Premature help me chose: T14 Sticker or BC/BU w. solid scholys Forum

[atikhomi]

Hi Y'all,

I know this is a bit premature as I have not yet gotten into most of my schools, but as I applied pretty late and deadlines are about 2 weeks away I wanted to ask this question now.

I got a 170/3.61 for my stats. I applied to Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Cornell, Gtown (no interest now that no longer t14), Duke, BU, and BC.

So far, BC has given me 105k/3yrs, BU has given me 90k/3yrs. UVA has confirmed that they will not give me any aid.

I am from just out of Boston, and am in a situation where I would be able to live in Cambridge quite cheaply, and my parents would also likely help to defray the cost of living in Boston (they might give me say 1000/month, which would cover my rent completely). They would probably not do this if I went out of state.

My interests are currently to graduate, work in biglaw (if possible) for a little bit, and then hopefully transfer to public interest with an eventual goal of stepping into MA politics.

At this point, I am assuming that Cornell will prolly let me in with a small scholly, Penn will prolly let me in at sticker, and ding at nyu and columbia (not that I could afford them without significant money anyways).

What would you guys do in my situation? Mid T14 at sticker or BC/BU with scholarships.

Finally, do you guys think that this late in the cycle I could get a bit more money out of BC/BU?

Thanks for your help!!

[existentialcrisis]

Did you apply late? I feel like your stats should get you some lower T14 money.

If you applied late, I'd just apply the first day of next cycle.

[atikhomi]

I did apply late, but unfortunately due to a variety of circumstances it's simply not an option for me to wait a year. I've looked into it, and tried to arrange things so that I could do that as I know I could save a good bit of cash, but it just doesn't seem to be possible.

[Clemenceau]

Duke Cornell and Michigan tend to be pretty friendly to applicants with your numbers (I had similar numbers at one point). Any word from them? Also, you're correct that this is premature.

[atikhomi]

I did not apply to Michigan alas, and I am hoping Cornell gives me some money. I would quite like that. Duke is an option too, but I really would not like to move to NC if I can at all avoid it (stupid I know, and if they give me money i will go there, but ughhhhh).

I am posting this prematurely because the deposit deadlines are about 2 weeks away (april 10 for BU IIRC), so I wanted to get feedback as soon as I could. I expect that I probably won't even hear back from a couple places before I have to send in a deposit.

[atikhomi]

I should also mention that I am in fact in at Duke, but no word about aid yet.

[trebekismyhero]

Hi Y'all,

I know this is a bit premature as I have not yet gotten into most of my schools, but as I applied pretty late and deadlines are about 2 weeks away I wanted to ask this question now.

I got a 170/3.61 for my stats. I applied to Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Cornell, Gtown (no interest now that no longer t14), Duke, BU, and BC.

So far, BC has given me 105k/3yrs, BU has given me 90k/3yrs. UVA has confirmed that they will not give me any aid.

I am from just out of Boston, and am in a situation where I would be able to live in Cambridge quite cheaply, and my parents would also likely help to defray the cost of living in Boston (they might give me say 1000/month, which would cover my rent completely). They would probably not do this if I went out of state.

My interests are currently to graduate, work in biglaw (if possible) for a little bit, and then hopefully transfer to public interest with an eventual goal of stepping into MA politics.

At this point, I am assuming that Cornell will prolly let me in with a small scholly, Penn will prolly let me in at sticker, and ding at nyu and columbia (not that I could afford them without significant money anyways).

What would you guys do in my situation? Mid T14 at sticker or BC/BU with scholarships.

Finally, do you guys think that this late in the cycle I could get a bit more money out of BC/BU?

Thanks for your help!!

There are several reasons not to go to Gtown, this is not one of them.

The smart thing to do would be to reapply early next cycle and include all of the lower t14. If not, I would go back to BC and BU, negotiate with your Duke and UVA acceptances. You should be close to a full ride from them.

Wait and see if Duke gives you money.

[atikhomi]

Hi Y'all,

I know this is a bit premature as I have not yet gotten into most of my schools, but as I applied pretty late and deadlines are about 2 weeks away I wanted to ask this question now.

I got a 170/3.61 for my stats. I applied to Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Cornell, Gtown (no interest now that no longer t14), Duke, BU, and BC.

So far, BC has given me 105k/3yrs, BU has given me 90k/3yrs. UVA has confirmed that they will not give me any aid.

I am from just out of Boston, and am in a situation where I would be able to live in Cambridge quite cheaply, and my parents would also likely help to defray the cost of living in Boston (they might give me say 1000/month, which would cover my rent completely). They would probably not do this if I went out of state.

My interests are currently to graduate, work in biglaw (if possible) for a little bit, and then hopefully transfer to public interest with an eventual goal of stepping into MA politics.

At this point, I am assuming that Cornell will prolly let me in with a small scholly, Penn will prolly let me in at sticker, and ding at nyu and columbia (not that I could afford them without significant money anyways).

What would you guys do in my situation? Mid T14 at sticker or BC/BU with scholarships.

Finally, do you guys think that this late in the cycle I could get a bit more money out of BC/BU?

Thanks for your help!!

