Daughter just got accepted, attending admitted students visit day in March. Any insights from others with children or family who are in or graduated from SC Law?
I did not go there but I have relatives who did. If you want to work in SC, or even GA or NC, why not go there, and here and there you’ll come across alumni even in NYC or the like.
If I may ask some questions before answering, it would be helpful to know how your daughter will be paying for USC law & what are her career plans or goals ?
The University of South Carolina School of Law does not have good employment results.
I just checked the resident tuition rate for the upcoming year = about $29,650. With books, room & board & personal expenses, total COA (cost of attendance) should be about $47,000 this year. With expected annual increased tuition, fees & other costs, it seems reasonable to project the total cost of the three year program at approximately $150,000 for a resident of South Carolina.
If affordable without taking out significant loans, and seeking a career in South Carolina government or with a small law firm in South Carolina, then USC law is a reasonable option.
According to Law School Transparency:
-63.8% of the class that graduated in 2017 were employed 9 months after graduation and reported a salary (25/50/75 of $47.6K/$51.5K/$65K - big law not a realistic outcome)
-25% of the class were employed but declined to report a salary (red flag).
-11% of the class were unemployed nine months after graduation.
Bottom line, there is a substantial risk of unemployment (or severe underemployment) coming out of USC law. I would not recommend attending unless you have financial resources or scholarships that would allow you to graduate debt free or close to debt free and you would be satisfied practicing small law in or near South Carolina.
Unless they are paying your D to attend with big merit money, retaking the LSAT is always the better option.
South Carolina is a beautiful state with a distinct culture. For one set on living & working in South Carolina after graduation from law school, USC law is a reasonable choice if affordable & if in line with one’s career goals.
P.S. I disagree with the first response in this thread regarding employment in Georgia or North Carolina for USC law grads. May happen if from North Carolina or Georgia & have contacts in law firms in those states, but otherwise USC law would be a poor choice for one intent on practicing in a neighboring state.
Publisher, my point was that you can end up practicing in Charlotte or Atlanta if you come from USC. If my goal were to practice in those cities I wouldn’t pick USC, but a USC degree can result in a job in a range of places: I even worked with a USC grad at Sullivan & Cromwell.
While possible, it is a bit of a tough road–especially for Atlanta due to Georgia State law school, Emory & Univ. of Georgia School of Law, Mercer and, if I recall correctly, John Marshall.
Publisher, certainly, I agree with you.
I followed @TheBigChef’s lead and checked Law School Transparency.
According to LST, the non-discounted cost of earning a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law is $188,750 for South Carolina residents, and $281,443 for non-residents. About 30% pay full tuition & fees at USC law.
Median starting pay for those who found jobs was just $51,500. The top 25% starting pay started at just $65,000. These low salaries do not justify spending even the lower resident rate for a law degree from USC.
Law School Transparency gives “Employment Scores” to the 200 ABA accredited law schools. Of these 200 law schools, 35 scored below 50%. Another 45 law schools scored from 50% to 59.9% in Employment Score. Low employment rates such as these raise the question as to whether or not these 80 law schools should even exist.
Among the 200 ABA accredited law schools, the University of South Carolina School of Law ranks at #84 with an Employment Score of 68.1%; when combined with the cost of attendance and average starting salary, paying even resident costs for a USC law degree does not make sense financially.
P.S. For a bit of regional perspective, the LST Employment Scores for the following state flagship law schools are:
University of Georgia = 84%
University of Alabama = 81.7%
University of Florida = 75.3%
University of North Carolina = 70.3%
University of South Carolina = 68.1%.
Other law schools near South Carolina are rated at:
Vanderbilt = 86.2%
Wake Forest University = 75.1%
Emory University = 71.5%
Mercer University = 68.8%
Georgia State = 68.5%
Charleston School of Law = 44.5%
Yup. Just adds data to support my post #5.
Unless USoCarolina is free/near free (or family has significant wealth), a retake of the LSAT is the only option. And that is true for nearly every LS ranked below 50.
We have a glut of lawyers in teh US. According to Bureau of Labor Stats, we graduate 2x the number of lawyers that we need. Thus, by definition, ~50% will be un/under-employed in jobs requiring a JD.
@Publisher, that’s very interesting. What’s surprising is that UNC-Chapel Hill’s employment score is only two percentage points ahead of USC’s. I always considered UNC a fine school. (I didn’t go there, and I didn’t go to USC, either.)
Every state ought to have a law school, so it seems like other law schools in SC should close down and USC should shrink. I still figure it’s worth going to USC if you’re going to practice in SC, unless you go to Yale or Stanford and the like (in which case you won’t be coming back to SC, at least right after law school).
I think that the Charleston School of Law is one of three or four ABA accredited “for profit” law schools.
Although UNC & USouth Carolina are close in employment score, I will check to see if there is a significant difference in average & median starting pay or whether that is built into the “LST Employment Score”.
@HappyAlumnus: I checked Law School Transparency for salary & employment data on the University of North Carolina. Significant difference in pay. While the 75th% for USC was $65,000 in 2017, the same for UNC was $150,000. And the cost of a UNC law degree is slightly less for residents than the comparable number for USC residents.
Appreciate the insights: (1) we are from Florida (2) she was offered the out of state tuition reduction which is $32,500 (3) she will have to take out loans to attend any law school. She will be attending admitted law student day on 3/23.
Since I posted this, she was also accepted into the New England Law School with a full scholarship, and University of Miami - which said they inform on any scholarships in a couple weeks. Not familiar with New England School of Law…know people who attended Miami Law.
New England Law School is among the worst law schools in the nation with respect to students & especially with respect to employment out comes.
New England Law School is unranked by US News which ranks the top 150 law schools out of 200 ABA accredited law schools in the US.
What does your daughter intend to do with a law degree ?
How many times did your daughter sit for the LSAT ? What is her highest score ?
Nevertheless, a law degree from New England Law School does qualify one to sit for the bar of any US state, territory or possession.
If your daughter wants to just open her own law practice & practice family law, for example, then attending New England Law School on a full tuition scholarship is okay. Or, maybe, if she will join a family business.
I assume that your daughter scored about a 158 on the LSAT & has a decent college GPA. If so, then she should retake the LSAT & try to get into the 160s in order to create better options.
There are some things to examine & be concerned with regarding law school scholarships. I’ll go into those when you return.
^^what was her GPA and LSAT?
(Would not waste time at NE Col of L. Embarrassingly bad employment numbers. Degree won’t travel beyond Boston.)