Cornell or GW? Forum

sburc3 · Post by **sburc3** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:34 pm

Hi All,

I'm a DC native who has been living abroad for the past two years, returning to the US to start law school in the fall. I'm having a rough time making a decision between Cornell and GW, both with no money. It would be nice to be near family since I've been gone so long and I plan to live in the DC area after graduation. I'm interested in international public law and civil rights and would be just as happy working for an NGO after graduation as a law firm. Am I getting too caught up in the fact with Cornell is ranked higher and an Ivy League? Still crossing my fingers that I'll get off the wait list at my dream school, Georgetown.

Appreciate your advice!

Hawkeye Pierce · Post by **Hawkeye Pierce** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 1:30 am

Cornell.

GW is a bit rough with no money. Their LRAP isn't exactly mouth watering.

From what I can tell, general wisdom is that if you want DC, aim for the best school possible, and Cornell is most certainly better than GW.

sburc3 · Post by **sburc3** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:34 am

From inside firm information, I hear that many DC firms dropped recruiting at Cornell due to recession cutbacks while continuing to recruit at GW. Not sure how many have returned to recruiting at Cornell.

dpk711 · Post by **dpk711** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:38 am

Cornell.

Grizz · Post by **Grizz** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:41 am

I'd be hesitant to pay sticker at either.

bk1 · Post by **bk1** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:04 am

1. I would reevaluate your goals considering jobs in "international public law and civil rights" are fairly rare and intensely competitive. Find out just how hard these jobs are to get before plunking down $200,000+ and then realizing you only have a 5% chance of ending up there.

2. DC is going to be hard to get a job in. It is intensely competitive and takes amazing grades from a top school to end up there. Heck more Georgetown grads end up in NYC than in DC.

3. Cornell is a far better school than GW. Even for someone who wants DC, I would take Cornell.

4. However, Ivy League doesn't mean anything in regards to law schools. For example, Michigan and Virginia are not Ivies, but they have better law schools than Cornell.

5. If you did get Georgetown, it would be better than Cornell for DC but it would still be a bad idea.

6. Sticker price debt is over $200,000 at all of these schools (Cornell, GW, Georgetown) and they simply aren't worth paying that much for. I would recommend going to a better school or a worse school with a scholarship. If neither of those are an option, I would retake/reapply so that they can become options.

FiveSermon · Post by **FiveSermon** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:10 am

bk187 wrote: 2. DC is going to be hard to get a job in. It is intensely competitive and takes amazing grades from a top school to end up there. Heck more Georgetown grads end up in NYC than in DC.

Is this fo real.

The part about more Gtown grads ending up in NYC.

bk1 · Post by **bk1** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:16 am

FiveSermon wrote:Is this fo real.

The part about more Gtown grads ending up in NYC.

It was true in 2005 and I have no reason to assume that it is any different now. Heck I'd assume that most schools, including GULC/GW, became more NYC-focused due to the fact that NYC has rebounded stronger/faster than the other markets since the crash.

For that 2005's data, the NLJ sorted schools by the area they placed most heavily into and then put a percentage based on how many grads stayed in the region the school is in. So Georgetown placed a plurality of kids into NYC and placed 36% into DC, meaning that Georgetown's NYC percentage was somewhere between 37% and 64%. Also of note is that GW also only placed 36% of its class in DC.

Source: http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/composite.pdf

FiveSermon · Post by **FiveSermon** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:31 am

Also what would be your sticker cutoff?

I'm guessing at T6?

@bk

thecynic69 · Post by **thecynic69** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 4:56 am

FiveSermon wrote:Also what would be your sticker cutoff?

I'm guessing at T6T3?

@bk

Dangerous road to go down...there should be a rule on TLS that such questions need to be PMed--they are the death knell of any thread not originally on (insert controversial topic). Then again, there is no such rule, so there's my two cents [ring a ding ding says the alarm of doom] (not saying you were wrong to ask, or that bk will be wrong to express his opinion...just saying, there is a decent chance this thread will never return to the OP's question)

enron123 · Post by **enron123** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:53 am

Cornell, if you have connections to DC you can always get back but Cornell opens more doors. I second whoever said that reevaluating your career goals made sense.

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