. Forum

[lellie]

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[existentialcrisis]

Duke. I think it's worth the extra money over UT since you aren't sure about staying in Texas.

[shadowfax]

With 70k in current debt hard to see you being comfortable financially with anything but Texas. Don't think D or B are worth the extra and Columbia north of 300k at graduation is a heavy burden. Still good choice though. Congrats.

[usn26]

Texas is probably the *right* answer, although if you weren't sure about staying in-state I guess the *right* answer would be to retake and aiming for that kind of money from a lower T14.

Short of that I'm inclined toward Columbia. ~210k coming out of Duke could be paid off in, what, 6-8 years of BigLaw? But that's a big commitment to a long time in BL and if you head toward PI you'd be shooting yourself in the foot b/c Columbia's LRAP is an order of magnitude better than Duke's (idk about Berk). Just comes down to how you weigh those risks and rewards.

[Npret]

Texas is probably the *right* answer, although if you weren't sure about staying in-state I guess the *right* answer would be to retake and aiming for that kind of money from a lower T14.

Short of that I'm inclined toward Columbia. ~210k coming out of Duke could be paid off in, what, 6-8 years of BigLaw? But that's a big commitment to a long time in BL and if you head toward PI you'd be shooting yourself in the foot b/c Columbia's LRAP is an order of magnitude better than Duke's (idk about Berk). Just comes down to how you weigh those risks and rewards.

No 0L should count on 6-8 years of biglaw.

[Hikikomorist]

Your numbers should be getting you a better offer from UT. I wouldn't attend this cycle if those are your best offers. You have valuable work experience and (presumably) the ability to put off law school for at least another year. Did you apply late in the cycle? Retake and apply again early next cycle.

[usn26]

Texas is probably the *right* answer, although if you weren't sure about staying in-state I guess the *right* answer would be to retake and aiming for that kind of money from a lower T14.

Short of that I'm inclined toward Columbia. ~210k coming out of Duke could be paid off in, what, 6-8 years of BigLaw? But that's a big commitment to a long time in BL and if you head toward PI you'd be shooting yourself in the foot b/c Columbia's LRAP is an order of magnitude better than Duke's (idk about Berk). Just comes down to how you weigh those risks and rewards.

No 0L should count on 6-8 years of biglaw.

Exactly.

[rpupkin]

Trying to decide where to go to law school and appreciate any input.

I have about 3 years of work experience in consulting. I'm from Texas and am unsure if I would like to be here for the foreseeable future. Right now I think I would like to do a COA clerkship (if not, then DCt) --> litigation --> PI/impact litigation.

You have some really specific post-grad goals ("COA clerkship") but, frankly, you have not settled on the goal that is by far the most important to your decision: where do you want to work after you graduate? This is key. You need to figure this out.

If you want to work in Texas, the right answer is UT.

If you want to work in California, the right answer is Berkeley.

If you want to work on the East Coast or the non-Texas South, the right answer is Duke. (CLS is a little better for east-coast big law, but it's not worth the extra cost here over Duke or even Berkeley for that goal)

If you don't know where you want to work, then maybe you should work for a couple more years and figure that out. If you absolutely don't want to do that, then I guess you should go to Texas because the lower debt there will minimize the potential harm.

[lellie]

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[rpupkin]

What I have learned from being a consultant grinding on the road for 3 years is that what I'm doing is more important to me than where I am. Barring extremely unappealing locations (like Iowa or something) I would put a lot more weight in the substance of a job than the location.

But CLS/Berkeley/Duke all lead to similar "substantive" jobs. The regional location and the total debt are the distinguishing factors.

[lellie]

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[Rigo]

Columbia's LRAP takes into account undergrad loans so that's pretty clutch in my situation.

Uhh are you sure? Is this new?

[lellie]

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[usn26]

Any IBR-based program will technically account for previous federal education loans b/c it will be consolidated. The only way that would be a problem is that most schools will cap their LRAP contribution at the amount of loans you took out for law school. Columbia has that option and also a non-IBR option that considers undergrad loans.

[lellie]

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[usn26]

Any IBR-based program will technically account for previous federal education loans b/c it will be consolidated. The only way that would be a problem is that most schools will cap their LRAP contribution at the amount of loans you took out for law school. Columbia has that option and also a non-IBR option that considers undergrad loans.

My undergraduate loans aren't federal unfortunately. This is probably is extreme but I don't want to count solely on the federal program(s) anyways.

Oh that's a significant piece of information. My vote shifts to strongly voting for retake/reapply for lower T14 money or Texas. Idk how good Columbia's non-IBR LRAP is, but idk if I'd want to mess with that.

[lellie]

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[lellie]

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