Fordham ($45k) vs. Cardozo ($81k)

[blacklawboss]

I'm going to Cardozo, but only after they upped my scholly to 114k vs 40k Fordham. I was in pt eve at Fordham vs full time Dozo. I chose the $$$ and the extra year of earning power vs Fordham. Super hard withdrawal, but the Faculty and staff at Dozo are tremendous.

Edit: but at ft vs ft and only 60k $ diff I may choose Fordham, but that still a lot of debt for anyone.

Debt difference is actually less than $40k. My dad is all about the Jesuits so he offered to match the Fordham scholly when he found out that I had been accepted. That brings Fordham COA down to $170k vs Dozo's $133k.

For the extra $37k Fordham is worth it to me. I'm not happy about the debt but the increased likelihood of a Big Law job justifies it.

Overall, that is probably the right decision. You do know, however, that Big Law jobs require 90+ hour work weeks right? So forget weekend nights out, forget relationships, forget vacation (aside for maybe Christmas and New Year's Eve). If you know this and are OK with it -- good for you.

This post was a valuable addition to a thread that is 4 months old and this forum as a whole.

Did I mention that I ended up at Fordham? ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIwxIobtab4

[blacklawboss]

I think the consensus is that Fordham at sticker is very risky. High COA coupled with about a 25% shot at getting a job that can service the debt. Also, I think Fordham is known to be stingy with money, and law schools in general are stingy with students off their waitlist.

Is 81k the total scholarship from Cardozo, or the total COA?

Really there's about a 40-50% chance of getting a job that pays $145k coming out of Fordham. Just a 25% chance of getting an NLJ 250 job, but many non NLJ 250 firms in NYC still pay six figures.

Did you fail math?

^FTW^

[MrAnon]

There is a 15% chance of finding no paying job 9 months after graduation from Fordham. The school was still employing that many students by paying their salaries 9 months out last year. Is that worth $170K? Imagine how foolish most of those grads feel. That is 1 out of every 7 students. Its quite high and virtually equal to the number of grads who were employed by NLJ250 firms. So for everyone crowing about how awesome your chances of biglaw are, keep in mind your chances of being unemployed are roughly same. And no, there is no basis to conclude the market is getting better and will be even more better next year. That is just speculation. These are the numbers as they stand.