Thanks for the help! Our yearly costs including scholarships will be about 35K for Pitt, 17K for Case and
10K for Duquesne. Seems to be down to between Pitt and Case. She loves Pitt and Pittsburgh but
thinks she might like to move to the DC/Baltimore area and has some concern that Case may have better national recognition/reputation.
I think that this is good information to add.
Regarding the national recognition/reputation, on a purely law level, they are equivalents. I doubt anyone would argue that. I believe that Case is known more for healthcare or some sort adjacent area of law.
I will offer four points as someone that went through this process awhile back:
(1) To her wanting to potentially move to the DC/Baltimore area, I think Pitt and Case likely provide equal opportunity to do so. What she can do to learn more is ask the school(s) about their alumni and where they are located professionally. Law schools generally keep some sort of records regarding geographic areas and placement.
Both schools tend to have smaller classes, which usually is a factor with alumni network. I believe Case has a tighter alumni network than Pitt, FWIW.
But, looking at getting from Pitt/Case to DC area (including Baltimore), you are generally looking at three routes: (1) government jobs; (2) bigger law firms; and (3) personal connections. The first two, you are able to learn more from a law school's career department about how/where they place. They will let you know figures and names on who (firms and government entities) comes in for fall and spring interviews and how many of their students get selected.
As a very honest point, if she wants to go to DC, she probably should just try to get into a DC area law school. Getting a job there will be much easier in that case. American's admission profile is generally the same as Pitt/Case. Same thing with Maryland though it sometimes is a little more selective (sometimes). I know it may be late in the game for her, but if she really wants DC, taking more time to make a decision may be the right move.
If she takes more time, she may be able to pump up the LSAT score as well and be looking more at GWU as an option. Just a thought. I know it is hard to get kids to slow down and sometimes you, as a parent, may not want them to lose momentum.
(2) Pitt did the same thing to me with the law school admissions process. Better or similarly ranked schools offered me way more cash than Pitt did. Pitt was very casual towards me, which had me puzzled back then. Looking back, I think it was more them filling their quota of Pitt undergraduate kids admitted to the law school and receiving funds.
I talked to their dean of admissions after they made a small run at me and when I told them where I was planning to go and how much they were planning to give, the dean was honest and said that I should turn down Pitt's offer and never think twice about it. I never did think twice about turning down their offer.
As a result, I like the suggestion above of asking them for more money (I have seen people do it and be successful), but I am not confident that they will do so since your daughter is a Pitt alum.
(3) With those money facts, I say Case is the right option. It is substantially cheaper, the stature between schools is very similar, Case does have a recruiting presence in Pittsburgh (though I would think once again it is more mid-level firm and above/government job related) and eventually interest will accrue whether she takes out loans or you lose that spending power (and the investment returns derived) out of your pocket.
It also may be good for your daughter to experience another city while she is young. And, she is close enough to home that there is always support/safety in that (but a nice buffer). Though I like to talk crap about Cleveland, it is a nice place if you stay out of the wrong areas (which as a law student, I doubt she spends much of any time in).
(4) Before she chooses anything, I would really take care and time to make sure that she has some sort of plan regarding law school. Law school is a haven for some really smart kids that have no idea what they want to do with their lives but know they want to do something of note. So, law is an easy place for them to hide, bide time and try to figure things out while getting an elite and expensive degree.
I would feel a lot better sending a kid to school knowing that they wanted to be a public interest attorney (ex: DA or work with special classes of individuals) or they had a math/accounting background and wanted to work in tax or the school had some sort of special program that they wanted to participate in (like Case with Health Law) instead of just sending a kid there with the idea that they will figure out along the way.
Eventually people generally tend to figure things out, but doing that while going to law school is a highly stressful, expensive and sometimes counterproductive process. I would much rather send my kid to a 5th year of college to develop a skill (ex: accounting) and then later have them decide on law school than to just send them without a plan.
Just my two cents. And sorry to inundate you, but I have had this discussion with a lot of people in the past and these points always arise/are pertinent.
