Made a list of places to consider... please critique/advise my choices!

[cwhelan]

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[Em Woods]

Get rid of UBaltimore for a number of reasons, pick a better fall back school.

[just Trev]

sounds like you'd like Lewis & Clark more than some of your other schools.  Portland is really nice. check it out.

[PaleForce]

UTexas?  It's in Austin and I've heard this makes it a lot less conservative than other Texas schools.  Don't know from personal experience with Texas, though.

[vjm]

Tulane has an excellent international law program. Also, the feds have an LRAP program now, so you don't have to choose a school based on their individual program.

There is a LOT of public interest work going on in New Orleans, of every stripe. I don't see you saying you specifically want to do PI, but I think you could find a lot of options to suit you.

And with that score, you would get some money which is a very, very good thing.

[Em Woods]

Yeah, I did look at it as a fall-back school (more like a fall off a cliff.. it's LSAT average isnt even worth mentioning) just because it's in MD. What makes the place so bad?
[/quote]

Other than the fact it's one of the lowest ranked T4 law schools around, it is also very expensive. Another problem is that the whole region around DC/Baltimore, ect is law school haven, with Baltimore at the very bottom of the pack. If you ever wanted to do DC law, there's a chance you could never find a decent job bc the market is naturally swamped with tons of grads from higher ranked institutions. My cousin went there and she couldn't find a job. She finally found one though....working for her dad.

[philibusters]

Yeah, I did look at it as a fall-back school (more like a fall off a cliff.. it's LSAT average isnt even worth mentioning) just because it's in MD. What makes the place so bad?

Other than the fact it's one of the lowest ranked T4 law schools around, it is also very expensive. Another problem is that the whole region around DC/Baltimore, ect is law school haven, with Baltimore at the very bottom of the pack. If you ever wanted to do DC law, there's a chance you could never find a decent job bc the market is naturally swamped with tons of grads from higher ranked institutions. My cousin went there and she couldn't find a job. She finally found one though....working for her dad.

Isn't it in the middle of Tier 3?  Its not that bad.  I went to the University of Maryland undergrad and a lot of my friends went there.  It has a lot of smart people.  Its also not expensive, its a public school and slightly cheaper than Maryland I think.  Your cousin probably just had bad experience. 

[nike6075]

3.84 unknown/good school, 168. Marylander. virtually no notable soft factors. History major, women's studies minor.

I am interested in international law, but not State Department/us government work specifically.. I don't want to enforce foreign policy because I often disagree with it.
I am also interested in women/families/Spanish, etc. I want to go to law school to do something that falls into these areas.. but I also am interested in my own financial security.

Please look over this list and critique- good fits or bad, are any just too bad or too good to bother applying to?
Any additional suggestions for 'good fit' schools for me?
Additional notes: I can't handle a pervasively conservative atmosphere, I want to go to a school that at least has an understanding that some of its students wont go to firms, and I hate being really cold.

Boston University
UPenn
U Baltimore
University of Maryland
American- 5th for international law- law and international studies combo degree, sounds really good for government
Georgetown- 3rd for international law, very demanding, 'barhopping', competitive, but with public interest loan forgiveness program
University of Oregon- sounds really nice, friendly, my kind of 'lifestyle'
Stanford- snowballs chance in hell of acceptance, but nice..
U Berkeley- pretty much the same as Stanford
U Hastings
UCLA-good, cant get past stigma of LA driving exhaust, kind of dread contributing to the water-environmental disaster of LA
University of Mich-cold?
CUNY Queens- a public interest law school, but really bad scores
Northeastern-coop jobs the whole time
U Wisconsin-cold?

You sound pretty obnoxious - I'd look into Cornell.  I think the likemindedness will help you get over the cold.

[Em Woods]

[/quote]

Isn't it in the middle of Tier 3?  Its not that bad.  I went to the University of Maryland undergrad and a lot of my friends went there.  It has a lot of smart people.
[/quote]

It is a t4.

[ckoz11]

I don't think he's not respecting your choices, but quotes like this -

 "cant get past stigma of LA driving exhaust, kind of dread contributing to the water-environmental disaster of LA"

can elicit the assumption that you think you're better than the "water/environmental disaster" causing californians

Not a knock on you or your views

but I would also add UVA and Vandy