Does anyone know anything about Chapman law school?

I would be really careful with this. First, read your scholarship offer - is it GUARANTEED for all three years? One of the things the lower-ranked schools love to do is offer scholarships that are only renewed if you have a certain GPA or class rank. The problem is, there are many more scholarships for the first year than can statically be renewed - in some cases under 25%. I suspect Chapman is one of those schools, particularly because 88% of their students take out some sort of loans to get through law school. $100,000+ of debt is a lot when you'll likely be unemployed after graduation. Second, even if you don't have any debt, what will you do after graduation? Can you afford to start your own law practice - meaning you have $250,000+ sitting in the bank? Can you fall back on your undergrad degree? You HAVE to assume that you'll be unemployed after you graduate - Chapman had a terrible employment rate even before the recession, and their reported (FAKE) employment numbers are also well below other schools' fake numbers. If you don't want to work for a law firm after graduation, you are correct that there's really no need to attend a top tier school and that it's worth avoiding the debt. However, you do need to consider the reality of law school and the legal job market. Please do your research.

I second what the other poster wrote; check the stipulations on the scholarship offer. If the stipulations are anything but "in good standing," meaning you can't flunk out and retain your scholarship, then that's a problem. I certainly wouldn't reject a much better law school in favor of a full ride at a school like Chapman if the scholarship requires that I maintain a certain GPA or class rank. And often you'll find that the GPA, while seemingly reasonable, is actually quite high on the school's curve. Every law school has its own curve, so the law school actually limits the number of people who can get certain grades. If the school curves to a 2.7 and you need a 3.0, that you means you need to be above median and maybe even top 33% or top 25%. Only 25% can be in the top 25%, so you have a 75% chance of losing your scholarship. It's worth investigating the school's curve. You're not just facing a lower starting salary; you're facing NO starting salary. That's how bad the job prospects are out of Chapman. For a while some people thought Chapman was going to be a rising star, but that never happened. There are just too many good schools in the area competing, like UCLA, USC, and UCI. UCI really stole Chapman's thunder. It's not that Chapman is a bad school. The education is perfectly decent. The problem is that you just don't stand a very good chance of finding any legal work in this economy out of Chapman. I know actually know someone who attended Chapman on a full ride. He maintained his scholarship. He got into better schools, but took the money, anyway. He did get a job, although he made well below market in San Francisco. His story is probably one of the less common among all Chapman students. Finally, you won't have no debt unless you can live with someone (parents, spouse, fiance) who is paying for all your cost-of-living expenses. A full scholarship just means tuition and maybe fees, not your rent, books or other bills. COL expenses range depending on the area, but in Orange County, I'm guessing around $20,000 per year give or take, so that's $60,000 in debt right there.