Top Law Schools

Settled on NYU and was thrilled until I was admitted off the UChicago wait list today. No money to either school. Interested in working in either D.C., New York, or Chicago after school. Didn't have a chance to visit UChicago but loved NYU and know I'd be happy there.

NYU seems like the right fit, but I'm concerned about passing up a school with slightly better name recognition/cachet. Are there any compelling reasons to pick UChicago? Interested in big firm and possibly clerking right out of school--are job opportunities comparable at each school?

Did anyone else choose between these two schools? How did you decide?

snsn2012 wrote:Settled on NYU and was thrilled until I was admitted off the UChicago wait list today. No money to either school. Interested in working in either D.C., New York, or Chicago after school. Didn't have a chance to visit UChicago but loved NYU and know I'd be happy there.

NYU seems like the right fit, but I'm concerned about passing up a school with slightly better name recognition/cachet. Are there any compelling reasons to pick UChicago? Interested in big firm and possibly clerking right out of school--are job opportunities comparable at each school?

Did anyone else choose between these two schools? How did you decide?

academia would be really the only thing. That and whichever city you prefer.

JamMasterJ wrote:

snsn2012 wrote:Settled on NYU and was thrilled until I was admitted off the UChicago wait list today. No money to either school. Interested in working in either D.C., New York, or Chicago after school. Didn't have a chance to visit UChicago but loved NYU and know I'd be happy there.

NYU seems like the right fit, but I'm concerned about passing up a school with slightly better name recognition/cachet. Are there any compelling reasons to pick UChicago? Interested in big firm and possibly clerking right out of school--are job opportunities comparable at each school?

Did anyone else choose between these two schools? How did you decide?

academia would be really the only thing. That and whichever city you prefer.

Not anymore. NYU was the most successful school in the country this year in academic placement.

Peer schools are peer. Pick the school and the city that you want to go to.

Doorkeeper wrote:

JamMasterJ wrote:

snsn2012 wrote:Settled on NYU and was thrilled until I was admitted off the UChicago wait list today. No money to either school. Interested in working in either D.C., New York, or Chicago after school. Didn't have a chance to visit UChicago but loved NYU and know I'd be happy there.

NYU seems like the right fit, but I'm concerned about passing up a school with slightly better name recognition/cachet. Are there any compelling reasons to pick UChicago? Interested in big firm and possibly clerking right out of school--are job opportunities comparable at each school?

Did anyone else choose between these two schools? How did you decide?

academia would be really the only thing. That and whichever city you prefer.

Not anymore. NYU was the most successful school in the country this year in academic placement.

Peer schools are peer. Pick the school and the city that you want to go to.

OK well then pick based on city and whether you want TEH RIGOR

Chicago gives you a better chance at non-NYC jobs. NYU is not in a dangerous area and will give you awesome opportunities at NYC big law with good grades.

TaipeiMort wrote:Chicago gives you a better chance at non-NYC jobs. NYU is not in a dangerous area and will give you awesome opportunities at NYC big law with good grades.

You don't need good grades to have a good chance at NYC big law from NYU. Also, outside of Chicago they are probably pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that NYU has less of an edge in NYC than UChi does in Chicago.

your username is weirdly similar to mine. and i just got off the waitlist too, except i was committed to UVA...strange. anyways, since money is equal i would just pick whichever one you like more.

birdlaw117 wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:Chicago gives you a better chance at non-NYC jobs. NYU is not in a dangerous area and will give you awesome opportunities at NYC big law with good grades.

You don't need good grades to have a good chance at NYC big law from NYU. Also, outside of Chicago they are probably pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that NYU has less of an edge in NYC than UChi does in Chicago.

how is NYU in Chicago? A lot worse than Northwestern? Chi is my fav market, but I am by no means exclusively interested in it.

JamMasterJ wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:Chicago gives you a better chance at non-NYC jobs. NYU is not in a dangerous area and will give you awesome opportunities at NYC big law with good grades.

You don't need good grades to have a good chance at NYC big law from NYU. Also, outside of Chicago they are probably pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that NYU has less of an edge in NYC than UChi does in Chicago.

how is NYU in Chicago? A lot worse than Northwestern? Chi is my fav market, but I am by no means exclusively interested in it.

