Top Law Schools

So far, NYU is the best school I have gotten into. However, everyone I know there is miserable (far more miserable than my friends at other T14 schools). Is this something other people have heard? Or people who go to NYU, are you happy there, do you think you'd be happier somewhere else?

Thanks

For someone who doesn't go to law school, it sounds like you know a lot of people who go to law school.

This is a stupid thread.

.

Even if you're shooting for the bottom of your class you won't have a fun time.

2L at NYU. I probably do twenty hours a week of law school. It's great, and New York is awesome.

This opinion, however, is not everyone's.

Hanntastic wrote: everyone I know there is miserable (far more miserable than my friends at other T14 schools).

I think this thread would be greatly improved if you clarified whether EVERYONE is one friend, and whether your friends at other t14 schools are more than like, 3 people.

Good sample size. For the record, everyone I know at NYU Law (7 friends) is very happy. It's not a walk in the park, but these are smart people.

thsmthcrmnl wrote:2L at NYU. I probably do twenty hours a week of law school. It's great, and New York is awesome.

This opinion, however, is not everyone's.

2L at NYU. I do not think NYC is awesome but NYU is legit.

bld2414 wrote:

thsmthcrmnl wrote:2L at NYU. I probably do twenty hours a week of law school. It's great, and New York is awesome.

This opinion, however, is not everyone's.

2L at NYU. I do not think NYC is awesome but NYU is legit.

1L at NYU who worked pretty hard this semester. NYU is great and I think if you like law school, you'll like it here. If you don't like law school, you won't be happy anywhere except maybe Stanford.

NYU Alum here. Law school sucks, and law students are a miserable lot. But this is true everywhere. NYU certainly does not suck any more than any other comparable school, and being in NYC provides plenty of opportunity to do stuff that doesn't suck and doesn't revolve around law school.

The only school I've seen (on TLS) compared in depth against NYU's quality of life is Columbia. The general consensus has seemed to be the CLS students are more 'miserable' than the NYU students. This is, of course, not a comprehensive truth.

Then again, I'm not in law school nor do I know anyone at any of the t14s.

i just finished my first semester at NYU worked very hard the alst two months (though that is true i would say of every law student throughout the country) and just got back 2 of my grades, Im around median and looked at their stats for last years OCI and it said i should expect to recieve 9 callbacks and 4 offers. THIS =s ANYTHING BUT BEING MISERABLE. I enjoyed septmember through novemeber in the village throughly i worked hard (though not as hard as everyone) in november and decemeber and I should expect 4 good offers, even if your friends are miserable unless you get money from a lower T14 or maybe your deciding between penn (if for some reason you believe philly would make you less miserable then NY, but thats another issue) there is no reason to turn down an offer for fear of law school being miserable. Congrats

izy223 wrote:I should expect 4 good offers

I'm the super-optimistic NYU 2L from above, and even I would say you shouldn't be thinking like this. Four offers at median could certainly happen, but it's not anywhere close to guaranteed.

thsmthcrmnl wrote:

izy223 wrote:I should expect 4 good offers

I'm the super-optimistic NYU 2L from above, and even I would say you shouldn't be thinking like this. Four offers at median could certainly happen, but it's not anywhere close to guaranteed.

With what grades should someone be worried about being no offered at NYU?

law2015 wrote:

thsmthcrmnl wrote:

izy223 wrote:I should expect 4 good offers

I'm the super-optimistic NYU 2L from above, and even I would say you shouldn't be thinking like this. Four offers at median could certainly happen, but it's not anywhere close to guaranteed.

With what grades should someone be worried about being no offered at NYU?

Anything can happen below median. At that point, it's more about fit, but bottom 10 or 20% is where it's super dicey. 80% of EIW participants get an offer and the people who don't participate are generally those that have no interest in BigLaw, not those at the bottom of the class. If you think about it, the bottom of the class is a bit more likely than the average person to participate in EIW because you have to pursue every option when your grades suck. The 20% of people who participate and don't get offers includes people like a friend of mine who did like 3 interviews and I don't think those were even with Biglaw. He's super cool and I think a bit above median.

Generally speaking, striking out is not a grades issue. Grades can basically score you a good job, but don't generally screw you over; that's more the result of not pursuing all your options/being a really dreadful interviewer.

JamMasterJ wrote:

law2015 wrote:

thsmthcrmnl wrote:

izy223 wrote:I should expect 4 good offers

I'm the super-optimistic NYU 2L from above, and even I would say you shouldn't be thinking like this. Four offers at median could certainly happen, but it's not anywhere close to guaranteed.

With what grades should someone be worried about being no offered at NYU?

