

UA is not cutthroat at all. First year there were some gunners (as there are in every class) and there are some people who get pretty competitive but it's nothing major. It has a lot do with the dynamic of the small section you get placed in--they break up the 150 or so incoming 1l's into two groups of 75. Then those groups are each split further  into 3 groups of 25. You will have one class with just your group of 25 and then the rest of your classes first year will have the other fifty people from your "half" of the class. So, you can probably imagine that it does breed a little competition taking a full year of classes with nothing but the same 75 people. Overall though, I would say the student body is not overly competitive. I think one of the princeton review guides refers to us as "pretty laid back and wearing flip flops to class year round."..I would say that's pretty close to accurate.

[azlaw09]

Norcal: that is a tough call. I think from either one of the two schools, you are going to have to get excellent grades (top ten percent) to have a shot at any kind of firm job in SF and you'd probably have to do pretty damn well to get a public sector job in SF too.

USF is tier three and there are far too many other top notch schools in the area (in addition to people coming to SF from all throughout the t-14). To get a job in the bay area in my opinion (go look at the nalp data for USF and see what it says...talk to career services at USF...call Dean Nailon, the career services director at UA to see what she says about jobs in SF) it's going to take good grades and effort on your behalf.

It's definitely not impossible to get to SF from UA, students from my class are going to both NYC and SF to work for big firms this summer. It has a lot to do with what you put into it. In my honest opinion though, going to USF with the huge debt load you will take on (or did they give you money??) is a risk I wouldn't take when you have a much more solid option like UA. UA is a very solid tier one that will give you good options in AZ if you do ok and great options in AZ, CA, NV, and surrounding states if you get excellent grades.

[norcal]

Thanks for the insight.  I am leaning toward arizona because it looks like the smarter choice career wise.  I would ideally like to do public work in the Bay Area, not necessarily SF, but I realize the competitition is stiff in the area and I don't want to screw myself over.  Tuition-wise, AZ is only about 20g less for the whole term because USF offered 18g my first year and I would be out of state for a year at Arizona so I have been considering that.  Either way I go I feel like I will be ok but I think I will be sending in my az deposit on monday.

[ElMismoPandejo]

How common/easy it to get a job in Phoenix paying around $75K?  Or maybe put it this way:  Of the midsized firms that participate in OCI, what is the most common cutoff?  25%?  33%?  They all say something like "good academic record" but what do they mean by that?

Also, is the school a feeder for state/local government jobs?

Do any people head over to San Diego?

[iaone]

About how many hours a day/week would you spend on school your first year?