This question haunts most applicants. I hope that reading about my experience confronting this common dilemma eases your decision-making process.
As I mentioned in earlier posts, I went straight from college to law school. I was fortunate to have received ~a half scholarship to college and that my parents could pay for most of the rest. This is an important piece of my law school decision as I had some debt from college but not enough to meaningfully impact where I went to law school.
I knew that I wanted to go to law school in New York City. Unless you are going to a T14 law school, it is generally best to go where you eventually want to work. I applied to Brooklyn Law School and St. John’s. I received substantial scholarships from both, making my cost of attendance very low. My top choice was Fordham Law. I also knew that I wanted to pursue corporate law at a large firm in New York. While not a T14, Fordham is known for squeezing about 40% of their students (this stat varies by year, of course) into BigLaw, where most seats are usually reserved for the T14 students. As the story typically goes, I received almost no scholarship money to attend Fordham Law. I was faced with the question: should I take the scholarship at either of the lower ranked schools or attend the more prestigious school at the sticker price? I ended up going to Fordham Law and took out hefty student loans to pay for it. Taking out loans equal to the price of a home in some states can be frightening. Whether you should take that risk depends on a variety of factors. Here is what I considered:
1. My desired field of legal practice. Like I mentioned above, I knew that I wanted to practice corporate law at a large firm and was okay with committing to the typical three to five years before possibly moving elsewhere. If you want to pursue a career in government, taking out six figures of debt might not be ideal because it will be difficult to keep your head above water with your loan payments. Make sure to gather information on what your desired field of law typically pays associates and whether you would be okay with the potential strings attached to that salary.
2. My age. I went straight from college to law school. This meant that I had more time than most to pay off my debt before I personally would be interested in starting a family or moving to a suburb, etc. If you went to law school later and know that in just a few years you want to be family-focused and take out a mortgage, a demanding job and large loan balance could be a hindrance.
3. What does the more expensive law school offer compared to the lesser ranked school? This question is really just a cost benefit analysis. To me, going to Fordham meant that while I would have more student debt, I also had a greater chance of securing a job in BigLaw. While BigLaw does bring demanding hours and intense working conditions, there are advantages to starting out in a large firm; a lot of companies prefer their in- house counsel to be BigLaw trained. This is not to say that I would not have gotten a similar job by attending St. John’s or Brooklyn; these schools are also excellent feeder schools. However, at Fordham, you should be in the top 30-40% of the class whereas with the lower ranked schools in NYC, you typically need to land around the top 10% and make Law Review. No matter where you go, there is a lot of competition for jobs in large firms but the better your school is ranked, the more wiggle room you have in terms of the firms’ threshold GPA.
Commentaires