Top Law Schools

There will be several of us popping in to answer questions. We have a pretty wide range of interests/experience so we should be able to answer any of your questions. Fire away!

checking in

hi 0Ls

Thanks for doing this! What made you choose NYU over your other options?

pylon wrote:Thanks for doing this! What made you choose NYU over your other options?

Job opportunities, and culture. There are cool people at all top 14 law schools. NYU has a very friendly culture, and it really pays off in how you feel on a day to day basis. There are also all sorts of opportunities no matter what you want to do. With so many PI people, we have tons of resources dedicated only to PI stuff, but this doesn't detract from the resources for firm folks.

Also, and this is vital: Our bar reviews have drink tickets, not specials. Most other t14 schools have specials, not tickets. If you want to get 3 free drinks and then bounce to somewhere cheap with your friends, NYU is the school to go to.

Thanks for taking the time!

Feel free to ignore and answer more serious questions, but I'm late for lunch and I have one thing on my mind...

What's the best/cheapest

Ramen
Thai
Ethiopian
Sandwich

near NYU?

ETA: What about a good halal cart? Is there one of those around?

Man. I need to go eat.

tk17 wrote:Thanks for taking the time!

Feel free to ignore and answer more serious questions, but I'm late for lunch and I have one thing on my mind...

What's the best/cheapest

Ramen
Thai
Ethiopian
Sandwich

near NYU?

I'm sure other people with more experience can answer the rest of these questions, but there is a little corner store right by D'ag (the dorm thats closer to the law school) that makes great sandwiches.

I know you didn't ask about vietnamese, but Saigon Shack is incredibly good, cheap, and fast.

There are ramen and ethiopian places really close by but I've never been.

pylon wrote:Thanks for doing this! What made you choose NYU over your other options?

Congrats first Q!

For me, it was a combination of a lot of things.
1. PI reputation / LRAP: this was really, really huge for me, as I fully intend to pursue PI
2. scholarship money: if i had gotten nothing from NYU, i wouldn't have come here over a lower-ranked school. (that said, NYU is one of the least generous in terms of scholarship money and i had to push them multiple times to get from a $0 scholarship to something worth my while)
3. location: it's new york city!
4. people: everyone i met at ASW was really chill, and i got the (correct) impression that things here wouldn't be so intense. i thought it seemed very collaborative and familial, and that turned out to be very true.

[for reference, I was considering NYU, Berkeley, Chicago, and also maybe Columbia/Northwestern/Cornell]

tk17 wrote: Ramen
Thai
Ethiopian
Sandwich

I tend to not eat any ramen/thai/ethiopian, but I like sandwiches at:
Faicco's (GIANT delicious italian sandwich easily equal to 2 meals for $12)
Amy's Bread (sandwiches aren't actually that great because they're premade in the morning, but the bread is excellent)
Murray's Bagels (bagels are sandwiches imo)

of those, only Faicco's is actually cheap.

Thanks for taking questions!

Do any of you have a job on top of full-time NYU? Does that seem to be typical/atypical? If you're working and doing FT school, how is it going?

ETA: I don't mean working full-time, I am considering staying at my job part-time remotely (my boss offered 20 hours / week, work from home).

kray wrote:Thanks for taking questions!

Do any of you have a job on top of full-time NYU? Does that seem to be typical/atypical? If you're working and doing FT school, how is it going?

I know one person doing it and another person who considered it. I think CSO told the person who was considering it not to do it during 1L. The person I know who is working is superhuman, so I don't think its a great idea.

kray wrote:Thanks for taking questions!

Do any of you have a job on top of full-time NYU? Does that seem to be typical/atypical? If you're working and doing FT school, how is it going?

I don't know of any 1L who has a job full-time (or even part time). I might know some people doing term-time externships, but I think they're mostly 2Ls.

I personally CAN'T IMAGINE working 40 hours a week and doing school. I don't think I could do it.

barrelofmonkeys wrote: 1. PI reputation / LRAP: this was really, really huge for me, as I fully intend to pursue PI
2. scholarship money: if i had gotten nothing from NYU, i wouldn't have come here over a lower-ranked school. (that said, NYU is one of the least generous in terms of scholarship money and i had to push them multiple times to get from a $0 scholarship to something worth my while)

1) Are you worried at all about LRAP (also a big selling point for me) changing if PSLF gets capped or restructured in some way?

