Help me decide on a school? Forum

[tigerlily13]

I'm from CT and am really interested in either ending up in DC (I'm studying international law so the ideal career would be something in international dispute resolution or working as a consultant for the UN or a foreign government, but I know those kinds of jobs are hard to get) or NYC so I can stay close to my family in Greenwich. I really want to work in diplomacy, and national security law is also something I'm highly interested in. I'm also far more interested in PI/government jobs than big law, so big law placement is not something I'm concerned with at all. I'm center-left politically, but I'm also an Iranian Muslim so going somewhere too far south or that is highly conservative isn't something I'm interested in.

So far, the schools I'm considering that I've gotten into are:
- Washington & Lee (I received a near full scholarship so my debt for all three years would be around $44,000 with rent and living expenses)
- Indiana Bloomington (OOS so ~$90,000 with rent/living expenses)
- UCONN (IS with a 75% scholarship, so ~ $53,000 with rent and living expenses, even less if I decide to live at home and commute an hour to class)
- American ($115,000 debt - it kills me because I received my acceptance after the need-based grant application deadline, so I couldn't apply, but that means this number might go down :/ Also I know they aren't well-regarded overall, but they have a top 10 international law program, and my cousin who graduated last summer has a job at a big law firm in NYC now)
- George Mason ($78,000 debt)

I'm waitlisted at WUISL but I'm not expecting to get off it. I still haven't heard back from Boston College, Fordham and GW, but considering I got rejected from my alma mater today (William & Mary) I don't think I can count on them :/. The debt totals are what I'll have to take out in loans - I already subtracted my scholarships plus the $30,000 I have saved up, and my parents aren't helping me.

I did decently on my LSAT (164, but that was a retake: I got a 156 on the original) but my undergrad GPA is not the best: 3.02. For the first two years of college, my dad was incredibly sick so I constantly was going home to check on him/was generally stressed out, so I got pretty bad grades (I had like a 2.5 for those first two) but after he got better, they improved dramatically (the lowest I've had since is a 3.45). Also, for those of you telling me to retake, please don't, I already know my biggest problem is my GPA and I can't quite fix that, but a 164 is really close to what I was scoring on all of my practice exams (167 - 169, highest) so I don't think I can do better :/

I wish I had someone to talk to about this stuff, but tbh my family knows nothing about international law and AU's deadline is coming up soon so I have to make a decision where would you go if you were in my shoes?

Also should mention that I want to try and transfer to GTown for 2L, but am of course not depending on it to happen

[Rigo]

You definitely shouldnt pay that much for American.

I'd go W&L.
I could see George Mason making sense for internships during the school year and if you truly wanted to be in a more urban environment. edit: I've rethought this both for debt and culture reasons (it is ASSLaw, afterall)

I'd 100% cross off Indiana and American though, as well as Connecticut since you're targeting DC.

[OneHandedEconomist]

I may be in the minority here, but I say W&L. It's got a small student body, decent job outcomes, and will leave you with little to no debt. Worst case scenario, you end up jobless and can eat your losses. The other schools involve too much risk, especially the DC ones.

[Thomas Hagan, ESQ.]

This is hard because the only two viable options for you (if you want to work in DC) are W&L and GMU. Cross off American because 1. specialty rankings don't really matter AND 2. you definitely shouldn't attend AU with that much debt. Cross off the rest because they won't get you a job in DC.