I'm sure it does fine, but it's tough to tell by crunching numbers because so many self-select out of Chicago.

I would think probably similar to/maybe a little better than Northwestern? Maybe? Perhaps you have a better chance because so NYU grads are more rare in Chicago. Or maybe that hurts because the alumni base is weaker. I think there are arguments to be made in both directions.

But the number of SA positions in Chicago is way less than in NYC.

birdlaw117 wrote:

JamMasterJ wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:Chicago gives you a better chance at non-NYC jobs. NYU is not in a dangerous area and will give you awesome opportunities at NYC big law with good grades.

You don't need good grades to have a good chance at NYC big law from NYU. Also, outside of Chicago they are probably pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that NYU has less of an edge in NYC than UChi does in Chicago.

how is NYU in Chicago? A lot worse than Northwestern? Chi is my fav market, but I am by no means exclusively interested in it.

I'm sure it does fine, but it's tough to tell by crunching numbers because so many self-select out of Chicago.

I would think probably similar to/maybe a little better than Northwestern? Maybe? Perhaps you have a better chance because so NYU grads are more rare in Chicago. Or maybe that hurts because the alumni base is weaker. I think there are arguments to be made in both directions.

But the number of SA positions in Chicago is way less than in NYC.

this is kinda what I figured. I assume that since I'm coming from close to Chicago, my chances will improve somewhat. Either way, I'm cool with NYC, DC, LA, SF, Boston... so it's not a huge deal if I don't end up there.

OP, having just spent a lot of time in another NYU-v-Chicago thread pushing for NYU... if Chicago is your favorite market, and beyond that you're mostly okay with anything, you should absolutely go to Chicago. NYU isn't going to shut you out of Chicago, but it seems like you'd be needlessly making things less safe and certainly much less convenient with regards to your one expressed preference.

It sounds like you want to work in Chicago, so go to Chicago. They're peer schools, and you can't go wrong, but if want to work in Chicago going to the best law school in that city is the best choice.

Depends. Do you prefer fun or RIGOR?

birdlaw117 wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:Chicago gives you a better chance at non-NYC jobs. NYU is not in a dangerous area and will give you awesome opportunities at NYC big law with good grades.

You don't need good grades to have a good chance at NYC big law from NYU. Also, outside of Chicago they are probably pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that NYU has less of an edge in NYC than UChi does in Chicago.

No. It's more like, outside of NYC NYU is the same as the rest of the T14 everywhere.

Real Madrid wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:Chicago gives you a better chance at non-NYC jobs. NYU is not in a dangerous area and will give you awesome opportunities at NYC big law with good grades.

You don't need good grades to have a good chance at NYC big law from NYU. Also, outside of Chicago they are probably pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that NYU has less of an edge in NYC than UChi does in Chicago.

No. It's more like, outside of NYC NYU is the same as the rest of the T14 everywhere.

While I appreciate your 0L opinion on legal employment, NYU self selects so much into NYC it's nearly impossible to show anything with data. All I can really say is when I was interviewing in the Midwest the comments I received from partners were comparing NYU to T6 schools not the other T14 schools.

Renzo wrote:Depends. Do you prefer fun or RIGOR?

RIGOR is fun.

birdlaw117 wrote:

Real Madrid wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:Chicago gives you a better chance at non-NYC jobs. NYU is not in a dangerous area and will give you awesome opportunities at NYC big law with good grades.

You don't need good grades to have a good chance at NYC big law from NYU. Also, outside of Chicago they are probably pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that NYU has less of an edge in NYC than UChi does in Chicago.

No. It's more like, outside of NYC NYU is the same as the rest of the T14 everywhere.

While I appreciate your 0L opinion on legal employment, NYU self selects so much into NYC it's nearly impossible to show anything with data. All I can really say is when I was interviewing in the Midwest the comments I received from partners were comparing NYU to T6 schools not the other T14 schools.

And while I appreciate your anecdotal, unverified evidence on legal employment, I'll just look at the last 5+ years of NLJ numbers (which are already biased towards northeastern firms), which show that NYU is consistently lagging behind Columbia and Chicago when it comes to big law employment.

