dianaw wrote:mst wrote:NYU ASW was amazing. I'm psyched about next semester. I'll write up a review or something later if anybody was interested.
I'm interested...
OK here's my review of NYU ASW #2:
Thursday: Weathers not great so I feel bad for all the people visiting the school without being able to appreciate the beauty of the area in the proper light. They have us all head over to Dagastino where there is a nice conference room. They put out a bunch of food and stuff and the building itself was VERY nice. I begin talking with a group of people. TLS comes up in the discussion and somebody makes fun of it. I look the other way as if I don't know what it is. Anyways, the first presentation starts and the roof of the room has retractable cieling windows. They open them up, but I have a feeling it was to show off... one student on the panel commented that she didn't even know they existed. The first panel was basically 3 students and a professor just talking about their experiences a bit... nothing really interesting... mostly just commenting on what makes NYU unique (keywords I remember was that the University as a whole has a different "energy" than what you would find from the other t6 schools... one student said the school being in the village made it a lot more "textured" which made a ton of sense in context...). Then there was a q&a session but for some reason every student had hardball questions (Whats your least favorite aspect of the school?, etc.). But nothing surprising answer wise.
Second session was a "choose your own classroom adventure" but i chose to stay behind for the "MOCK CLASS" on criminal law/corruption which was interesting but whatever. I would have gone to a real class but I was exhausted and couldn't move.
Then they took us on a tour of the village... which was a bit lame because of the cold weather & rain. I had been here before and went back a few days later when it was sunny and I can assure you that the area that NYU is in is unrivaled. Countless bars, restaurants, beautiful streets and views, etc. There was a law school tour as well but I didnt do that as I had done one before. If you'd like me to talk to you more about the facilities let me know or shoot me a PM.
After this there was a student organization and journal fair. Me and my new temporary friends weren't really interested so we grabbed some coffees and went on the law apartment tour instead. We ended up getting lost and knocking on the wrong door but some guy let us walk around his apartment. The view from dag northward was amazing: you have a straight shot view of the village and the empire state building/midtown. The apartments themselves in DAG were small but not that small. I didn't see the mercer apartments but they ended up being like a 5 minute walk. Not a 20 minute walk as the website might lead you to think. Apparently they are MUCH bigger. Dag had a nice rooftop terrace that was being renovated so I can't comment.
After this there was a recent-alumni panel with people from PI, big law, academia, and govt. Not life-changing. After this was a pizza party with plenty of free beer. Me and a group of guys made our best attempt to quickly pre-game for Law Revue and headed down to the auditorium. Law Revue was extremely funny and well-produced... I was shocked at the quality of it to be honest. What I found funniest though was that all the current students were just sitting around the auditorium and law school interior drinking beers from cans as they watched. If there's one thing I can say about the school it's that its students were definitely a fun, relaxed crowd. After the show I went and grabbed some food/drinks at a bar with some admitted students and then made the long trek uptown to where I was staying...
FRIDAY:
I got there a bit late so I missed the faculty breakfast so I can't comment... but the coffee was good. At 9AM the dean spoke and really hit it home how much NYU has improved over the last 20 years and what makes NYU unique (for example, the breadth of programs offered that couldnt be matched by YSC, the clinics, new york, the focus on growth and finding new, evolving areas of the law to build new specialty programs in) I can't really rephrase it. It was just a good speech. Afterwards there were some specialty sessions. I went to a session on the law&business program, which was boring.
Then I went to the 9th floor of Furman (which is probably the most amazing room in New York City) to see a discussion between some of the biggest power-brokers in the world (included Martin Lipton from Wachtell, Scott Hoffman, the managing director/general counsel for Lazard, Rachel Robbins, General Counsel for the international finance corporation, and others). The room itself was basically a 100 person conference room with 270 degree floor-to-ceiling views of NYC...it was indescribably cool and I'm shocked photos haven't shown up on TLS before... way cooler than the hogwarts library. Anyways, these captains of industry began an hour long debate about the financial crisis and it was really amazing to watch them argue amongst themselves. There were like 10 other sessions to go to during this so I cant comment on the Clinic presentation or the Clerkship Q&A.
After this was lunch, student panels, and guided tours. I skipped the tours and panel because I needed a break and explored around the building and neighborhood. Then I ate lunch with a professor which was fun, but again, not eye-opening... the people at my table were very awkward and didn't ask anything the entire time, but the professor was very cool and invited us up to his office to talk more if we'd like. His specialty wasn't very broad though so it was kind of an odd choice to stick with 0L's as none of us could comment on it. I have a feeling the other tables got luckier.
Then there was a session with 4 judges who discussed their decision to attend NYU and their careers, etc. I can't say much because I was running on 3 days with basically no sleep so I was struggling to stay awake. Point of the story was that if you want to be a judge, be in the right place in the right time, don't piss people off, and make some good friends.
After this I went to a session featuring some hiring partners from a few law firms. Not much I can say from this. Informative. But the two both agreed that there are only 2 schools that truly excel in preparing students for OCI (resumes, interview help, prepping, etc.): NYU & an unnamed other one... So it made me feel better. They seemed sincere.
After this I went to a session on financial aid/LRAP. What I will say is this: they've upped the cap to 80,000, and introduced a new thing so that when you use the LRAP in conjunction with IBR (as is required) and you quit PI before the 10 years, they pay off the negative amortization so you aren't sitting on a giant debt bubble... so that was good. The financial aid people were REALLY nice and funny. As was basically everyone who worked for the school. There was a PI panel thing at the same time that I missed.
The day ended with a reception with wine & some vegetable platters. Everyone seemed really great and while I came in worried about whether I made the right decision in attending law school, I now have absolutely NO doubts and I am extremely confident that NYU was the right choice.
Overall: NYU knew what it was doing during asw. They sold the school VERY well and 99% of the people there agreed. Almost half of the kids there had been to CLS earlier in the week (which explains why it kept coming up in discussion) and were choosing between the two... but almost every person I talked to said they were now leaning towards NYU because of the ASWs (quite a few felt that "Because its columbia" was not a good answer to when one kid asked "why columbia?" at the columbia asw...). And the ones that didnt often admitted that it was a name thing. But of course there could be a big self-selection thing going on.
