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maddie99

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New York Law School

Post by maddie99 » Mon May 21, 2018 12:45 am

Can anyone tell me about their personal experience with going to New York Law School (not NYU)? Not just your school experience, but also your experience living in the city, the commute, your employment prospects, etc. I was admitted for Fall 2018 and am debating whether or not to choose this school. P.S. I'm a female in my late twenties.

Thank you

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nealric

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Re: New York Law School

Post by nealric » Mon May 21, 2018 10:45 am

maddie99 wrote:Can anyone tell me about their personal experience with going to New York Law School (not NYU)? Not just your school experience, but also your experience living in the city, the commute, your employment prospects, etc. I was admitted for Fall 2018 and am debating whether or not to choose this school. P.S. I'm a female in my late twenties.

Thank you
I met quite a few NYLS graduates during my time in the city. Few were gainfully employed in a permanent capacity. I wouldn't consider it unless it were free, and even then it would give me pause. But don't take my word for it:

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/newyork/

Only 51% of 2017 graduates were known to be employed in long-term full time legal jobs. That's an improvement over the sub 40% number when I was living there and running into NYLS graduates. First time bar pass rate for the most recent class was under 60%. Do you really want to borrow a six figure sum for a 50/50 chance of being a lawyer 4 years from now?

maddie99

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Re: New York Law School

Post by maddie99 » Mon May 21, 2018 9:24 pm

nealric wrote:
maddie99 wrote:Can anyone tell me about their personal experience with going to New York Law School (not NYU)? Not just your school experience, but also your experience living in the city, the commute, your employment prospects, etc. I was admitted for Fall 2018 and am debating whether or not to choose this school. P.S. I'm a female in my late twenties.

Thank you
I met quite a few NYLS graduates during my time in the city. Few were gainfully employed in a permanent capacity. I wouldn't consider it unless it were free, and even then it would give me pause. But don't take my word for it:

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/newyork/

Only 51% of 2017 graduates were known to be employed in long-term full time legal jobs. That's an improvement over the sub 40% number when I was living there and running into NYLS graduates. First time bar pass rate for the most recent class was under 60%. Do you really want to borrow a six figure sum for a 50/50 chance of being a lawyer 4 years from now?

Thanks for your response. Did you attend a different law school in New York?

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nealric

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Re: New York Law School

Post by nealric » Tue May 22, 2018 8:09 am

maddie99 wrote:
nealric wrote:
maddie99 wrote:Can anyone tell me about their personal experience with going to New York Law School (not NYU)? Not just your school experience, but also your experience living in the city, the commute, your employment prospects, etc. I was admitted for Fall 2018 and am debating whether or not to choose this school. P.S. I'm a female in my late twenties.

Thank you
I met quite a few NYLS graduates during my time in the city. Few were gainfully employed in a permanent capacity. I wouldn't consider it unless it were free, and even then it would give me pause. But don't take my word for it:

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/newyork/

Only 51% of 2017 graduates were known to be employed in long-term full time legal jobs. That's an improvement over the sub 40% number when I was living there and running into NYLS graduates. First time bar pass rate for the most recent class was under 60%. Do you really want to borrow a six figure sum for a 50/50 chance of being a lawyer 4 years from now?

Thanks for your response. Did you attend a different law school in New York?
No, I went to Georgetown- but I worked in New York afterwards.

Johnnybgoode92

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Re: New York Law School

Post by Johnnybgoode92 » Tue May 22, 2018 1:22 pm

nealric wrote:
maddie99 wrote:
nealric wrote:
maddie99 wrote:Can anyone tell me about their personal experience with going to New York Law School (not NYU)? Not just your school experience, but also your experience living in the city, the commute, your employment prospects, etc. I was admitted for Fall 2018 and am debating whether or not to choose this school. P.S. I'm a female in my late twenties.

Thank you
I met quite a few NYLS graduates during my time in the city. Few were gainfully employed in a permanent capacity. I wouldn't consider it unless it were free, and even then it would give me pause. But don't take my word for it:

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/newyork/

Only 51% of 2017 graduates were known to be employed in long-term full time legal jobs. That's an improvement over the sub 40% number when I was living there and running into NYLS graduates. First time bar pass rate for the most recent class was under 60%. Do you really want to borrow a six figure sum for a 50/50 chance of being a lawyer 4 years from now?

Thanks for your response. Did you attend a different law school in New York?
No, I went to Georgetown- but I worked in New York afterwards.
Hmmm. Friend wants to transfer here seems like a solid choice

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didntretake

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Re: New York Law School

Post by didntretake » Fri Jun 01, 2018 11:08 am

I am a relatively recent NYLS grad. I had a very good outcome in a traditional sense but that is because I finished in the very top range of my class ranking. For that reason I also had a full scholarship for my 2nd and 3rd year and had a 60% scholarship for my first year. I decided to attend because I had bad college grades, decent but not great LSAT score, NYLS offered me a lot of money up front with a very simple top 50% stip, and I felt confident that I would do well academically there.

My honest assessment of NYLS is that I believe I received an excellent legal education. I thought my professors were excellent. Now that I am a junior associate I do not feel in any way disadvantaged in comparison to my peers who went to more highly ranked law schools. NYLS is also in a great location in the city and has very nice, relatively new facilities.

However, the things others have said about employment prospects following graduation are true, and getting a job should probably be your biggest priority along with cost of attendance. You will almost certainly not get a big law job unless you get very good grades. I think there were maybe 15 people who landed summer associate and post-grad jobs via traditional OCI in my year. Another 5 or 6 got something like that via 3L hiring. All were probably in the top 20-30 in the class rankings (and I mean that in the overall sense as NYLS ranks day and evening divisions separately until graduation.)

Bottom line - I think you will get a good legal education at NYLS but you should only attend if you receive substantial scholarship money and can reasonably expect to get top grades.

You could PM me if you have more specific questions.

dirkdigler

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Re: New York Law School

Post by dirkdigler » Fri Jun 01, 2018 1:51 pm

Great and accurate response above. I am also a recent NYLS grad with a “good outcome.” I did not apply myself in undergrad and received terrible grades. Part of it was that I was not ready for college; part of it had to do with the death of a close friend. I took the LSAT on a whim without much studying, did OK, and got into NYLS with some $. My parents were both attorneys in a small market and the family business was always a plan B for me if all else failed and I couldn’t get a job upon graduation. This made my decision to attend somewhat different than the average applicant.

I received a great education at NYLS. I was engaged, found the professors great, had great internships, and ended up at the top of my class. To this day, the other students who succeeded at NYLS are some of the smartest people I have ever met.

I secured a summer associate position at an Am Law 100 firm but it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t through OCI. The OCI firms don’t seem to go out of the top 10-20 students (not percentile) in granting interviews, and are even more selective in giving offers. I knew people who were ranked in the top 5 students after 1L who struck out at OCI. All of that is to say that if your goal is big law, realize that you need to be in the top 10 or so students out of ~300 (or however big the class sizes are these days) on a B- curve. Those odds are grim, and even then it is not a guarantee.

I practiced at my firm after graduating for a few years and received stellar feedback on my evaluations. I was given early indicators of my partnership potential, but decided to pursue a clerkship opportunity with a federal district judge. I am currently finishing my clerkship and will be lateralling to the top firm in a non-NYC market when I done.

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