Help me choose a law school...
 

Trying to choose a short list of law schools.

Background:

28 years old.

6 year work history in telecom circuit design.

Ungergrad BBA in music business.

GPA was 3.8, LAST in 99th percentile.

Politically objectivist/libertarian.

Not sure what niche of law I want to pursue. IP looks interesting, but I also like arguing, so criminal law or tort law isn't out of the question.

Long term, I want to write political books more than practice law, and want the JD to help serve as credibility in this area. (Also considering a joint MBA in economics for this same prupose.) For this purpose I'm considering schools that offer more pedigree, but I also have an aversion to debt which makes me also consider schools that may offer a free ride.

Thoughts?

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

Location and willingness to move seem important.

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

Go to the highest ranked school you can get into you. You should be able to get into a top 5ish school with those scores. This will give you the most options after school.

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

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6 year work history in telecom circuit design.

Ungergrad BBA in music business.

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Wtf?

Anyway you have impeccable credentials with a 175+ LSAT and a 3.8 undergrad GPA. Apply to every school in the top 15 that is in a city or region you'd consider living in, then see what scholarships you are offered. A full ride at a top 10 or top 15 school may be better than a partial scholarship to a Harvard or Yale.

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

also these forums might or might not interest you:

http://www.lawstudentparadise.com/forums/

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

Your politcal views and potential career aspirations mean absolutely nothing. They will probably change anyway. Go to the highest ranked law school that you get into and that is in a location that you can tolerate.

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

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Location and willingness to move seem important.

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I'm willing to move just about anywhere, although I prefer to be warm.

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

[ QUOTE ]
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Location and willingness to move seem important.

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I'm willing to move just about anywhere, although I prefer to be warm.

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Maybe Stanford, then? Pretty sure all the other top-rated schools are in the Northeast.

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

BTW, I strongly advise against going to a lesser school that gives you free ride.

Having the name of a top 5 school on your resume is worth so much more over a lifetime than whatever debt you will incur while in law school.

If you go to a lesser law school, then you will have to do VERY well (top 5-10%) to be on par with how your resume would look as compared to doing mediocre at a top 5 school. Lawyers and law firms are terrible when it comes to law school snobbery. They'll instantly hire a guy from Harvard with a 3.0 and repugnant personality over someone who goes to Boston College, has a 3.8, and is a stud.

And if you go to a lesser law school and don't do that well your first year, you will be kind of screwed. Big law firms won't care that you did really well on your LSATs and could have gone to Harvard if you wanted to. To them, your just another guy from a pretty good law school with a pretty good GPA, but your name won't look as good on their website because you don't go to Harvard. It sucks, but thats how it is.

I worked at fairly prestigious law firm in NYC this summer and I only got the job because I did very well at a top 20 school. I worked with guys from Harvard, Columbia, and NYU who had not done that well at all and were not that smart, but got the job almost automatically because of the school they went to.

Re: Help me choose a law school...
 

You really need to give a specific number for LSAT. I understand the desire to be modest, but 171-180 are all 99% and that is a huge range.

180 is lock for everywhere, 171 might not be good for some.

Also, what undergrad?