Brooklyn Law School $$$scholarship$$$ Forum

[rosetta]

I just received a 32K scholarship from Brooklyn Law School renewable for 3 years. How difficult is it to keep? Must remain in the top 40% of the class.

Other choices on the table:
Cardozo: 20K
Fordham: No $$
St. Johns: Full Tuition Scholarship

[carm611]

Just got a 30k scholarship from Brooklyn! Same requirements. I also have 25 at Cardozo currently (hoping that may increase with this offer) and then full tuition at St. John's.

Cardozo specifies a 3.3 GPA to keep the money, which they say is approximately 40% of the class. But I'm not sure if that always matches up? Brooklyn just says top 40%, so I'm wondering the same thing as the OP...whether Brooklyn's scholarship renewal requirements are better than Cardozo's.

Any thoughts?

[Darth Topher]

you people are lucky

[Sarajbj]

what are your numbers? I'm anticipating some big money to hopefully, but my mail doesn't come until after 4

I have 30k at Cardozo and full at St. Johns already also, so hopefully Brooklyn will pull through as well.

[carm611]

I'm a 164/3.69.

Good luck! Sounds like you'll be in the 30s range as well!

To the OP - are you appealing to Cardozo on the basis of this offer? I'm just trying to figure out the best way to do it. E-mail them or wait until the Admitted Students Day next week/talk to them in person?

[Sarajbj]

Ah nice, I'm also 164/3.92 .. hurry up mailman

[drleather]

I got a $21K offer for top 40%.

3.1/167 for reference.

Kind of makes a decision a little trickier. I was set to go to Rutgers for 8K/yr total tuition. Is Brooklyn worth double?

[rosetta]

yeah, this is a very tricky decision for me too, especially because I'm choosing among Fordham (w/no money), Cardozo (w/21K), and Brooklyn (w/32K).

[carm611]

Blah, me too! Definitely a hard decision.

Well, I still haven't heard from Fordham and I'm not sure if that's good news or not since a ton of waitlists went out the past few weeks.

[unwdre]

Did the offer come with admissions decision? I haven't received my decision yet so was wondering if it would come with scholarship info (if I were to get one)

[rosetta]

Did the offer come with admissions decision? I haven't received my decision yet so was wondering if it would come with scholarship info (if I were to get one)

No, the offer arrived in my mailbox today. I had received the decision 2 months ago after going complete in sept

[xhaust50]

Got mine today, so I'm assuming everyone should get theirs. 32k from Brooklyn, Full Ride from Cardozo, 5K from Fordham. I think I'm going to weed out Brooklyn simply because of the difference in scholarships.

[kidrobot]

I think that it is kind of worrisome to choose a lesser ranked school over a higher one if you are going to the lower one because of a scholarship that has (significant) strings attached.

From what I have heard, oftentimes schools put all the scholarship students into the same section, so that they have to compete with the other scholarship students to be in the top 40%. That way, 60% of scholarship students are likely to lose their scholarship... Just be careful.

[thedogship]

I had a tough time saying no to a Brooklyn scholarship last year. They make it hard because they give out sick amounts of money (as does Tulane). personally, I think Fordham is a smarter deal if you want to get a good job in New York, but I know that being able to save thousands of dollars living in New York is a huge consideration too. Best of luck!

[nellie06]

SJU full scholly person here, most likely passing it up for gw f/t with little to no aid. Just realize that if you want biglaw, the competition in new york is INSANITY. You have to compete with the entire top 14, the entire top 25, and heck even the cherry picked top 10% from 25-50. That makes things hard for people attending brooklyn, sju, 'dozo. Just a warning.

Just because the scholly requires top 40%, it means very little because biglaw/prestigious public interest will be cherry picking among the top 10% to 15% at dozo, sju, and brooklyn. So scholarship or not, if you don't have elite grades it won't really benefit you. All it will mean is you will have no debt but crappy job prospects. If you don't want biglaw, then hey take the scholly, but if you do pass up on the money take the ranking. Biglaw hiring partners don't care. They probably sit there with the updated usnews rankings, and from what's been said, once it gets past top 25, they stop caring and simply cherry pick top students (top 10% and or law review) from everywhere including tier 3 schools.

These schools don't tell you this kind of stuff when you go, and when people graduate pissed off they're not making the 100k median salary reported which is b.s. because only the guys making bank will be happy to fill out surveys, they wipe their hands clean of your problems. If you can afford to take on the debt, do it for ranking. A place like fordham affords you the luxury of being able to get biglaw/pi if you're in the top 40 to 50%. I would personally like my chances better to be say, top 30% than to think I can make top 10%.

edit: Also in at brooklyn, waiting on the letter. Most likely some scholly $ coming too.

