What Now? - NYLS, Hosftra, Brooklyn, CUNY Forum

[MybbKitty]

Hi Everyone!

I'm having a horrible time deciding what to do next. My family are telling me "whatever I want, its okay" but I need hardcore advice because I don't KNOW what I want.... I only know that I want to do law. I dont have the gift for taking the LSAT. I really gave it my all and retook it once already but all that it got me was a lot of trauma and one extra point (which I am still very grateful for). Retaking the LSAT for a higher score doesnt seem like a possible choice so I will have to accept that 150 is my best.

Anyway, so far, I've gotten only one offer from NYLS at sticker price. I've been doing research on it and NYLS has a lot of awful reviews. I had a tour of the school recently and wasn't too impressed. Furthermore, its specialty is more in the real estate area, which I am not a fan of. BUT, it is the ONLY school I have with a guaranteed acceptance and I've already paid the first deposit of $300 in the hopes of dragging out time for replies from the other schools. However, the deadline for the hefty second deposit is coming up FAST and I need to make up my mind ASAP. Should I just let go of NYLS and wait for the 2 pending and 2 waitlisted -OR- Should I just give up and accept NYLS as my one and only offer?

Here is the skinny for my situation:

Academics -
LSAT - 149; retook after Kaplan tutoring - 150.
GPA - 3.74

Law School Statuses -
Fordham - Rejected
NYLS - Accepted
St. John's - Waitlisted
Hofstra - Waitlisted
Brooklyn - Pending
CUNY - Pending

[ajaxconstructions]

Don't go to law school. Retake LSAT.

[joeshmo39]

Reject, and reject all the other schools on the list. You're not going to get scholarship money so it's just too expensive. Go to lawschooltransparency.com and and look at NYLS's numbers. 70,000 a year plus interest and they don't even report their statistics? Would you spend even 20,000 on a car if they didn't give you gas mileage and crash safety information up front?

The bottom line is that for all but a small sliver of applicant, no school accepting applicants with 150s is worth going to at sticker price.

[zanda]

Don't go to law school. Retake LSAT.

[SilverE2]

What does "gave it my all" mean? Because unless you studied for 10 hours a day, every single day including weekends for four months for this exam, then you haven't given it your all.

And if you really did give it your all then maybe law school isn't for you. And that's okay. I wanted to become an engineer, but I never really was good enough at math. I have no shame in admitting that.

[rad lulz]

If you don't want a job, any of these should be fine.

[Mal Reynolds]

Don't go to law school. Retake LSAT.

[Ded Precedent]

What was your diagnostic?

[blsingindisguise]

Yup, agree with everyone else. Do not go sticker to any of these schools even if you're SURE you want to be a lawyer. Do you want to be an unemployed lawyer? Do you want to be a lawyer who makes $40,000 a year and spends most of his paycheck paying off loans?

[AntipodeanPhil]

Please, please don't go to NYLS. Your chance of getting a job that will allow you to pay back $200k in debt is slim to non-existent.

Here's a breakdown of the salary information from their website:
(--LinkRemoved--)

For the class of 2010, there were 407 graduates. 54 went into private private, making a mean salary of $107k. Because of the bi-modal nature of salaries in private practice, most of those people made either ~$160k or ~$50k. That's about 27 making around $160k.

10 graduates went into business, and the salary information suggests 3-4 of those are making over $100k. One person went into academia and is making $100k.

Summary: of the 407 graduates, perhaps 30 something are making over $100k, much less than 10%. Some of those people probably got their jobs through connections (family, etc). From the salary information, most of the rest are making closer to $50k, IF they're lucky enough to be employed full-time.

To pay back $200k in 10 years, you would be paying $2300 a month. That's 27k a year. After taxes, $50k is perhaps $35k a year. That leaves $8k to live on. You could go on IBR, but that means paying back 10% of your salary for 25 years, assuming that IBR doesn't change or cease to exist.

[AntipodeanPhil]

A graph illustrating of the bi-modal nature of salaries. This graph only lists salaries for law firms that report to the NALP, so a lot of $50k or lower salaries are missing:

http://www.nalp.org/startingsalarydistr ... lassof2009

[flem]

NYLS has a lot of prestigious alumni. Like this guy, who finished in the top 25% and is now serving pizza for a living.

That school is a toilet and a one way ticket to a debtor's prison. Retake the LSAT, consider private tutoring or something if you can afford it and you're really struggling. Kaplan is garbage, and that was your first mistake that many people make. Look into Powescore, TestMasters, Manhattan, etc, study for 3+ months, score in the 160's, then laugh at the fact you were seriously considering this shithole in the first place.

Thank me in a year. A PM will suffice.

[top30man]

If you don't want a job, any of these should be fine.

I agree. That's a good Gpa. Don't waste it with such a mediocre LSAT score. Kaplan is widely regarded as a waste. You need to self study better or take a better course like test masters. You are dooming yourself to 200k in debt for a school that can't even find its grads jobs.

[answer23]

Kaplan + NYLS
I say this is a flame. No way!
if not retake or don't go

[whatismylife]

Just to put things in perspective:

I got accepted to UVA with no scholarship. Just being accepted was a dream come true, and I had to think long and hard about whether to take out 200k in loans to attend. After researching the implications of taking on that much debt in an uncertain economy, I decided that it was not worth it (despite UVA being a top tier school with solid employment stats and biglaw placement). This was undoubtedly the hardest decision of my life.

In light of that, it offends me that you are even considering paying full sticker price at a school like NYLS. You know that the non-discounted cost of attendance at NYLS is $259,576?? How can you possibly think that this is a good investment???

Please do NOT make the biggest mistake of your life, and do NOT ignore what everyone is telling you here. The LSAT is one of the most learnable tests out there, and you need to study on your own instead of lazily enrolling in an overpriced prep course. It was smart of you to seek advice on TLS before deciding to ruin your life, and I believe you are smart enough to improve your score from a 150.

For your reference:
--LinkRemoved--
http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot. ... of_25.html

[MrAnon]

Don't go to these schools. Pick another career. Seriously.