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Hello TLS!

About me: 27 year old female located in Dallas, TX. Graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 2013 with a B.S. (Honors).

Description: I'm leaving the Marine Corps in April, after serving 5 years as a Supply Officer, and am very interested in the legal field however I'm not sure that my husband and I can financially support the law school burden as our total income will take a big hit once I get out of the military. We are both USNA graduates. I'd like to jump straight into law school but feel like I'm not as informed as I need to be about the financial or scholarship opportunities that would be available and how to deal with them. I don't have any friends or family who have gone down this path and was wondering if there are legal fields that don't require a law degree that I might enjoy or if the best option is to first receive a law degree before having any meaningful impact in the legal field.

Whats happened so far: I've applied to the four law school programs and have been accepted into Baylor and UNT and I'm waiting on feedback/responses from SMU and Texas A&M.


Any advice or similar scenarious would be greatly appreciated! At the moment I'm going into this situation without any meaningful mentorship and so I've turned to this forum for guidance.

what's your GPA/LSAT/career goals/geographic preference?

pancakes3 wrote:what's your GPA/LSAT/career goals/geographic preference?

Real Estate Career
Want to Stay in DFW

I feel like with your stats, you could get a full ride + stipend to SMU. Their employment stats are okay, and with your professional background you should have an easier time getting a job than someone who went straight from law school from undergrad.

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll have access to the GI Bill because your 5 years in covered your attendance of USNA. That said, your numbers are good enough to get you large scholarships at regional schools in Texas besides perhaps UT Austin.

If you're interested in real estate law as a career, I would strongly encourage you to look into HUD Legal Honors. You'll get a nice bump from your veteran's preference, and they tend to hire people that have summered with them in the past. A lot of the entry level spots are in DC, but it would not be particularly difficult to transfer back to Dallas area after the first year. Salary is pretty good too - HUD steps their attorneys up to GS-14, which in your area, is 105k-130k.

Under no circumstance should you go to UNT or Texas A&M.

twenty wrote:Unfortunately, I don't think you'll have access to the GI Bill because your 5 years in covered your attendance of USNA. That said, your numbers are good enough to get you large scholarships at regional schools in Texas besides perhaps UT Austin.

If you're interested in real estate law as a career, I would strongly encourage you to look into HUD Legal Honors. You'll get a nice bump from your veteran's preference, and they tend to hire people that have summered with them in the past. A lot of the entry level spots are in DC, but it would not be particularly difficult to transfer back to Dallas area after the first year. Salary is pretty good too - HUD steps their attorneys up to GS-14, which in your area, is 105k-130k.

You are correct about the GI Bill, and thank you for the advice!

kalvano wrote:Under no circumstance should you go to UNT or Texas A&M.

I understand the accreditation issues with UNT, however what is your consideration of Texas A&M? Is there something I may not know?

go on law school transparency and look up the employment statistics of the schools you're considering (and not considering, UT specifically).

then take into account that attorney salaries are bimodal, especially for entry-level attorneys, and consider how that would affect you servicing any loans you take out.

is DFW a *must* even during law school bc of your husband or is it flexible? i think you need to sit out and retake for UT.

I am unsure about your background in Texas, but have you heard of the Hazlewood Act? Worth looking into to offset tuition cost. I believe you have to go to a state school though.

OtterLaw wrote:I am unsure about your background in Texas, but have you heard of the Hazlewood Act? Worth looking into to offset tuition cost. I believe you have to go to a state school though.

I am eligible for the Hazlewood Act however my concern is that it would only apply to Texas A&M and UNT which are at the bottom of my preferred list. However, there is benefit to the reduced cost-basis....

swimtexan wrote:

OtterLaw wrote:I am unsure about your background in Texas, but have you heard of the Hazlewood Act? Worth looking into to offset tuition cost. I believe you have to go to a state school though.

I am eligible for the Hazlewood Act however my concern is that it would only apply to Texas A&M and UNT which are at the bottom of my preferred list. However, there is benefit to the reduced cost-basis....

Neither of those schools are worth it, no matter the cost.

With your numbers (particularly coming from the Boat School), you really need to consider UT. SMU is a great school, but Texas has much better placement power in Dallas.

swimtexan wrote:

kalvano wrote:Under no circumstance should you go to UNT or Texas A&M.

I understand the accreditation issues with UNT, however what is your consideration of Texas A&M? Is there something I may not know?

It's not a good school, and your options in Dallas (and in lots of parts of Fort Worth) will be severely limited. If you want Dallas, you either need to look at UT (preferable) or SMU (assuming it's not too expensive).

We're in a very similar situation, cool! I'm leaving the Marine Corps after 6 years as a Comm O. I think you're on the right track to think about other careers that will let you do what you want to do without having to go to law school. But if you do end up deciding to go, I would echo what a couple of others have said and not sell yourself short on your scholarship potential. I do have the GI, so I'm in a somewhat different situation, but I still got some excellent unsolicited scholarship offers from several schools where I applied. You have a lot to bring to the table with the reputation of the Naval Academy and your job experience, even without knowing your GPA/LSAT. Bottom line, you should go into your scholarship negotiations with a lot of confidence in your resume. And not to parrot the perennial TLS wisdom, but a retake might be worth it, especially if you aren't set on going straight to law school next year. There's no reason that a vet with your background shouldn't be able to get T14 with scholarship money.

Don't really post here anymore, but if it's not too late look into FLEP and Voc Rehab. FLEP may be the worlds best deal for law school. You get pay and BAH at your rank and the 3 years count towards your pension. Of course you owe the Marine Corps service as a JAG after the fact. Voc Rehab is basically a bottomless GI bill. There were a ton of vets in my class, few of them paid anything for law school out of pocket.

Also, be 100% sure you want to be a lawyer before spending 3 years of your life in law school. My mistake was being enticed by "free" law school when I wasn't 100% sold on being a lawyer.

Mike

Why'd you remove your stats? What is your GPA/LSAT?