Quote:
Originally posted by supernga
No, I haven't visited Chicago yet, but I plan to, once I find a good deal. I did apply to schools in TX; however, I got waited listed at UH, the only state school I applied to (I missed the TX Tech deadline, and there's NO way I would make into UT, and TX Southern is a TERRIBLE school). I was told to regard a wait-list as a rejection, because there is no guarantee that they will accept you. St. Mary's and TX Wesleyan both accepted me, but they gave me minimal scholarship, and are very expensive for the quality of the program. Wesleyan has the highest dropout rate, and St. Mary's has a very poor bar passage rate. I still haven't heard back from SMU, Baylor, or South TX yet. Hopefully I will hear back soon. I guess my viewpoint was that if I was going to go to a Tier IV school, I might as well go to one on a full-ride in another state than stay in-state and pay a lot of $$$ for a crappy education. Hofstra is only a few rankings above DePaul, and money-wise, it would be better to attend DePaul, especially since they are in the top 10 for IP law and health law. Almost everyone I've spoken to down here is familiar with DePaul, but NO ONE knows where or what NIU is. Plus, I'm a city girl, I cannot imagine living in the middle of a cornfield and be happy. It sucks to have to wait, because SMU and Baylor were my top choices, and they just happen to be the last ones to reply. Did you guys have to wait as long? BTW, thanks for the insightful advice. I went to a message board on JD2B.com, and there were informational postings, but A LOT of racist postings! I'm not sure if it's even a legitimate board, because they were posting a lot of derogatory threads about minorities. It made me feel very uncomfortable.
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What do you envision your compensation as being? Are you thinking that you will want to work at BB or V&E or whatever, or at a smaller firm? People who aren't connected -- and for all I know, you are connected -- basically face the following, based on my experiences interviewing in TX and being, god help me, on the recruiting committee at BigTex in Dallas for a few years. People in the top 10% at UT have tons of choices in TX -- virtually unlimited. People in the top 10% at UH have a lot of choices, but certainly not unlimited; they may do better in Houston than in Dallas, and chances will be better at midlaw. The very top students at St. Mary's might have a chance at getting a clerkship at one BigTex firm, but everyone else will be fighting for the interview slots at smaller firms. Last I heard, TX Wesleyan was barely accredited -- unless you are sure you are going to be looking at firms that you already know have alums there, I would not recommend that school. SMU alums are pretty enthused, so if you do well there, you might have a lot of opportunities. Baylor is good only if you know for sure you want to do litigation. Yeah, they'll tell you it's general crap, but I know non-litigation people who went there and they didn't like having to do all the mandatory trial crap. I am not familiar with South TX.
If you have never lived in the north, you are going to be shocked as hell at the Chicago winters and I would not be surprised if the sheer misery of them affected your academic performance.
Of the Chicago schools, I think you are right that people in TX have heard of DePaul. But, I doubt that many TX firms interview on-campus there, and as you should be aware, the clerkship(s) you do after your second year of law school frequently determine(s) where you will be working after law school.
The $.02 of someone who has spent chunks of time in Chicago in the winter and practiced in TX. PM me if you want even more specifics.
