Powerscore veterans, help me please!

[comebacking]

In the situation below what would you advise someone to do?

I'm pretty debt averse, as i'm not from a particularly well-off background. However, I am willing to take chances on myself. My scholarships are as follows:

USD: 108K
Loyola LA: 120k (top 75% stipulation to renew each year)
Pepperdine: 135k
Hastings: 120k
GW: 40k

I'm going to work my hardest obviously and try to come out at the top of my class to have a shot at biglaw (to pay down my debt fast), but if I don't end up with it I won't be devastated. Also would like to work in CA, but don't want to sacrifice a better opportunity just for geographic location. Waitlisted at USC/UCLA. If they let me in without any aid what would you advise?

Thanks so much for your time and help with all of this, you guys are awesome!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hey comebacking,

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on such stellar offers! You have an enviable choice to make, so let's see what your options are:

I understand you want to do BIGLAW, limit the amount of student debt you have, and likely practice in CA. Given your choice of schools, a BIGLAW job will require you to be in the top-30% of your class at any of these schools, including GW. This is because GW, although ranked higher than any of the California schools you've mentioned, has a strong Northeast regional pull. Some California schools do recruit there, of course, but they will be mostly large law firms that won’t dip below the top-30% of the class. Hardly any medium-to-small CA firms would do OCI, so if you dip below the top-30% of his class, you'll need to do a lot of legwork to go back West. So, while GW has a stellar regional reputation, this would be of little benefit given your intention to practice in California, and come at a much heftier price tag.

On the other hand, if you're not sold on practicing in California, then GW will definitely open up more doors out East. So, how strong is your commitment to California? This will pretty much determine whether you go to GW or to any of the California schools you've been admitted to.

If you do decide that California is where you'd like to practice, which CA school you pick will in turn depend on whether you want to practice in Southern or Northern California. Without a strong preference for either location, I’d go to Hastings. It has a strong career services center, boasts an awesome location in a booming legal market (Bay Area), and attracts over 300 employers to campus every year. They also do a very good job of publishing all the relevant info he needs:

http://www.uchastings.edu/career-office ... tatistics/

Obviously, if Southern California is your thing, then I’d consider Loyola/USD. But Hastings, especially tuition-free, is hard to beat (I think). Keep in mind this is a very subjective preference, and strong arguments can probably be made for Loyola and USD. By the way, take a look at this Blog I posted a few months ago:

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/scholar ... ey-and-run

Hope this gives you enough to think about! Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

Nikki