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Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:23 pm
by glowerre
I am trying to make my final decision for law school and would appreciate any advice or opinions on the matter. I am trying to decide between Wash U in St. Louis and Cardozo in NYC.

Wash U is ranked much higher (19th) although is still not a t14 school, whereas Cardozo is currently 49th I believe. Tuition isn't much different at either school, but I was awarded $10,000 a year scholarship at Wash U compared to $23,000 at Cardozo. The Cardozo scholarship is conditional on a 3.30 GPA.

I am from the northeast and have always wanted to live in NYC, and feel like this could be my chance. I have spent a great deal of time in NYC and feel very comfortable there. I have no real tie to St. Louis, and have never actually been to that city before. Also, I have family, friends, and professional connections in New York that could help me at Cardozo.

I have no huge interest in any specific program at this point, so that is really a nonfactor. For what its worth, I will most likely be pursuing my MBA after graduation and will not immediately be looking for permanent job placement after acquiring my JD.

Basically I'm trying to decide if the ranking and name of Wash U is enough to overcome the opportunity to live in New York and the personal connection I have to the city. Thanks for any help.

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:29 pm
by kaydish21
If you want NYC then Cardozo is a far better choice, but please realize that Cardozo's name is not going to carry as well outside of the northeast and WashU would open up more opportunities around the country in general. Regardless, based on the way you wrote your post Cardozo sounds like where you want to end up and if you have connections already in place, NYC is a great place and Cardozo's location is terrific.

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:31 pm
by JOThompson
Cardozo for NYC. If you simply want the best job opportunities without regard to location, WUSTL is your friend.

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:38 pm
by quadsixm
Cardozo for NYC.

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:02 pm
by traehekat
3.3 for Cardozo? Do you know what % that is?

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:21 pm
by NervousInKC
St. Louis a great city and I love it there, but I too am originally from the Northeast, and it's no NYC. So if that's really where you want to be, Cardozo is great. But, if you are concerned about the financial implications of each, you may still want to consider Wash U. The scholarship is smaller but the COL in St. Louis is one of the cheapest in the nation. And, you risk losing your scholly at Cardozo. Are you planning to do a joint degree program? If you're not for some reason, there is always a chance you could end up in NYC for your next degree program.

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:23 pm
by crm
traehekat wrote:3.3 for Cardozo? Do you know what % that is?
the scholarship stipulation is 3.3 (they say approx top 40%), well mine is anyway

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:25 pm
by Rock Chalk
.

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:30 pm
by traehekat
Rock Chalk wrote:
traehekat wrote:3.3 for Cardozo? Do you know what % that is?
I was thinking the same thing. Conditional scholarships are scary.

I still think Cardozo if you are absolutely positive you want to work in NYC, but from what I've read, never take a scholarship with a GPA requirement as a sure thing. If you might want to go anywhere else, then it's a lot more difficult.
Yeah exactly. Top 40% isn't HORRIBLE (I've certainly seen worse). Do you get to keep half of it if you drop below top 40%? If you lose it, can you get it back?

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:33 pm
by crm
traehekat wrote:
Rock Chalk wrote:
traehekat wrote:3.3 for Cardozo? Do you know what % that is?
I was thinking the same thing. Conditional scholarships are scary.

I still think Cardozo if you are absolutely positive you want to work in NYC, but from what I've read, never take a scholarship with a GPA requirement as a sure thing. If you might want to go anywhere else, then it's a lot more difficult.
Yeah exactly. Top 40% isn't HORRIBLE (I've certainly seen worse). Do you get to keep half of it if you drop below top 40%? If you lose it, can you get it back?
Yea, the breakdown is this essentially:

full scholarship: top 40% (3.3)
75% scholarship: 3.2-3.29/top 50%
50% scholarsihp: 3.1-3.19/top 65%

and if you drop below a 3.3 but then raise it back to above a 3.3., you can increase your scholarship back to the full 100%, or if you are in one of the other gpa percentages, the scholarship will be reinstated to the corresponding amount, so not a bad situation, but like one of the above posters said, do not count on retaining your scholarship because everything is unpredictable

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:26 pm
by traehekat
crm wrote:
traehekat wrote:
Rock Chalk wrote:
traehekat wrote:3.3 for Cardozo? Do you know what % that is?
I was thinking the same thing. Conditional scholarships are scary.

I still think Cardozo if you are absolutely positive you want to work in NYC, but from what I've read, never take a scholarship with a GPA requirement as a sure thing. If you might want to go anywhere else, then it's a lot more difficult.
Yeah exactly. Top 40% isn't HORRIBLE (I've certainly seen worse). Do you get to keep half of it if you drop below top 40%? If you lose it, can you get it back?
Yea, the breakdown is this essentially:

full scholarship: top 40% (3.3)
75% scholarship: 3.2-3.29/top 50%
50% scholarsihp: 3.1-3.19/top 65%

and if you drop below a 3.3 but then raise it back to above a 3.3., you can increase your scholarship back to the full 100%, or if you are in one of the other gpa percentages, the scholarship will be reinstated to the corresponding amount, so not a bad situation, but like one of the above posters said, do not count on retaining your scholarship because everything is unpredictable
No that's not bad at all. After seeing that, I would definitely take Cardozo over Wash U if you want to be in NYC. For what it's worth, though, I visited St. Louis last summer and I really liked the city. I don't think its anything like NYC, however.

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:42 pm
by Richie Tenenbaum
Why isn't Fordham an option? Or BU/BC? I'm assuming URM or extreme splitter to have just these two choices. Typically someone who can get money from WUSTL can get around a full scholarship to Cardozo. Have you tried contacting Cardozo asking if they can increase their offer and/or drop the GPA requirement?

Hard to recommend WUSTL for someone wanting to do NYC, but the only other option you have is somewhat scary.

edit- Just read you are interested in getting MBA after graduation. Have you been looking at dual-degree programs at all?

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 6:06 pm
by glowerre
Richie Tenenbaum wrote:
edit- Just read you are interested in getting MBA after graduation. Have you been looking at dual-degree programs at all?
I've looked at some dual degree programs, but the programs I would be looking at ideally (based on my undergrad GPA and GMAT score) would be very difficult to get into straight from undergrad. So I'm going to focus on just the JD now, get some after-undergrad experience, and then do the MBA.

Also, I haven't contacted Cardozo about increasing the scholarship or dropping the GPA requirement, but I have considered it. I'm just hesitant to do so because the deadline is on Thursday and I really don't know how to go about doing that efficiently and without rubbing them the wrong way.

Thanks for all the responses and advice!

Re: Wash U or Cardozo

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:18 am
by Richie Tenenbaum
glowerre wrote:
Richie Tenenbaum wrote:
edit- Just read you are interested in getting MBA after graduation. Have you been looking at dual-degree programs at all?
I've looked at some dual degree programs, but the programs I would be looking at ideally (based on my undergrad GPA and GMAT score) would be very difficult to get into straight from undergrad. So I'm going to focus on just the JD now, get some after-undergrad experience, and then do the MBA.

Also, I haven't contacted Cardozo about increasing the scholarship or dropping the GPA requirement, but I have considered it. I'm just hesitant to do so because the deadline is on Thursday and I really don't know how to go about doing that efficiently and without rubbing them the wrong way.

Thanks for all the responses and advice!
Just send them an email first thing tomorrow stating the offer from WUSTL (if you want, include a scanned copy of the letter from WUSTL) and asking if they could reconsider their scholarship offer as well as the GPA requirement. Worst case scenario, they just say no. It's worth the potential thousands of dollars to risk "rubbing them the wrong way."