There are several reasons not to go to Gtown, this is not one of them.

The smart thing to do would be to reapply early next cycle and include all of the lower t14. If not, I would go back to BC and BU, negotiate with your Duke and UVA acceptances. You should be close to a full ride from them.

Wait and see if Duke gives you money.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make light of the gtown application, I was just making a joke. I did actually apply to gtown and they put me on preferred waitlist (so I'm gently salty). I do intend to wait on Duke, but my Duke finaid interview isn't until April 5, so I don't know that I would be able to use any money from them to negotiate. That being said, if I could get a full ride at one of the Boston schools, or even close to a full ride, I would totally be happy with that over even a half ride at a T14. I am quite debt averse, have finished undergrad with only 7k in debt, and really like the idea of not being tied up by golden handcuffs.

I really really like the idea of staying in MA. I have a long term interest in politics and it seems that almost every MA politician (John Kerry, One of our senators, like half of our congressional delegation) went to BC law. I also am a first generation immigrant, so the only family connections I have in the US are all right here in MA, and I would be loathe to leave that behind. What are your suggestions for how to negotiate? Thanks!

[favabeansoup]

Negotiate with BC once you get more acceptances with the T14 schools that give you some money. BC is known as being a little stingy though (and it's kind of later in the cycle) so you might not be too successful in getting that up more.

Applying late really hurt you here. I knew someone with worse stats than you who was getting ~75-80k off at BC, so you should be getting more than 105, but can't do much at this point.

My interests are currently to graduate, work in biglaw (if possible) for a little bit, and then hopefully transfer to public interest with an eventual goal of stepping into MA politics.

You don't need to work in biglaw before transferring to PI work. Depending on the type of PI job, it might actually hurt your chances compared to candidates who have a proven track record of PI commitment in law school and immediately post grad. You can definitely do biglaw --> PI, just bringing up not only path that one needs to take.

If you want to get into MA politics though, go to BC law above these T14 schools at sticker especially, lower T14 at sticker is not worth it. Highly respected and Alumni connections there will actually be significant and easier way to network into appropriate circles. My only hesitation is that you should be getting much more money from them (defrayed somewhat with parental help, which will lower debt load somewhat).

[atikhomi]

Negotiate with BC once you get more acceptances with the T14 schools that give you some money. BC is known as being a little stingy though (and it's kind of later in the cycle) so you might not be too successful in getting that up more.

Applying late really hurt you here. I knew someone with worse stats than you who was getting ~75-80k off at BC, so you should be getting more than 105, but can't do much at this point.

My interests are currently to graduate, work in biglaw (if possible) for a little bit, and then hopefully transfer to public interest with an eventual goal of stepping into MA politics.

You don't need to work in biglaw before transferring to PI work. Depending on the type of PI job, it might actually hurt your chances compared to candidates who have a proven track record of PI commitment in law school and immediately post grad. You can definitely do biglaw --> PI, just bringing up not only path that one needs to take.

If you want to get into MA politics though, go to BC law above these T14 schools at sticker especially, lower T14 at sticker is not worth it. Highly respected and Alumni connections there will actually be significant and easier way to network into appropriate circles. My only hesitation is that you should be getting much more money from them (defrayed somewhat with parental help, which will lower debt load somewhat).

I'm glad to read a lot of the posts on this thread. Often I feel that with TLS the attitude is "T13 at full ride or don't go to law school." I really am quite debt averse and really value not being in debt. I think I am going to wait until about mid-late next week before calling BC to try and work something out.

[UVA2B]

Negotiate with BC once you get more acceptances with the T14 schools that give you some money. BC is known as being a little stingy though (and it's kind of later in the cycle) so you might not be too successful in getting that up more.

Applying late really hurt you here. I knew someone with worse stats than you who was getting ~75-80k off at BC, so you should be getting more than 105, but can't do much at this point.

My interests are currently to graduate, work in biglaw (if possible) for a little bit, and then hopefully transfer to public interest with an eventual goal of stepping into MA politics.

You don't need to work in biglaw before transferring to PI work. Depending on the type of PI job, it might actually hurt your chances compared to candidates who have a proven track record of PI commitment in law school and immediately post grad. You can definitely do biglaw --> PI, just bringing up not only path that one needs to take.

If you want to get into MA politics though, go to BC law above these T14 schools at sticker especially, lower T14 at sticker is not worth it. Highly respected and Alumni connections there will actually be significant and easier way to network into appropriate circles. My only hesitation is that you should be getting much more money from them (defrayed somewhat with parental help, which will lower debt load somewhat).

I'm glad to read a lot of the posts on this thread. Often I feel that with TLS the attitude is "T13 at full ride or don't go to law school." I really am quite debt averse and really value not being in debt. I think I am going to wait until about mid-late next week before calling BC to try and work something out.

