<prompt> Human: Im about to graduate from college and plan on attending law school. How important is cost of living when deciding to choose a place to live and settle down in?  <response>: If youre not going to a top 14 law schools, possibly top 25, the most important thing is to go to law school where you want to live after. You must network, network, network while in law school. You will naturally develop an invaluable network of contacts among professors, law students and locals where you live and study. This is far more valuable than, say, going to a 50 ranked school vs 70.Legal salaries are bi-modal, a huge number of young lawyers make 30-60k, and a few make 165k making the average seem a lot higher than it is.You also need to make a real estimation of your school skills, talents and study habits. Read Planet Law School I think there a 2 or 3 editions now?.If you go to a 50, not great, not bad school and network the hell out of your time you can likely land a local-ish job in the 50k range. So youre spending 125k-150k to get a 50k job, maybe 65k with decent growth opportunities. Worst case you get stuck doing document review at 25hour, about 35k a year more if your hustle.Sooo the thing about COL and law school is that its really easy to think youre going to make a lot more money and be able to live anywhere you want while paying down your loans. Its also easy to lie to yourself and think youre going to place top 10 and get a baller job.If youre deadset on law school read Planet Law School, pick an area you want to live in, go to a decent, but not great school or a great school with a scholarship or a top 14 law school without a scholarship. Most top 100 schools in the mid-west are a good bet. Those on the coastsother areas might be good, but you really have to examine can you live there on 60kyear after taxes and Income Based Repayment IBR 600month tops, maybe 300 if youre lucky? That works out to maybe 35k-40k a year, you might have some growth, might not. Also assumes zero pre-law school debt.Please do not go to law school assuming youre to make 165k a year.IBR might not exist in the future, but my bet is something will replace it if it goes away, but take this with a grain of salt. 