Top Law Schools

Hey everyone,

I've narrowed my choices down to Columbia and Duke.

After calculating out some COA/COL numbers, attending Columbia, with no aid/grants, will cost me about $50,000 more (loan interest already included) than attended Duke (with a scholarship).

Assuming a ten year payment plan for my loans, the monthly payments will be roughly $2330 for Columbia vs. $1920 for Duke.

I am planning on working in NYC after law school, most likely in biglaw.

Thoughts? Would love to hear from Duke/Columbia students or 0Ls in a similar situation!

sunnyjbw wrote:Hey everyone,

I've narrowed my choices down to Columbia and Duke.

After calculating out some COA/COL numbers, attending Columbia, with no aid/grants, will cost me about $50,000 more (loan interest already included) than attended Duke (with a scholarship).

Assuming a ten year payment plan for my loans, the monthly payments will be roughly $2330 for Columbia vs. $1920 for Duke.

I am planning on working in NYC after law school, most likely in biglaw.

Thoughts? Would love to hear from Duke/Columbia students or 0Ls in a similar situation!

50k including interest isn't an astronomical amount more and CLS certainly does very well at placing into NYC biglaw. I don't think spending an extra 50k (including interest) for CLS is unreasonable at all but neither is attending Duke. If you really have a preference for CLS I'd probably just go there.

If you want to work in NYC, Columbia is absolutely worth $50k more than Duke. The difference in lifetime earnings between striking out and getting big law are pretty big. $50k is a drop in the bucket when you look over the long term.

There are certainly people who are better suited to Duke, but you haven't indicated anything that would suggest that.

Good point. I went to Harvard for undergrad, live in NYC now and just did not see myself at Duke.

What about 30k more for Columbia than NYU (again, includes interest over 10 year loan repayment)? Is that worth it?

sunnyjbw wrote:Good point. I went to Harvard for undergrad, live in NYC now and just did not see myself at Duke.

What about 30k more for Columbia than NYU (again, includes interest over 10 year loan repayment)? Is that worth it?

If you like Columbia more than NYU, then that's a perfectly fine decision. Some will argue that Columbia is slightly stronger in elite firms, while other will argue that they're peer schools with the same placement power.

sunnyjbw wrote:Good point. I went to Harvard for undergrad, live in NYC now and just did not see myself at Duke.

What about 30k more for Columbia than NYU (again, includes interest over 10 year loan repayment)? Is that worth it?

That's a lot harder call. I think it's personal preference. Also, housing at Columbia is a decent amount cheaper, not sure if you're including that in your calculations.

Definitely like Columbia more. I live in the city now and one of my hopes for law school was having a more campus feel which I can have at Columbia while not totally leaving the city. My fiancée can afford to pay for our housing at Columbia (I'm planning on doing Columbia housing) whereas if I go to NYU I would live closer to the campus (but not on campus because housing is expensive) but likely pay about $1000/month to meet the difference.

But all of this has been taken into consideration

Yes.

bdubs wrote:

sunnyjbw wrote:Good point. I went to Harvard for undergrad, live in NYC now and just did not see myself at Duke.

What about 30k more for Columbia than NYU (again, includes interest over 10 year loan repayment)? Is that worth it?

That's a lot harder call. I think it's personal preference. Also, housing at Columbia is a decent amount cheaper, not sure if you're including that in your calculations.

If you're gonna take that into account then you've gotta take into account Columbia's higher tuition. In the end it ends up being basically a tie, and certainly not enough of a difference to choose between the two.

For what it's worth I've gotta go with NYU on this one unless you're willing to spend $30k for basically the lay prestige of Columbia, which I wouldn't fault you for, simply not what I would do.