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I've just been offered $72,000 to Duke. At the moment, my choice is most likely between Duke with $72 k, and NYU with no money.

Some more on my situation. I blanketed the T-14 (except for NU). My numbers are a 3.71, and 172. Got rejected from HYS. Got into NYU, and I haven't heard back from CLS and Chicago. Got rejected from Berkeley, wait-listed at UVA, haven't heard from Michigan and Penn. I got into Duke, very recently had interviews with Georgetown and Cornell, but have yet to hear back from those.

I figure that if CLS or Chicago accepts me, I won't be getting money from either school. So at this point, I'm trying to decide between NYU at sticker and Duke with $72. My parents will pay for law school with the expectation that I pay them back afterwards, but I'll get to avoid interest payments. I'm aiming for big law, with a willingness to work anywhere, but I've become fairly attracted to the idea of living in New York, to be honest. I'd also be very happy to come back to Seattle, where I have ties.

Also, at this point in the cycle, might it be worth trying to up Duke's offer, or trying to get NYU to reconsider my (lack of) scholarship? (That last one is a long-shot, I know).

You're almost certainly being YPed at UVA. Send them a LOCI and tell them you're seriously interested in attending and watch them accept you and then give you money. You don't have to go, but you have to play dirty with them because they want to game the rankings any way possible and won't risk accepting you unless they think you're going to attend.

I cannot believe you have not yet been accepted to Cornell, Georgetown AND Michigan. Was there anything weird about your app? If not, you should get into all of those plus Penn and maybe Chicago.

As it stands, take Duke with 72k all day everyday (and twice on Sunday) over NYU. For all the T6 obsession on TLS, NYU really doesn't place that much better than Duke at all. Plus the difference in COL will be huge.

I agree that Duke is the better choice. If you really have a strong inclination to be in NYC then NYU is defensible, especially because you won't be taking out loans, but all things equal I'd go to Duke here.

$72,000 from Duke should give you some leverage to negotiate with NYU.

As is, I would choose Duke. Duke places well into NYC BigLaw and $72,000 + cheaper CoL is a lot to turn down.

72k from Duke plus a no interest loan from your parents sounds like a winner. Even without the interest piling on, NYU at sticker probably wouldn't be worth it. If you make biglaw from Duke, you'd save yourself a couple of years (certainly more than a year) of repayment which is huge.

I'd try to negotiate, but I think you're in a good spot.

hibiki wrote:72k from Duke plus a no interest loan from your parents sounds like a winner. Even without the interest piling on, NYU at sticker probably wouldn't be worth it. If you make biglaw from Duke, you'd save yourself a couple of years (certainly more than a year) of repayment which is huge.

I'd try to negotiate, but I think you're in a good spot.

This

I'm surprised Michigan and down are taking so long as well. I don't know how much I can read from my interview with Georgetown, but I got a pretty large YP vibe. About 60% of the interview was the interviewer telling me why I should pick Georgetown. To my knowledge, there's nothing strange about my app, but my first LSAT score was a 166. That might be pulling me down? I also applied in January, so I was a bit late in the cycle.

I'd love to hear people's opinions on how much worse/at par the placement into Biglaw is between NYU and Duke. I've been spending time on LST, and it seems like while NYU has a higher overall employment score (89% vs 80%), their percentage into big law is at par. I'm not sure what to make if that. I don't know if NYU just has a lager percentage of people self-selecting into PI, and Duke does not.

Basically, I'd feel much more comfortable going to Duke if I could be sure that I wasn't shooting myself in the foot with employment prospects. I'm debt-adverse, but far more risk-adverse. Also, where do you direct negotiation emails to? Thanks for the great input, everybody!

If you decide that you really, really want NYC biglaw, all things considered NYU will give a better shot, I dont think anyone could argue otherwise. In general, though, and probably for Seattle market, Duke places roughly on par with NYU.

