Choosing between undergrad schools - pre-law transfer student

Graduate School Law School
1

Hi everyone,

I’m a current community college student graduating with my associate’s degree next week and currently in the process of choosing where to transfer to finish my bachelor’s degree. So far my two concrete choices are Rutgers University and Bryn Mawr College (I’ve also been waitlisted at Amherst College and am still waiting on a decision from Swarthmore). I’m a history major and considering a minor/concentration in Middle East studies as well, and I’m planning to apply to law school after graduation. Independent of financial factors, I would really prefer a smaller LAC over Rutgers. However, if I decide to attend Bryn Mawr, I’ll be borrowing a lot more money over the next two years than if I attend Rutgers. It’s not enough money that I would probably be too concerned if I were intending to stop at a bachelor’s degree, but since I’m already planning to take on pretty substantial debt if I go on to law school, part of me feels that I should probably stick to the less expensive undergrad school.

So my question is this – assuming that after hearing from Swarthmore, Rutgers and Bryn Mawr will probably remain my two solid options, is it likely to be worthwhile for me to take on the additional debt at Bryn Mawr? I haven’t come across much in the way of concrete numbers, so if anyone has them I’d love to see some data, but my feeling is that since LACs seem to fare pretty well in graduate admissions in general (at least as far as academic/PhD programs go), there might be at least some small advantage to choosing Bryn Mawr when it comes time to apply for law school. I’ll be graduating from my current school with around a 3.9 GPA, so assuming I can maintain a high GPA at either school and do well on the LSAT, is there likely to be any additional benefit in law school admissions coming from one undergrad college over another? Should I be as worried about a relatively small amount of debt as I am (I haven’t taken out any loans yet at my CC), or should I just choose a school based on my current preferences and worry about law school later on? Any insights, opinions, or info that might help me make my decision is greatly appreciated!

2

Law schools don’t care where you went to undergrad, just what your GPA is. Take the cheaper option.

Also, if you haven’t done so, make sure you spend some time interning or working in a law office. Make sure law is really what you want to do before you borrow money to do it.

3

That’s kind of what I figured, honestly, but maybe I’m just looking for some way to justify the debt at this point. I really feel like Bryn Mawr is a better fit for me, and I definitely intend to look for internships in the next few years (I applied for a few this summer but I can’t actually afford to take an unpaid internship right now). Even if I decide against going to law school, I’ll most likely be looking to go grad school for something else, though, so debt is definitely a factor. I honestly applied to Rutgers because I knew I was virtually guaranteed to get in, and that was definitely a bad move on my part. Now that I actually need to make a decision, I’m realizing that going there is not really ideal for several reasons.

4

Try externing during the year for school credit. That’s what I did. I converted my externship into paid work over the summer.

Grad school generally is not as expensive as law school. Most university systems consider their law schools profit centers, charge high prices, and use that to subsidize less profitable grad programs/majors. Either way, it’s a good idea to figure out what profession you want and then go to grad school for it, rather than going to grad/law school and hoping you like where it leads.