I was admitted to both GW Law and Georgetown Law recently, and I’m trying to decide between the two of them. I don’t know what financial aid I will be receiving from GT yet, but GW offered me $135,000 for all three years ($45,000 per year, renewable based on grades each year). I am attracted to the prestige and rigor of GT but the idea of graduating with significantly less debt from GW is also really attractive too. Which law school should I go with? What would be the minimum scholarship amount from GT that would make the increased cost worth going there? Is it looked down upon to tell GT that I received this scholarship from GW to see if they would match it?
I’m the first in my family to go to law school so I really appreciate any advice you can give! Thank you!
Absolutely not. (But they definitely will not match a lower ranking school. Plus, GULC is not known for being generous) Law schools ‘don’t negotiate’ but they will ‘discuss’ individual situations: Hello GULC, I am honored by your offer of admission, and am extremely excited about the potential to work in xx clinic, (blah, blah, blah), but I am first gen to go to college and come from a poor family who will not be able to assist me in my professional school expenses. I have an extremely attractive offer from GW ($45k per year), and I was writing to inquire whether I might be eligible for any financial aid at GULC…They’ll get the hint.
Less debt is always better than more. What are your goals? Where do you hope to practice? What are the grade restrictions to keep the scholly at GW? Will they drop the grade restrictions for ‘continued academic standing’?
IMO, no law school other than HYS is worth sticker. (And only HYS if you are seeking a Unicorn job, such as clerking in top federal courts.). The general advice would be to retake the LSAT, and reapply next year. What was your score?
Looking at the email GW sent me, it says the $45,000 scholarship will renew automatically “as long as I remain in good academic standing in the full time program.” I haven’t gotten the paper package in the mail yet with any more detail than that.
My goal is to become a criminal prosecutor, but I’m also interested in politics and government, and I could see myself working for a non-profit or in government as well. I’m originally from Seattle, WA and moved to Delaware to take a year long AmeriCorps position, but I would like to go back to Washington to practice.
My LSAT score was 168 and my GPA from the University of Washington was 3.94.
I’m attracted to GT in part because of its portability–I feel like if I do well in GT then I could go anywhere and find different jobs that may be outside of my current goals of being a criminal prosecutor. Does GW have that same kind of portability?
If you want to become a prosecutor–probably the lowest paying position in the legal field unless working for the federal government, then take the scholarship !!!
Did you apply to the University of Washington School of Law ?
I was also admitted to the UW Law School, but they only offered $16,500 in yearly scholarships; the rest of the financial aid they offered was in loans. UW is still an option, but I would still have to take out about $40,000 in loans each year.
Do not waste that beautiful GPA. A 17x puts Harvard Law and every other lower-ranked school into play. You would easily earn big merit money from schools ranked ahead of GULC. (The higher, the more portable.). Retake is the only option here.
I have worked at both Georgetown and GW. They are both well-respected in the DC area. The legal market is really tough right now (and has been for a while), but I’m sure you already know that. If you are determined to go to law school and determined to go to law school this year (i.e. not retaking), take GW and don’t look back.
If you want to work in public service, not having massive debt will be really, really important. The fact that the scholarship is automatically renewable as long as you don’t fail out is even better. Georgetown is NOT worth all that extra debt.
My daughter’s best friend graduated from GW (with merit money) and she was among the top students in her class. She had absolutely no problem getting recruited to a vault top 50 firm in NYC.
You can go to GW, stay at the top of the class and you will do fine.
^^while that is certainly a strategy, its an extremely risky strategy. The vast majority of L1’s are gunning for top of class, and few are able to pull it off. It takes some students a year or so to ‘get’ the critical thinking skills required to do well, and by then L1 grades are done.
Entering a LS with the assumption of being a top student is not a good idea, IMO. At best, one should assume midpoint. And at that point, one should look and see how the class as a whole does:
GW has a employment score of ~65%. In other words, a third of its graduating class does NOT get a full time legal job requiring a JD.
Of course, having no debt and being unemployed is better than having debt and being unemployed, but still, after 3 years, one hopes for a FT legal job…
I would apply to some more schools that are ranked more highly than GW and see how you fare with merit aid from them. Heck, even Duke should be giving you admission (and some merit funds, maybe).
With your career goals, you should avoid debt, so I’d lean towards taking a school ranked below Georgetown with significant merit aid. I think you can get into plenty of schools and get plenty of merit aid from lots more schools, though.
I agree about retaking the LSAT. 3.94 + 170 or so should get admissions basically everywhere, with lots of merit aid from lots of schools.
I also agree that you shouldn’t go to any law school and plan to be at the top of the class.
See what scholarship Georgetown offers after you tell them about the GW offer. I would be surprised if you didn’t get some money – you’re at their 75th LSAT percentile and above their 75th GPA percentile. As others have said, an LSAT retake could bump you into HYS territory. But honestly, even if you don’t increase your LSAT score, you should be able to get a decent scholarship to a T14 school (including higher-ranked schools than GULC).
Nothing against GW, but a T14 school is going to give you more career options and security. If you want to be a federal prosecutor, for example, that’s extremely competitive and you would definitely have a boost from a T14 degree.
@David2014: If you want to become a prosecutor, then you should take the full tuition scholarship as prosecutorial positions are among the lowest paid in the legal field–except if working for the federal government. Also, any Assistant US Attorney position may require graduating in the top 20% of one’s law school class.
I agree with @Publisher completely – this isn’t just for prospective law students either. I know way too many people who had dreams of becoming creative artists, non-profit advocates, entrepreneurs, etc. who are drowning in debt even 10, 15 years after graduation. They were never able to fulfill their goals because of the huge amount of loans they had to take out.
Six figure debt is crushing. I would take the scholarship and run.
Go to GW. It’s tough out there for lawyers, so keep your debt load as low as you can. And, if you can graduate top 5 or 10% of your class at GW, your odds of landing a big firm job are probably higher than if you were perhaps middle of the pack at GT.