I lived in the northeast for most of my life, but i can see myself having fun in both environments.

I do not really know what I want to specialize and was wondering what you guys thoughts where for what is the greater general legal education. Basically I am looking for some things that differentiate Berkeley from NYU to try and make my decision early.

Thank you for your time guys

Peer schools are peer. What's COA at each? All else equal, go where you want to work.

Have you actually been accepted into either of these schools?

And if so, what scholarships, if any?

Long-term goals? Debt? Mitigating factors, such as family etc?

Feels like a Hypo.

Berkeley if you want CA. NYU for anywhere else. Though if COA is markedly different, go with that.

Wondering if you'd say the same thing if OP were considering CLS or UChicago instead of NYU.


This is credited. I take it you're OOS?

CLS has more prefstige and overall placement power than NYU and UChi regularly sends its grads to non-Chicago markets, so, no.

wut

Total NYU Costs: $74,704
Total UC Berkeley Costs: $77,540.00


No real aid at either so debt doesn't really serve to distinguish the two.
Family in the Boston area


I need to make a decision by Monday. This is not a hypo.


I do not really know where i want to work at this point in my life so the school with the greatest flexibility as far a geographic placement would be ideal. Although, I heard that once you are with a firm for a couple of years it isn't that hard to transfer to a different region. Is there truth to that?


I really find myself flipping a coin right now and i was hoping that TLS could sway me one way or the other.

NYU. These are not peer schools. God, don't you guys even look at the USNWR rankings?

Have you visited both schools?

Just my two cents, I'm from the Northeast, and chose Berkeley over NYU.
A NY Biglaw Founding Partner told me having some geographic diversity would actually help my career.

NYU and this is not even close if you have any interest in working on the East Coast.

I fixed that for you. Yeah it will make a difference in NYC but it won't in the other east coast markets. In fairness though DC is so brutally competitive (and he isn't getting the Southern markets) that I could somewhat understand considering the east coast to only be NYC.

Because NYU will open more doors for you in NYC than Boalt will for you in California (in terms of the number of firms). So I would lean towards NYU since you seem to have no preference. Other than that it won't make a difference. Scholarship money is more important with these 2 schools.

In this instance, yep. OP expressed no preference for where he/she wants to work, so it really comes down to location. NYU is better for East Coast, Berk is better for West, and everything in the middle is probably a wash.

Visit both schools, then pick Berkeley.

I honestly think you'd be in good shape at either school given your general (or rather, undefined) goals. I think clear deciding factors would be (1) money, if one school is significantly cheaper than the other, (2) fit, i.e. student body, grading system, profs, clinics/journals, campus and regional feel and (3) geographical preference after school. A lot of people will emphasize (3) but it seems that you don't have a clear idea yet and frankly I think that factor may be overblown. Maybe if you know 100% you want to work in NYC, then pick NYU. But people underestimate Berkeley's ability to place grads east. It's always hard to know how many B grads stay in CA out of self selection, but I've now repeatedly heard and seen that Berkeley grads that target markets on the east coast do just fine. I honestly don't know if the same is true of NYU grads in CA. It's possible. One thing to remember though is that the CA market is in some ways more competitive in that it typically requires ties to the state of some sort (which you would get by attending Berkeley), whereas ties aren't typically as required in NYC and DC.

Nice problem to have. Good luck!

NYU costs $78k http://www.law.nyu.edu/financialaid/bud ... /index.htm

I am going off what they quoted in the "NYU School of Law Financial Aid Package"

I'm going off what you would actually have to pay at NYU this upcoming year based on the updated 2012-2013 budget

and our budget has a pretty low COL estimate.

Can't you also apply for in-state tuition after a year at Berkeley?

yes