2) Can you give a little more detail about the process of negotiating aid?

I'm curious to hear success/fail stories in negotiating with NYU, particularly from $0. Was the experience something like if you don't have HYS/CCN offers, don't even bother, or could MVP, etc. be put into play.

Skool wrote:I'm curious to hear success/fail stories in negotiating with NYU, particularly from $0. Was the experience something like if you don't have HYS/CCN offers, don't even bother, or could MVP, etc. be put into play.

I was unsuccessful in negotiating my small scholly up and I tried twice. Didn't have HYS or CN offers.

tk17 wrote:

barrelofmonkeys wrote: 1. PI reputation / LRAP: this was really, really huge for me, as I fully intend to pursue PI
2. scholarship money: if i had gotten nothing from NYU, i wouldn't have come here over a lower-ranked school. (that said, NYU is one of the least generous in terms of scholarship money and i had to push them multiple times to get from a $0 scholarship to something worth my while)

1) Are you worried at all about LRAP (also a big selling point for me) changing if PSLF gets capped or restructured in some way?

2) Can you give a little more detail about the process of negotiating aid?

1) I suppose I should maybe be concerned, but I haven't really been giving it much thought. That's primarily because I know this is what I want to do, and I'm willing to do it despite the costs.

2) My negotiations went like this (after receiving an initial $0 offer from NYU):

a) I negotiated Chicago up from their original award using a higher Northwestern scholarship.

b) I negotiated NYU up to $less-than-Chicago (from 0) primarily using the Chicago award.

Both a) and b) were pretty standard "I really love you, but I got more money here, can you help me justify going to you?" letters.

c) Having now no "new" leverage, and deciding between Chicago with $X and NYU with $less-than-X, I still really wanted to go to NYU. I was actually probably going to deposit at NYU anyway, but thought I would send them one more thing. This one said, "I still really love you, but I'm having trouble justifying the decision financially. If you can make my scholarship competitive, I will commit immediately."

Lo-and-behold, two days later, they responded with a higher offer (though still less than Chicago). I accepted it within an hour.

eta: I was trying to remove the actual dollar amounts. If you want the specifics, PM me!

how often does brut get picked on by other students?

barrelofmonkeys wrote:

tk17 wrote:

barrelofmonkeys wrote: 1. PI reputation / LRAP: this was really, really huge for me, as I fully intend to pursue PI
2. scholarship money: if i had gotten nothing from NYU, i wouldn't have come here over a lower-ranked school. (that said, NYU is one of the least generous in terms of scholarship money and i had to push them multiple times to get from a $0 scholarship to something worth my while)

1) Are you worried at all about LRAP (also a big selling point for me) changing if PSLF gets capped or restructured in some way?

2) Can you give a little more detail about the process of negotiating aid?

1) I suppose I should maybe be concerned, but I haven't really been giving it much thought. That's primarily because I know this is what I want to do, and I'm willing to do it despite the costs.

2) My negotiations went like this (after receiving an initial $0 offer from NYU):

a) I negotiated Chicago up from their original award using a higher Northwestern scholarship.

b) I negotiated NYU up to $less-than-Chicago (from 0) primarily using the Chicago award.

Both a) and b) were pretty standard "I really love you, but I got more money here, can you help me justify going to you?" letters.

c) Having now no "new" leverage, and deciding between Chicago with $X and NYU with $less-than-X, I still really wanted to go to NYU. I was actually probably going to deposit at NYU anyway, but thought I would send them one more thing. This one said, "I still really love you, but I'm having trouble justifying the decision financially. If you can make my scholarship competitive, I will commit immediately."

Lo-and-behold, two days later, they responded with a higher offer (though still less than Chicago). I accepted it within an hour.

eta: I was trying to remove the actual dollar amounts. If you want the specifics, PM me!

Super helpful. Thanks!!

tk17 wrote:Thanks for taking the time!

Feel free to ignore and answer more serious questions, but I'm late for lunch and I have one thing on my mind...

What's the best/cheapest

Ramen
Thai
Ethiopian
Sandwich

near NYU?

ETA: What about a good halal cart? Is there one of those around?

Man. I need to go eat.

