New York Law Forum

[thisblows6188]

Yes, that changed when I was admitted. You will probably get an email, or have already stating your acceptance. Congrats!

thx for the info but no acceptance yet.....still waiting

[DancingJulien]

Well they say that 50% of the students will have a 3.0 gpa so id say maybe 40% are 3.2 and over? That should be manageable. I wish there were some NYLS graduates that on here that could tell us how good or bad a place NYLS is. Buffalo does seem like a really good school but the location isn't appealing to me. Right now im reluctantly leaning towards Rutgers-Newark and hoping to find a good enough reason to go to NYLS. Also waiting on the Cordozo, Brooklyn and American University wait list.

Hi all - I went to NYLS for my 1L year last year and transferred to a T1. Maybe I can give a little bit of insight into all crap floating around regarding NYLS on this forum and others.

Background - top 12%, law review, federal summer job, the whole 9 yards. Having good grades certainly helped me obtain my summer internship, but there is a definite market in NYC for NYLS students, even those with mediocre grades. There are tons of passionate alumni who are extremely eager to help out NYLS students, not only because they are sweet, kind souls, but because it makes them to look better to make their school look better. For example, Sullivan and Cromwell, who only interview the top 5 (not top 5%, top 5) students at NYLS at OCI has 1 NYLS graduate working for them. This is the kind of firm that should be impossible to work for coming out of NYLS, but with solid networking and good grades, is possible (extremely difficult, but possible).

The majority of my classmates ended up working for judges or nonprofits, and will probably struggle to find jobs when they graduate. If there is one thing that is true of attending NYLS, it's that you have to hustle. The only way to get ahead is to network your butt off, or be one of the students who only focuses on academics and scores a spot in the top 10%. Even in the top 12% with a DOJ internship, I was not able to get an interview at OCI. I didn’t even qualify to apply for half of the firms. However, there is the other side of the coin, where I have friends working for Disney and Chanel this summer, one of whom was only in the top 35%. It’s all about who you know and how much the people you do know like you.

Brooklyn and Cardozo seem to strongly beat out NYLS grads in interviews, OCI, and the like (granted, this is just from my perspective). St Johns I honestly haven’t heard anything about since attending. I see a few grads of the New Jersey schools, but, NYLS has a much stronger presence in Manhattan.

In my humble, non-native New Yorker opinion, the only reason anyone should attend NYLS (even with a large scholarship) is because they want to end up in NY. What I did was far, far too risky and the decision that everyone on TLS tells you NOT to make (NYLS sticker, sorta want to live in NYC after graduation), but for me, it was NYLS or no law school, so impatience got the best of my logic.

One last note – if you think getting in the top 10% will be easy, you are sorely mistaken. This is a T3 school that would be a T2 in any other market, and after comparing some stories with Brooklyn Law students and Cardozo students, it is a bit cutthroat in comparison. Everyone feels the pressure to be the best, and inevitably someone has to fail. That being said, I made good friends, loved and hated some professors, and loved going to school in Manhattan.

Good luck with your decisions!

[dissonance1848]

No one should attend New York Law School except under the following conditions;

1) Full-ride + stipend, with the expectation that you will be a temp contract attorney doing doc review for around $20 an hour

2) You have a rich family prepared to subsidize you and you don't care if you work as an attorney in a long-term, permeanant manner

3) You are a special snow flake that will overcome the odds, beating out 90-95% of your classmates who are like yourself

User has been warned for making off-topic comments in the accept/deny/waitlist forum.