The Choice: 0Ls Try To Figure Out Which Law School Is Right For Them

Here’s the query:

I’m accepted with no money to the “CCN” group [Columbia / Chicago / NYU].

I’m accepted with good money from Michigan and Northwestern, as well as Minnesota [where I want to work].

I know that if I attend the U of Minnesota and finish high (top 15%) in the class, I would have a good shot at lading a job at the big firms of Minneapolis. Of course, as you know, there is no guarantee for a 0L of law school success. As a hedge against subpar law school performance, I’m debating attending the best school I get into, which in my case would be the CCN group…

Am I really worried about a bad performance in law school? Well, nothing in my past tells me that I should be. But like you have said, one never knows. I will most definitely work hard, but I know that this might not be enough to rank as high as I may like at some of the schools that I have discussed.

Thank you for speaking the truth. Most 0Ls don’t want to admit it, but when you have options, one of the things that the top schools promise is the ability to f**k up without it costing you your career.

Look, if this guy goes to Minnesota, he has to do well. And it’s not like Minnesota is so much easier than the CCN schools. They still have issue spotters and cold calls and competitive exams in the upper Midwest. And this student will have to excel at them in order to have really good job prospects. But if he goes to one of the CCN schools and his goal is to get a good law firm job in Minnesota, then realistically he can afford to sink back to he middle of the pack. You can act like that’s not true, but you know that it’s true. You can talk all you want about how Minnesota firms would rather hire top graduates from Minnesota over middle-of-the-class grads from Columbia, but you know that at the end of the day, the Columbia, Chicago, and NYU kids are going to have opportunities in Minneapolis if they want them. At Minnesota you have to do well; at CCN you have to do “not horribly.”

But how much is that peace of mind worth? This guy is talking about paying (or borrowing) full tuition at CCN versus getting a boatload of money at the school in the state he eventually wants to practice in. Should this guy even be considering paying a “slacker tax” to hedge against doing poorly in his 1L year? If it’s the difference between being debt-free in a couple of years versus being debt-saddled for a decade or more, shouldn’t the 0L take the money, and then cowboy up for the most competitive year of his life?

And then there’s the added Michigan/Northwestern angle — top schools in the right region, but arguably lacking the same kind of national prestige and employment security you’d get from CCN. If he slacks off at Michigan or NU Law, maybe he comes out okay, or maybe he ends up wearing a snarky t-shirt. And yet those schools are great for the Minnesota market, and they’re offering him money.

Decisions, decisions. I’d take a CCN school because I know that if I had the University of Minnesota on my résumé it would have been a lot harder for me to completely switch careers and still land on my feet. But I’ve also gotten used to walking around with my creditor’s foot up my ass; I don’t know any other way.

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So again, the readers probably have more salient advice here:

This 0L should go to?

  • Michigan or Northwestern (52%, 1,283 Votes)
  • Columbia, Chicago, or NYU (35%, 863 Votes)
  • Minnesota (13%, 318 Votes)

Total Voters: 2,463

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These students, and many students across the land, are facing some very tough choices. Remember, life is long, especially if you make the wrong decisions.

Are you a prospective law student facing your own difficult decision? Feel free to post it in the comments, and Above the Law readers might offer you some words of wisdom (or might just berate you for not getting into a top school with a full ride).

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Good luck to these kids, and to all the other 0Ls out there. Everything will be okay. Right?