Top Law Schools

Narrowed it down to these two.

Assume sticker at both.

If you are interested in biglaw in LA, did you shoot for Berkeley? Did you get money at USC or UCLA?

In terms of NYC biglaw, NYU definitely has a substantial edge on Penn for the elite law firms (as per Vault ranks).

If you were around median, NYU probably provides a little more of a cushion.

That being said, living in MFH would also cost somewhat more than Phili, for whatever thats worth.

Step 1) Visit
Step 2) ???
Step 3) Profit

There really isn't a huge difference between the two, and there are qualitative reasons for choosing each of them over the other.

As the poster above recommended, you should just visit them both and then decide.

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... 2543436520

Penn had the best NLJ250 placement last year; they also beat NYU the year before. This is not taking into account location, however.

Also, they both placed ~9-10% of their graduates in CA (per their employment data), but NYU unsurprisingly had more graduates in NY (almost 2/3 of graduates vs 2/5 at Penn).

Tough choice (good problem to have), but I'd probably say Penn just for cost of living, unless you're dead set on choosing between only NY and LA.

I second third Sach's point about visiting and seeing which is a better fit for you - that's an underrated part of choosing a school.

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Also how much weight should I be putting into these NLJ Rankings?

lsatismylifefornow wrote:Also how much weight should I be putting into these NLJ Rankings?

Not a whole lot. Read the thread in this subforum and the one in the legal employment forum for why.

Take NYU.

Either way, you've won the law school lottery. Congratulations !

lsatismylifefornow wrote:Also how much weight should I be putting into these NLJ Rankings?

You absolutely should not sacrifice a better fitting school for the difference between ranks; they're both excellent.

1) Any scholly from either?
2) If no to (1), pick the school you like better. They're near enough to peer that it doesn't matter too much.

Ask each for money. If either takes, go there. If not, attend both ASWs, see which one you like better, go there. Keep in mind COL at Penn will be less.

This poll: Anti-NYU trolling comes home to roost.

I mad? I a little bit mad.

OP, look, if you might want to stay in NYC you should probably go to NYU, all things equal.

Reviving this threat instead of making a second. I am facing the same decision. If Penn matches my NYU scholly I don't think I can justify the COL difference between Philly and NYC. I've visited both an NYU is offering tiny dorm apartments w/out an common space for almost 1500/month. At Penn I could share a decent 2 bedroom apartment for around 1k each. If you're planning on 12 month leases that's 6k a year. x3 years= 18k.

I know people say once you're over 150k in loans some differences are negligible but 18k is 18k....

That said, Philly is NOT Manhattan. Is Manhattan life worth 6k a year over Philly? :/

jetissent wrote:Reviving this threat instead of making a second. I am facing the same decision. If Penn matches my NYU scholly I don't think I can justify the COL difference between Philly and NYC. I've visited both an NYU is offering tiny dorm apartments w/out an common space for almost 1500/month. At Penn I could share a decent 2 bedroom apartment for around 1k each. If you're planning on 12 month leases that's 6k a year. x3 years= 18k.

I know people say once you're over 150k in loans some differences are negligible but 18k is 18k....

That said, Philly is NOT Manhattan. Is Manhattan life worth 6k a year over Philly? :/

I had a choice between the 2, and went with NYU (as a transfer). In fact we had a number of Penn students transfer over into NYU this year, so there is obviously something to it.

P.S. And after my 7 months here at NYU, I can safely say that this is an amazing place to be, both school-wise and city-wise

jetissent wrote:Reviving this threat instead of making a second. I am facing the same decision. If Penn matches my NYU scholly I don't think I can justify the COL difference between Philly and NYC. I've visited both an NYU is offering tiny dorm apartments w/out an common space for almost 1500/month. At Penn I could share a decent 2 bedroom apartment for around 1k each. If you're planning on 12 month leases that's 6k a year. x3 years= 18k.

I know people say once you're over 150k in loans some differences are negligible but 18k is 18k....

That said, Philly is NOT Manhattan. Is Manhattan life worth 6k a year over Philly? :/

It's worth to me if that helps haha. I'm making a simar choice between NYU and a peer of Penn. I'm pretty sure that NYU dorms have common rooms though.

jetissent wrote:Reviving this threat instead of making a second. I am facing the same decision. If Penn matches my NYU scholly I don't think I can justify the COL difference between Philly and NYC. I've visited both an NYU is offering tiny dorm apartments w/out an common space for almost 1500/month. At Penn I could share a decent 2 bedroom apartment for around 1k each. If you're planning on 12 month leases that's 6k a year. x3 years= 18k.

I know people say once you're over 150k in loans some differences are negligible but 18k is 18k....

That said, Philly is NOT Manhattan. Is Manhattan life worth 6k a year over Philly? :/

I sure think so.