When did you submit applications? Your Duke schollly amount (congrats btw!) suggests you should be in at nyu and down incl. michigan, penn, ect. I have identical numbers and Im in at all the schools you mentioned that I applied to except stanford (didnt apply to yale uva cornell), but I applied in late oct/nov, all these schools will probably come thru and broaden your options by mid april if you applied late.

Two other things to keep in mind. Duke is a beautiful school, but theres a reason why NYC has a higher cost of living: its a shitload more fun and exciting than durham, especially for kids wih trust fund parents like yours who can flush 200K. You're not just attending a law school, you're living in a place for 3 yrs so it better be a place you will enjoy.

Second, by "paying back your parents", you probably mean significantly helping them thru retirement ect., not a fixed loan repayment plan. So dont make too many of your decisions based on money at this point, if you're successful then you will be able to help them 200000 worth down the line. Its very different from a bank or feds.

Good luck with the rest of your cycle and congrats on nyu and duke already both amazing schools cant go wrong

You got into Harvard with similar numbers? Damn. That makes me hate myself for screwing up the October LSAT and having to wait until after December to apply.

I don't have my heart and soul set on living in NYC doing biglaw, but I'm pretty interested in that area because of liking NYC quite a bit, and knowing that it's one of the biggest legal markets in the country. And honestly, part of the fixation on NYC is due to me having heard from NYU way back in February, and spending all of that time until this point obsessively researching that one market in particular. I haven't really looked at many other markets, other than Seattle due to home ties (I currently live and go to undergrad there). It should be said that Seattle is a minuscule legal market with all of three "big law" firms, and I'm not placing any hopes on getting into it at all. In principle, I wouldn't be opposed to living elsewhere in the country, but I haven't really looked into any other legal markets.

beautyistruth wrote:You got into Harvard with similar numbers? Damn. That makes me hate myself for screwing up the October LSAT and having to wait until after December to apply.

I don't have my heart and soul set on living in NYC doing biglaw, but I'm pretty interested in that area because of liking NYC quite a bit, and knowing that it's one of the biggest legal markets in the country. And honestly, part of the fixation on NYC is due to me having heard from NYU way back in February, and spending all of that time until this point obsessively researching that one market in particular. I haven't really looked at many other markets, other than Seattle due to home ties (I currently live and go to undergrad there). It should be said that Seattle is a minuscule legal market with all of three "big law" firms, and I'm not placing any hopes on getting into it at all. In principle, I wouldn't be opposed to living elsewhere in the country, but I haven't really looked into any other legal markets.

BigLaw careers aren't particularly long. Take the money and run with it, dude. Especially if you can get a job in a low cost of living area, you'll be able to save a lot and actually live like you make a ton of money.

I agree with the general sentiment at this point. Duke over NYU fairly easily, but you should send an LOCI to UVA right away and to Penn and Michigan soon after as deadline deposits are coming up and, given your numbers, you should be spending time negotiating offers at these schools.

beautyistruth wrote:You got into Harvard with similar numbers? Damn. That makes me hate myself for screwing up the October LSAT and having to wait until after December to apply.

I don't have my heart and soul set on living in NYC doing biglaw, but I'm pretty interested in that area because of liking NYC quite a bit, and knowing that it's one of the biggest legal markets in the country. And honestly, part of the fixation on NYC is due to me having heard from NYU way back in February, and spending all of that time until this point obsessively researching that one market in particular. I haven't really looked at many other markets, other than Seattle due to home ties (I currently live and go to undergrad there). It should be said that Seattle is a minuscule legal market with all of three "big law" firms, and I'm not placing any hopes on getting into it at all. In principle, I wouldn't be opposed to living elsewhere in the country, but I haven't really looked into any other legal markets.

Sorry, sorry, no I haven't gotten into Harvard yet still waiting but I applied late on a whim there so I think chances are slim. I think our GPA's lock us out of HYS almost entirely anyway. Don't hate yourself. My point was that Columbia and down, definitely Gtown, Michigan, Cornell, are definitely within your reach with $$, I don't know how much impact applying late has -- some schools like UVA I'm pretty sure its negative -- just know that for late submits the cycle really does keep going until mid April (Chicago jan submits are just getting intrview invites now), and your options may broaden.

