Ep 79: How to Evaluate Your Law School Offers
You've been accepted to law school. Yay~! However, what do you do now that you have offers and how do you evaluate them? Let's talk about it.
Episode Highlights
Visit the schools and speak with students
If you can't physically go and visit a school that you've gotten into, at least do a virtual information session. Some schools will have admitted student days/weekends.
If you can’t afford to travel, reach out to the schools to see if they have travel stipends for lower income students or students with need. Or they might be able to put you in touch with the Black Law Students Association or some association that might have ability to help you with travel or accommodations.
Talk with current students or recent alum. Some of those current students will be your classmates, try to get a sense of the vibe on campus. Find someone that has similar experiences as you so that you can start to paint a picture of what it's actually going to be like for you at that school
Compare the finances
Watch the podcast video for a better visual of a spreadsheet I use to help compare school finances more accurately. It’s important to get a baseline of each of your schools and to not miscompare them
Research employment outcomes
Look into things such as the average graduation rate for students in your area of law who have a job or in a clerkship within x months or what percentage of the students go to y law
Research the bar passage rates
Maybe the school you are looking at is $20,000 cheaper, but so many of their graduates are not passing the bar. It might be worth taking on a little bit more debt to go to a school that is going to support your career a little bit more. There are lots of great people who choose not to practice law, who didn't pass the bar, but when you're comparing schools and you have options, that is something that you wanna be comparing as well
Tweetable Quotes
“You need to go to a place that’s going to make you happy, that you are going to thrive at, as well as being a good return on investment...If you are at a school that you’re uncomfortable at you’re really not going to be able to thrive. It doesn’t matter what the name is on the diploma if you don’t do well because that’s the worst kind of return that you’ll get. ”