UA 21k vs LSU 35k Forum

[CJR1992]

I´m deciding between the University of Arizona and Louisiana State University. I´ll be visiting each school in the next two weeks and I think after having been on campus I´ll have a better feel for where I´d like to go. At the moment everything I know of these schools is numbers and statistics so I´d like to see what others have to say.

Some background, I am from Pennsylvania and I would like to practice in the areas of immigration and labor. At the moment UA has given me what amounts to a 2/3 scholarship for tuition and LSU has given me essentially a full ride, although I do plan on attempting to negotiate each of those for a bit more. My biggest concerns upon graduation are obviously debt and career prospects. I understand the law I´m looking to practice isn´t necessarily the most lucrative so having to take on a significant amount of debt is not something I want to do. That being said, I know Arizona is ranked much higher and has from what I can tell a very good program geared towards the areas I want to practice in. So I´m weighing the options, is it worth it to take on some debt given that Arizona is a better school or will I be ok taking more money now and competing at a lower ranked school.

Thanks for your input!

[deadpanic]

Forget the rankings. They are state flagship schools. Whether LSU is 95 and Arizona is 45 (or whatever it is), it won't matter. Your prospects will be limited to the respective states and lawyers in those states will see them as good (or at least sufficient) schools. These are just kind of random choices for someone with no ties to the state.

I imagine Arizona is going to have a lot more immigration law than Louisiana. Louisiana has civil law, which is a lot different than the other states. Labor law is also different than immigration law.

What is the cost of attendance of each? We need that along with slightly more details where you want to end up/do after law school.

[jbp15860]

I'm curious to see where you ended up. Those are not great places to go unless you want to end up there. I'm from Louisiana and LSU is a good law school in Louisiana. It produces probably the most lawyers for the state and is really well regarded. But, like any state university with few exceptions (Berkeley, Michigan, etc...) it doesn't do you a whole lot of good outside of the state unless you have some connections.