NYU vs. Berkeley Forum

[lessthanthree]

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[olanderp]

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[Dead Ringer]

For sure. I mean according to the JDU'ers you are screwed at either but I picked Chicago over NYU and now I am wishing I had that LRAP as a back up. You might not be suited to biglaw hours.

[Boalt1L]

Had a small NYU scholly chose Boalt at sticker, totally happy with my choice. If you wanna stay in the bay area the answer is Berkeley. I totally see it as whether you prefer east or west coast, and since you specifically prefer bay area, this seems like an easy choice.

[bk1]

I would say Berkeley due to CA preference, however I have not looked closely at NYU's LRAP so that may tip it towards NYU.

FWIW, I doubt the quality of education at Cal is going to change due to tuition so I would not factor that in.

[lessthanthree]

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[badfish]

Thanks for the replies everyone.. I was just worried about the quality of education because I just graduated from a UC and the budget cuts are causing major issues (i.e. people not being able to get into any classes), but now that I think about it the law school should probably more immune to that.

Does anyone know how hard it is to get a job in California coming from NYU? I'm not totally opposed to living in NYC for three years and I thought it was a really cool city when I visited, but I'm afraid I'll get sucked into staying out there if it's too hard to go back.

Obviously the school caters more towards east-coasters but we have a number of west coast firms at OCI each year and the kids who want west coast positions tend to get them. The fact that you have roots in the bay will help tremendously, I think people make the gap (difficulty) bigger than it actually is. Then again, I haven't gone through OCI yet so take all of this with a grain of salt.

[feeblemiles]

You're right about the law school being somewhat insulated from the UC budget problems. Your higher tuition is (among other things) paying for the faculty hiring flurry that continues at Berkeley.

[keg411]

I don't think NYU should prevent you from getting back to the West Coast, especially if you work in the Bay area during 1L summer. What kind of PI work are you interested in? That's really the only determining factor (for instance if you are interested in DA/PD/gov't work, or anything else where it may be preferable to be able to work and network in these jobs during 2L/3L year).