Anything can happen below median. At that point, it's more about fit, but bottom 10 or 20% is where it's super dicey. 80% of EIW participants get an offer and the people who don't participate are generally those that have no interest in BigLaw, not those at the bottom of the class. If you think about it, the bottom of the class is a bit more likely than the average person to participate in EIW because you have to pursue every option when your grades suck. The 20% of people who participate and don't get offers includes people like a friend of mine who did like 3 interviews and I don't think those were even with Biglaw. He's super cool and I think a bit above median.

Generally speaking, striking out is not a grades issue. Grades can basically score you a good job, but don't generally screw you over; that's more the result of not pursuing all your options/being a really dreadful interviewer.

Dumb 0L here just lurking on the thread, but what does EIW stand for?

acs507 wrote:
Dumb 0L here just lurking on the thread, but what does EIW stand for?

early interview week --> when 160+ firms come to a hotel for 3 days and you interview with like 25-30 of them for what is most probably (hopefully at least) your first job after law school

izy223 wrote:

acs507 wrote:
Dumb 0L here just lurking on the thread, but what does EIW stand for?

early interview week --> when 160+ firms come to a hotel for 3 days and you interview with like 25-30 of them for what is most probably (hopefully at least) your first job after law school

Thanks! Definitely helped clarify that last post a lot. Haha

law2015 wrote:With what grades should someone be worried about being no offered at NYU?

I roughly agree with what JamMasterJ wrote. Median at NYU is definitely a good place to be. I wouldn't tell someone at median to be worried — that's for the bottom third or quarter. But I also don't think someone at median should be comfortable or complacent either. Save that for the top quarter.

thsmthcrmnl wrote:

law2015 wrote:With what grades should someone be worried about being no offered at NYU?

I roughly agree with what JamMasterJ wrote. Median at NYU is definitely a good place to be. I wouldn't tell someone at median to be worried — that's for the bottom third or quarter. But I also don't think someone at median should be comfortable or complacent either. Save that for the top quarter.

I agree with that. I'll mass mail even if by some miracle I were to hit like top 10% (not gonna happen though). Even then, simply doing EIW is not TCR.

JamMasterJ wrote:

thsmthcrmnl wrote:

law2015 wrote:With what grades should someone be worried about being no offered at NYU?

I roughly agree with what JamMasterJ wrote. Median at NYU is definitely a good place to be. I wouldn't tell someone at median to be worried — that's for the bottom third or quarter. But I also don't think someone at median should be comfortable or complacent either. Save that for the top quarter.

I agree with that. I'll mass mail even if by some miracle I were to hit like top 10% (not gonna happen though). Even then, simply doing EIW is not TCR.

Eh, it really is pretty fine to rely on EIW if you have good grades.

Anyway OP... NYU is definitely not worse and maybe a bit better than its peer schools in terms of student happiness. It just depends who you ask though. It's a big school, which cuts both ways. Some people would prefer more of a community but it means you can find people of all stripes.

NYU 3L here. I've enjoyed it. At the end of our first year, our Lawyering (legal skills/writing) class went around the room and everyone was asked what they found most surprising about law school. Almost everyone said they were surprised by how nice everyone was. It's competitive, but I think the people here are professional enough it doesn't become a personal vendetta.

The job search is relatively low stress. We dont calculate class rank, but realistically I was in the bottom 1/3 (about a 3.1, I think. I guess I don't even know). I hustled and worked some secondary markets and came out with 10 callbacks and 4 offers. Going to V50. Life could be worse, man.

NYU 1L here, somewhere around median. Life's pretty good.

There are *some* miserable people, but probably not as many as Columbia (or, worse, Cornell or Chicago). I've noticed that a lot of those miserable people are 23-year-old Type As who have never actually worked a normal job before. The people who have even a little bit of experience tend to think studying 30-40 hours/week outside of exam month and living in Greenwich Village (or Brooklyn, as is also common) is a pretty sweet life.

So far I haven't had to clean up child vomit, I haven't had a gun pulled on me, I haven't had to come into work on a Sunday morning, and I haven't had to take orders from a guy who wears a wallet chain and jorts when he's not at work. I've just had to read a bunch of cases and make a few outlines and take a few tests. I wish I had done better, but I'm glad I didn't do worse. If that sounds like it would make you miserable, you were probably going to be miserable doing anything up to and including being a rock star.

All of the 2Ls and 3Ls I've talked to had at least one offer. None of them seemed to think any of the 1Ls should be terribly worried about placement unless they just completely slacked off. There are some people who don't get offers (I haven't met one yet), but the general consensus seems to be that it's usually a personality problem rather than a grade problem. Take that with a grain of salt, but the EIW numbers* seem to bear it out.

*Grades seem to matter a lot more for how prestigious of a BigLaw/PI job you are eligible for than whether you get a BigLaw/PI job or not. There are apparently some top-quarter people who struck out, which just goes to prove how ridiculous TLS conventional wisdom can be sometimes.