Mal Reynolds wrote:

jetissent wrote:Reviving this threat instead of making a second. I am facing the same decision. If Penn matches my NYU scholly I don't think I can justify the COL difference between Philly and NYC. I've visited both an NYU is offering tiny dorm apartments w/out an common space for almost 1500/month. At Penn I could share a decent 2 bedroom apartment for around 1k each. If you're planning on 12 month leases that's 6k a year. x3 years= 18k.

I know people say once you're over 150k in loans some differences are negligible but 18k is 18k....

That said, Philly is NOT Manhattan. Is Manhattan life worth 6k a year over Philly? :/

It's worth to me if that helps haha. I'm making a simar choice between NYU and a peer of Penn. I'm pretty sure that NYU dorms have common rooms though.

I visited D'Agostino. Sadly, they were basically a hallway with three bedrooms off of it. The wall next to the door had a counters/stove but there certainly wasn't anywhere for a couch or tv. (thought the views/roof top areas were sweet!) Can't speak to Mercer though. :/

@Bronck

I am leaning towards agreeing. I just hope 5 years in the future while I'm in the midst of loan payments I agree. Haha.

jetissent wrote:
That said, Philly is NOT Manhattan. Is Manhattan life worth 6k a year over Philly? :/

It's more than 6k a year because 1) you can live very comfortably for maybe 800/month if you split, and 2) food/drink/other goods all cost a lot less. I'd peg it to maybe 10k a year. But obviously if you want to live in NYC then pick NYU. If you want to work in NYC then it's a toss up.

kaiser wrote:

jetissent wrote:Reviving this threat instead of making a second. I am facing the same decision. If Penn matches my NYU scholly I don't think I can justify the COL difference between Philly and NYC. I've visited both an NYU is offering tiny dorm apartments w/out an common space for almost 1500/month. At Penn I could share a decent 2 bedroom apartment for around 1k each. If you're planning on 12 month leases that's 6k a year. x3 years= 18k.

I know people say once you're over 150k in loans some differences are negligible but 18k is 18k....

That said, Philly is NOT Manhattan. Is Manhattan life worth 6k a year over Philly? :/

I had a choice between the 2, and went with NYU (as a transfer). In fact we had a number of Penn students transfer over into NYU this year, so there is obviously something to it.

P.S. And after my 7 months here at NYU, I can safely say that this is an amazing place to be, both school-wise and city-wise

That's quite dumb. If you have a high-enough rank to transfer over to NYU, you would have no problem at all getting a top NYC vault job from Penn. I'm guessing (or at least hoping) something else is at play here.

That said, if you're set on NYC and and both options are at sticker, I'd take NYU. It'll give you an extra 10-15% cushion come hiring time.

kaiser wrote:

jetissent wrote:Reviving this threat instead of making a second. I am facing the same decision. If Penn matches my NYU scholly I don't think I can justify the COL difference between Philly and NYC. I've visited both an NYU is offering tiny dorm apartments w/out an common space for almost 1500/month. At Penn I could share a decent 2 bedroom apartment for around 1k each. If you're planning on 12 month leases that's 6k a year. x3 years= 18k.

I know people say once you're over 150k in loans some differences are negligible but 18k is 18k....

That said, Philly is NOT Manhattan. Is Manhattan life worth 6k a year over Philly? :/

I had a choice between the 2, and went with NYU (as a transfer). In fact we had a number of Penn students transfer over into NYU this year, so there is obviously something to it.

P.S. And after my 7 months here at NYU, I can safely say that this is an amazing place to be, both school-wise and city-wise

I had these schools as options as a transfer and I chose Penn. Not to say NYU isn't amazing (it is), but I believe Penn's employment outcomes are slightly better.

When I transferred, there were more employers from DC going to Penn than NYU. DC was the market I was originally targetting, so I chose Penn. Plus, I wanted to save money.

There are compelling reasons for each one. To some people, being in NYC for some period of their life is an opportunity they cannot pass up. I just wouldn't make the choice based on a perception that NYU is inherently a better law school as I think you can make a case that each school has its own strengths.

I would love to revive this thread if anyone is out there! I am having a difficult time deciding between Penn and NYU. LST says that Penn has slightly higher big law employment statistics, and I am interested in the Wharton MBA, which pushes me towards Penn. NYU is higher ranked, as a law school and in particular their international law program, which pushes me towards NYU. I will be visiting both. thoughts anyone? help!!

Paragon wrote:I would love to revive this thread if anyone is out there! I am having a difficult time deciding between Penn and NYU. LST says that Penn has slightly higher big law employment statistics, and I am interested in the Wharton MBA, which pushes me towards Penn. NYU is higher ranked, as a law school and in particular their international law program, which pushes me towards NYU. I will be visiting both. thoughts anyone? help!!

Pick the one you like more. There's really nothing else to be said

penn doesn't have better biglaw placement, it just places more students in biglaw
nyu traditionally has lower levels of participation in oci due to a large number of pi gunners

also remember mba is an extra year and a lot of extra cost