Law school questions

[Anonymous]

O&P here - one reason to stay here is so I can keep my job until we see how it goes. If he goes to Penn I can find a job pretty easily with my contacts in PA but it won't be as much as I make here.

Ses or gs15 income is fine. We are both working (or I am p/t. Neither of us has any student loans and we have an excellent investment portfolio (got in at a low real estate market in now expensive areas). So our urgency for high paying jobs isn't like a lot lf our friends which is nice.

I think he is thinking g'town even without the money - it's also right near where we live. Summers off will be difficult for him with his current job but he has leads to other places at his agency that are very good. But his director wrote one of his recommendations so I don't think he would have to fight for flexibility - though they might reject his promotion because they're assholes at DHS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:uhhh - if he got a 99th percentile on the lsat, why did he not apply to Y, H, or S?

With his non-trad background i would imagine he would def get into H (they have a large class size), if not Y.

a 99th percentile is a 173. He would've been competitive for H.

because we didn't want to live in New Haven or Boston. Or Cali. It was home or here.

As for business school, he's considered a PhD in Econ program (zzzz) but I have never heard him say a word about GMAT. He currently works in Intel. I could do a joint program, but I don't think he considers an MBA valuable for his interests (he is a very analytical thinker, loves history, constitional law/civil rights, ect. Not necessarily a "make money for someone" kind of guy, for better or worse.

I want him to be happy, I feel like I'm sacrificing by staying in DC, though - staying here at the expense of my own happiness.

And yes, he got a 173. Without any real studying. Hate him!

Big mistake. His options would be so much better at one of those. It is only 3 years. Yale means no grades which would take sooo much pressure off. Not to mention the networking. Your mixing up places like GW and Georgetown. It would be naive to not realize how much easier having a higher ranked school is.

lol. I started (reluctantly) at GW. Exceptional LSAT and okay GPA from a non-US school. Killed it in 1L and transferred to Georgetown, since it has a much better reputation. I don't usually volunteer the fact that i transferred, because i know it is a touchy subject for GW people. But when i was a junior associate at big law, we interviewed a top GW candidate. He was straight A+s, award for top grades in his year, and i think was already lined up for a really prestigious clerkship? Lunch was with the candidate and another junior associate, who had also gone to GW. The two of them (rudely) spent lunch talking about GW stuff, and at one point were having a long conversation about a particular professor. When they realized how rudely they were excluding me, the candidate stopped to explain who the professor was. I awkwardly mentioned that he had been my first year property prof before i transferred. Long pause. We went back to talking about other stuff. Ten minutes later in a lull in conversation, the candidate says "do you mind me asking why you transferred?" and proceeded to explain that GW to Georgetown was "essentially a lateral move". I didn't feel like causing a fight (because i am not socially obtuse), so i politely said that i was particularly interested in tax law (an area Georgetown was known for - even though i wasn't actually interested in it) and that i might move back to my home country (not true) and i felt georgetown had better name recognition overseas even if it was not a superior school (I was trying to deflect and end the discussion). The candidate got huffy, again reiterated that it was a lateral move, they are pretty much ranked the same (not true then or now - i think gw was #22 then and georgetown #12), and that his experience in the midwest is that no one has heard of Georgetown and GW has much stronger name recognition. I didn't take the bait and really just kept trying to shut the conversation down. He was so irate and continued spouting angry defenses for another minute or two. So awkward. I called the recruiting committee rep at our firm and explained that he lacked judgment and he did not get an offer.

Fast forward 10 years, and i have moved jobs and geographic locations, and despite being only a moderately good lawyer, i have tremendous bargaining power all from the law school name. My last job was into a top-25 big law firm, where i negotiated a good title and a part time schedule in the office of my choice, all from the get go. Every employer has frankly admitted that they got a good vibe off me in the interview and, given my law school background, knew i was a sure thing. None of these places would have even called me if i graduated from GW.

Wow, sorry about your crapoy experience with two GW alums.

However, by the end of your tirade against GW alums who are full of themselves, you actually also sound a bit full of yourself, fwiw.

I graduated from GW law and went to work at a top 25 big law firm, and several of my classmates did as well, and have gone on to long and profitable and helpful careers in big law (OP's husband doesn't want to go into big law!) and the fed government. There will be pompous jerks at every school and part of being an adult is learning how to deal with them without letting them ruin your day.

You may be right that GTown is a better bet than GW because it is ranked higher, so on average a graduate from there will get better job offers, but it is possible for OP's husband to get what he wants out of GW law (I did), and GW law is not composed exclusively of self important jerks.

