Law School Choices..Last Minute!?
Issue by SMW: Legislation College Choices..Last Moment!?
I took the LSAT late (this June) with the notion that I would be taking a calendar year off of college…Then I found out some schools are still accepting applications, so I made a decision to throw a couple of out there so I can get a leap commence on my scientific studies and then transfer to either Marquette, Madison or Northwestern for my 2nd and third a long time.
This prior week, I acquired a scholarship from Hamline that puts me at $ twenty,000 for each year, right now I just received a scholarship for Ohio Northern that puts me at $ 5,000 for tuition for each year. I am still waiting to hear from Drake and Akron. Any recommendations of what to do or where to go? Which school is the most reputable? What college will be taken most severely by Marquette especially for transfer?
Thanks a ton!!
Best solution:
Answer by shenyanggerry
I’d go with the $ 20k.
Give your solution to this query below!
August 9th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Go to Northwestern! It has a very good reputation and is the most impressive. Plus, it’s in a great city.
Definitely transfer to Northwestern!!!
Good luck hope I helped
August 9th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
(I’m copying my response from your other posts with this question, just in case you happen to check this first.)
Hey SMW,
Of the four schools you mentioned (Hamline, Ohio Northern, Drake, and Akron), the highest ranked is Drake (#110 on the U.S. News & World Report rankings). Akron is #127, Ohio Northern is #135, and Hamline is unranked. However, because all of the schools you’re looking at right now are Tier 3 or below, it doesn’t really make that much difference where you go. I would suggest that, if you really are determined to start law school ASAP, that you go with the school that offers you the most scholarship money. Right now that sounds like it will be Ohio Northern (since you can’t really beat only paying $ 5,000 a year in tuition for law school).
However, a word of warning: Transferring schools is extremely hard. Law schools take only a very small percentage of their transfer applicants, and the competition is fierce. Trying to transfer up from the schools you’re looking at will be very tough, and not a definite proposition at all. Chances are that all of the schools you’re thinking about attending right now will look the same to any school you’re thinking about transferring to (unless you attend Hamline, which would probably be seen the least favorably out of the four), and none of them will give you a significant leg up, even if you perform at the very top of your class. Were you to be competing for a transfer spot against another applicant with the same qualifications that attended a school ranked in the top 100, they would get the offer before you would. In addition, if you are unsuccessful at trying to transfer and have to stay at one of the other schools, your employment prospects would be dismal. The legal economy is currently going through a significant slump, and trying to find legal employment coming out of any of the four schools you’re looking at attending right now is going to be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible.
My honest suggestion would be to wait a year and apply to law schools of a much higher caliber. If your numbers give you a fair chance of admission at Marquette or Madison, then wait to apply and go with one of those–particularly Madison which, at #35, is much more solid deal than Marquette, which is ranked #95 (I wasn’t sure which Northwestern you meant: Lewis & Clark’s Northwestern School of Law (#67) or Northwestern University Law School (#12)). Your chances of employment coming out of a school like, say, Madison are going to exponentially better than if you were to graduate from Hamline, Ohio Northern, Drake, or Akron. Waiting a year may mean that you actually get to practice law when you graduate–and that’s definitely worth waiting for.
As a side note, why the focus on Marquette? Based on rankings alone, Madison is a much better option. And, just to expand on my comments regarding transferring: It would be most unlikely for you to be able to transfer from any of the schools you’re looking at into Northwestern University Law (if that is the Northwestern you meant). Given NU’s caliber and the kind of transfer competition you’d be looking at, any of the schools you’re currently looking at attending would definitely work against you.
I’m sorry for the rather bleak response. I hope it was helpful, though. If you have any further questions, please let me know. I’m glad to give you my take on them.