Top Law Schools

NU: $150,000
Duke: $110,000 (with additional funding for LLM in International Law (summer start)
UPenn: $90,000

My career plans are:
- Start in big law at a firm with international offices
- Move to work on more international law
- After gaining experience move to international human rights law

I speak 4 languages and have a lot of international experience. I have to go to corporate law first because I am an international student and am not eligible for FAFSA/loan repayment programs. I have no money coming from family and would borrow everything from banks. Schools currently won't budge on the scholarships.

I want to choose UPenn for the international alumni network and connections to Wharton, Duke would be for the LLM (though not sure how useful that really is). NU for the money- would give me freedom and stability incase I am not sponsored for a US working visa. However, NU is not big on international law and doesn't have the connections that the east coast schools have.

What would be the best choice to eventually wind up in international law?

for public international law matters my impression is Duke--they've got Laurence Helfer and Curt Bradley, as a couple of names in the field, and there's a human rights clinic there with experienced people running it. I'd look more closely at the faculty (at all these schools) to see who matches up with your potential interests, since they might be useful for connections and Duke is small enough where it may not be too hard to get to know them.

I'd put Penn at the bottom here (both for you generally since they're offering less money, because I don't think they really have any presence at all in international law, and because all these schools have good biglaw placement).

LLM is helpful if you want UN/WB. Not so sure about elsewhere.

NYU/CLS are better options than any of these, but I assume those are not on the table (and even if they were, might not be worth the additional $$). Did you apply to GULC?

When you say "international law" what exactly do you mean? Can you give some examples of the types of litigation, deals, etc. that you imagine yourself working on?

I would 100% choose Penn in your case. Keeping debt low is very important or you will be trapped in big law forever.

And in terms of the IHR community, none of those schools put a ton of people into IHR jobs, but given you want big law at a large international firm first, you should choose the school that will get you that job (hopefully) and also enable you to pay off the debt. That is clearly Penn here.

The LLM would be useless. Don't pay extra money for it.

worldtraveler wrote:I would 100% choose Penn in your case. Keeping debt low is very important or you will be trapped in big law forever.

And in terms of the IHR community, none of those schools put a ton of people into IHR jobs, but given you want big law at a large international firm first, you should choose the school that will get you that job (hopefully) and also enable you to pay off the debt. That is clearly Penn here.

The LLM would be useless. Don't pay extra money for it.

I assumed that this is scholarship not COA in which case Penn is the most expensive. If Penn is cheapest, yeah it is probably the best choice, if no really specific reason otherwise, since none of these are particularly great for public int'l/IHR stuff. If these are scholarship numbers, I'd probably say NU unless there's a really specific reason that Duke (which I do think is the best out of these three in that area) would be best, but it would have to be a really good reason. No reason to pay for Penn when the other schools place well and Penn IMO is distinctly poor in public int'l.

Again, my understanding is that UN and a few other places (WB) have LLM requirements for legal hires. But if that's not what OP's specific goals are then I don't think that should really be a factor and OP can always go back for an LLM in the off-chance it's needed.

mtn663 wrote:

worldtraveler wrote:I would 100% choose Penn in your case. Keeping debt low is very important or you will be trapped in big law forever.

And in terms of the IHR community, none of those schools put a ton of people into IHR jobs, but given you want big law at a large international firm first, you should choose the school that will get you that job (hopefully) and also enable you to pay off the debt. That is clearly Penn here.

The LLM would be useless. Don't pay extra money for it.

I assumed that this is scholarship not COA in which case Penn is the most expensive. If Penn is cheapest, yeah it is probably the best choice, if no really specific reason otherwise, since none of these are particularly great for public int'l/IHR stuff. If these are scholarship numbers, I'd probably say NU unless there's a really specific reason that Duke (which I do think is the best out of these three in that area) would be best, but it would have to be a really good reason. No reason to pay for Penn when the other schools place well and Penn IMO is distinctly poor in public int'l.

Again, my understanding is that UN and a few other places (WB) have LLM requirements for legal hires. But if that's not what OP's specific goals are then I don't think that should really be a factor and OP can always go back for an LLM in the off-chance it's needed.

The LLM is the requirement for people who don't have a JD. No one cares about an LLM if you have a JD.

worldtraveler wrote:

mtn663 wrote:

worldtraveler wrote:I would 100% choose Penn in your case. Keeping debt low is very important or you will be trapped in big law forever.

And in terms of the IHR community, none of those schools put a ton of people into IHR jobs, but given you want big law at a large international firm first, you should choose the school that will get you that job (hopefully) and also enable you to pay off the debt. That is clearly Penn here.

The LLM would be useless. Don't pay extra money for it.

I assumed that this is scholarship not COA in which case Penn is the most expensive. If Penn is cheapest, yeah it is probably the best choice, if no really specific reason otherwise, since none of these are particularly great for public int'l/IHR stuff. If these are scholarship numbers, I'd probably say NU unless there's a really specific reason that Duke (which I do think is the best out of these three in that area) would be best, but it would have to be a really good reason. No reason to pay for Penn when the other schools place well and Penn IMO is distinctly poor in public int'l.

Again, my understanding is that UN and a few other places (WB) have LLM requirements for legal hires. But if that's not what OP's specific goals are then I don't think that should really be a factor and OP can always go back for an LLM in the off-chance it's needed.

The LLM is the requirement for people who don't have a JD. No one cares about an LLM if you have a JD.

I'm assuming you have specific experience with these agencies, so I defer

Anyway, as regards OP the overall point is the same - unless you can point to a specific position you are committed to that would actually require you to have an LLM, don't pay more

.

I don't know where you're from, but if you're from a country that will let you do an LLM in international human rights law for free or close to it, that might be a better and easier path anyway.

If you're from a European country that is probably the way to go.