Hello everyone. Some very thoughtful responses here and I want to sincerely thank everyone that took the time to contribute. I've been checking back on this post periodically over the last few weeks and reflecting on what has been said. I think there is a lot of good info here that maybe someone in a similar predicament might find useful in the future. For those of you that are wondering, I actually ended up selecting a different school when a surprise offer came in that offered me a full ride scholarship with a living stipend that will allow me to graduate nearly debt free. During the application process, I asked a
lot of people for their advice throughout this process, and some of the best of it came from this forum. I think there seems to be a general consensus among mustachian lawyers that you are better off coming out toward the top end of your class than you are relying on the name/prestige factor of whatever school you attend to get you where you need to go. Maybe it's convenient for me to like this mustachianesque advice because it bodes well with the formula for success I've subscribed to up to this point in my life; work hard, be friendly and personable, network like crazy, and generally just say "yes" to opportunities as they present themselves... Oh well, I think I'll stick with it going forward anyway.
I wanted to share a few resources that might help those that stumble across this post in the future. Below are some detailed guides written by people that claim these methods have resulted in them finishing in the top rungs of their class in year 1. Apparently there is some significant prep that can be done to help your chances of starting out on the right foot your 1st year. From what I've heard, you can really set yourself up to be in a good position if you do strongly your first year. And now, the advice, from the dreaded toplawschool forums...
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=157830http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=189333All advice should be taken with a grain of salt, of course. There is probably a lot to be said in favor of just relaxing your summer before law school and getting in the right mind set to begin studying. I hope to find a good balance between preparing/ taking an appropriate amount of time to see friends and family after having been abroad for some time.
One last thing: one bit advice that sticks out in my mind (although I can't necessarily place where I heard it from) was this:
"Go to the cheapest law school that will get you to where you want to go" Some people may disagree with this mentality, but I think it keeps things in perspective. What do you want to do with your law degree? If you want to go into a specific field of work in a specific city, it would probably be wise to go to that city's law school, and make connections in your desired field. Perhaps if you're not sure where you want to end up, or you are aiming for academia, or a very competitive field, or just want to impress people at dinner parties with where you got your JD, then maybe you should shoot for a school with more name recognition.
All that is to say, is that coming from someone that just went through the process of applying to law school, once the acceptance letters start rolling in containing scholarship offers with a few 0's attached to them, it is easy to forget the real reason you're applying to law school in the first place. It's easy to forget that accepting a $75,000 scholarship from prestigious school X still translates into roughly $150,000 in non-dischargeable student debt after you take into account tuition and loans for cost of living. You're not even talking about interest yet.
When I was weighing my scholarship offers toward the end, I began thinking in terms of loans + interest. So if school A was offering me $15,000 more than school B, instead of thinking of this in terms of
"School A's offer saves me $15,000 over school B", I thought of it in terms of, "$15,000 that I would have to borrow at school B would actually end up costing me $20,714 after interest over the standard repayment period of 10 years at 6.8%, and would require a payment of an additional $173 a month"
(I used this calculator :
https://studentloanhero.com/calculators/student-loan-payment-calculator/ )
In the end, you have to make the decision that coincides with what you want to do as a lawyer while remaining below a threshold for debt that you are comfortable with. For me, that threshold is very low. There is something liberating about being able to graduate near debt free with a law degree. As MMM has mentioned, having enough leverage to be able to decide what kind of career you want, or choosing to leave a position if you need to/want to walk away at some point is a powerful thing. It allows you to operate from a position of plenty as opposed to a position of scarcity. A little "f*** you" money goes a long way, I think, and student debt, or any kind of debt for that matter, is the antithesis of said f-you money...
Anyway, I leave you with that. Thank you for all those that contributed to the post, I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the advice and opinions. May somebody else applying to law school find this thread useful in the future. Best, CST