Top Law Schools

Deadlines are approaching so it's time to start seriously narrowing it down.

Total COA:

UCLA: 90k
Berkeley: 160k
NYU: 230k

I'm born and raised in Dallas,Texas where my family still lives-- so I have significant ties to a large Texas legal market for what it's worth. Not opposed to practicing here, but would really love to find myself back oversees (lived in Switzerland/France for two years and am fluent in French). NYU, as I understand it, is THE place to go if you're targeting Europe, but it's significantly more expensive than UCLA. I def want biglaw. If not oversees, then I guess I dont particularly care where, though I am partial to Texas' 0 state income tax. If Stanford comes through, none of this matters. I'll pay whatever they ask and I'll also ride the waitlist till the first day of class lol

NYU, as I understand it, is THE place to go if you're targeting Europe,

Not really. If you want to work in European big law you're almost certainly going to have to be hired by an American-based firm (or perhaps a London firm) that has satellite office in Europe. You will not be hired by a French or Swiss firm with an American JD. NYU may have the "top" international law program according to USNWR, but those specialty rankings are even more bullshit than the actual rankings, and I'm pretty sure they have little to nothing to do with actual overseas employment (particularly overseas big law).

Now, I guess NYU could have an advantage in the sense that the biggest firms (i.e. the firms most likely to have offices in, say, Paris or Zurich) are mostly based in New York, and NYU gives you a bit of an advantage there.

I think the question you need to answer here is: Where do you want to work in the US, assuming you can't work in Europe? You mentioned Texas, but I don't see UT as one of your options. If that's where you want to live, it should be a serious consideration as I assume you could get a pretty huge scholarship there.

If you want to work in NY, take NYU. If you want California, take Berkeley.

Real Madrid wrote:

NYU, as I understand it, is THE place to go if you're targeting Europe,

Not really. If you want to work in European big law you're almost certainly going to have to be hired by an American-based firm (or perhaps a London firm) that has satellite office in Europe. You will not be hired by a French or Swiss firm with an American JD. NYU may have the "top" international law program according to USNWR, but those specialty rankings are even more bullshit than the actual rankings, and I'm pretty sure they have little to nothing to do with actual overseas employment (particularly overseas big law).

Now, I guess NYU could have an advantage in the sense that the biggest firms (i.e. the firms most likely to have offices in, say, Paris or Zurich) are mostly based in New York, and NYU gives you a bit of an advantage there.

I think the question you need to answer here is: Where do you want to work in the US, assuming you can't work in Europe? You mentioned Texas, but I don't see UT as one of your options. If that's where you want to live, it should be a serious consideration as I assume you could get a pretty huge scholarship there.

If you want to work in NY, take NYU. If you want California, take Berkeley.

Thats what I meant..... but they would hire me to work in Europe. And UT scholarship didn't budge from 45k making it more expensive than UCLA overall.

The biglaw placement of these schools is significantly different... UT: 25%, UCLA: 30%, Berkeley: 45%, NYU: 53%. I would think that would come into play somewhere in the decision, no? Especially since I want biglaw and care somewhat less about where, though living forever in NY sounds sad to me.

retake

Dr. Dre wrote:retake

No thank, took it twice. This is happening now.

I was WL'd at Harvard today. I haven't actually tried yet to get any money out of NYU, but I don't anticipate much. My question is essentially this: How much more money is NYU worth? 100K? 50K? 20K? It's easy to make a decision with absolutes: UCLA (or UT if you don't believe me) is the cheapest, go there. NYU is the best, go there. If NYU knocks 30 grand off, will they be an obvious choice? Or is the collective TLS wisdom to take the cheapest place, period? Which was actually a full ride at GW or Minnesota, but I let the deadline pass cause I'm pretty sure I'd rather go to one of these.

Seems like an easy Berk to me.
Then again I want to work in Cali and would not like being in NY at all, so that probably biases me.

Is an extra 8% at Big Law worth 70k more?

Actually, yeah, on second thought this is no competition between Berk and NYU. NYU placed like 6% more into big law last year than Berkeley, but had a lower federal clerkship rate and a lower PI rate (when discounting school-funded jobs). Also, when discounting those same jobs, Berkeley had like 7-8% more students in actual full-time legal jobs.

NYU is a great school, but the T6 bullshit on TLS has gotten absurd. T6 basically refers to admissions and nothing more. NYU has long been placing much more like Penn, Berkeley, Duke and UVA than it does like Chicago or Columbia (no offense to NYU students, but the numbers don't lie).

I think NYU could be worth a bit more if you are set on practicing in NY, but anywhere else and it's no more valuable than the MVPB schools.

Since Stanford gives need based aid, I doubt it would be sticker, so if you can get Stanford, then thats it.

As for heading back to Europe, unless you were to hit HYS, the chances make it a moot point (unless you want the Magic Circle in London, which does take folks from HYSCCNP from time to time, see TLS threads on it).

As for the current choices, NYU costs too much. Besides that, if I am not mistaken, folks from Berkeley are in a position to target NYC, as they are less common, and therefore may have some leverage to break in. You can also use your TX ties as well from there.

UCLA for 90k is decent, but you are limited to Cali more or less.

Dr. Dre wrote:retake

C'mon Dre, OP doesn't have horrible options. I think TCR is this:

Real Madrid wrote:I think the question you need to answer here is: Where do you want to work in the US, assuming you can't work in Europe? You mentioned Texas, but I don't see UT as one of your options. If that's where you want to live, it should be a serious consideration as I assume you could get a pretty huge scholarship there.

If you want to work in NY, take NYU. If you want California, take Berkeley.

Micdiddy wrote:Seems like an easy Berk to me.
Then again I want to work in Cali and would not like being in NY at all, so that probably biases me.

Is an extra 8% at Big Law worth 70k more?

How much is it worth? I understand its an impossible question, but humor me. At what difference would NYU be better than Berkeley?

Im starting to lean towards Berkeley myself. Im visiting next week and I think Im going to love it. But I'm also going to write a LOCI for Harvard and cross my fingers for Stanford as well.