<p>Hey,
Just a question that I'm sure there's other people out there thinking about. I've been accepted to University of New Hampshire with a nice scholarship making it really cheap for college. I've also been accepted to top Universities such as Northeastern and other even more competitive private colleges. Here's the thing, I've worked really hard for four years, am in the top 1% of my class etc...would I be settling by going to UNH? Would I be giving up on a lot? I want to go to law school and I don't know if going to a less competitive school would hurt my chances...anyway, just throw out some ideas...I could use some thoughts.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Only replying because I saw xcrunner in your name. Undergrad school does not really matter as much as everyone says it does for law school.</p>
<p>Undergrad institution does matter for law school. Just look at any top law schools student list to see how heavily slanted they are towards top colleges. But very top colleges. IMO, Northeastern really isn't significantly better than UNH. Where else are you considering?</p>
<p>No question, a top 20 college would be a boost.</p>
<p>law schools focus mainly on your LSAT and GPA. School name is dwarfed by those other 2 factors. </p>
<p>What you need to decide is what kind of college experience you want. While I don't know about UNH specifically, state schools tend to have larger classes (as in hundreds of students in lower-division courses). At most privates you get a faculty advisor, this is rare at publics. Don't get me wrong -- there is advising and counseling available at publics, your profs are happy to talk with you, and so on. But at publics much more than privates the burden is on you to take the initiative; privates tend to be run so that the advising and guidance is provided by design. At publics your classes are more likely to be taught by grad students instead of profs, your tests graded by TAs instead of profs. Since you're thinking of law school you want to get lots of experience writing papers and analyzing books, but publics are more likely to rely on midterms with multiple-choice and short-answer questions than on papers for grading due to the sheer number of students in each course. </p>
<p>The type of student who thrives at a public is one who self-motivated and willing to operate with less guidance and support. If you consider yourself shy or intimidated by authority it may be diffficult to take full advantage of the U.</p>
<p>The right answer for you depends on a number of factors. My best advice is to visit your choices and talk to students and advisors; find out what the experience will be like and compare that to what you want in college.</p>