[Anonymous]

OP here - I agree with you, PP. There are jerks in every field and everywhere. My Dh went to GW undergrad and wasn't an officer when he was in the military - he enlisted while in college and people always treated him like he's a moron, assuming he never went to college. Nevermind that plenty of morons go to college. Lots of jerks everywhere!

[Anonymous]

paying sticker for GULC is not a good investment. there are many GULC grads doing the rounds in doc review and shitlaw firms.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]paying sticker for GULC is not a good investment. there are many GULC grads doing the rounds in doc review and shitlaw firms. [/quote]

Interesting.

But one thing is that my husband already has a good paying job.

The reason he didn't go years ago to law school was that he was in the military. Which I think has helped his discipline now vs when he was an undergrad. Since that ? Came up in the other thread about whether a husband should go to law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks- we aren't living elsewhere. We both have good jobs here and have family back home. To move elsewhere is counter productive in the long run. If he for sure wanted big law, then yes - trying for a top there would be the best way forward. But he already has a good paying job here (as do I) which, without getting in to Penn, seems stupid to give up.

Sounds like GT is a better bet than GW - he is planning on speaking with them about money next week. And bringing his GW offer to negotiate, I believe

Gtown won't match an offer from GW. They would match an offer from UVA, Duke, NYU, etc, but they don't match offers from schools ranked lower than GW. Andy cornblatt will just tell him to go to GW.

This is correct. I suppose there is no harm in asking, but GT won't give more $$ based on a GW offer.

OP, one other possibility is for your husband to transfer after his first year, if he really does well. Many people don't know that transfer admissions are much easier than 1L admissions.

Except to transfer you absolutely have to be in the top ten percent of your class - at the minimum. That's a lot of pressure and can be tough to do as it's hard to predict where you'll end up.

[Anonymous]

When I was considering GULC or GW a highly ranked person at GW told me to go GULC. He was a close friend of someone I knew and told me straight up that GW would love to have me, would pay to have me, but he felt he had to be honest with me. When I asked why, he frankly said that I should go to the highest ranked law school I could. GW has improved a lot since then, including under an innovative Dean, but GULC is still more highly ranked, still places more people in federal clerkships, etc. ....

[Anonymous]

I went to Penn law and had a very good experience. If your husband intends to work in dc, however, there is no reason to choose penn over Georgetown. There is no evening option at Penn and the degrees are viewed pretty similarly by most dc employers. If he plans on working in philly or New York, penn might make more sense,however the night school option makes a lot of sense for older students, especially those with kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Penn law and had a very good experience. If your husband intends to work in dc, however, there is no reason to choose penn over Georgetown. There is no evening option at Penn and the degrees are viewed pretty similarly by most dc employers. If he plans on working in philly or New York, penn might make more sense,however the night school option makes a lot of sense for older students, especially those with kids.

Thanks!
We want to live in Philly. I would move yesterday if I could (both from there and our parents are still there)

[Anonymous]

Lmao @ the Georgetown troll. No one gives a shit about the marginal difference between Georgetown and GWU.

Love,
Stanford graduate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've posted here before with ?s about law school - my husband is the one who got 99% on the LSATs and has the full GI Bill so law school is effectively free.

He applied to three p/t programs and one full time - the only one he hasn't heard from is the f/t program (Penn), but the other three have responded. He got in to all 3 (incl GW and Georgetown).

My concern is the marketability of a p/t JD because he won't have the summer associate positions of clerkships that your average law student would have. He'll be working (he's a GS13 on a 14 track, so he seeks it as too good of a salary to give up). But my preference, if he gets in, is that he goes to Penn full time - I'd rather it be tight for 3 years than have no time to do anything for 4-5 years.

As of now, TWO of the p/t programs offered him money (about $17k a year), but one is Temple, which he would only go to if he got a fed job in Philly. Georgetown has currently not offered him money. Money matters because, honestly, if he's working and going to school all day every day, it will be REALLY difficult for me to continue working. Our nanny works 40 hours a week, and there's very little chance we can make it work at home without killing each other if I'm gone all day.

My questions are really this: does it ultimately matter between p/t and f/t? Should he be asking the p/t programs questions about employment options since he'll miss out on a lot of the programs for traditional students? Does it matter which p/t program? If Georgetown doesn't offer money, should he still go with them because it's an overall better school?

There is SO much to consider - Just seeing if there is any outside perspective.

With the way the GI bill works, he won't be going to Georgetown for free.

[Anonymous]

It honestly sounds like a waste of time and money.

If he truly is on track to be a 14, is already a 13, and doesn't really want to practice law, then what is the point?

He's going to go to 3 years of law school just to end up back at the grade he's already in? That's a dumb idea.

[Anonymous]

Where did he end up OP? Update?