Real Madrid wrote: And while I appreciate your anecdotal, unverified evidence on legal employment, I'll just look at the last 5+ years of NLJ numbers (which are already biased towards northeastern firms), which show that NYU is consistently lagging behind Columbia and Chicago when it comes to big law employment.

You know damn well that data isn't reliable and can't give you the whole picture. And if you dont, you should.

And that data can tell you fuckall about nyu vs uchi outside of NYC.

I realize you just troll nyu all over. But you should really try and know what you're talking about.

Also, I prefaced my statement on the fact that it was anecdotal and gave a reason for why I can't give a better analysis.

Yay, this debate again

Real Madrid wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote:

Real Madrid wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote: You don't need good grades to have a good chance at NYC big law from NYU. Also, outside of Chicago they are probably pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that NYU has less of an edge in NYC than UChi does in Chicago.

No. It's more like, outside of NYC NYU is the same as the rest of the T14 everywhere.

While I appreciate your 0L opinion on legal employment, NYU self selects so much into NYC it's nearly impossible to show anything with data. All I can really say is when I was interviewing in the Midwest the comments I received from partners were comparing NYU to T6 schools not the other T14 schools.

And while I appreciate your anecdotal, unverified evidence on legal employment, I'll just look at the last 5+ years of NLJ numbers (which are already biased towards northeastern firms), which show that NYU is consistently lagging behind Columbia and Chicago when it comes to big law employment.

Once again, self selection

Seriously though. With uchi sending 1 or 2 students into PI each year they better have a huge advantage in NLJ placement.

birdlaw117 wrote:Seriously though. With uchi sending 1 or 2 students into PI each year they better have a huge advantage in NLJ placement.

lol ok. Then why has, for example, Berkeley equaled (2010) or bettered (2011, 2012) NYU's big law placement the last three years when they send roughly equal percentages to PI? After all, NYC was the first market (and so far has been the best) to rebound from ITE and NLJ is already biased towards NE firms.

I can buy that NYU was a step ahead of the Penns, UVAs and Berkeleys of the world before ITE, but most of the employment stats since then seem to indicate that it's easily the weakest of CCN in virtually all measures other than PI and is regularly schooled at big law by "lesser" schools in smaller markets like Penn and NU.

I realize you just troll nyu all over.

Someone's got to, because there's some egregious pro-NYU trolling going on in this thread.

Chicago, NYU is a TTT in decline.

Real Madrid wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote:Seriously though. With uchi sending 1 or 2 students into PI each year they better have a huge advantage in NLJ placement.

lol ok. Then why has, for example, Berkeley equaled (2010) or bettered (2011, 2012) NYU's big law placement the last three years when they send roughly equal percentages to PI? After all, NYC was the first market (and so far has been the best) to rebound from ITE and NLJ is already biased towards NE firms.

I can buy that NYU was a step ahead of the Penns, UVAs and Berkeleys of the world before ITE, but most of the employment stats since then seem to indicate that it's easily the weakest of CCN in virtually all measures other than PI and is regularly schooled at big law by "lesser" schools in smaller markets like Penn and NU.

ITT: RealMadrid cements himself as the #1 Berk troll ala TaipeiMort with UChi

Ruxin1 wrote:

Real Madrid wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote:Seriously though. With uchi sending 1 or 2 students into PI each year they better have a huge advantage in NLJ placement.

lol ok. Then why has, for example, Berkeley equaled (2010) or bettered (2011, 2012) NYU's big law placement the last three years when they send roughly equal percentages to PI? After all, NYC was the first market (and so far has been the best) to rebound from ITE and NLJ is already biased towards NE firms.

I can buy that NYU was a step ahead of the Penns, UVAs and Berkeleys of the world before ITE, but most of the employment stats since then seem to indicate that it's easily the weakest of CCN in virtually all measures other than PI and is regularly schooled at big law by "lesser" schools in smaller markets like Penn and NU.

ITT: RealMadrid cements himself as the #1 Berk troll ala TaipeiMort with UChi

Please find where I've tried to indicate that Berkeley is better than Harvard.

Edit: I forgot to mention that NYU has a diluted faculty.