africaforlife wrote:BCLS - can you give any insights to a student choosing between BC and Northeastern? I know BC is much higher ranked and has a better national profile, but I don't want to go to biglaw - i am much more interested in international public/human rights law. Do you have any advice to offer on that front? Can you comment on the strength of the international program at BC? Thanks!
Northeastern has a great public interest program. However, while it may seem counter-intuitive, the public interest market is actually fairly competitive. If you are looking to work for some of the more well known public interest organizations, you are still going to be competiting with top students from top law schools.
There are a number of opportunities that will be made available to you at BC law, and given its class size, there is not a huge amount of competittion for these opportunities:
[*]Participate with the nationally recognized Center for Human Rights and International Justice (
http://www.bc.edu/centers/humanrights/)
[*]Participate on the International and Comparative Law Review (
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/lawreviews/iclr.html)
[*]Participate on the Third World Law Journal (
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/lawreviews/iclr.html)
[*]Participate in Semester in Practice: International Human Rights (
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/services/ ... nical.html)
[*]Participate in the London Program (
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/services/ ... nical.html)
[*] Participate in the Law & Justice in the Americas program (
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/services/ ... ricas.html)
I think you would be interested in the Semester In Practice program, where students work with international non-governmental organizations, tribunals such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Jesuit Refugee Service, or the Hague. I believe they take around ten students each semester, and given the class size at BC is small and there is less interest in some of these programs, your chances of participating are extremely high.
You'll also note a few student organizations that are centered on your interests. (
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/services/ ... cular.html)
While I am huge fan of Northeastern and their co-op model particularly, I think it is better served for their undergraduate student body. Law school inherently has a co-op program in the form of summer associate positions, which is largely sufficient to provide the student with a great experience. In addition, the law student usually has a job offer after a summer associate position, but this is not always (rarely?) the case with co-ops at the law school level.
All of this being said, I must warn you about taking out too much debt to pay for law school. The public interest route is not going to pay as much as the private for-profit sector. Two things you should consider are scholarships and LRAP programs.
Here is some info about the BCLS LRAP program.
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/services/ ... c/lra.html