Going to Law School Los Angeles provides a wealth of opportunities. You can get a six figure job at a big firm, start your own firm, help save the world by going into public interest, go into business, or countless other opportunities. The value of going to a School Of Law is not that it will make you a lawyer, but that it will change the way you think and the way you solve problems.
Because your main goal is to learn, one of the first things you should check into is the quality of the faculty. In law schools, faculty are rated on their ability to publish scholarly articles about the law that analyze emerging issues and the reasons courts can sometimes be hotly divided. Check to see how frequently the professors at a school you are looking at are published and how prestigious the journal they are published in is to get an idea of their quality.
Of course cost is a huge concern when choosing a Law School Los Angeles. The sticker price at some schools has reached $50,000 per year for tuition alone. For this reason, you may want to consider a lower ranked school that provides a generous scholarship. Need based aid is rarely awarded by most law schools, although a few are known for providing generous financial aid packages.
You should also look into whether the school has a loan repayment program. Often, they will make a certain amount of payments for students who choose to go into lower paying government or public interest jobs. This can significantly offset any increased cost of attendance and close the gap between the highest paying big firm jobs and lower paying jobs.
Extracurricular activities are also important and you should make sure you will be able to get involved with student groups to gain practical as well as classroom experience. For example, no law school class will teach you how to argue in court and win a trial. If there isn’t a mock trial team for you to join, you will be at a severe disadvantage in trying to get a job if you can’t perform this essential function of a lawyer.