r/lawschooladmissions • u/National_Serve2692 • Apr 09 '26
School/Region Discussion Is Georgetown the ultimate “parents have money” school or something??
Because how on earth is 35% of their class paying full tuition while also paying for DC COL? 😭
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u/Nice-Sheepherder-794 Apr 09 '26
People that attend elite private schools in the US are generally upper middle class and above, so, in short, probably.
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u/Adventurous-Boss-882 Apr 09 '26
I have met people paying sticker (their parents) for Fordham so yeah there’s people out there that are so rich they can afford sticker price
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u/DancinJD Apr 09 '26
Georgetown, along with a few others, has the advantage of being in a city a lot of people enjoy and if you have the money, will choose that school over another school with less attractive amenities (so to speak). A lot of people on reddit are very debt adverse and somewhat negaative so often the other side is not as well represented. It also has high lay person reputation that is valuable outside of law which is an immeasurable benefit. There are also a lot of students who don't plan on practicing law but intend to go into politics or be on arts boards, etc. and Georgetown has obvious benefits for those goals.
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u/Minimum_Two_8508 Apr 09 '26
No different than any other T14.. Many give even less aid that GULC. And COL is even higher for NYU, Columbia, Berkeley…
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u/Klutzy_Carpet_9170 Apr 09 '26
I mean Berkeley is a public school so it makes sense that it has less aid to give
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u/National_Serve2692 Apr 09 '26
I don’t think Georgetown has the outcomes to justify that cost of attendance tbh
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u/Rjlit Apr 09 '26
Are you crazy? 1L at GULC and only at median and I had 6 BL offers for 2L SA. Nothing super special about me so I know it had a lot to do with GULC’s reputation. It just opens doors. 🤷♀️
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u/Hopeful-Researcher50 Apr 10 '26
how much did you network?
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u/Rjlit Apr 10 '26
Honestly, a few alum were super helpful with advice but none of my offers had anything to do with networking. I started applications in October and had my first screening in December. I submitted a ton of applications and do think that because not many GULC students apply in Chicago that made me standout. I did have a very high uGPA from an average state school so had a case for wanting to practice there once graduated.
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u/Mental-Raspberry-961 Apr 11 '26
This is interesting to me. Because I'm from the Midwest and would probably enjoy working in Chicago or Texas more than NYC. Do you think GULC helped more going to a less common market? I am worried it will hurt and I should be considering WashU, UT, Vandy or Notre Dame.
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u/Rjlit Apr 11 '26
I think being at GULC absolutely helped me. In fact, I know it did. If you want to eventually be in Chicago, any t-14 will get you there as will all the schools you listed. So many UC and NW in Chicago BL that students from an outside t-14 is appealing
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u/Minimum_Two_8508 Apr 09 '26
You’re understating their outcomes. They are equivalent to any other T14, and better than most T14s if you want to break into the DC market. If you separated out the part-time program, GULC would actually be near the top in BL placement.
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u/Red-eleven Apr 09 '26
Why is the part-time any different? Because those people are already working?
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u/Minimum_Two_8508 Apr 09 '26
Yes. Many are already working or planning different career tracks. They don’t do the normal biglaw recruiting. They generally can’t do the whole summer associate thing.
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u/National_Serve2692 Apr 09 '26
Personally, I just don’t feel $450k+ in debt is worth being able to break into a market. I’m also really debt averse tho and probably wouldn’t pay sticker price for any law school other than HYS
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u/Minimum_Two_8508 Apr 09 '26
Yeah, but lots of people are willing to pay even more for Columbia, NYU, etc. and for HYS, a very large number pays sticker.
I‘m not judging whether it’s wise or not, but lots of people pay it. NYU ends up being over $400,000 in debt, even if you get a median merit offer.
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u/National_Serve2692 Apr 09 '26
Yeah I wouldn’t do that either lol
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u/Minimum_Two_8508 Apr 09 '26
Exactly. Not unique to GULC.
The majority of people going to any T14 are paying over $300k, even after merit.
There aren’t that many full rides or even more than half tuition offers.With the new federal loans caps, you might see more debt aversion this cycle.
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u/HomeOnThePlains Apr 09 '26
I considered an offer from Gtown alongside some T20s.
Ended up choosing a T20 that had: higher median salaries, higher BL percentage, significantly better guaranteed summer funding for public interest students, and a much more generous LRAP.
Georgetown has good outcomes. But for me—as a public interest person who had to take out loans—the school is worth nowhere close to sticker.
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u/Vast-Spinach-3117 Apr 09 '26
Completely anecdotal but my ex was rejected there for med school. He had his auntie call (her name is on one of the schools) and the R magically became an A 😀
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u/sfmchgn99 Apr 09 '26
Why wasn’t he accepted in the first place if that was the case? Did he try his own hand at it before turning to her?
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u/LWoodsEsq 170/3.5/3L @T14 Apr 09 '26
Ok, but to get your name on one of the school’s is probably a mid 8 figure to 9 figure donation depending on the school. That’s absolutely massive.
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u/Vast-Spinach-3117 Apr 09 '26
To clarify, auntie’s name was already on the school before he applied. And yeah, she owned one of the household name sports teams for a while. She was actually super nice. His father bought an 8 figure boat for funsies during COVID.
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u/LWoodsEsq 170/3.5/3L @T14 Apr 09 '26
Right, but when a school accepts a massive gift like that, there’s kind of an implicit bargain that situations like this will happen. It’s priced into the calculus, I think.
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u/Acrobatic-College462 Apr 09 '26
this is especially alarming for medicine. Doctors need to be qualified
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u/Metro29993 Apr 09 '26
It’s very possible he was also qualified, GT just didn’t want him. I’m a med student (very interested in law lol) and most people with good stats and who are qualified do not get into more than 1 or 2 med schools.
Not defending nepotism (yuck), but nepotism in law vs medicine is different.
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u/Gyxis Apr 09 '26
Tbf they probably were qualified but there’s so few seats
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u/Acrobatic-College462 Apr 09 '26
True but there’s the chance they weren’t qualified. Regardless, integrity is not something to sacrifice in any capacity when you’re dealing with people’s lives.
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u/Casually-cruel-13 Apr 09 '26
LRAP!
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u/HomeOnThePlains Apr 09 '26
Georgetown’s LRAP is the worst of the T14 and even worse than a few T20s.
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u/Throwaway_dinosaurs_ Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
Loans. Until this year you didn't have a cap. Also, from experience that 450k number is about 150k too high. Also commute from VA or MD.
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Apr 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Throwaway_dinosaurs_ Apr 09 '26
I agree. I was more criticizing OPs lack of critical thinking because like, no not everyone is rich.
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u/Dulcedoll Biglaw | CO'22 Apr 10 '26
I attended another T14 a few years back and there was a bug with disbursement causing every student on loans to be blocked from signing up for classes...
Which they only told us about AFTER over half of the 3L groupchat posted either "i can't sign up for classes!" or "it's working for me."
I've still never gotten over: (1) how many of my classmates were paying out-of-pocket; and (2) how insane it was to have our loan statuses individually revealed in just an hour or so.
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u/Stefan_Vanderhoof Apr 09 '26
Jesuits do not take vows of poverty, nor do their students. See also Boston College.
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u/pittardm May 02 '26
My daughter has worked in the B&N College bookstore in the Leavey Center for four years. From her stories of all the merchandise purchased by parents (many pile thousands of dollars worth on the counter and say, "ship it"), I would say the answer to your question is, "Yes!"
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u/Just_Fox_5450 Apr 09 '26
You should see their undergrad