Top Law Schools

I am down to my final two choices and feel like the more I think about it, the less sure I am. ;A; While I was initially going to go with NYU for being the more prestigious school, I'm being pressured to reconsider based on other criteria besides rank, which I agree is important, but I don't know if the difference in the schools' ranking (especially since UCLA just misses the T14) isn't too big to ignore...

Both schools cost about the same, with NYU at ~47k/yr and UCLA ~50k/yr (I would be paying out-of-state tuition) but I have:
-15k for the first two years and 7.5k for the third from NYU
-25k/year from UCLA

I am from the Midwest; I have no ties to either California or NYC/East Coast so that is not a factor for me. I'm not dead set on living in California, but I would have to say that the idea appeals to me more than living on the East Coast. While I'm also not solidly decided on what to study, I am currently leaning toward international law, and I'm not interested in pursuing biglaw.

I am terrified of being in the position of having no job after law school, but I also don't want to assume that going to NYU, as the "better school" will make it any easier to find one since they're so scarce anyway and I am not naturally a pushy, aggressive person when it comes to looking for jobs. I also don't really want to work in New York, but of course I would much rather work in New York than be unemployed in LA. Still, if I am likely to be unemployed in either area, it would be helpful to have as little debt as possible, and that would mean UCLA.

My advice to you is that this

northandwest wrote:I am not naturally a pushy, aggressive person when it comes to looking for jobs.

needs to change, immediately. Figure out what you want. Pursue it. If you wait for someone to hand you a job, it will never happen.

That said, NYU does not limit you at all to new york, but UCLA most likely does limit you to california.

For a 37k difference between the two, I would choose NYU.

northandwest wrote:I am down to my final two choices and feel like the more I think about it, the less sure I am. ;A; While I was initially going to go with NYU for being the more prestigious school, I'm being pressured to reconsider based on other criteria besides rank, which I agree is important, but I don't know if the difference in the schools' ranking (especially since UCLA just misses the T14) isn't too big to ignore...

Both schools cost about the same, with NYU at ~47k/yr and UCLA ~50k/yr (I would be paying out-of-state tuition) but I have:
-15k for the first two years and 7.5k for the third from NYU
-25k/year from UCLA

I am from the Midwest; I have no ties to either California or NYC/East Coast so that is not a factor for me. I'm not dead set on living in California, but I would have to say that the idea appeals to me more than living on the East Coast. While I'm also not solidly decided on what to study, I am currently leaning toward international law, and I'm not interested in pursuing biglaw.

I am terrified of being in the position of having no job after law school, but I also don't want to assume that going to NYU, as the "better school" will make it any easier to find one since they're so scarce anyway and I am not naturally a pushy, aggressive person when it comes to looking for jobs. I also don't really want to work in New York, but of course I would much rather work in New York than be unemployed in LA. Still, if I am likely to be unemployed in either area, it would be helpful to have as little debt as possible, and that would mean UCLA.

Getting a real international law job is really difficult from what I've heard, but NYU is one of the best schools in the whole country for this. Rankings are whatever, but if you look at employment stats, NYU grads seem to be doing significantly better. Like the person above said, the difference between the schools is too big for 37k to be significant.

I'm thinking an NYU degree is probably better if you want to get a job in LA than a UCLA degree. And the difference in price is so small.