help me choosing the RIGHT school

[piggy-buttercup]

It's gonna be between:

 

Georgetown: full tuition scholarship

UVa: 63,000

Penn: 61,000

Berkeley: Boo@ the lack of funding issue. 25,000

 

After visiting each schools, Berkeley was my favorite, regarding its student body and holistic culture. I really felt right there when I visited. I also LOVED UVa, but being the stark minority thing concerns me a little.

 

I do want to end up in California legal market, and that does put Berkeley up in the running. However, it seems that I can go to CA from any of those schools mentioned above if I try a little harder. I don't have any CA ties on my resume though.

 

What do you think? I would really appreciate any thoughts. Does it worth it go to Berkeley paying something like 40k more just because I felt really right there?

 

Am I stupid to give up the full ride at gtown? I did really like the school and the surrounding environment.

 

Gtown wants an answer by the 15th of April. Others want their deposit thing by the 28th of April. should I let go Gtown and have about two more weeks to think about others?

 

Mmmm in addition, here are pros and cons of each school, based on personal, and rational observations.

 

Berkeley:

 

PROS:

Strongest APALSA community out of all those schools. It seemed really cohesive. People(Asians) I've encountered said that they've developed really great mentoring relationships there. Got jobs through there, etc. Even though rationally, this shouldn't be the deciding factor about the school I guess.

 

People looked super happy. The pass/fail grading system seemed to really promote non-competetive environment.

 

Location is great. I love the bay area and I've always wanted to live there and work there.

 

CONS:

 

Cracking down facilities

Lack of funding

Hence nothing to expect from the career service office.. no attentive service like penn's

 

UVa

 

PROS:

 

Very similar culture to Berkeley's - Mandatory B+ curve hence very non competitive environment

Happy looking people

I strangely really liked c'ville

CHEAP! cost of living

Great Fin aid offer I got

 

CONS:

 

being the stark minority(8% asians versus 20% asians at berkeley)

I don't know if I want to practice in DC/NY

I NEED a car there(added 10k in cost)

UVa seemed underestimated in Korea

need to try harder to get to CA market

 

Gtown

 

PROS:

 

DC is awesome

Location is AWESOME - supreme court 4 blocks away

I am getting a full ride

I felt pretty fit there

great facilities

 

CONS:

 

Huge class size

Bottom of t14(trying my best not to be a prestige whore but it's hard)

Reputation of being the "factory"

need to try harder to get to CA market

I don't know if I want to go to DC/NY to practice

Not at all strong APALSA

 

Penn

 

PROS:

Highest in the ranking out of all those schools

opportunities of taking Wharton classes(i know it's not much of a sales pitch but I was a business major in college and it would be very cool)

Strategic location of being right between DC and NY (2 hours each)

VERY VERY attentive career service

I got a great fin aid offer

The school has a lot of $$ obviously

 

CONS:

I didn't really feel fit. Even though this might be due to the biased interactions with only a small portion of the admitted students.

need to try harder to get to CA market

I don't know if I want to go to NY/DC to practice

[KT]

Doesn't Berkeley do matching scholarship stuff?

Send them your stuff from G-town or UVA, and they will attempt to match it...

[piggy-buttercup]

The matching thing is not guaranteed(I thought it was) and they are not going to match it.

Doesn't Berkeley do matching scholarship stuff?

Send them your stuff from G-town or UVA, and they will attempt to match it...

[AceJackSuited]

As an Asian myself, and wanting to practice in Cali, I'd go Boalt. I think it'd be easier for an Asian to find a job and move higher up in a place where Asians make up a good chunk of a particular company. There wouldn't be a glass ceiling, or at least the ceiling would be higher up.

[KT]

The matching thing is not guaranteed(I thought it was) and they are not going to match it.

Doesn't Berkeley do matching scholarship stuff?

Send them your stuff from G-town or UVA, and they will attempt to match it...

how long did it take for them to get back to you?

[piggy-buttercup]

3 weeks

The matching thing is not guaranteed(I thought it was) and they are not going to match it.

Doesn't Berkeley do matching scholarship stuff?

Send them your stuff from G-town or UVA, and they will attempt to match it...

how long did it take for them to get back to you?

[KT]

3 weeks

The matching thing is not guaranteed(I thought it was) and they are not going to match it.

Doesn't Berkeley do matching scholarship stuff?

Send them your stuff from G-town or UVA, and they will attempt to match it...

how long did it take for them to get back to you?

Hrm... yeah... I'm leaning towards berkeley, but not if they can't give me more money... bah.

