[simm0468]

Hi,
My husband is going to law school and I am wondering if given the choice would i want to move to lansing or Omaha Nebraska?

[alwaystraveling25]

Originally Posted by simm0468

Hi,
My husband is going to law school and I am wondering if given the choice would i want to move to lansing or Omaha Nebraska?

I have been to both Omaha, NE and Lansing, MI several times (native Michigander who used to live in Kansas City and travel to Omaha extensively for work), and each has it's pros and cons:

Omaha - Omaha is the biggest city in Nebraska and has lots of Fortune 500 companies with operations there. Except for visiting nearby Lincoln, which is about 40 minutes away, there is not a whole lot to do outside of the Omaha/Council Bluffs area. Western Nebraska is very rural, though pretty, and you are about 2 hours away from Des Moines, IA. Omaha has a fun downtown area and great suburbs. I would recommend reaching out to some people in the Nebraska forum to find out what it is like to live there. I had a good friend from college who moved from Kalamazoo, MI to Omaha and loves it there, he would not consider living anywhere else except maybe Chicago.

Lansing - State capital of MI, so opportunities for you to work for the state of Michigan or for your husband to work there in the future as well. East Lansing is home to Michigan State, so you get the usual pros and cons of living near a large (40,000 students) public university. You have Grand Rapids and Metro Detroit a quick 1-1.5 hour drive down I-96, and Michigan is by far one of the prettiest states I have lived in.

I think you need to ask yourself two things: Do I plan to stay wherever my husband goes to school and what would be a better career choice for him? For example, going to MSU law's school might be better for him scholastically, but then he might not be able to find a job in Michigan afterwards due to the deplorable economic conditions there.

I think you need to weigh both "what school is best for him" and "do we want to stay there afterwards." If you have not been to Omaha or Lansing before, I HIGHLY recommend visiting both of them before making your decision. Make sure to check out all the local things: where the grocery store is, mall, entertainment, dining options, nightlife, whatever is important to you. Once you have visited both, you should definitely be able to make a decision weighing your feelings with your personal pros and cons.

[Jasmin71]

NE.......... JObs in Lansing are gone.....

[magellan]

Wow, that's tough. Lansing is heavily tied to General Motors, and we all know how they're doing lately.

I hate to say it, but I'd probably pick Omaha. Although, I've been through Nebraska a couple of times and remember thinking what a horribly flat and desolate state it was. We drove through Omaha, but I can't remember one thing about it. But economy wise, it's a better bet.

[krock1dk]

Omaha is actually a clean, hip and up-and-coming little city, from what I understand. Warren Buffet has turned it into a cool place. The Nebraska economy, although being much less populated, is significantly healthier than Michigan's. Lansing is a Rust Belt industrial city (a small one at that) that has lost thousands and thousands of jobs over the years, and no end in sight. The only advantage Lansing may have is that its a closer drive to the major Midwest markets.

[krock1dk]

Personally, I would get out of MI the first chance you get. And Omaha is actually a very decent city. It could be much worse, like Wyoming, Iowa, or the Dakotas.

[cbmsu01]

Originally Posted by magellan

Wow, that's tough. Lansing is heavily tied to General Motors, and we all know how they're doing lately.

I hate to say it, but I'd probably pick Omaha. Although, I've been through Nebraska a couple of times and remember thinking what a horribly flat and desolate state it was. We drove through Omaha, but I can't remember one thing about it. But economy wise, it's a better bet.

Well, Lansing once was heavily tied to General Motors... nowadays, not so much.

Anyway, to respond to the OP - obviously, the economic situation is better in Omaha than in Lansing. However, I think the more important question is how will the education at each place translate into the job that your husband wants more than anything. I would do research on what types of jobs recent graduates of each school are landing, how long on average it takes them to find a job, etc. Like alwaystraveling25 said - I would check out each city too.

[Bhaalspawn]

Where can he get in-state tuition? The other issue he needs to consider is whether or not it makes sense to go to law school today when the ABA continues to approve new law schools and when the law schools are currently graduating about three times the number of new attorneys than there are jobs for them--especially if the law school in question is a lower tier law school.

To learn more about the reality of the value (or rather, lack of economic value) of a law degree today, I recommend that he read the End of ESQ. blog and the Bar Exam Discussion (JD Underground forum). Remember, if your husband is graduating from either of those law schools then his chances of working at a high paying large national law firm or medium-sized law firm are slim to none.

Ignoring other factors, I'd say go with the one in Omaha for reasons other people mentioned--the economy in Nebraska will probably be much better.