Stetson at full price?

[20caliguy]

I know stetson is at the upper end of the T-2 schools, but what do you guys think about stetsons job prospects? I didn't get a scholarship so i would be graduating with roughly $135,000 of debt upon graduation. Is stetson worth it? Any insights?

[ntiger]

Phew, I feel the same may with St Louis University.  Similiar ranking, private school tuition, around $165k of debt upon graduation.  I would be interested to see what people have to say about this -- do you have other options?

[SamE397]

I feel the same way in some regards. I'm going to have 80-100k in debt from a similarly ranked school. I thought about taking two to three years off first and trying to save up money but I figured even doing that my best case scenario was probably getting 20-30k saved. A more realistic number was probably closer to 10k though. In the end, I decided to just to go for it though going to law school was what I really wanted to do and I wasn't going to let my situation stop me. Of course there are legitimate arguments to the contrary but in the end I would say do what you really want to. 


FWIW I'm a finance major and I did some calculations to figure out how much more I should be making for law school to be a worthwhile investment. I used an interest rate of 5-6.5%, a working life of thirty years, and lost wages for three years of 30-60k annually. My conclusion was that I would need to be able to make 12-15k more over the long term for law school to be a worthwhile investment. Granted there are practical concerns about debt that are not accounted for through this sort of esoterical approach but IMO when you actually look at what you should be making to have a solid return on investment it's not nearly as insurmountable as you might think.

I think part of the disconnect on these boards between people going to t2-t4 schools versus those going to top 30 schools comes from the fact that many of the people who say that they would only go to top law schools graduated from a top public or ivy league school that gave them good prospects with only a B.A. So for those people going to a T3 law school if they don't have connections could be a wash and maybe even a step back in terms of earning potential. For someone like myself who has a degree they don't plan to use from a third rate public university even a degree from a T3 law school helps a lot to increase future earning potential.     

[Contract2008]

Very risky investment, especially if the legal market in 2013 is anything like it is today. 

Why not consider other Tier 2/Tier 3 state schools such as Louisiana State, Univ. of Arkansas, Univ. of Mississippi, Georgia State,  Texas Tech, etc.  At some of these state/schools, you can get in-state tuition after the first year. 

[Ninja1]

Very risky investment, especially if the legal market in 2013 is anything like it is today. 

Why not consider other Tier 2/Tier 3 state schools such as Louisiana State, Univ. of Arkansas, Univ. of Mississippi, Georgia State,  Texas Tech, etc.  At some of these state/schools, you can get in-state tuition after the first year. 

TITCR.

[SamE397]

Very risky investment, especially if the legal market in 2013 is anything like it is today. 

Why not consider other Tier 2/Tier 3 state schools such as Louisiana State, Univ. of Arkansas, Univ. of Mississippi, Georgia State,  Texas Tech, etc.  At some of these state/schools, you can get in-state tuition after the first year. 

I can't speak for the other people on these boards but I know in my state all the law schools are pretty expensive. I figured that I could save maybe 20-30k by going to a school out of state. I've chosen to stay in the area though because I didn't think whatever I saved would be enough to justify a permanent relocation.