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Early dilemma deciding which law school to attend...

cgracia12cgracia12 Alum Member
edited February 2019 in General 737 karma

Hi everyone,

I know it's still early in the cycle and I have some schools decision still pending, but I sorta have that gut feeling I will attend one of these schools that have already accepted me.

I am still waiting on Texas A&M, SMU, UH and OU and got waitlisted at Texas Tech, but the two choices I'm really debating right now is U of Denver with a decent scholarship that puts COA at a little over 30k/year and Oklahoma City Law, which I understand is unranked but has given me the best scholarship offer and will put COA at only $15k/year.

I am drawn to U of Denver's better ranking and am fascinated at the idea of moving and working in Colorado, but the debt scares me. Fortunately, I have never had student debt. I am not too excited about possibly attending OCU Law considering that it is not a great school anywhere outside Oklahoma or OKC, but financially I think that will be my best offer and I wouldn't mind working in OKC for a couple years. I wish I knew where I wanted to work after 3 years, so I guess i'm also drawn to Denver because of the relative flexibility and mobility of a Denver Law degree?

Everyone on here has been completely honest and supportive with me, so I have no issue being transparent about my financial situation in order to help me with a decision. After my last year of work this year, I will have close to $55k in savings which I plan to use for law school, but obviously try and keep as much as I can. My parents have said they will help me with some of my expenses, but I am not willing to ask for help with tuition money.

Between Denver Law and OCU Law, what do you guys think would be better given my situation? I have close to or less than a 50% chance at the other schools I mentioned, which is why I'm not too hopeful that I will be accepted at this point. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

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Comments

  • ChardiggityChardiggity Alum Member
    edited February 2019 336 karma

    I wouldn't count Texas A&M out. If you're getting money from Denver, then you may be in line for some A&M money as well. I'm in Colorado and decided not to apply to Denver, because they have conditional scholarships requiring you to keep a 3.0 to keep your scholarship. If you lose it, the tuition rate is pretty pricey. A&M's threshold is just good academic standing, which puts you at about a 2.0 or 2.3, and their tuition is cheaper too. Also, Denver's 1L academic attrition rate was over three times that of A&M last year.

    I wouldn't go to an unranked school personally, especially if you're not passionate about living in the area long-term.

  • Leah M BLeah M B Alum Member ⭐
    8392 karma

    I think you need to wait until all your offers are in before you jump to conclusions. But given the choice you presented here, I think I’d go with Denver. Usually I think following the money is the best choice, but Denver is a significantly higher ranked school with better employment prospects in an area you seem more excited about. On top of that, $90k for law school is still a pretty darn good price. I wasn’t totally sure by your post, but I think that cost you gave us is not considering your savings, right? So that factored in too, you could still come out of it with even less debt. I think that would set you up very well no matter what your post-school salary is.

  • lusp7949lusp7949 Free Trial Member
    14 karma

    Debt is a very serious thing. Are you okay with that money hanging over your head for the next 30 years, accruing massive amounts of interest daily? Are you okay with the stress the debt will put on your family? If you answered yes, then I personally would go for DU. But I would do some soul searching first.

  • cgracia12cgracia12 Alum Member
    737 karma

    @Chardiggity said:
    I wouldn't count Texas A&M out. If you're getting money from Denver, then you may be in line for some A&M money as well. I'm in Colorado and decided not to apply to Denver, because they have conditional scholarships requiring you to keep a 3.0 to keep your scholarship. If you lose it, the tuition rate is pretty pricey. A&M's threshold is just good academic standing, which puts you at about a 2.0 or 2.3, and their tuition is cheaper too. Also, Denver's 1L academic attrition rate was over three times that of A&M last year.

    I wouldn't go to an unranked school personally, especially if you're not passionate about living in the area long-term.

    Thank you for your advice. I am hopeful to be admitted to A&M, that'll definitely shake things up for me. I didn't think I was going to be admitted to Denver, so once I was accepted I was pretty stoked just to think about possibly living in Denver.

    My scholarship stipulation was a 2.3, so I guess it's not so bad? The attrition rate is concerning though, wonder why that is? Thank you again!

  • cgracia12cgracia12 Alum Member
    737 karma

    @"Leah M B" said:
    I think you need to wait until all your offers are in before you jump to conclusions. But given the choice you presented here, I think I’d go with Denver. Usually I think following the money is the best choice, but Denver is a significantly higher ranked school with better employment prospects in an area you seem more excited about. On top of that, $90k for law school is still a pretty darn good price. I wasn’t totally sure by your post, but I think that cost you gave us is not considering your savings, right? So that factored in too, you could still come out of it with even less debt. I think that would set you up very well no matter what your post-school salary is.

    Thank you for your input, @"Leah M B" . I do agree I need to wait, I just have a gut feeling it'll come down to these schools considering my chances are so low at UH and the others.

    And yes you are correct, I wasn't including my savings. The $90k figure does worry me since I've been fortunate enough not to have student debt in the past, this will be new to me. I appreciate your honest feedback, Leah. Best of luck to you!

  • ChardiggityChardiggity Alum Member
    336 karma

    @cgracia12 said:
    Thank you for your advice. I am hopeful to be admitted to A&M, that'll definitely shake things up for me. I didn't think I was going to be admitted to Denver, so once I was accepted I was pretty stoked just to think about possibly living in Denver.

    My scholarship stipulation was a 2.3, so I guess it's not so bad? The attrition rate is concerning though, wonder why that is? Thank you again!

    Wow, 2.3 IS much better - that's awesome! I was quoted 3.0 by a DU rep at their law fair, but that must have been for a different award. Denver is a great city (I'm in CO), but I'm not totally sure what you mean about flexibility and mobility? An overwhelming majority of graduates stay local, but that's obviously not an issue if you want to stay here anyway :-)

  • cgracia12cgracia12 Alum Member
    737 karma

    @lusp7949 said:
    Debt is a very serious thing. Are you okay with that money hanging over your head for the next 30 years, accruing massive amounts of interest daily? Are you okay with the stress the debt will put on your family? If you answered yes, then I personally would go for DU. But I would do some soul searching first.

    Yes, the debt definitely worries me and will possibly dissuade me from DU. I hope that as I gain experience and my pay goes up, I won't have to deal with debt for 30 years though lol...

  • LSAThater-liteLSAThater-lite Alum Member
    31 karma

    Ive heard horror stories about OCU Law. I have a former boss who went there and lost her full ride after 1L because she didn’t meet the gpa stipulation. She said most classmates lost their scholarships for the same reason.

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