Top 20 school vs. FREE top 100 school

[penni_rose]

What do you do if you get into a school ranked about 55 with a full scholarship and one ranked about 16, but with no money? That's the situation I'm in right now. I'm looking at the University of Texas with no scholarship or Baylor with a full-tuition scholarship. Everyone is telling me to take the money, because Baylor has a good local reputation and I don't want to practice out of state, but I'm not really sure. I really wanted to go to UT.

[penni_rose]

2.6 GPA (top 2/3rds of the class).

[just some guy]

Baylor isn't known for screwing people out of their scholarships. I'm a big Baylor fan, but UT is the 800 lb gorilla in Texas. UT >>>>> every other law school on the planet for the Texas market. I presume you're a Texas resident and getting in-state tuition, so UT is still a great bargain financially. It's not like you'll be $120k in debt.

[penni_rose]

I would get in state tuition, but that's still at least 60,000 in debt vs. no debt.

[heartbreaker]

Do you want to do biglaw?

[penni_rose]

I'm looking at business law, probably intellectual property. Baylor has a business litigation focus that I'm interested in.

[bt]

Go to UT.  And be sure to inform UT of Baylor's scholarship...I don't know if it'll get them to give you anything, but it's worth a shot.

Either way, you'll be graduating with much less debt than most people by going to UT and getting an amazing education.  Baylor really can't compare when it comes to placement, though Baylor's a decent school for the Texas market. 

[Azamat]

Texas hands down, not even close. 60k is a drop in the bucket coming out of Texas.

[littlebit]

Go to UT.  You will most likely get 5K (maybe more) a year from them PLUS some grant money.  If going to the best law school in Texas isn't enough, then remember that Baylor is in Waco and UT is in Austin.  nuff said

[penni_rose]

Trust me, the part where it's in Austin is appealing, especially considering that I live in Austin.