It is a bit puzzling that you don't have several other options at this point, but I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you because 72k @ Duke seems like a pretty reasonable option already. Idk how fruitful using that to negotiate with NYU will be but it's certainly worth a shot.

Think I heard in a previous cycle that someone tried to negotiate with NYU with a Duke offer and NYU said "Sorry, we only consider offers from peer schools" so I gues that only means the top 6 schools.

OP, NYC is the primary market that Duke feeds into. It's very much a New York big law school, just do Duke.

I will say that it seems like you are underperforming your numbers quite substantially here. Your numbers (particularly LSAT) is a good deal better than mine but we have almost identical scholarships at Duke. I guess maybe the late app hurt?

I would use the 72k at Duke to negotiate with NYU. To my knowledge, they're very good with negotiating (but I don't know if they consider Duke a peer school). If NYU gets within 30k or so, then go there given your affinity for NYC, but if not then Duke with 72k.

Also, you should be hearing good news from Columbia and Michigan. You also might by YP'ed at Penn and UVA. It's odd that you've yet to get accepted to them.

Yeah. I have to say, I definitely expected to be locked out of HYS with a 3.71, and I expected to get into one, but perhaps not all of CCN with either no scholarship, or a token scholarship at best, but the rest of my cycle has been going pretty slowly.

I'm a bit puzzled by how little movement there has been from all the schools down, though. I got put in PT by Duke, but they took forever to dole out a scholarship to me, which, I'm definitely going to try to leverage for more. I really wish Michigan and Penn would get back to me, though. I feel like I'm definitely underperforming at MPV, and it's very strange. I didn't expect those schools to take that long.

Any advice for trying to get Duke to up the scholarship?

beautyistruth wrote:I'm a bit puzzled by how little movement there has been from all the schools down, though. Any advice for trying to get Duke to up the scholarship?

They're trying to grind y'all out so they can protect their yield as much as possible.

In terms of negotiating, I'd talk with NYU first, using the Duke Scholarship as leverage, and then I'd try to come back to Duke with NYU's offer if they give you anything. I think it's probably best to be honest and say that you'd like to attend NYU, but that without some financial aid it just wouldn't be economically feasible.

Why did you not apply to NU? If you would have ED'd NU, I bet you would have gotten accepted with the full scholly.

I've honestly never been that interested in NU due to their work experience emphasis, and a lack of desire to be doing OCI with a class made up of a lot of people with substantial work experience.

Anyone voting for NYU is dumb. We are not 72K (plus additional COL) better than Duke.
<<<an NYU student

JamMasterJ wrote:Anyone voting for NYU is dumb. We are not 72K (plus additional COL) better than Duke.
<<<an NYU student

We are at the point in the admissions cycle where kids on the Duke WL are gonna be voting for NYU. Polls are even less useful in this context.

Yeah, I realized after a while that this poll isn't all that useful for me. That said, everybody's comments have been very insightful. To be honest, when I made this thread yesterday, I was leaning heavily towards NYU at sticker for the prestige/placement power. This thread has really changed my mind.

I'm off to write LOCIs to UVA, Penn and Mich.

beautyistruth wrote:Yeah, I realized after a while that this poll isn't all that useful for me. That said, everybody's comments have been very insightful. To be honest, when I made this thread yesterday, I was leaning heavily towards NYU at sticker for the prestige/placement power. This thread has really changed my mind.

I'm off to write LOCIs to UVA, Penn and Mich.

GL dude.

ChampagnePapi wrote:

JamMasterJ wrote:Anyone voting for NYU is dumb. We are not 72K (plus additional COL) better than Duke.
<<<an NYU student

We are at the point in the admissions cycle where kids on the Duke WL are gonna be voting for NYU. Polls are even less useful in this context.

LOL that's hilarious

I've got $$ at Duke and sticker at NYU too and am not event considering NYU. It's just too darn pricey. Who wants to live in New York with no income? I think you got some good advice in here about LOCIs.