NYU vs. Penn vs. Duke $$ vs. Cornell $$ Forum

[swordking90]

Thanks for dropping in TLS comrades! My choices are:
NYU: $0
Penn: $0
Duke with $75K in scholly.
Cornell with $90,000 in scholly.

Ideally I want public interest/government, but is not averse to working in big law. Undergrad in the northeast, and want to stay on the East Coast long term (Boston, DC, or NY).

Please vote! (and elaborate if you wish). Thanks for your help!!!

[dissonance1848]

Unless NYU or Penn give you something due to your Cornell/Duke offers,

like at least 30k, take Cornell.

[Nelson]

With these choices, I wouldn't pay sticker for NYU or Penn, so pick your favorite of Duke or Cornell. You need to negotiate though since you should be able to get money from the other schools with those offers.

[NoodleyOne]

Duke or Cornell. CoA will be pretty much equal, so choose based on market and placement.

[Lincoln]

Cornell 3L here. I voted Cornell because their general job numbers look better. However, our public interest placement is not that great. Whether that's because of self-selection or not is unclear. I really have no clue if Duke is any better in that regard, but if it is, I might pick Duke over Cornell, partly because of Duke's superior clerkship placement.

[DorianGray89]

Quality of Life: Duke > Cornell
Employment prospects: Duke > Cornell
http://abovethelaw.com/2013/03/which-la ... lite-jobs/
Basketball: Duke > Cornell

[DorianGray89]

Also:

Big Law, More or Less (Number of graduates employed in law firm / total graduates * graduates employed in law firms consisting of more than 100 lawyers, full-time, long-term)
1. Columbia University 61.4%
2. University of Pennsylvania 58.0%
3. Northwestern University 53.3%
4. Stanford University 49.5%
5. Harvard University 48.7%
6. Duke University 45.0%
7. University of Chicago 44.9%
8. New York University 43.1%
9. University of California—Berkeley 41.6%
10. Cornell University 38.8%

[NoodleyOne]

Also:

Big Law, More or Less (Number of graduates employed in law firm / total graduates * graduates employed in law firms consisting of more than 100 lawyers, full-time, long-term)
1. Columbia University 61.4%
2. University of Pennsylvania 58.0%
3. Northwestern University 53.3%
4. Stanford University 49.5%
5. Harvard University 48.7%
6. Duke University 45.0%
7. University of Chicago 44.9%
8. New York University 43.1%
9. University of California—Berkeley 41.6%
10. Cornell University 38.8%

Stats are old. At least use 2012 data.

[Doorkeeper]

Duke is worth $15k more than Cornell given their higher employment ratings.

Make sure to use the Duke scholarship to see if you can get money out of NYU or Penn.

[DorianGray89]

It's from the employment data in the 2014 US News World Rankings.

[Nelson]

What is with all of the egregious Duke trolling going on lately.

[Lincoln]

It's from the employment data in the 2014 US News World Rankings.

Exactly. This is more accurate: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=206368

[rickgrimes69]

What is with all of the egregious Duke trolling going on lately.

It's not "trolling" if it's legitimate. Duke's placement has been great, it's relatively inexpensive, and offers a high QOL.

Not sure what's up with this poll, since Duke seems to be the correct answer. Difference in scholarships will be more than mitigated by Duke's lower tuition and COL - I don't feel like doing the math, but I'll bet that at these prices, total COA is cheaper at Duke. Besides that, Duke has better placement than Cornell, higher QOL, and will place just as well into NYC / NE. Unless OP hates the South or really loves snow, there's really no reason to choose Cornell here.

[Big Dog]

Not sure what's up with this poll,

want to stay on the East Coast long term (Boston, DC, or NY)

Two out of the three say, Big Red.

[ph5354a]

Have you tried negotiating yet with NYU or Penn with your Duke offer? If you can get anything out of NYU, it might be worth it just for their LRAP program, given your PI interest. If not, I vote Cornell.

[banjo]

Voted Duke. I think Cornell's higher tuition might reduce the overall scholarship a bit.

[framboozer]

I think Cornell will actually cost $5K more a year in tuition anyway, so 90K at Cornell essentially equals $75K. I would say Duke is the way to go, unless you're adverse to good weather, cheap CoL and tasty tasty food, but at these numbers choose your personal favorite of the two. One thing to consider is that Duke is pretty close to an airport that will easily connect you to Boston, New York and D.C. (although the latter is drive-able). Ithaca's kind of in the middle of nowhere and that's going to suck when you do interviews at firms.

[sinfiery]

Cornell's OCI is in NYC though whilst I'm betting Duke's OCI is probably inside the famous CAMERON gym

[DorianGray89]

Cornell's OCI is in NYC though whilst I'm betting Duke's OCI is probably inside the famous CAMERON gym

It's actually at the Hilton in Durham. Duke doesn't have to have it's OCI in NYC in order to attract firms.

[BigZuck]

I love me a solid pro-Duke troll but if we are going off this year's data I don't see how Duke is definitively>Cornell. They are peers.

As for the OP, I voted Duke.

[moonman157]

Choose Duke or Cornell by your preference, they're peers in terms of employment (perhaps with the exception of clerkships).

[Lincoln]

I think Cornell will actually cost $5K more a year in tuition anyway, so 90K at Cornell essentially equals $75K. I would say Duke is the way to go, unless you're adverse to good weather, cheap CoL and tasty tasty food, but at these numbers choose your personal favorite of the two. One thing to consider is that Duke is pretty close to an airport that will easily connect you to Boston, New York and D.C. (although the latter is drive-able). Ithaca's kind of in the middle of nowhere and that's going to suck when you do interviews at firms.

There's an airport in Ithaca that everyone uses when they fly out to interviews, although for NYC many prefer the Cornell bus.