Princeton vs WashU (full-tuition scholarship)

College Search & Selection
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<p>I think most people (including most lawyers) would most assuredly tell you that this is false. The legal field is most assuredly not a ‘safe bet’ anymore. </p>

<p>That being said, US News recently posted a link showing that 21 law schools were tied for median starting salary in the private sector for their graduates in 2012. ($160,000)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2014/03/11/infographic-2015-best-law-schools”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2014/03/11/infographic-2015-best-law-schools&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This includes all of the T-14 in addition to some other top non T-14 schools which are very well respected in their regions.</p>

<p>I think many people have misconceptions about both the legal and financial fields. These people don’t earn a ton of money because they’re very intelligent. The reason these people earn so much money is because they tend to work a lot of hours (70+/week) in very stressful jobs. IB and BigLaw (the type of legal job which would provide you with the above compensation) are extremely stressful jobs where people work anywhere from 80-100 hours per week. Here’s an excerpt from a recent article on the WSJ:</p>

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<p><a href=“http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204062704577223623824944472”>http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204062704577223623824944472&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You’ll likely be able to find similar stuff on Abovethelaw for the legal field.</p>

<p>With regard to your situation, it sounds like your parents have a strong college fund set up for you. Personally, I’d choose WUSTL since it doesn’t sound like you know what you want to do. WUSTL will give you the flexibility to go into the legal field and even leave if you don’t want to (what keeps many lawyers in the legal field is the crushing student loan debt they have to pay off.) But it will also provide you with the flexibility to do other things, like doing a clerkship after law school (if you can get one) which will pay off VERY well in the legal industry. WUSTL isn’t Princeton, but it’s certainly one of the top schools in the country. Turning down a full tuition scholarship from it should only be done after serious consideration.</p>