Top Law Schools

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I'd go to NYU or Chicago.

If you're after public interest, the cost of attendance is more or less irrelevant since the government will pay off your loans. So you should be focused on the school that gives you the best chance of getting the PI job you want, which I think would be NYU.

Northwestern skews heavily towards firms and business jobs. There are actually a decent number of people here who want to do public interest, and the legal clinic here is actually very good, but I don't think career services really knows what to do with public interest people. Full ride at NU is a great deal, but again if you're doing PI money is irrelevant.

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Chicago or Northwestern. Your odds of getting a prestigious clerkship or the kind of fed. government position that most clerks want is small (and highly correlated). Chicago is your best option if you want to maximize those already small odds. Northwestern is the best option if you want a safety if those top choice job opportunities don't work out.

FYI - you won't "ruin" your chances at prestigious position by going to a lower ranked school, almost all of those positions are still accessible if you do really well (which you still need to do at a T6).

peanut wrote:Thanks for the answers so far! I agree with rayiner about public interest prospects being best at NYU, and I definitely hope to take advantage of the LRAP at whatever school I end up attending. Still, I want to make sure that I make a smart financial decision independent of LRAP, since a lot of things (from federal IBR to my own interests) could change over the next three years.

I was surprised to see so many votes for Northwestern. Obviously it's an awesome offer, but I've seen posts advocating CCN over full rides at plenty of T14s, so I expected more votes to go to those three. Anyone want to explain their Northwestern vote?

The 1% or whatever probability of LRAP or IBR changing are much lower than the other risks you're taking.

NU is the credited response if you're doing big law. The 10% extra chances that Chicago gives you aren't worth $150k more money. However, that difference should be dramatically devalued in the face of your wanting to do IBR.

peanut wrote:From what I know, it seems like NYU has the strongest public interest culture, but Chicago currently has the best LRAP (only one that covers clerkships and excludes spousal income).

For the record, CLS LRAP covers clerkships if you go into gov/PI afterward (although I forgot what the deal is with spousal income).

peanut wrote:The sense I got at Columbia is that there's a small (but existent) public interest community and good financial support from the school.

This is true. Constant emails from SJI (essentially the PI arm of career services) and lots of PI events all the time. Plus guaranteed summer funding for both 1L and 2L summers if you do gov/PI.

I'm not advocating for CLS, I just wanted to straighten that stuff out. Like rayiner and others have pointed out, debt won't be too much of an issue since you'll be doing LRAP + IBR. Probably just choose based on personal preference. I would probably just go for broke (pun intended) and choose one of CCN.

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Northwestern is the easy answer from a financial perspective even though you may have overestimated the total COA while underestimating the total COA for Chicago. Financial freedom opens doors.

Chicago is probably the next best option due to factors already discussed above.

Nevertheless, try leveraging your acceptances to Columbia & Chicago into increased scholarship offers if you prefer to be near your SO.

rayiner wrote:

peanut wrote:Thanks for the answers so far! I agree with rayiner about public interest prospects being best at NYU, and I definitely hope to take advantage of the LRAP at whatever school I end up attending. Still, I want to make sure that I make a smart financial decision independent of LRAP, since a lot of things (from federal IBR to my own interests) could change over the next three years.

I was surprised to see so many votes for Northwestern. Obviously it's an awesome offer, but I've seen posts advocating CCN over full rides at plenty of T14s, so I expected more votes to go to those three. Anyone want to explain their Northwestern vote?

The 1% or whatever probability of LRAP or IBR changing are much lower than the other risks you're taking.

NU is the credited response if you're doing big law. The 10% extra chances that Chicago gives you aren't worth $150k more money. However, that difference should be dramatically devalued in the face of your wanting to do IBR.

OP: this is good advice.

Rayiner: I'm just going to follow you around the forum, and tell everyone how right you are about everything.

Renzo wrote:

rayiner wrote:

peanut wrote:Thanks for the answers so far! I agree with rayiner about public interest prospects being best at NYU, and I definitely hope to take advantage of the LRAP at whatever school I end up attending. Still, I want to make sure that I make a smart financial decision independent of LRAP, since a lot of things (from federal IBR to my own interests) could change over the next three years.

I was surprised to see so many votes for Northwestern. Obviously it's an awesome offer, but I've seen posts advocating CCN over full rides at plenty of T14s, so I expected more votes to go to those three. Anyone want to explain their Northwestern vote?

The 1% or whatever probability of LRAP or IBR changing are much lower than the other risks you're taking.

NU is the credited response if you're doing big law. The 10% extra chances that Chicago gives you aren't worth $150k more money. However, that difference should be dramatically devalued in the face of your wanting to do IBR.

OP: this is good advice.

Rayiner: I'm just going to follow you around the forum, and tell everyone how right you are about everything.

3L, when law students have time to hang out on the internet this close to finals.

I would normally be wary of the public interest support at Chicago, but honestly, if it's true that they don't count spousal income against LRAP benefits then that probably leapfrogs in importance whatever institutional support exists at NYU, CLS, etc.