I echo philly on Saigon Shack being fantastic (not that Vietnamese is on your list, but it should be). Meskerem is decent/cheap for Ethiopian. I've been searching for the best pad Thai in Greenwich Village and haven't found anything truly great yet, but I think Galanga was the last I tried and it was pretty good. For sandwiches I like Joy Burger a lot - good burgers too, but I like the sandwiches more actually.

Other places to add to your list - Cuba (best Cuban food ever with amazing lunch/brunch specials) and Kopi (Indonesian coffee place that also has amazing food and is a good study spot).

What's the 1L curriculum like? How are the inter and intra section dynamics? Favorite least favorite aspects of law school generally and NYU specifically so far?

Can you tell us a little more about the campus culture, particularly because NYU is such a large school without a real "campus?" I've been working for two years and living in SF, so I'm not sure I really even care that much about this, but I did go to a small lib arts college, so I see the value in small academic communities. Do you think anything is lost because of NYU's particular characteristics?

4LTsPointingNorth wrote:What's the 1L curriculum like? How are the inter and intra section dynamics? Favorite least favorite aspects of law school generally and NYU specifically so far?

fall semester: civil procedure, contracts, and either torts/crim, plus "lawyering"(=legal writing and research, very hands-on)
spring semester: legislation and the regulatory state, either torts/crim, and elective (property, con law, corporations, international law, tax), plus lawyering

I've found that the curriculum seems lighter here than at some other T14s. Having only 3 doctrinal classes per semester is really nice and generally manageable. The lawyering curriculum is set up so that you're done with lawyering by the time finals period comes around.

I have some friends in my section and some friends in other sections. It's not hard to meet people from other sections, either in extracurricular groups or in your spring elective or just around the law school / residence halls.

I am generally really happy with law school and NYU in particular. I think my least favorite thing is that there isn't much guidance about how to do it. Even with all of the advice from TLS, 2Ls, administrators, professors...I still went into exams not really knowing what was going on, how to outline, how to study best, how to take the test, etc. I think to some degree it's just a matter of figuring it out, but it was still frustrating.

jbudz wrote:Can you tell us a little more about the campus culture, particularly because NYU is such a large school without a real "campus?" I've been working for two years and living in SF, so I'm not sure I really even care that much about this, but I did go to a small lib arts college, so I see the value in small academic communities. Do you think anything is lost because of NYU's particular characteristics?

for what it's worth, unlike the undergrad, NYU Law is all very tight--there are three buildings all on the same street corner which basically encompass all of the law school activities. especially if you live in either of the two residence halls (D'ag, which is right across from the main law school buildings, or Mercer, which is a 5 minute walk), i think you'll find there's a very close-knit community. people are always hanging around in the lounges of the various buildings, hanging out in people's apartments in the residence halls, etc. tons of 1Ls live on campus.

of course, there are plenty of 1Ls who don't live on campus, but they're on campus basically every day anyway and you can maintain friendships with them as well.

4LTsPointingNorth wrote:What's the 1L curriculum like? How are the inter and intra section dynamics? Favorite least favorite aspects of law school generally and NYU specifically so far?

Bom already told you our classes so I won't repeat that. She's very correct that we have WAY less work than other t14s. Some have 5 graded classes. We have 3 and a pass fail lrw.

Most of my closest friends are not in my section. At the beginning, go to as many social events as you can (especially student organized stuff on the facebook page), that's how i met a ton of people. Making friends in your section is pretty similar, just be social and go to stuff. Everyone else is also in a new place looking for friends.

I really like making my own schedule and the social aspect of law school. Specifically for NYU, i like that our LRW is pass/fail, I like our class size and culture, and the quality of the professors in phenomenal.
I don't like LRW in general (its a lot of work!), and the finals crunch. I don't think I have any specific negatives for NYU.

jbudz wrote:Can you tell us a little more about the campus culture, particularly because NYU is such a large school without a real "campus?" I've been working for two years and living in SF, so I'm not sure I really even care that much about this, but I did go to a small lib arts college, so I see the value in small academic communities. Do you think anything is lost because of NYU's particular characteristics?

Bom already covered most of this, but I really do feel like there is a huge campus culture. Its very easy to get a group of freinds together even late at night.

i would second the importance of pass/fail LRW

i think i still get a lot out of it, but it takes away so much pressure