Top Law Schools

Hypothetical for me at this point, but important...Would you rather go to Vandy with a $10-15k a year scholarship or Duke at sticker?

Assume you want to live/work in a location no farther north than Washington, DC and no place west of Texas. Open to all factors you consider important - location, alumns, job prospects, cost, basketball, etc.

The cost differential would be so minimal that I would just say go for a visit and choose the best fit, especially if you're wanting to stay in the south after graduation. Maybe I'd lean towards Duke, but they're like 1-2 in the South anyway.

I'll be making a similar decision probably. The way I look at it is, is the extra boost in job prospects worth the extra $30-45k over three years? If yes, then go to Duke. What I'm trying to figure out is just how much of diminish job prospects could you expect from going to Vandy over Duke in the south. I'm thinking its not that much. In that case, why pay more? My vote is with Vandy, unless you are a prestige whore or won't be happy without biglaw, because Duke would maximize your chances for that out of those two options.

Durham or Nashville?! SEC or ACC? I agree with thickfreakness, if you want to stay in the South you can't really go wrong with either. Go visit and see which feel like you better.

If this is your choise I envy you - I'd happily pay sticker for either.

Edit: I voted Vandy, I like the feel of the school and of the people better. That being said, I'd probably choose Duke for myself but that has more to do with family in NC than the schools themselves.

thickfreakness wrote:The cost differential would be so minimal that I would just say go for a visit and choose the best fit, especially if you're wanting to stay in the south after graduation. Maybe I'd lean towards Duke, but they're like 1-2 in the South anyway.

$45k+interest is not minimal. Considering tuition/COL is about the same: Vanderbilt and save 45k. My.02

DCD wrote:

thickfreakness wrote:The cost differential would be so minimal that I would just say go for a visit and choose the best fit, especially if you're wanting to stay in the south after graduation. Maybe I'd lean towards Duke, but they're like 1-2 in the South anyway.

$45k+interest is not minimal. Considering tuition/COL is about the same: Vanderbilt and save 45k. My.02

I think COL in Nashville would exceed what one could find in the triangle area. Still, 45k spread over 20 years when you've got a similar job to a Vandy grad (since there's minimal BigLaw in the south) really isn't that much of a difference.

Even if you are absolutely sure you want to work in the southeast then I'd probably still say Duke. And if you think you might want to be a federal clerk, pursue academia, or something like that then it's definitely Duke, especially if your scholly is only 10k/year. I know people like to hate on Duke on TLS (except for the people who go there, of course) but your opportunities will be better from there than from Vandy. Maybe if Vandy offered you 25-30k/year it might be a harder choice.

Why not look at Texas? It's reasonably simple to get residency after 1L there, it's less expensive than Vandy, and I think the case could be made that the opportunities for BigLaw or MidLaw in the South (and especially Texas) are better than Vandy.

Given these options and scholarship amounts, I think it's a fairly easy decision to go to Duke. This holds true unless, of course, 1) you know you want to be in Nashville/TN, or 2) you are ridiculously debt averse.

Duke offers better opportunities across the board that will most likely make up for the 30k tuition difference. This said, visit both schools and make your decision based upon that. I visited both when I made my decision and knew people who loved and hated both places.