Originally posted by Mario_C:
NP,
Whether cost should a "huge factor" depends on what he wants to do with his law degree. How important is the size of the paycheck he will receive upon graduation and the type of work he will do? Big money at a big firm? Small money as a public defender? Modest money as a public sector government attorney? Unknown $ in politics? Or, a non-traditional legal career?
Here is why I weighed in on your thread...
Many moons ago, I turned down admission to UofC law school to attend UC-Boulder. The reason: at the time, UC-Boulder's instate tuition was just under $6K/year. UofC was approx $40K/year at that time. UC-Boulder is a solid public law school, but it wasn't going to open doors for me in big Chicago or NY law firms unless I was top 5% of my class. I did not realize that until much later, and made a decision to attend based entirely on cost of tuition. As for cost of living, I figured with a little effort to find equivalently priced living arrangements it would be a wash. As a general rule, Boulder isn't much cheaper than Chicago, if at all.
I never thought twice about the decision to attend UC-Boulder until it came time to hiring, as I really enjoyed my time there. However, I went to law school, in part, to make more $$ and that was only available (right away) at a big firm. A UofChi grad, as long as he isn't drooling on himself, will always get interviews at big time firms--usually without much regard to class rank. NW and UC-Boulder grads don't always get the invite (even if they are top 5 to 10% of their class). In my experience, that is true at most all firms in any city across the US. The UofChi degree has legal cache. It is elite. NW has cache too, but to a lesser extent.
As far as the economics, NW is more expensive per year than UofC. However, his scholarships make it less expensive (full ride vs partial scholarship). Despite that upfront savings, which is attractive, I believe immediate earning potential and breadth of opportunities upon graduation should be the driving factor, rather than cost of tuition. That sheepskin will mean a lot during his career and, many times, in unexpected ways. How much are the scholarships at UofChi? Do they cut tuition in half? So, just for discussion purposes, tuition at UofC *could* be approx $26K/year? Over the life of his legal career, that $78K for a legal education will be a drop in the well. Unless, he wants to be a DA/PD.
In short, you only get one chance to attend law school. I chose based on economics. In hindsight, for what I was trying to accomplish, that was not the wisest route. It all worked out--eventually--but, it took me 4-5 years of very hard work at small to medium firms to get to the "big firm" and I was making less $$ for more work during that time. I have never put pen to paper, but I'm guessing the salary loss was greater than the tuition savings.
By the way, if the wife is going to DePaul, he is likely not attending NYU, Harvard, UVA, or Michigan anyway. So, while those are VERY-VERY impressive accolades, it doesn't sound like they are truly being considered (just a guess).
One last note, if he knows what city he wants to live in and what type of work he wants to do, some would suggest attending the best regional law school for free and then knocking it out of the park as far as grades/class rank once there. Being the #1 grad at Zero U if you want to work in OKC or Dallas could be just as marketable as a middle of the pack grad from NW.