[xhaust50]

These schools don't tell you this kind of stuff when you go, and when people graduate pissed off they're not making the 100k median salary reported which is b.s. because only the guys making bank will be happy to fill out surveys, they wipe their hands clean of your problems.

This shows the job prospects at Cardozo, and 81% of graduates reported their salary information.

http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/MemberContent ... lderid=306
There is no doubt that recruiters go deeper into Fordham, but from the two schools placement information it seems around 20% at Dozo and 33% at Fordham get the Biglaw jobs. Assuming this is at least relatively accurate, I think the decision on what school to attend is still tough. Sure, 1 out of 3 from Fordham may seem easier than 1 out of 5 from Cardozo, but Fordham is also likely to have more competitive students (as seen from who they are waitlisting this year), so I may have better odds being one in five from Cardozo. Combine that with going to the school for free, and thus I should at least have a good chance of being one of the most competitive students there, makes the decision even harder.

[dyermaker16]

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[aximpod]

I am currently a 1L at Brooklyn. My scholarship package allows me to retain a portion of my scholarship even if I fall below the 40% mark. So Top 40-50% was 80% of the money and so on.

I am not sure if that is the case this year but it should be. This should allay fears of people losing their scholarship after one year. If you do place in to the bottom 10% and lose the scholarship entirely, then you can't really blame the school.

[Sarajbj]

I just got my offer today 32k a year, I'm debating between here and St. Johns basically where I have a full scholarship as well. I'm passing on Cardozo's 30k a year because I cannot see myself commuting into Manhattan for 3 years. I'm calling Brooklyn and faxing them a letter on Monday to see if I can squeeze out an extra 7k that would make it a full scholarship there as well, because if given that I would attend no question.

[xhaust50]

If I were you I would definitely pay the 8k/yr for Brooklyn as opposed to going to St. John's for free. 24k isn't much when considering the increased job potential.

I got 32k from Brooklyn and a full-ride at St. John's as well. I think I'm turning them both down to decide between 5k at Fordham and a full-ride at Cardozo.

[nellie06]

My friend took a free ride to 'dozo over fordham with little to no $. If you want good corporate connections for transactional work, Cardozo isn't bad place to go. He told me he's happy, he's a 1L and he's got some v10 summer interviews, and a possible hookup to work at lehman for the summer. Obviously this isn't the case for every student, but tier 1 full scholly is something worth thinking over. My friend really wanted to work for weil gotschal and 'dozo is basically a feeder to the firm for some reason, so he went with the $.

[Sarajbj]

If I were you I would definitely pay the 8k/yr for Brooklyn as opposed to going to St. John's for free. 24k isn't much when considering the increased job potential.

I got 32k from Brooklyn and a full-ride at St. John's as well. I think I'm turning them both down to decide between 5k at Fordham and a full-ride at Cardozo.

Well my issue is that with housing in brooklyn im looking at like 60k i debt where as with housing in queens im looking more at 30k at st. johns, thats a lot of money for someone who is thinking of going strictly for public interest. I also am very wary of living in the brooklyn area, right now im really leaning toward st. johns, i know most people wont agree with that.

[nellie06]

If I were you I would definitely pay the 8k/yr for Brooklyn as opposed to going to St. John's for free. 24k isn't much when considering the increased job potential.

I got 32k from Brooklyn and a full-ride at St. John's as well. I think I'm turning them both down to decide between 5k at Fordham and a full-ride at Cardozo.

Well my issue is that with housing in brooklyn im looking at like 60k i debt where as with housing in queens im looking more at 30k at st. johns, thats a lot of money for someone who is thinking of going strictly for public interest. I also am very wary of living in the brooklyn area, right now im really leaning toward st. johns, i know most people wont agree with that.

I fail to see how brooklyn provides superior job prospects to sju. Both are tier 2, at which point the rankings just group schools together as being 60's or 70's and below. The difference between the two schools is negligible. For both schools, the top 10% is what is going to have great job prospects. If anything sju is a better shot, because it has been around for far longer than brooklyn law, and has a more stronger alumni network in nyc. I don't see how passing on a full ride is worth it for another tier 2 school.

[augustlights]

I got 32k at Brooklyn and WL at Cardozo lol

[rosetta]

Is Brooklyn a T2 school? I thought it was just a lower first tier?