Top Law Schools

TL;DR version at bottom.

My cycle is almost finished and it’s time to weigh my options. I’m in at Michigan, NYU, and Northwestern. As far as financial aid, I’ve already received a $54,000 scholarship from Michigan. I applied for Root-Tilden-Kern at NYU and also submitted all my financial aid forms, but I don’t expect to get the named scholarship or much, if any, money. It would take a very generous scholarship from Northwestern to make me consider attending.

My ultimate goal is to do impact litigation around civil rights and civil liberties. I could also be interested in direct service, public defense, government work, and other PI areas. I recognize that the field I’m interested in is extremely competitive and that I may not break into it. I think I could be content in a variety of PI jobs, but I’m 95% sure I don’t want to work for a firm. I’m aware that most people don’t go straight to large organizations (or smaller orgs. doing similar work) fresh out of law school, so I may aim for a federal clerkship upon graduation. FWIW, most of the organizations that do the work I’m interested in are based in New York City.

I should also add that I plan on being in the same city as my girlfriend, who’s applied and been accepted to schools in NYC, Ann Arbor, and Chicago in a different graduate field. We currently live in NYC. She’s kind of anxious to get out of the city, though I’m fine with staying, especially considering NYU is my top choice at this point.

The pros and cons of each school should be fairly obvious, but I’ll list them here.

NYU
Pros:

* Public interest resources
* LRAP
* Faculty
* Clinics
* Research centers I’d like to get involved with
* Clerkship opportunities
* Proximity to PI organizations

Cons:

* Probably full tuition
* High cost of living



Michigan
Pros:

* $54,000 off tuition
* Low cost of living
* Public interest resources (maybe not as strong as NYU, but Mich. appears to place a lot of students in PI and seems to dedicate meaningful resources to PI)
* Collegiality and community
* Summer start - I was selected for it and it really appeals to me. I’d love to ease into school and then graduate early.
* Ann Arbor seems cool.

Cons:

* Lower ranking, with all that entails
* LRAP not as strong as NYU’s
* Worse opportunities than NYU, whether for PI orgs. or clerkships
* It’s damn cold in Ann Arbor.


I’ve been told by some people that even with the scholarship at Michigan, I may pay more in the long run to go there, given NYU’s generous LRAP program. Before I’d heard this, I was leaning towards NYU but basically thought it was a toss-up. If this is true, though, NYU pulls ahead. Anyway, I’ve said my piece. What does TLS think?

TL;DR version: NYU at sticker or Michigan with $54k for high-profile PI (and possibly clerkship first)?

nyu's PI + lrap is an awesome, nearly unbeatable combination. 54k is nothing to shy away from though. if you have a strong hatred of nyc and love of ann arbor, do UM. otherwise, id stick with nyu.

you've already summed it up above. there's really nothing to add. judging from those nyu kind of sticks out as the better choice.

It seems like you really prefer NYU. These are elite schools, I tend to think you'll be fine in either situation given their placement. Yeah its more expensive to go the NYU route, but if that's truly where you want to be I think its worth the risk. IBR and LARP should serve you well.

I voted NYU.

Have you visited all three law schools ? If not, fly into Chicago, rent a car & visit NU & Michigan.

CanadianWolf wrote:Have you visited all three law schools ? If not, fly into Chicago, rent a car & visit NU & Michigan.

I've seen NYU and NU. I'm going to the NYU ASW next week. Going to Michigan for ASW #1 March 10-13. obviously ASWs will factor into my decision, but I want to consider the objective factors for now. I know what NYC and NYU (my undergrad) are like, and I expect I'll like Ann Arbor.

Also, I agree with earlier posters that the information is in front of me, I just wanted to crowd-source advice from TLS in case there are strong opinions or things I've overlooked.


Thanks.

Completely depends how debt averse you are. NYU for your situation seems like a better decision for sure, but you will end up probably 120k more in debt with the higher tuition and COL. (Pulled that out of my ass, someone feel free to correct me)

2014 wrote:Completely depends how debt averse you are. NYU for your situation seems like a better decision for sure, but you will end up probably 120k more in debt with the higher tuition and COL. (Pulled that out of my ass, someone feel free to correct me)

It's actually 123k. You're welcome.

Disclaimer: This is pulled out of my ass as well.

Don't have much to say, but we're in a very similar situation, OP. I also went to NYU for undergrad and am weighing it against other options now. I'm also interested in PI, plus trying to plan with my SO (who has applied to PhD programs in the same cities/schools as me).

So I'm just curious, how do you feel about potentially attending NYU for another 3 years? I enjoyed undergrad (more or less), and I like the city, but I was kind of hoping for a change of scenery. Right now it's looking like I'll end up staying in NYC, though, so I'm biting my nails waiting to hear back from Columbia. (...although the thought of Mamoun's falafel between classes does sound pretty enticing...)

amorfati: gonna PM you (but for curious others I feel pretty fine about three more years at NYU).

Using the budgets provided by the schools, NYU would run me ~$210k and Michigan ~$140k, making Michigan 2/3 the cost of NYU. Does this change anything? Is this about the level of discount that would make attending a slightly lower-ranked school worthwhile?

I am also interested in high-profile PI (possibly preceded by a clerkship) and faced a similar situation (ED to NYU or take a likely $45k scholarship from Michigan). I opted for NYU and was accepted around Christmas.

Ultimately, I could not turn down NYU's vast PI resources. The ability to host the NYC PILC law fair (and therefore reserve the vast majority of the interview slots for NYU students) is a huge advantage itself and as you mentioned, the proximity to public interest organizations is also a plus.

One metric that stood out in my research was NYU students' success in obtaining Skadden Fellowships (the most prestigious post-grad PI fellowship). Since 2000, 37 NYU students, compared with 19 Michigan students, were awarded fellowships. (To be fair, NYU has a slightly larger class size and self-selection may be involved to some extent.)

Unless you hate NYC I would go to NYU and abuse the hell out of the LRAP program.

NYU for 3 reasons:

1. LRAP - NYU's LRAP is much better than Michigan's and will likely forgive most of the debt you incur while attending NYU. This makes Michigan's scholarship a bit of a moot point.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/tls-guid ... rsity.html

2. Guaranteed summer funding - NYU has the best public interest summer funding I know of ($4500 for 1L summer and $6500 for 2L summer).

http://www.law.nyu.edu/publicinterestla ... /index.htm

3. Employment opportunities - NYU will open a lot more doors, especially in PI. Just browse around forums about NYU's PI program. The number and quality of employers (specifically for PI) that NYU attracts to OCI far surpasses Michigan.

For PI work, this decision seems like a no brainer.

Edit: Corrected 2L Summer funding amount and added some links