Help Me Decide~ Forum

[krnpridejk]

Hi everyone,
So I got waitlisted at Columbia and Duke, but i'm not very hopeful, as my highest LSAT is only 169 (took twice), with 3.5 LGPA.
Schools I've gotten into so far that I am considering are:

Cornell Law School (Best school i've been accepted into, at $30K (10K a year)
WUSTL ($75K)
Minnesota($90K)
(I'm waiting on reply from WUSTL in terms of scholarship negotiation, and I plan to hopefully try negotiating with Cornell as well, if WUSTL decides to throw some more $$$ at my way it should be a decent leverage, although admittedly not an excellent one.
I'm thinking probably wustl is better than Minnesota, even if the CoA is much more expensive..
I live in California, and I don't have any significant ties anywhere outside Cali, but then I don't really want to stay in CA for the rest of my life... I hope to concentrate/specialize and practice in international (commercial/private) law.
I'll be financing entirely on loans, as my family have very little to pitch in, so financial aid/scholarship is very important, but so is the prestige (including lay prestige) of the institute, since I really want to do international law, esp. with East Asia (I have relative cultural/language backgrounds)

General career goals
NY Big Law>Any BigLaw> Any small/mid firms
I hope to hopefully work in biglaw for 3-5 yrs to make some money and pay off as much loan as humanly possible, however long I last there
Afterwards, I'm not too sure yet, but I guess I will either
a. Move laterally into a Federal government job
Or b. Go into law teaching fellowship (and or LLM at a more prestigious institute) to go into a full time (hopefully tenure-track) Academia.

Thanks in advance for your input everyone!

PS: Having taken the LSAT twice already, and 1 cancel between my 1st and 2nd attempts due to sickness, I really don't think another Retake is an option...

[PepperJack]

Cornell no question. It lit gives you a 50 percent shot at NY big law compared to 10 percent from Wustl. Minn for NY is lottery to ticket territory.

[transferror]

For NYC biglaw, Cornell hands down. It is also the only school to which you've been accepted that will give you any portability, but I don't know about "lay prestige." You really shouldn't use lay prestige as a factor in the decision, just go with what's most respected universally in the legal community, which is Cornell (among current options).

[EnormousCheese]

Cornell is the best option here, and congratulations on landing a T14. It's easy to lose sight on these boards of how much of an accomplishment that is for most law school applicants.

In any case, big law prospects from Cornell are remarkably strong, particularly for your chosen market. Just don't get your hopes up about a V20 firm, as you'll probably need CCN for that.

My advice would be to ride out the Columbia WL, as Columbia is definitely worth 30k more than Cornell. If that doesn't work out, enjoy Ithaca.

Btw did you apply to NYU?

[nebula666]

Cornell is solid in this situation.

[krnpridejk]

Cornell is the best option here, and congratulations on landing a T14. It's easy to lose sight on these boards of how much of an accomplishment that is for most law school applicants.

In any case, big law prospects from Cornell are remarkably strong, particularly for your chosen market. Just don't get your hopes up about a V20 firm, as you'll probably need CCN for that.

My advice would be to ride out the Columbia WL, as Columbia is definitely worth 30k more than Cornell. If that doesn't work out, enjoy Ithaca.

Btw did you apply to NYU?

Thank you very much for your kind reply and the congrats! Having come from a small, relatively no/low-name undergrad institution in California, it def. was not an easy move up into an Ivy League!

And Thank you everyone else for your inputs!

I guess I was on the same boat as all of you guys on choosing Cornell over WUSTL and Minnesota, but just wanted to confirm to see what everyone on TLS thought~
I will def. wait out a bit more on Columbia WL and also NYU decision is still pending for me, so I'll wait on that as well... My application went "complete" on 1/15 at NYU, but still no word or even a status update... No idea if this is a good sign or a bad one...
At any rate, I still have some time to decide, so I guess i'll just wait out for CLS and NYU, and if not I'll def. enjoy Ithaca! It's really beautiful~~ I think I can probably handle the cold weather and snow....I loved winter in Korea, and I can't imagine Ithaca being TOO much worse than harsh Korean winters~

[PepperJack]

Even off the waitlist the difference for NY is negligible enough to use it as a negotiation tool.

[BigZuck]

Cornell is a great school and all but 200K+ debt makes me a little sick just thinking about it. You know for sure that a higher LSAT couldn't help you squeeze a little extra money out of those bloodsuckers? If not, then I would definitely retake June.

[krnpridejk]

Even off the waitlist the difference for NY is negligible enough to use it as a negotiation tool.

Hi PepperJack, do you mind clarifying and expanding on what you mean~?? Thanks!

[rad lulz]

Cornell is a great school and all but 200K+ debt makes me a little sick just thinking about it. You know for sure that a higher LSAT couldn't help you squeeze a little extra money out of those bloodsuckers? If not, then I would definitely retake June.

TCR

[heythatslife]

Cornell hands down, given your goals. Academia is going to be difficult realistically, though. I doubt an LLM is going to help significantly in that regard.

Re: Ithaca - if you don't mind rural, it's a great town BUT winter is colder than in Korea (I've lived in both).

[Lincoln]

Cornell is the best option here, and congratulations on landing a T14. It's easy to lose sight on these boards of how much of an accomplishment that is for most law school applicants.

In any case, big law prospects from Cornell are remarkably strong, particularly for your chosen market. Just don't get your hopes up about a V20 firm, as you'll probably need CCN for that.

My advice would be to ride out the Columbia WL, as Columbia is definitely worth 30k more than Cornell. If that doesn't work out, enjoy Ithaca.

Btw did you apply to NYU?

Wut?

Sincerely,
Cornell grad at V5.

[Lavitz]

Cornell is the best option here, and congratulations on landing a T14. It's easy to lose sight on these boards of how much of an accomplishment that is for most law school applicants.

In any case, big law prospects from Cornell are remarkably strong, particularly for your chosen market. Just don't get your hopes up about a V20 firm, as you'll probably need CCN for that.

My advice would be to ride out the Columbia WL, as Columbia is definitely worth 30k more than Cornell. If that doesn't work out, enjoy Ithaca.

Btw did you apply to NYU?

Wut?

Sincerely,
Cornell grad at V5.

[Pneumonia]

Cornell is the best option here, and congratulations on landing a T14. It's easy to lose sight on these boards of how much of an accomplishment that is for most law school applicants.

In any case, big law prospects from Cornell are remarkably strong, particularly for your chosen market. Just don't get your hopes up about a V20 firm, as you'll probably need CCN for that.

My advice would be to ride out the Columbia WL, as Columbia is definitely worth 30k more than Cornell. If that doesn't work out, enjoy Ithaca.

Btw did you apply to NYU?

Wut?

E Cheese has been dropping bad advice all over tonight.

Sincerely,
Cornell grad at V5.