Temple Law vs Villanova Law

[jarog87]

I saw that this was a post in 2008... but since then a lot of indicators have changed, especially for Villanova.

I was accepted at Villanova with a full scholarship, and at Temple with a scholarship that makes it so that I only will pay $4000/year. So, in this scenario money is not a deciding factor.

I am totally torn between the two at the moment. Temple is higher ranked, and seems to have higher employment numbers. I not sure which one is better recognized.

What is your opinion? Where would you go?

[taxguy]

Honestly , they have about the same cache. Here is the real question: What are the stipulations required at each school in order to keep your scholarship?

[Tiery Eyed]

Temple

[luiskison]

Temple has always been the better school--at least in terms of the caliber of students. The only reason people didn't recognize that was that Villanova lied to the ABA (and USN&WR) for years about the LSAT scores of its entering class.

[legend]

Pretty sure every school lies to the ABA and the USNWR or at least significantly manipulates the data.

As for the decision as one poster indicated the scholarship conditions are very important. This article does a great job explaining how conditions work. http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/business/law-school-grants.html

Another thing to consider is how do YOU feel about the schools. Most schools have a feel to them and you generally like it or you don't. Your the only one that can answer that question, when I was choosing some schools were just not for me I could tell right away.  Not that there is another wrong with that particular school it just was not for me, and you will see each school has their own culture to it and whether you like an individual schools culture is entirely up to you, and it is a very important factor to consider. If you can't stand a place for a few hour visit, then your going to have a miserable three  years.

As for the rankings let it play some role in your decision, but realize it is nothing more than a for-profit, unregulated, magazine offering an opinion based on minimal facts and schools jump 20-30 spots in any given year. So by the time you graduate in 2015 it is entirely possible for Villanova to be higher ranked than Temple. My school was in the 70's years ago when I started. It has jumped all over the place and was in an 11 way tie for 84th with Villanova last year. Anyways, Villanova went from their 11 way tie for 84th to a 4 way tie for 101st, and I believe Temple is in a 4 way tie for 58th. So you can the jumps are drastic and there are so many ties it becomes very difficult to take seriously. However, it does have some power so consider it a factor in your decision, but not a major one.