Harvard (sticker price) vs. NYU (full-ride) Forum

[roldans]

Hello everyone! There is a possibility that I will be presented with the following dilemma and I could use some input.

I've been accepted to HLS and NYU. I have not received my financial package from HLS, but was contacted last week by NYU for the Root-Tilden scholarship. I'll be interviewing on April 6 and the tricky thing about the selection for the full-tuition scholarship is that you must inform the school of your decision within the four days after being notified as a winner.

Does anyone have any advice about how to decide between the two? I'm assuming I will have to take out massive student loans for Harvard, and the more I look at their LRAP, the less appealing it looks. I am drawn to the idea of having less than $40,000 in student loans from NYU for basic living expenses (I also have a generous private scholarship to cover some living expenses).

I know the general rule is yo attend the highest ranked school, but does this still apply for someone like me? How much better is HLS over NYU, especially when I am interested in public service (state or national government, department of justice, legislative work, etc.) I am not interested in landing a top private firm position. I know the value of a HLS degree, but how far back am I with a NYU degree for the work I want to do?

Thanks for the help!

[ManOfTheMinute]

Your situation is not unique (which might be a shock to you). Search the forums, there are lots of discussions about this. Note that your career goals are important in this decision.

[pastapplicant]

If you are absolutely sure you do not want Big Law, you should take the RTK offer. I am a 1L at NYU, and it is obvious that the school really supports and gives everything to their RTK scholars. My RTK classmates are the ones who get prestigious summer fellowships and positions, and the school really uses its alumni network to get you great PI jobs you want. This combined with a full scholly is everything you could ask for to be successful in PI.

[Ti Malice]

Unless you receive a substantial grant from Harvard, I think this is an easy decision (assuming you get the RTK). The RTK provides significant benefits beyond the money itself, as pastapplicant describes, and the scholarship is very well-known in the PI community.

[jbagelboy]

Congrats on Harvard! I'm sure you are a brilliant candidate, and I don't mean to jump the gun on this or be a dick, but as MOTM suggested there are others out there who also are considering RTK and these choices, and having the interview is not exactly a guarantee of the full ride as the competition just on TLS, not to mention people with real lives aside from law school internet forums, is stiff. If you do happen to get the scholarship and you want PI, take it, but I wouldn't psychologically prepare yourself for this as an eventuality quite yet.

[Ti Malice]

Just out of curiosity, do any NYU folks know roughly what percentage of RTK interviewees receive offers?

[02889]

Just out of curiosity, do any NYU folks know roughly what percentage of RTK interviewees receive offers?

60-65 interviewees for 20 scholarship slots. Assuming a handful of people turn it down, the odds are probably just a hair above 1 in 3.

[Ti Malice]

Thanks. Really curious as to the yield on offers.

[Nelson]

How much better is HLS over NYU, especially when I am interested in public service (state or national government, department of justice, legislative work, etc.) I am not interested in landing a top private firm position. I know the value of a HLS degree, but how far back am I with a NYU degree for the work I want to do?

What do you want to do? I don't understand how people can go into law school and sound like they have no idea what legal PI actually is. You should realize that the positions you named are pretty much the hardest possible positions to secure out of law school and very few lawyers do this kind of work. DOJ and fed gov virtually require a clerkship and most people go to them after working for a litigation firm. "Legislative work" will be impossible to get without significant experience on the Hill pre-lawschool and doesn't make any sense given your aversion to working for a firm (since this kind of work is private sector primarily).