Top Law Schools

Long time lurker, first time poster. I was offered a nice scholarship (42K) at Duke and think I may want to practice in NY (but I'm not 100% sure). NYU gave me no money. I'm pretty debt-averse but can't convince myself that Duke would be the better choice. Am I making the right decision?

42K a year, or just 42K total?

Total

How debt averse are we talking here? Are you committed to BigLaw? Where are you from? Do you have other offers?

This stuff isn't in a vacuum, no matter how much we want it to be.

Relatively averse to debt but I don't want to let that be the deciding factor. From east coast (Baltimore), would like to remain on the east coast. I withdrew from all other schools so that's not really a factor. I'm not entirely committed to BigLaw but I'd like to give myself the best opportunity in whatever I choose to pursue (whether it be PI or biglaw). At their ASW, Duke made it seem like the bigger schools have more competition for the top jobs and that at Duke, it's relatively easier (but I wasn't sold on that).

Duke spreads around the country by self selection more than NYU does, there are a lot more NYU alums around the East Coast.

42K isn't a huge dent in a T14 debt load, but its worth considering.

I don't think you can go too wrong here. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a Vandy full ride or something lurking back there that I would have taken instead, but you'll do well.

All in all, I vote NYU

Both are good options, and they were 2 out of my 3 finalist schools when I was picking. I really like Duke, and if you are really debt-averse NYU is tough (the cost of living is a gazillion times more than at Duke), but if you are more than 51% sure you want to work in NYC, than NYU is a better choice.

You can certainly get to NY from Duke, I wouldn't let the city you want to be in be your deciding factor when choosing between T14 schools, and when the city you want to be in is that huge.

NYU would be significantly more expensive with COL, but if you get into biglaw the extra debt won't be a huge problem either.

Are there other factors? Where would you rather be for 3 years?