- PowerScore Staff
- Posts: 8916
- Joined: Feb 02, 2011
- Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:24 am
#45093
Below is a conversation between PowerScore CEO Dave Killoran and a student, Justin, regarding Justin's law school decision.
Justin: "Reading the comments has been helpful in assisting me evaluate my own decision, so thanks for taking the time to offer your advice. Hopefully, you'll be able to let me know what you think of my options.
I've been offered full scholarships to UNLV, Arizona, and Florida. Also, I have a 36k per year scholarship offer (56k tuition) to Emory. I have no desire to do biglaw after graduation. I'd feel most comfortable living in Las Vegas (I have family and friends there), but I'm fairly confident I'd be content anywhere, if I were able to secure a job that I felt was stimulating and meaningful when I graduated. Additionally, I'm 37 years old, so the thought of an extra 60k in debt (at least) from Emory when I graduate at 41 feels a bit scary.
I've looked at the LST Reports for each school, and they seem comparable. The main exception is that Emory places substantially more students in biglaw, but again, I'm not interested in working for a big law firm. Do you think Emory's higher ranking would justify an additional 60k-70k in debt for me? Are there big differences between UNLV, Arizona, and Florida that I'm missing? Thanks!"
Dave Killoran: "Hi Justin,
Yours is a tough question, and I'm not sure there's a clearly right—or wrong—direction to take here. The base comparison between Arizona, Florida, and UNLV shows a lot of similarities, although you are correct about the biglaw placement differential at UNLV (on the other hand, they perform better on the clerkship front, which could partially be a product of location: see https://www.lstreports.com/compare/ariz ... rida/unlv/). I will note that Florida is a larger school than either Arizona or UNLV, and graduates just under 3 times as many students each year (despite that, UF is on an upward trend and should see some rise in the rankings in the next few years).
So, assuming for a moment that those schools are pretty similar, let's look at two things you said:
1. " I'm 37 years old, so the thought of an extra 60k in debt (at least) from Emory when I graduate at 41 feels a bit scary."
I think this is an important consideration, because your earning horizon is shorter than for younger grads. Given all else you've mentioned, I have a hard time justifying taking on debt when you can avoid it by going to other schools where you'd feel just as comfortable. Yes, Emory does well at biglaw, but the rest of their employment numbers aren't so great as to suggest it's a great trade to take on debt.
2. "I'd feel most comfortable living in Las Vegas (I have family and friends there)..."
I am a big fan of attending the school where you will feel comfortable, since comfort often helps ease that transition you go through as a 1L. I like the fact that you'd be content anywhere (which is probably also a partial product of you being 37) but it sounds like you are already familiar with Las Vegas and have a support system there. If you can perform well out of the gate, it makes a HUGE difference to your employment prospects, because 1L grades are everything when it comes to jobs.
I think that your base question was about passing up Emory, and while I don't have all the data, what I see tells me that it wouldn't be a bad choice for you to do that. As for the remaining schools, I see advantages to each one, so it really comes down to how you feel about each, but a free education from any one of them is hard to beat
Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!"
Justin: "Reading the comments has been helpful in assisting me evaluate my own decision, so thanks for taking the time to offer your advice. Hopefully, you'll be able to let me know what you think of my options.
I've been offered full scholarships to UNLV, Arizona, and Florida. Also, I have a 36k per year scholarship offer (56k tuition) to Emory. I have no desire to do biglaw after graduation. I'd feel most comfortable living in Las Vegas (I have family and friends there), but I'm fairly confident I'd be content anywhere, if I were able to secure a job that I felt was stimulating and meaningful when I graduated. Additionally, I'm 37 years old, so the thought of an extra 60k in debt (at least) from Emory when I graduate at 41 feels a bit scary.
I've looked at the LST Reports for each school, and they seem comparable. The main exception is that Emory places substantially more students in biglaw, but again, I'm not interested in working for a big law firm. Do you think Emory's higher ranking would justify an additional 60k-70k in debt for me? Are there big differences between UNLV, Arizona, and Florida that I'm missing? Thanks!"
Dave Killoran: "Hi Justin,
Yours is a tough question, and I'm not sure there's a clearly right—or wrong—direction to take here. The base comparison between Arizona, Florida, and UNLV shows a lot of similarities, although you are correct about the biglaw placement differential at UNLV (on the other hand, they perform better on the clerkship front, which could partially be a product of location: see https://www.lstreports.com/compare/ariz ... rida/unlv/). I will note that Florida is a larger school than either Arizona or UNLV, and graduates just under 3 times as many students each year (despite that, UF is on an upward trend and should see some rise in the rankings in the next few years).
So, assuming for a moment that those schools are pretty similar, let's look at two things you said:
1. " I'm 37 years old, so the thought of an extra 60k in debt (at least) from Emory when I graduate at 41 feels a bit scary."
I think this is an important consideration, because your earning horizon is shorter than for younger grads. Given all else you've mentioned, I have a hard time justifying taking on debt when you can avoid it by going to other schools where you'd feel just as comfortable. Yes, Emory does well at biglaw, but the rest of their employment numbers aren't so great as to suggest it's a great trade to take on debt.
2. "I'd feel most comfortable living in Las Vegas (I have family and friends there)..."
I am a big fan of attending the school where you will feel comfortable, since comfort often helps ease that transition you go through as a 1L. I like the fact that you'd be content anywhere (which is probably also a partial product of you being 37) but it sounds like you are already familiar with Las Vegas and have a support system there. If you can perform well out of the gate, it makes a HUGE difference to your employment prospects, because 1L grades are everything when it comes to jobs.
I think that your base question was about passing up Emory, and while I don't have all the data, what I see tells me that it wouldn't be a bad choice for you to do that. As for the remaining schools, I see advantages to each one, so it really comes down to how you feel about each, but a free education from any one of them is hard to beat
Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!"