Private Minnesota law school worth full scholarship?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I plan on pursuing public interest law, and while my top law school choices were in NY and CA (more nonprofit/public interest orgs there I've been told), I just received a full scholarship/research fellowship/stipend to Hamline University in MN.</p>

<p>As of today, I've been accepted to CUNY School of Law (apparently they're a big public interest law school?), but no word of scholarship. Still relatively less expensive than many schools for in-state resident (15,000 yearly) Have 5 more schools to hear back from. </p>

<p>Should Hamline be the frontrunner at this point? Thoughts?</p>

2

<p>Hamline puts a whopping [3.2[/url</a>] percent of its class into public interest. CUNY places nearly [url=&lt;a href=“6 Keys to a Stellar Law School Resume - Professional Resume Writers”&gt;6 Keys to a Stellar Law School Resume - Professional Resume Writers]20%[/url</a>] of its class into public interest. Hamline’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program (“LRAP”) is only good if you stay in [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.lrapmn.org/documents/5160812013%20Program%20Guidelines.pdf]Minnesota[/url”&gt;http://www.lrapmn.org/documents/5160812013%20Program%20Guidelines.pdf]Minnesota[/url</a>]. CUNY’s LRAP barely exists [url=&lt;a href=“http://apps.americanbar.org/legalservices/probono/lawschools/25.html]at”&gt;http://apps.americanbar.org/legalservices/probono/lawschools/25.html]at</a> all](<a href=“6 Keys to a Stellar Law School Resume - Professional Resume Writers”>6 Keys to a Stellar Law School Resume - Professional Resume Writers). The total cost of attendance at Hamline is [$47,000[/url</a>]. The total cost of attendance at CUNY is [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.law.cuny.edu/financial-aid/student-budget.html]$33,360”&gt;http://www.law.cuny.edu/financial-aid/student-budget.html]$33,360</a> In-State and $41,800 for Out-of-State students](<a href=“http://law.hamline.edu/admissions/costs_financing.html]$47,000[/url”>http://law.hamline.edu/admissions/costs_financing.html) this year. Next year it will go up. </p>

<p>In short, neither should be your frontrunner but if you absolutely have to pick I’d go with CUNY. A much better strategy would probably be retaking the LSAT.</p>

3

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<p>Or go to b-school. Seriously. If your numbers are that bad, you should not go to LS.</p>

<p>Even LS for free doesn’t mean much if you can’t get a job in the area in which you want to live. (Hamline places 70% of it jobs into Minn. However, only ~40% of its grads get a job – any job – requiring a legal education.)</p>

4

<p>Law school is an enormous investment of time and money; you owe it to yourself to do the research. For example, both schools you mention are ranked well past 100 on the USNWR list-that’s a public list, so fair or not, that’s how the schools are viewed.
And very very few law graduates get to pick their jobs coming out of school-they are happy to get any job. So you go to law school and can’t get a job in public interest law-what do you do then? And suppose you consider Hamline-what are the details of the scholarship? What GPA is required to keep it? Can you afford to attend-or do you want to attend-if you end up paying? And as Demo has already done, go to the schools’ websites-they are supposed to have listed the employment stats for the recent graduating classes-check those out, and (HINT) the “JD Advantage” jobs and the rest don’t count-look only at job percentages for “JD Required” jobs. And I’d recommend visiting some of the scamblogs; you may agree or disagree, but it’s good to hear dissenting voices when making such a huge decision. You’ve got a lot of work to do before picking a school.</p>

5

<p>Numbers please, as well as the schools you are still waiting on…</p>