I recently received a full scholarship offer from Brooklyn Law School. Cardozo offered me $34K a year. I'm interested in going into public interest law and I know that Cardozo's program has a great reputation (their many clinics, especially the Innocence Project, are extremely enticing). I've seen that Brooklyn also says that they have a great public interest program, but I'm really unsure what the actual differences would be between the programs in either school. I was originally leaning towards Cardozo but with this offer, I'm wondering if the extra money is actually worth it.

Does anyone have any input or suggestions?? Anything is appreciated.

I am faced with a similar situation - $38,000 from Dozo vs. full ride from Brooklyn (with potential stipends). Dozo edges Brooklyn ranking-wise in most important employment categories, but not by anything substantial. I think it's important to remember that while Dozo is ranked 9 places higher than Brooklyn in the national rankings, these schools are in fact much closer in their regional new york market. When the scope is properly adjusted to the New York market, that gap closes substantially.

Faced with the decision whether to go $40,000+ deeper in to debt for a school that competes on nearly the same level, I have a really tough time making the case for it being worthwhile.

If you don't mind my asking, what are your numbers?

The schools are true peers (with a minuscule edge to Dozo)
Go to whichever is cheaper

Assuming you're looking for placement in NYC after graduation, the two schools are nearly identical in almost every regard.

If you decide you want to try leveraging more out of Cardozo, you'll probably be wasting your time. They've told several people on these forums (including me) that they're out of scholarship money...though with the withdrawals that probably happened after that (again, including mine), they might have a little bit left now.

Cardozo or Brooklyn? Neither. But oh wait, one is free? Go to that one....

Yea, there is no value-added to Dozo over Brooklyn. None. Any such value added are grasped-at phantoms. Yes, Dozo's placement numbers are marginally better. But when you're at the Dozo/Brooklyn level, even a significant difference only makes for slight consequence (and the difference between the two is barely significant).

A MUCH bigger concern for your career will be the large difference in debt load will you will take at Dozo over Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Law School here you go! Congrats on the full scholly...

BLS is solid.

A 9-place difference in USNWR means nothing. In at at least a half a dozen instances within the top 100, employment-wise, there are two schools ranked within 10 places of each other and the better school is ranked lower.

A full scholly versus a 34K (a pittance) means almost everything, at the Dozo/Brooklyn level. Literally almost everything.

It's worth noting that no Cardozo graduate works on the Innocence Project, which shows you what kind of regard they have for their own grads.

Brooklyn for free is not a bad deal (assuming you keep the scholarship). There is no point to paying for Dozo when BLS is free because there is no difference between the two schools.

Go to BLS and be done with it. Most BLS grads can find a job in the 50 to 60k range upon graduation and if you luck out and find a good firm, that number goes up steadily year over year.

What kind of grade stipulations are attached to each scholarship? That can make a big different depending on how difficult it is to keep your scholarship.

Is there a big difference between the LRAP programs at Cardozo and BLS, if you are interested in PI? If I remmeber correctly, BLS has a pretty mediocre program if you end up doing PI, but that wasn't an area of interest for me, so I didn't do very much research.

If you change your mind about PI, for what its worth, there are a few firms that do go to Cardozo for OCI and do not go to Brooklyn. Not many, mind you, but its worth going to the NALP surveys to see if there is any difference. Of course, getting a job from OCI at big firms is going to be difficult from either cardozo or brooklyn.

DOZOOOOOOOOOO! by a mile. thank me later.

The biggest difference I know of is the gov't vs straight up nonprofit type of PI work. Dozo allows government attorneys to use their LRAP; Brooklyn does not. Still, with the new(ish) federal legislation allowing all PI types (government included) to go onto IBR *and* receive loan forgiveness after 10 years, the individual school LRAPs are pretty much icing on the cake.

Oh, and why someone said Dozo by a long shot is beyond me. With the stated difference in cost of attendance, this shouldn't even be a question.

Wow. I hope you aren't serious?

I think it's a troll.

Yeah for sure. A poorly disguised one at that.

retake and reapply.

You're better off going to law school in Canada

I approve of this message.

LMFAO.. probably tru dat

U of T - legit true