W&L/SHU/RN/UCONN/STJ Please Help!! Forum

[buttercup5]

Hi everyone. I am a Senior at Seton Hall and I am not sure where I should go to law school. I would like to end up in NYC or big NJ firm doing corporate law work with the end goal of being an in-house counsel for a company. I live in NJ with a 30 minute train ride to Manhattan and a 15 minute train ride to Newark Penn so I would live at home to attend any schools in Newark or Manhattan. Although the new rankings are not my only factor in my decision, they play an important factor. I could use and appreciate any advice that you have. Thank you!

[noleknight16]

Seton Hall or Rutgers, but I took SH because you already go there so it's a smooth transition for you.

[CanadianWolf]

Not sure what the figures in your poll mean: Cost per year or scholarship per year ? Calculate the total COA for each law school before deciding.

[tennisking88]

Do NOT pay sticker for WL/Cardozo.

Of the rest I would take the cheapest option, while slightly favoring SH over Rutgers.

Edit: I'm actually kinda confused. Are the figures your scholarships or cost of attendance? What is the cost of attendance for each, after your scholarships?

[romothesavior]

Hi everyone. I am a Senior at Seton Hall and I am not sure where I should go to law school. I would like to end up in NYC or big NJ firm doing corporate law work with the end goal of being an in-house counsel for a company. I live in NJ with a 30 minute train ride to Manhattan and a 15 minute train ride to Newark Penn so I would live at home to attend any schools in Newark or Manhattan. Although the new rankings are not my only factor in my decision, they play an important factor. I could use and appreciate any advice that you have. Thank you!

You're not going to like this, but your odds of doing corporate law work at a big NYC or NJ firm from the schools you've listed are very, very low. Maybe 10-15% on the high end. And for a truly large NYC/NJ firm, maybe 5%. Please refer to the NLJ 250 Go-To Law Schools rankings if you haven't already seen them.

2010: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... slreturn=1
2011: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... 2543436520

Your goals are not realistic. If you were extremely lucky, you could get a job like this from these schools, but odds are very much against you. I think you either need to 1) go to the cheapest school possible and readjust your goals, and be content making 40-60k working in a small firm or 2) retake the LSAT and go to a better school.

[tennisking88]

Hi everyone. I am a Senior at Seton Hall and I am not sure where I should go to law school. I would like to end up in NYC or big NJ firm doing corporate law work with the end goal of being an in-house counsel for a company. I live in NJ with a 30 minute train ride to Manhattan and a 15 minute train ride to Newark Penn so I would live at home to attend any schools in Newark or Manhattan. Although the new rankings are not my only factor in my decision, they play an important factor. I could use and appreciate any advice that you have. Thank you!

You're not going to like this, but your odds of doing corporate law work at a big NYC or NJ firm from the schools you've listed are very, very low. Maybe 10-15% on the high end. And for a truly large NYC/NJ firm, maybe 5%. Please refer to the NLJ 250 Go-To Law Schools rankings if you haven't already seen them.

2010: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... slreturn=1
2011: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... 2543436520

Your goals are not realistic. If you were extremely lucky, you could get a job like this from these schools, but odds are very much against you. I think you either need to 1) go to the cheapest school possible and readjust your goals, and be content making 40-60k working in a small firm or 2) retake the LSAT and go to a better school.

This. Not sure it's as bleak as the 40-60k figure, but you need to do pretty goddamn well to get a good job, so keep that in mind. Just, for the love of god do not take out a lot of debt for any of these schools.

[noleknight16]

Just remembered that I heard a rumor a while ago that Seton Hall section stacks their scholly people.

I'd look into that and make sure they dont.

[buttercup5]

Sorry everyone. The numbers were the amount of scholarship money I received from the schools.

[tennisking88]

Sorry everyone. The numbers were the amount of scholarship money I received from the schools.

One point: the rankings should not at all be an important part of your decision. Rankings are meaningless after the top 13 schools, and change every year. Choose a school in the region which you'd like to live, as that school probably has ties to employers in the area.

If you're living at home, I'd go to Rutgers. Tuition will be ~13k. If you live at home all 3 yrs, it's only gonna cost ya 36-38k. Not horrible. Can you live at home and go to SH? I believe SH is a bit better school, and both SH and Rutgers would be comporably priced, but only if you live at home, AND, like the poster below said, you are not in danger of losing your scholly to SH.

[timbs4339]

Unfortunately your chances of NYC biglaw from any of these schools are slim to none, and biglaw is pretty much a prereq if you want to go in-house. Rutgers will probably give you the best chance at NJ biglaw but even then you will have to place in the top 10% (probably more like top 5% with no work experience) to have a shot. It just doesn't seem worth it with your slate of schools right now. Could you retake and try to get better options?

[Azmatt]

Oddly enough. 10% of RU-N's graduating class place well after taking into account that 9% of Rutger's 1Ls will transfer out/up. That's TRANSFER not dropout. I can't imagine a circumstance where more than a handful of those would transfer to a peer/lower tier school.

So, it might not necessarily be as bleak as they're hysteria suggests. Just make a prudent decision.

[Tiago Splitter]

Oddly enough. 10% of RU-N's graduating class place well after taking into account that 9% of Rutger's 1Ls will transfer out/up. That's TRANSFER not dropout. I can't imagine a circumstance where more than a handful of those would transfer to a peer/lower tier school.

So, it might not necessarily be as bleak as they're hysteria suggests. Just make a prudent decision.

Wow 19%. Pretty solid.

I think Rutgers usually wins these polls because both RU-N and SH put stips on their schollies. If you don't make the stip, the in-state rate at Rutgers is a lot better than full freight at Seton Hall.

[keg411]

Sorry everyone. The numbers were the amount of scholarship money I received from the schools.

One point: the rankings should not at all be an important part of your decision. Rankings are meaningless after the top 13 schools, and change every year. Choose a school in the region which you'd like to live, as that school probably has ties to employers in the area.

If you're living at home, I'd go to Rutgers. Tuition will be ~13k. If you live at home all 3 yrs, it's only gonna cost ya 36-38k. Not horrible.

+1. Do this, but don't expect BigLaw or corporate work. SHU is no better than Rutgers and if you lose your scholarship you could get seriously screwed. The SHU curve is terrifying and they have mandatory D's and F's.