In my opinion, its your education and your preference where you acquire your education from. I know that Stanford is a REALLY good school; well worth the money. But, UCLA is really good too. The difference in the two is one is private which will be more expensive and the other is public….But for both of them to be on the top 25 of America’s Best Universities should speak for something…

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php

Sometimes, private universities and colleges are worth it if you’re looking for a smaller teacher to student ratio and such… Ultimately, the decision is up to you & what you prefer your degree to read: “Stanford University” or University of California, Los Angeles.”

The reputation of your law program will have a big influence on determining where you work. Small firms (less money) will take any graduate from just about any law program, while bigger firms (more money) and companies (like Yahoo, Microsoft etc…) tend to go for the graduates from better law schools first.

You might not get as much opportunities if you go to a public school (vs going to a private school) Most of the top law schools are private and firms tend to recruit from the top law schools first, then if they need or want to recruit more, then wil go to other schools. The education at public schools might not be equal as well cuz it is in the schools’ interest to uphold their prestige so they will hire great professors and give their students the best education they can give, so that the top firms will keep on coming to them first.

I think you should just aim for Stanford and not those public schools. You will probably have more internship opportunities and meet more recruiters on campus than you would at a pubilc school. Dont worry about the loans. Lawyers in general make a good amount of money (especially corporate lawyers) and if you plan a budget and stick with it, you will have that debt under control. AIM FOR STANFORD AND NOT CAL OR UCLA.

It’ll be more like $250,000 by the time you get your JD

The Diploma will be pretigious and might get you into a NYC based Fortune 500 company.

But to be frank UCLA is also held quite high.

I have a friend who went to the San Fernando College of Law, a very small school with no name and he’s doing quite well after all these years.

I have another friend you didn’t even graduate with a BA and he became a Para Legal doing Workman’s Comp and did it for 7 years on one side of the room and 7+ years on the other side and he’s making at least $50K which is typical “local” assocaites pay for a graduate JD in a small law firm fresh from Law school.

UCLA will cost you about $100,000 including books IF your family resides in California (they go by your FAMILY address).

They have a very nice law library plus there is always the LA County Law Library in Downtown to draw from.

I would really really weight in my options, I opted out of Cal and UCSD because of money when G.E’s are cheaper yet the same at CSUF. If you can get the same at UCLA or CAL I would do it because both are respected names. I do not know how well their law is but If i was you I would look into it. If Stanford is really your dream go for, but makes sure you are not getting yourself into a dept your future job can’t get you out of. Lawers make good money, depending on the type you are, they also are a dime a dozen which makes it harder to make good money, meaning longer to pay off school depts. I would go to CAL, they are a great school just as ranked as Stanford, maybe not as notable, but just as good.

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A law degree is much different than any other grad degree. Where you go is VERY important if you want to work in the corporate world. If you can get into Standford, go there instead of UCLA. If you are talking about USC vs. UCLA, they are the same level for law school so it shouldn’t matter, save money and go to UCLA.

Yes, you will be in more debt (well over 100K) but you will also be making well over 100K your first year. However, if you aren’t going into corporate law, you may want to talk to alumni from schools like UCLA to see where they are at in their career. I have some great, true life examples of people I know:

My friend, Lana, she got accepted into Northwestern, Chicago, USC, and Kent for law school. Kent gave her a full 3-year scholarship and she accepted, thinking “what a great deal! No debt after law school!” Well, after her first year in law school, she regretted her choice. She tried to get internships in high level law firms in Chicago during the summer, but even with her high GPA, she didn’t get a good response. She got some responses from low level firms. She learned that big, high level firms only like to hire students from the “big” name schools. If she had chosen any of the other schools, it would have been a step higher than Kent. Now that she is done with law school and passed the bar, she is looking at various opportunities outside of the Chicago area because all of the big firms will not take her (even though she finished top 5% of her class). It’s been 6 months but she’s looking for a job. She can probably find a job if she wanted 60-70K salary but she is aiming higher. If you look at the big firm websites, they list the lawyers’ names, what school they attended, etc. The big firms usually want to show that all of the attorneys went to Ivy league or equivalent schools.

Another friend, Cindy, she went to Columbia Law School. She had passing grades in law school. Summer internships were easy to find…the big name companies come on campus to recruit them. She now works at a big law firm. Starting salary was $150K. She now makes over 250K. (Her student loans were about 160K)

My brother went to University of Hawaii. It is the best known law school there. He finished, passed the bar, and he clerked for a judge for one year after law school because of his low grades. He is now working for one of the biggest law firms in Honolulu and makes a little over 100K.

My friend James went to a law school (I don’t even know the name…it’s near Cal State Fullerton) and barely passed his classes and the bar. He worked for a personal injury law firm. He turned out to be one of the best attorneys in the firm. After 10-12 years, he built a name for himself and now he has his own law firm, makes a couple of millions a year (he won’t disclose how much he makes!) and living his dream.

In conclusion, I personally think you should reach for the top school if you are going for corporate law. The doors will be wide open for you just because you went to a big name school. Of course, UCLA is a great choice too and it’s in the top 20 for law school but when an employer sees Standford on your resume vs another student from UCLA, they will look at your resume first.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes!