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Jacob's College Search Thread

Jacob, I think these are generally reguarded as the best schools of law in the southeast, Alabama, Emory, Florida, Georgia, Tulane & Vandy. Research each of those and see what each school and campus has to offer. Alabama if you wish to be close to home, and I mean very close, or any of the others to venture out. Vandy & Emory offer the big city, and the others would offer the less metropolitian lifestyle. I like what Mardin said above, and keep us posted on your progress and decision.
 
Jacob, while I'm Canadian, I can't offer any insight to American schools, but I'd like to chime in on a few other things. Don't worry about figuring out what you want to do later on, most people I went to school with change degrees once they get there. A few people mentioned getting a business degree if you're unsure, I agree, I followed that path and I have no complaints and see some of my friends who are struggling to find jobs with other degrees. A friend of mine who works in HR for the government said if someone isn't sure what they want to do, business is never a bad option, as it opens many doors later on. I went to University in my city and looking back I regret doing that a little bit. Things turned out well for me, but a part of me wishes I would have gone to school away from home, even if it were only 3-4 hours away. Now's the time to take risks and do things ( I would have travelled more if I were to go back)
 
There is some great advice here! I've worked for universities for 12 years, first as a professor, currently as an administrator and I talk to potential students all the time.
My advice would be to tour as many Universities as you can. Make a list of the universities that interest you and go see them. Call the admissions departments and talk to a counselor. They will be glad to set up a campus visit, get you all the forms you need and be your contact with that school. Then go tour campus, get a feel for it, see if you dig the place. Ask to talk to a faculty member in Poli Sci or English or Law for that matter, ask them why you should go to school there. Ask them why they teach there. If you don't dig the place, move on. You've got to spend the next 4+ years and a lot of $ there you want to be somewhere you feel comfortable. If it seems like they're doing you a favor by taking time out of their busy day, move on. There are WAY to many great options out there to deal with that!
Ultimately I hope you find a school that you love,( big, small, public, private, whatever) has great academics, and that feels dedicated to your success.
 
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Lots of great advice in the thread. The only thing I can really add is that no matter where you go internship, internship, internship.
 
We're going through this now with my son. He's a senior and been accepted into the five schools he applied too. I think it's critical that you visit the schools you are interested in. You'd be surprised at what you might discover.
 
There are a lot of similarities between us. I came from small town Alabama with similar GPA and ACT scores. One thing I did was email any school I could, to see what they would offer me in scholarship money.

Long story short, Arkansas responded favorably. When it came time to apply to college, I applied there (sight unseen). Was given a much better scholarship than the others I applied to (Alabama is stingy with their money for in state residents). I visited the campus and enjoyed it, and made my decision mostly for economic reasons. A free education can be as good as an expensive one. Moving away from home was an adjustment, but overall I would say it was a more valuable and enjoyable experience because of experiencing a semi different culture.
 
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I cant echo the thoughts of moving away from home enough. I live at home and go to school, only because it was one of the only programs that interested me, and was only offered at this specific school.

Get out there and travel, I cant stress that enough. Meeting new people is absolutely imperative if you are going to succeed.
 
RonInThornton said:
Very good advice. My nephew just passed the Bar a few months ago. He got his degree in Business because he knew he wanted to focus on international law and now works for an insurance co. and travels all over the world on the company's dime.

Something else you might want to consider in staying In State for your Bachelors. In state tuition is much less expensive than out of state costs. You might also consider taking required classes at a community college if the credits are transferable. It will save you quite a bit.
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This is a great route as LCSMRTN mentions below, you might think you know exactly what you want to do but things change. Some of the most successful people I know had a master plan, but some of them did not. Some declared majors immediately and followed through with them. Others went to school to do what freshmen do and let it bleed into their sophomore years, declared, changed, declared again. This wasn't a bad thing for some of them. If you're heart is not set on Declaring immediately, your first year if not 2-2.5 years are spent mostly on Gen. Ed. anyway therefore you don't HAVE to declare immediately. So the CC thought is always a good option IF THE CREDITS TRANSFER.

