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#47560
Below is a question by a student, Payton, and a response by PowerScore CEO Dave Killoran regarding Payton's law school decision.

Payton: "Hi Dave,

I am wrestling between a full ride (with a stipend and healthcare) to the University of Tennessee (ranked 65th) or sticker price admittance of 55k to Emory Law in Georgia (ranked 22nd). I moved to Tennessee to attend undergrad and have since gotten married so I will likely remain in the region, though not neccesarily TN, to practice. I was lucky enough to have a full ride for my undergrad and my husband and I currently have no debt. What do you think?"

Dave Killoran: "Hi Payton,

Congrats on the acceptances! This is another textbook example of the free education vs debt and a "better" name decision.

First, just for anyone reading, here's the LST comparison: https://www.lstreports.com/compare/emory/tennessee/

You see some interesting things there, namely that the employment scores aren't all that dissimilar and that Tenn does better on under-employment. Emory places better into bigger firms (no surprise given the name), but Tennessee outpaces them on federal clerkships. So, you can see the different profiles, but it's not a case where Emory is simply blowing Tennessee away.

Second, geographically speaking, Emory is the bigger name in law circles, but these are both Southern schools and people know the Tennessee name as well. So, you don't get as much of a name-boost with Emory that you might with a different school despite the higher ranking.

Last, the offer Tennessee made to you is very good, since stipends aren't often included. Emory, of course, won't just be $55K a year, and you can see that with COL factored in (and it's Atlanta so it's not cheap), the estimated price tag is around $295K. That's a high price for a school not in the T14!

You ultimately have to make the decision based on how you feel about each school (which makes a difference since your comfort usually translates into better performance), but looking at this from a purely numerical standpoint I have a hard time seeing how Emory is worth almost $300K more than Tennessee.

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!"

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