DePaul with scholarship or Kent full price

[ohioan]

I was notified recently that I got into Chicago Kent. Since it is late in the cycle, I doubt I will get a scholarship. Assuming I don't, is Kent worth full price compared to DePaul with a 15K/yr scholarship. The GPA requirement is 3.3

I visited both schools and I feel that Kent has more to offer the IP student, like me, but employment research indicates that both programs place relatively equal numbers of grads into IP firms. I think it will be a little tougher for me to get ranked higher in the class at Kent than at DePaul (not that I won't have to work my ass off either way).

One nice thing about Kent too is that if I want to live farther outside the city, I can take the Metrarail commuter everyday and they are right next door to union station. At this point I am grabbing at whatever differences I can find. Ranking does not seem to play much of a role here. Even a big firm like Jones Day took practically the same from each school over the last five years (which is like 2 per year!) Although I feel like I would enjoy law school more at Kent, I can't ignore the additional 15K->45K in debt...is Kent worth 45K more than DePaul?

[Remarq]

What is the curve at Depaul?

[ohioan]

about the same at most schools. I was thinking that since there seemed to be more students fresh out of college in the DePaul 1L class I sat in on compared to what I saw in the 1L class at Kent, I could probably organize and compose a "better" answer to the exams among my peers at DePaul...of course I could be wrong. Still, I think the better overall legal education is at Kent, but am I really better off taking on that much more debt? Most IP attorneys I have talked to tell me that outside the top 20, forget ranking. You need to be in the top 10% of your class and if you have your choice of schools in the area that you want to practice, go to the one that puts you into less debt. So, if all that is true, then the choice here is DePaul. However, if what I am saying about the quality of education at Kent being better is true, then should I really ignore that? How can quality of education not matter?

[Remarq]

The reason I asked is because a 3.3 might be top 25% of or something based on Depaul's curve, meaning you'd have a 75% chance of not keeping your scholly the second or third year.

[NMUZ]

I agree that the curve is the most important factor here.  Is Kent worth 45K more than Depaul, I don't know, but I do think that it is worth 15K more.  Kent from what I have heard has a much better IP program.  Plus the added benefit of living in the suburbs helps a ton with cost of living.  So the curve really is the most important part.  I would say that if it is around 3.0 then you have a chance but below that and you start to run the risk that you will not get the scholarship renewed.

[ohioan]

The discussion about the curve is new to me. I did a Ph.D. through a medical school, but never paid attention to the curve. Are there any particular strategies involved in dealing with it? I mean if 10-15% of the class will receive an A- or better, and there are 80 students in the class, then only 8-12 students will get grades better than B+, and you would just need to be better than as many as 72 other students...okay, but how the heck can you do that?

Your comments about the curve bring up a point that I had not thought about. This is a good example of how a site like this can be useful. I hope anyone interested in this conversation will join in.  Thanks.

[contrarian]

One nice thing about Kent too is that if I want to live farther outside the city, I can take the Metrarail commuter everyday and they are right next door to union station.

Admittedly, this is a factor for myself as well between Kent/Depaul/JMLS since I currently do take a train in and out of Union Station each day. 

A block north of Depaul is Adams which has buses that run regularly down the 5-6 blocks to union station.  To and from Union Station, it is about a 15-25 minute walk.  In the spring/summer/fall it's a nice walk.  Dec/Jan/Feb it SUCKS!  If you catch a bus right outside union, it's 4-5 minutes to the Depaul stop.  You can use the cta bustracker website and a mobile device to find out when they are coming and going to various stops.

Depaul posts their historical class ranks and associated GPA here.  3.3 will be in about the top 30% of the class.

[contrarian]

If you want my 2c, I think you should go to Kent. 

Why?

Because I'm leaning towards DePaul and it'll be one less person who seems relatively smart enough to be competition for me to maintain my scholarship.

So like, yeah.  Kent has a better IP program.  Better facilities (lets face it, DePaul's got some dumpy class rooms and those chairs are awful),  plus you'll have that extra distance to go.. and if you take the bus each way, that's like $5, every day and that adds up fast.  Oh yeah and don't forget DePaul has the L runnin by every 20 seconds, how you gunna like that when you're trying to concentrate on an exam and you've got the room shaking like it's Jake Elwood's pad.

[vap]

Depaul posts their historical class ranks and associated GPA here.  3.3 will be in about the top 30% of the class.

Yikes.  Ask Depaul to lower the GPA requirement to 3.0, and maybe it's worth it.

You could end up in the top 1/3 of the class (certainly respectable) and still lose your scholarship.  Boo.

[ohioan]

If you want my 2c, I think you should go to Kent. 

Why?

Because I'm leaning towards DePaul and it'll be one less person who seems relatively smart enough to be competition for me to maintain my scholarship.

So like, yeah.  Kent has a better IP program.  Better facilities (lets face it, DePaul's got some dumpy class rooms and those chairs are awful),  plus you'll have that extra distance to go.. and if you take the bus each way, that's like $5, every day and that adds up fast.  Oh yeah and don't forget DePaul has the L runnin by every 20 seconds, how you gunna like that when you're trying to concentrate on an exam and you've got the room shaking like it's Jake Elwood's pad.

Hmmm....your arguements are not strong enough to persuade me otherwise. Oh, and as for the $5 bus...did you ever hear of this thing called UPASS? It is included as part of the fees and provides unlimited rides during the school term.