lcsmrtn said:
Jacob, while I'm Canadian, I can't offer any insight to American schools, but I'd like to chime in on a few other things. Don't worry about figuring out what you want to do later on, most people I went to school with change degrees once they get there. A few people mentioned getting a business degree if you're unsure, I agree, I followed that path and I have no complaints and see some of my friends who are struggling to find jobs with other degrees. A friend of mine who works in HR for the government said if someone isn't sure what they want to do, business is never a bad option, as it opens many doors later on. I went to University in my city and looking back I regret doing that a little bit. Things turned out well for me, but a part of me wishes I would have gone to school away from home, even if it were only 3-4 hours away. Now's the time to take risks and do things ( I would have travelled more if I were to go back)
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But to reiterate what a few have said on here as well. You can get many degrees at many levels, but you will only experience college as a young man ONCE! Don't let that be something you look back on as a regret.
 
A few more things Jacob. We spoke to enough admissions director's during out tours and they all said the same thing. They recommended applying to at least five to ten schools. Within that range apply to three different kind of schools:

Reach Schools: schools you have an outside chance of getting into
Regular Schools: schools you have a good chance of getting into
Safety Schools: schools you know you can get into

SAT/ACT: take more than once: schools will not only take your best score, but your best score within a certain category, e.g., math

Grades: obviously good grades are important, but schools will look at the difficulty of the courses taken and the curriculum of the courses, i.e., regular, honor,s and AP, and will weigh the grades accordingly.

Extra-Curricular Activities: schools want to see how well rounded a student was.

Essays: make sure every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed. There is no room for grammatical or spelling errors. All the admissions directors encouraged incoming students to begin writing their essays the summer before applying.
 
Sean said:
A few more things Jacob. We spoke to enough admissions director's during out tours and they all said the same thing. They recommended applying to at least five to ten schools. Within that range apply to three different kind of schools:

Reach Schools: schools you have an outside chance of getting into
Regular Schools: schools you have a good chance of getting into
Safety Schools: schools you know you can get into

SAT/ACT: take more than once: schools will not only take your best score, but your best score within a certain category, e.g., math

Grades: obviously good grades are important, but schools will look at the difficulty of the courses taken and the curriculum of the courses, i.e., regular, honor,s and AP, and will weigh the grades accordingly.

Extra-Curricular Activities: schools want to see how well rounded a student was.

Essays: make sure every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed. There is no room for grammatical or spelling errors. All the admissions directors encouraged incoming students to begin writing their essays the summer before applying.
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Thanks for the info. I have taken my ACT 3 times, in 7, 8, and 10th grades. I improve around two points every time.
 
Jacob Robertson said:
Lol. Yeah...
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I know what you're going through...at least I just went through this with my son. He's been accepted to the schools he wanted to get accepted to (big relief), now he just has to decide which one he wants to go to. Hang in there Jacob. I know it doesn't seem like it but the time will just FLY by. Tempus fugit and all that.
 
I took some advice and came up with a short list my Safe, Target, and Reach Schools.

Safe

University of Alabama
Auburn

Target

Emory
Samford
Vanderbilt

Reach

Duke
Stanford
Yale
Harvard
Penn

Obviously the last 5 are unrealistic given my stats, but what the heck, I'm a gonna try.
 
I'm hoping you get in Stanford out of those... For the reasons I mentioned earlier. Good list man!
 
Good list & good luck.
 
Jacob Robertson said:
I took some advice and came up with a short list my Safe, Target, and Reach Schools.

Safe

University of Alabama
Auburn

Target

Emory
Samford
Vanderbilt

Reach

Duke
Stanford
Yale
Harvard
Penn

Obviously the last 5 are unrealistic given my stats, but what the heck, I'm a gonna try.
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Jacob, I don't think those 5 are unrealistic if you are just looking to be accepted. If you are looking to get it paid for, it may be a different story.