I appreciate people can feel that way about TLS, but more often than not, TLS acts as a sounding board to reconcile goals and options, bc far too often they are wildly out of whack and should be reconsidered. Wanting Boston Biglaw with near full ride or full ride is a great option, especially if you're exclusively wanting Boston. Is it still a gamble where you could miss out on Biglaw? Absolutely, but you're talking about minimal debt for a school that gives reasonably good chance at achieving your goals. I'd still say if you're uncomfortable with the fallback options available at BC/BU, you should think long and hard about it. You have to be confident all the likely outcomes from a given school are acceptable options. But in the case of minimal debt, at least you're eliminating one of the biggest considerations in making this decision.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: very few schools are categorically bad options in a vacuum. It only becomes a problem when you contrast what goals you have with the likelihood of achieving those goals for the price being considered. BC at small debt is a great outcome in your case, whereas another applicant wanting DC Biglaw and going to American at sticker is horrific.

I'd echo considering waiting a year simply to save more cash by getting better scholarship offers early in the cycle, assuming you won't be able to negotiate this cycle.

[atikhomi]

Negotiate with BC once you get more acceptances with the T14 schools that give you some money. BC is known as being a little stingy though (and it's kind of later in the cycle) so you might not be too successful in getting that up more.

Applying late really hurt you here. I knew someone with worse stats than you who was getting ~75-80k off at BC, so you should be getting more than 105, but can't do much at this point.

My interests are currently to graduate, work in biglaw (if possible) for a little bit, and then hopefully transfer to public interest with an eventual goal of stepping into MA politics.

You don't need to work in biglaw before transferring to PI work. Depending on the type of PI job, it might actually hurt your chances compared to candidates who have a proven track record of PI commitment in law school and immediately post grad. You can definitely do biglaw --> PI, just bringing up not only path that one needs to take.

If you want to get into MA politics though, go to BC law above these T14 schools at sticker especially, lower T14 at sticker is not worth it. Highly respected and Alumni connections there will actually be significant and easier way to network into appropriate circles. My only hesitation is that you should be getting much more money from them (defrayed somewhat with parental help, which will lower debt load somewhat).

I'm glad to read a lot of the posts on this thread. Often I feel that with TLS the attitude is "T13 at full ride or don't go to law school." I really am quite debt averse and really value not being in debt. I think I am going to wait until about mid-late next week before calling BC to try and work something out.

I appreciate people can feel that way about TLS, but more often than not, TLS acts as a sounding board to reconcile goals and options, bc far too often they are wildly out of whack and should be reconsidered. Wanting Boston Biglaw with near full ride or full ride is a great option, especially if you're exclusively wanting Boston. Is it still a gamble where you could miss out on Biglaw? Absolutely, but you're talking about minimal debt for a school that gives reasonably good chance at achieving your goals. I'd still say if you're uncomfortable with the fallback options available at BC/BU, you should think long and hard about it. You have to be confident all the likely outcomes from a given school are acceptable options. But in the case of minimal debt, at least you're eliminating one of the biggest considerations in making this decision.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: very few schools are categorically bad options in a vacuum. It only becomes a problem when you contrast what goals you have with the likelihood of achieving those goals for the price being considered. BC at small debt is a great outcome in your case, whereas another applicant wanting DC Biglaw and going to American at sticker is horrific.

I'd echo considering waiting a year simply to save more cash by getting better scholarship offers early in the cycle, assuming you won't be able to negotiate this cycle.

The other thing that I've thought about here is the fact that if I went to a T13 at sticker, or even say Cornell at half price, I would end up with at least 150k in debt without interest payments. Thus at graduation I would be committed to working in bigLaw for at least 5 years (and well more than that if I went to a school in NYC for instance). Alternatively I would have to commit to 10 years of PI work. If I went to BC with the aid I have now, paid 15k a year to the school and say another 5k a year in living expenses (and either lived with my parents or asked them to help me with rent), graduated with 60k in debt, I could repay that in ~3 years of biglaw even if I took a 50k/yr pay cut over a T13 bigLaw.

Would anyone recommend going to NYU (or if somehow luck favored me and I magically got into Columbia) at sticker?

[UVA2B]

Not for your goals, no.

[atikhomi]

I'm trying to decide how long to wait to start negotiating. I've gotten into a few lower T13 schools (duke, UVA, expecting to get Cornell), but so far am not seeing any money from them. BU also gave me 90k. I don't know whether it's better to start negotiating now to try and make sure I get to them before they run out of money, or to wait a week or two and negotiate then (when I will only be a few days from the deadline for Deposit 1). Thoughts?

I hear they aren't budging this year though.

[Lavitz]

BC or BU make the most sense for your goals.

And don't wait to start negotiating.

[atikhomi]

BC or BU make the most sense for your goals.

And don't wait to start negotiating.

My hope here is an acceptance from Cornell with a bit of money, because right now I have decent schools with which I can negotiate, but only BU and BC have so far given me any money.

[Lavitz]

BC or BU make the most sense for your goals.

And don't wait to start negotiating.

My hope here is an acceptance from Cornell with a bit of money, because right now I have decent schools with which I can negotiate, but only BU and BC have so far given me any money.

I wouldn't count on it. Cornell has been picky this cycle, and it's late in the cycle so there are less slots left. Just take the BC offer to BU and ask them to match or something. Keep playing them against each other. If Cornell or someone else gives you money, you can bring them into the mix later on.