[kuokuo]

It's gonna be between:

 

Georgetown: full tuition scholarship

UVa: 63,000

Penn: 61,000

Berkeley: Boo@ the lack of funding issue. 25,000

 

After visiting each schools, Berkeley was my favorite, regarding its student body and holistic culture. I really felt right there when I visited. I also LOVED UVa, but being the stark minority thing concerns me a little.

 

I do want to end up in California legal market, and that does put Berkeley up in the running. However, it seems that I can go to CA from any of those schools mentioned above if I try a little harder. I don't have any CA ties on my resume though.

 

What do you think? I would really appreciate any thoughts. Does it worth it go to Berkeley paying something like 40k more just because I felt really right there?

 

Am I stupid to give up the full ride at gtown? I did really like the school and the surrounding environment.

 

Gtown wants an answer by the 15th of April. Others want their deposit thing by the 28th of April. should I let go Gtown and have about two more weeks to think about others?

 

Mmmm in addition, here are pros and cons of each school, based on personal, and rational observations.

 

Berkeley:

 

PROS:

Strongest APALSA community out of all those schools. It seemed really cohesive. People(Asians) I've encountered said that they've developed really great mentoring relationships there. Got jobs through there, etc. Even though rationally, this shouldn't be the deciding factor about the school I guess.

 

People looked super happy. The pass/fail grading system seemed to really promote non-competetive environment.

 

Location is great. I love the bay area and I've always wanted to live there and work there.

 

CONS:

 

Cracking down facilities

Lack of funding

Hence nothing to expect from the career service office.. no attentive service like penn's

 

UVa

 

PROS:

 

Very similar culture to Berkeley's - Mandatory B+ curve hence very non competitive environment

Happy looking people

I strangely really liked c'ville

CHEAP! cost of living

Great Fin aid offer I got

 

CONS:

 

being the stark minority(8% asians versus 20% asians at berkeley)

I don't know if I want to practice in DC/NY

I NEED a car there(added 10k in cost)

UVa seemed underestimated in Korea

need to try harder to get to CA market

 

Gtown

 

PROS:

 

DC is awesome

Location is AWESOME - supreme court 4 blocks away

I am getting a full ride

I felt pretty fit there

great facilities

 

CONS:

 

Huge class size

Bottom of t14(trying my best not to be a prestige whore but it's hard)

Reputation of being the "factory"

need to try harder to get to CA market

I don't know if I want to go to DC/NY to practice

Not at all strong APALSA

 

Penn

 

PROS:

Highest in the ranking out of all those schools

opportunities of taking Wharton classes(i know it's not much of a sales pitch but I was a business major in college and it would be very cool)

Strategic location of being right between DC and NY (2 hours each)

VERY VERY attentive career service

I got a great fin aid offer

The school has a lot of $$ obviously

 

CONS:

I didn't really feel fit. Even though this might be due to the biased interactions with only a small portion of the admitted students.

need to try harder to get to CA market

I don't know if I want to go to NY/DC to practice

With UVA and Penn, right now it would be relatively easy to get back to California.  But I do know people from Penn who came out in 2003-2004 (when the law market was very poor) and had great difficulty getting back to the west coast.  I don't know their grades or how well they interviewed...but it's something to keep in mind.

Personally, I'm 99% decided on going to Boalt...



 

[Towlie]

With Berkeley, does your aid take into account that tuition drops by over 10,000 for the 2nd and 3rd year?

It's such a tough call with the aid offers, scholarships, and awesome schools. Given that you want to work in California, I'd say Berkeley is probably the best fit for you, and the massive asian population of the Bay Area certainly will help you not feel like an outcast. Philadelphia also has a great Asian population and so does UPenn in general (though I'm not sure if the Law School does), so you might want to consider that too. Either way, you can't go wrong!

[kuokuo]

With Berkeley, does your aid take into account that tuition drops by over 10,000 for the 2nd and 3rd year?

It's such a tough call with the aid offers, scholarships, and awesome schools. Given that you want to work in California, I'd say Berkeley is probably the best fit for you, and the massive asian population of the Bay Area certainly will help you not feel like an outcast. Philadelphia also has a great Asian population and so does UPenn in general (though I'm not sure if the Law School does), so you might want to consider that too. Either way, you can't go wrong!

I had a blast at Penn. If not Boalt, then I would say go there.  It's an ivy and you cannot underestimate the level of networking that can be had at those schools...plus I think the Penn name carries more weight on the West Coast than UVA...just my opinion though