One thing that I regret when applying for schools was eliminating the extremely expensive ones (I only applied to public universities). Most expensive universitities have extensive financial aid available to those who need it. I didn't think I would qualify for these need based awards, but more than likely I would have had it partially funded. Also, Birmingham Southern has an excellent program as well, and it isn't very far off.
 
When I was your age Jacob, I wanted to be a lawyer as well. I spent most of my summers away at leadership type camps and carried a high GPA going into my senior year. Then something happened, I didn't want to do that anymore, I didn't know what I wanted to do but I knew that I wanted to see and experience things. I wanted to get away from where I grew up. I looked at International Colleges. I majored in things that are completely useless, hence my career in sales.

My initial impression is that your GPA isn't high enough for Ivy League Schools, and you seriously need to take the SAT.
 
I echo the SAT thing. I did better on the SAT as compared to the ACT.
 
Yeah Jacob, I'm with the majority on the SAT too. In Oklahoma I didn't need to take it to get in to either of the state school's but I did for the sake of being courted hard by Dartmouth for a time for football as I knew even though it may have been a pipe dream I'd have to have that SAT score. I too scored better than that as a whole than my ACT.
 
Great list man! I wish you the best! I'm an Oklahoma university student, working on my double major, post Respiratory Care/PA program. I applied 6 different schools just to weigh my options, but I chose OU because it was my nearest location, as I would be commuting. Also, due to their expansive medical programs!

You are very smart for applying for multiple schools, it will keep your options open! I had a friend who began his college tenure at Alabama, but transferred to Dartmouth to be close to his family! He loved Alabama's campus, professors, and student activites while he was there though!
 
Ok actually look at this back wards for a moment. You say you want to do tax law, so go find the best 20 law schools for taxes, then find out which ones offer the best and most scholarships. This will start to narrow your search. then determine which ones are in an area that you might want to live in and possibly work in after your graduate. Once again narrowing your search. Then visit and check out each of these schools. This will give you a good idea of what and where you might want to concentrate your efforts. Oh by the way my dad was an attorney and he reccomends water law. some of the water guys he knows make huge buck and work on a contract or consultation basis.
 
RonInThornton said:
Very good advice. My nephew just passed the Bar a few months ago. He got his degree in Business because he knew he wanted to focus on international law and now works for an insurance co. and travels all over the world on the company's dime.

Something else you might want to consider in staying In State for your Bachelors. In state tuition is much less expensive than out of state costs. You might also consider taking required classes at a community college if the credits are transferable. It will save you quite a bit.
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Jacob I have to disagree with Ron on this statement. Colorado State University is now more expensive for a resident of Colorado then alot of out of state schools due to the state budget. You might want to make sure you know that your instate is cheaper than out of state somewhere else. also be aware of state budget issues wherever you go as this might effect future scholarships.
 
Jman215 said:
Yeah Jacob, I'm with the majority on the SAT too. In Oklahoma I didn't need to take it to get in to either of the state school's but I did for the sake of being courted hard by Dartmouth for a time for football as I knew even though it may have been a pipe dream I'd have to have that SAT score. I too scored better than that as a whole than my ACT.
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Don't mean to hijack this thread Jacob.. but Jman, a very good friend of mine almost went to Dartmouth to play ball a few years back. He ended up going to OU. His name is Brandon Crow.

He took the SAT and told me it wasmore difficult than the ACT. I only took the ACT, so I'm not sure exactly how difficult it is!
 
OSU is awesome :) haha. Great athletic program - and decent city. If i had to do college all over - my senior year id spend weekends at my fav 10 colleges. That way you get an idea what you will be living at for 4 years.

if you decide on columbus, ohio be sure and get in touch - i can show you around the city and introduce you to tons of OSU college students. I have plenty of friends that are always attending - including a few young girls that work with us be happy to show ya around campus.

but given your body of choices - i doubt columbus is high on your list haha. Id go south or to cali. Winter is a bore hear :(
 
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