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Have to make a choice by Friday and have no idea. Any advice will be appreciated!

handprints wrote:Have to make a choice by Friday and have no idea. Any advice will be appreciated!

Cardozo is not worth sticker. Does the Hofstra scholarship have any stipulations?

Yeah, have to remain in top 40% of class.... Any more ideas????

handprints wrote:Yeah, have to remain in top 40% of class.... Any more ideas????

Try to have your stipulations removed (or at least relaxed). If that doesn't work, be prepared to drop out if you lose your scholarship.

HeavenWood wrote:

handprints wrote:Yeah, have to remain in top 40% of class.... Any more ideas????

Try to have your stipulations removed (or at least relaxed). If that doesn't work, be prepared to drop out if you lose your scholarship.

This. But it isn't really a bad thing. If you aren't in the top 40% of your class at Hofstra, you're looking at unemployment.

FiveSermon wrote:

HeavenWood wrote:

handprints wrote:Yeah, have to remain in top 40% of class.... Any more ideas????

Try to have your stipulations removed (or at least relaxed). If that doesn't work, be prepared to drop out if you lose your scholarship.

This. But it isn't really a bad thing. If you aren't in the top 40% of your class at Hofstra, you're looking at unemployment.

This is very true.

Hofstra. Cardozo is not even close to being worth sticker.

As a senior partner at a firm in New York with about 150 attorneys, I can tell you that I see no difference whatsoever between the two schools and we would hire the right person from either.

Thanks very much all... So I shouldn't factor in how different the rankings are?

Also, does anyone thinking there is negotiating potential for more $$$ at Cardozo?

handprints wrote:Thanks very much all... So I shouldn't factor in how different the rankings are?

In my opinion, the difference in ranking is meaningless. Also, please remember that most hiring partners are my age (mid fifties) and go more on reputation over the years rather than at any one point in time. For what it is worth, in the New York area, Columbia and NYU rule, followed by Cornell and Fordham, and then by the group of Hofstra, St. Johns, Brooklyn and Cardozo in no particular order. Anyone telling you any different has not been practicing law for thirty years as I have.

JLR wrote:As a senior partner at a firm in New York with about 150 attorneys, I can tell you that I see no difference whatsoever between the two schools and we would hire the right person from either.

You're not a senior partner at a firm in New York with about 150 attorneys. Stop this nonsense and go find something constructive to do with your time instead of trying to influence peoples' decisions by posting inaccurate information.

And to the OP-- if you can't negotiate for money from Cardozo I personally feel that Hofstra is the clear choice here. No one should pay sticker to go to Cardozo.

I didn't vote because I don't think either is a good option.

law's cool wrote:

JLR wrote:As a senior partner at a firm in New York with about 150 attorneys, I can tell you that I see no difference whatsoever between the two schools and we would hire the right person from either.

You're not a senior partner at a firm in New York with about 150 attorneys. Stop this nonsense and go find something constructive to do with your time instead of trying to influence peoples' decisions by posting inaccurate information.

You guessed wrong young grasshopper. PM sent to OP listing name and firm.

Is the 40% contingency all or nothing? If you are at median, for example, do you lose the whole scholly?

i emailed about the schollly stipulations but no reply yet... -_-

Well, if it turns out to be an all-or-nothing stipulation, then I respectfully dissent and would vote Dozo.

Law schools -- even mediocre schools like Hofstra -- are filled with smart, hardworking people. And there is no way to predict who will have the knack for law study and who won't. So there is NO WAY you can be confident of being in the top 40%. That scholly more likely than not will become a one-year scholly worth only a year's tuition (44K?).

So the question becomes, is Dozo 44K better than Hofstra? I say Yes.

I'm not questioning what the law firm hiring partner (if that's what he is) says. But the NYC Biglaw firm where I am a paralegal does OCI at Dozo every year, and we have about 10 Dozo lawyers in the office. We don't do OCI at Hofstra and have only one Hofstra lawyer in the whole firm.

Dozo places 12.6% of its grads with the NLJ250, and was doing about 20% before the crash. Hofstra? It's never had enough NLJ250 placement to be included in any survey.

55 year-old partners may lump the two schools together, but younger partners and Hiring Coordinators know that Cardozo is higher-ranked and faster-improving. It aims to be a national school whereas Hofstra is and always will be a training ground for Nassau County ADAs and associates at the local small firms.

Dozo gets a significantly better class of student. Visit and talk to people and you'll agree.

Dozo is ranked #50. Hofstra is #84.

Dozo is in a great area of Greenwich Village. Hofstra is in Uniondale, Long Island.

You haven't told us much about yourself ... your geographic preference, career goals, financial situation. So it's hard to give advice. But in the abstract, Dozo is better than Hofstra. I don't know the monetary value of the difference but I'm pretty sure it's more than 44K, and that's all Hofstra is offering you as a practical matter if it's an all-or-nothing stip. Good luck.

Thanks very much for your advice, Robespierre. I would prob like to do IP law and am in NYC. Speaking with the Financial Aid and thinking about all that interest accruing freaks me out a bit, but I am not sure if I should weigh the excellent reputation Cardozo offers more heavily than the money Hofstra is offering?

law's cool wrote:

JLR wrote:As a senior partner at a firm in New York with about 150 attorneys, I can tell you that I see no difference whatsoever between the two schools and we would hire the right person from either.

You're not a senior partner at a firm in New York with about 150 attorneys. Stop this nonsense and go find something constructive to do with your time instead of trying to influence peoples' decisions by posting inaccurate information.

Even if JLR is some 0L getting his kicks, his advice still sounds solid.

handprints wrote:Thanks very much for your advice, Robespierre. I would prob like to do IP law and am in NYC. Speaking with the Financial Aid and thinking about all that interest accruing freaks me out a bit, but I am not sure if I should weigh the excellent reputation Cardozo offers more heavily than the money Hofstra is offering?

You say you're in NYC. Does that mean you can save living expenses by staying with family? If so, that would limit the debt and cut in favor of Dozo.

Dozo has an IP program so that's another factor in its favor.

But above all you should try to get the Hofstra stip removed, or amended so you get a partial scholly if you fall short of the 40%. Dozo is 44K better than the Hof but if it becomes a question of ~100K that's a different story.

What did you decide? I hope you chose Hofstra. Cardozo isn't really that much better. Really.