WUSTL (Named Scholarship) vs. Berkeley (w/ 90k)
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:12 am
Close to making my decision, but I wanted to do a quick sanity check on this one. WashU has offered me a full-tuition scholarship, and I'm also being considered for a named scholarship, which includes an $8,000 per year living stipend. Berkeley (to my surprise) offered me 90k after only asking for 80k--maybe sold myself short. Oh well. Whether or not I receive the named scholarship, I'm thinking Berkeley at this point for the following reasons.
1. Have big law, federal clerkship, and academic oriented long-term goals. Berkeley is by no means Harvard, by I think I will still have better prospects at Berkeley and WashU for a federal clerkship and possible academic positions in the future.
2. The Midwest and east coast aren't my ideal (although NYC would be great). I've lived where there are mountains my whole life and tend just to vibe better with people on the west coast. I would be very happy to practice in the Bay area, especially privacy or IP law.
3. On the off chance I decide I want to do PI work, Berkeley has a great LRAP program (basically full-coverage if you make $65K or less per year for ten years, and you pay 35% on incremental salary until you reach $100,000). Please correct me if I don't have those details exactly right.
4. The people and programs at Berkeley. I'm truly impressed with the caliper of students and professors I met while visiting Berkeley. Also, there's a somewhat larger native population (okay really only two students more, but what are you going to do).
Thoughts? Please don't wreck me. This is my first post on TLS.
1. Have big law, federal clerkship, and academic oriented long-term goals. Berkeley is by no means Harvard, by I think I will still have better prospects at Berkeley and WashU for a federal clerkship and possible academic positions in the future.
2. The Midwest and east coast aren't my ideal (although NYC would be great). I've lived where there are mountains my whole life and tend just to vibe better with people on the west coast. I would be very happy to practice in the Bay area, especially privacy or IP law.
3. On the off chance I decide I want to do PI work, Berkeley has a great LRAP program (basically full-coverage if you make $65K or less per year for ten years, and you pay 35% on incremental salary until you reach $100,000). Please correct me if I don't have those details exactly right.
4. The people and programs at Berkeley. I'm truly impressed with the caliper of students and professors I met while visiting Berkeley. Also, there's a somewhat larger native population (okay really only two students more, but what are you going to do).
Thoughts? Please don't wreck me. This is my first post on TLS.