Need help deciding what school

[ohiou26]

Hey everyone, I am in desperate need for advice. I tried top-law-schools but they seemed to rip everything that wasn't t-14 or big law oriented. I have been accepted to Northern Kentucky, Capital, Ohio Northern, Cleveland State, U of Dayton, Valparaiso, and waiting to hear from Case. I am highly considering U of Dayton because I am from the area and would have virtually no living expenses. Can anyone give me advice which school to go to? (I am not aiming for big law. If i had to pick an area where to work I would say Dayton, Columbus, or Eastern Penn.) Thanks for all the help guys

[sollicitus]

Yeah TLS is (like a lot of forums) not meant to actually help anyone, but just to let people repeat the things they want to hear.

The best two pieces of advise are always- 1) Which one is where you want to live or practice?   2) Which one is offering the best scholarship?

[legend]

I would say with the schools you have been accepted to go to the location you want to live. Most law schools do fine in their own location and if you can have 50-60k on living expenses then that is worth it. I have no idea what the rankings of any of the schools you listed are, but it really doesn't matter for schools of this caliber.

As for the Top Law school rippers if everyone could get into a T14 school they would. With that logic nobody should go to anything less than a Top 10 undergrad and so on. Bottom line don't listen to it. If you had a 180 on the LSAT you would be crazy to consider these schools, but like 99% of the population you didn't get a 180.

As for the schools themselves literally they all teach you the same thing. Your first year you will have torts, contracts, civil procedure, LRW, property, criminal law. There may be some variation on that school to school, but you will read cases like Pennoyer v. Neff, Hadley v. Baxendale, so and so on. The education is basically the same from school to school since unlike medical school, enginnering, etc you don't need any special equipment to learn the law. You simply need some books and a professor that knows the law and almost any ABA law school professor is highly credentialled and will do a good enough job explaining it.

As for the schools you mentioned it looks like you should go to Dayton. That is where you live, where you want to live, and will be the cheapest option. If you want to be in Indiana go to Valapraiso, if you want to be in Ohio go to Northern Ohio. So and so forth.

Then one final thing there is no right answer to your question. There is no right law school, but many 0L's think there is some magic formula to choosing the right school, but there isn't. Each school has their own pros & cons, but location and cost should be your number one concerns when choosing regional schools like the ones you have mentioned.

I would also visit the schools you are really interested in, because each school has it's own feel. Everybody will have their own subjective thoughts about each school's feel and what one person hates another would love. That is why you should really visit the schools you are interested in, because you will know if it fits your own personality.  Also remember me and other internet posters are nothing more than anonymous people on the internet and any posting you see should be heavily scrutinzed.

Good luck to you on your decision.

[fortook]

Case, of course, if you get in.  Other than that, the rest are all third or fourth tier.  I have heard Dayton grads do pretty well in the area, and if that is here you want to practice anyways...  I've heard a few other good things about Dayton as well- atmosphere, nice campus, etc.

TLS is populated by too many insecure d.bags, agreed. .  Good luck.