Top Law Schools

hey gang,

I am trying to make a final decision between Duke, NYU, and Penn.

I have had the opportunity to speak with students from Duke and Penn and they all said very positive things about their schools, but I visited NYU during their spring break and didn't get the opportunity to speak to any students. Are there any NYU people out there who would like to share their experience with me?

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:

-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) + accumulated interest - scholarships. Here is a helpful calculator.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers
-How many times you have taken the LSAT

ETA: Damn, this is what I spent my 500th post on?!

(obligatory "follow the money" post)

Don't go to nyu

Here is the full information so that y'all have the whole picture.

Duke: $158,250

Penn: $237,690

NYU: $245,166 (shit)

I am encouraged by those who will be paying my tuition and bills to not worry about the cost, so lets not dwell too much on expenses here. I am mostly concerned with hearing from testimony of an NYU student so that I can fully judge the merits of the school.

I am from TX, have significant ties here, and would like to return after graduating. But I am open to other markets if that's where the jobs end up.

I plan to study business law. I will likely apply to JD/MBA programs to keep that option open (although I am not certain I would do the MBA at this point). I have my eye on biglaw, and perhaps moving in house somewhere after gaining a few year of experience.

169/3.84 took the test once.

don't be an idiot
NYU is not worth $100k more
DUKE

gentlemanscholar wrote:Here is the full information so that y'all have the whole picture.

Duke: $158,250

Penn: $237,690

NYU: $245,166 (shit)

I am encouraged by those who will be paying my tuition and bills to not worry about the cost, so lets not dwell too much on expenses here. I am mostly concerned with hearing from testimony of an NYU student so that I can fully judge the merits of the school.

I am from TX, have significant ties here, and would like to return after graduating. But I am open to other markets if that's where the jobs end up.

I plan to study business law. I will likely apply to JD/MBA programs to keep that option open (although I am not certain I would do the MBA at this point). I have my eye on biglaw, and perhaps moving in house somewhere after gaining a few year of experience.

169/3.84 took the test once.

I'd retake and try to get close to a full scholly

Post removed.

Clyde Frog wrote:

gentlemanscholar wrote:Here is the full information so that y'all have the whole picture.

Duke: $158,250

Penn: $237,690

NYU: $245,166 (shit)

I am encouraged by those who will be paying my tuition and bills to not worry about the cost, so lets not dwell too much on expenses here. I am mostly concerned with hearing from testimony of an NYU student so that I can fully judge the merits of the school.

I am from TX, have significant ties here, and would like to return after graduating. But I am open to other markets if that's where the jobs end up.

I plan to study business law. I will likely apply to JD/MBA programs to keep that option open (although I am not certain I would do the MBA at this point). I have my eye on biglaw, and perhaps moving in house somewhere after gaining a few year of experience.

169/3.84 took the test once.

I'd retake and try to get close to a full scholly

He's not paying.

Does Duke carry weight across the South? If it does that may be the best.

you don't need to blow your inheritance to optimize your shot at your goals, bro
take a year off, retake (with those numbers, you may not even really need to,) sling breakfast tacos in austin and take that sweet sweet ut $$$ offer when it comes in

I might add that I took the official lsat once, but I practiced for over a year and I had pretty much plateaued. I only ever had a couple PTs that were above 169 out of the 70ish that I took.

I am also in UT with 75K, which is significant when you consider how cheap it is. I could maybe negotiate for more. But the employment prospects out of UT are scary. Below median kids can have trouble there, and I ain't a gamblin' man.

yomisterd wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote:

gentlemanscholar wrote:Here is the full information so that y'all have the whole picture.

Duke: $158,250

Penn: $237,690

NYU: $245,166 (shit)

I am encouraged by those who will be paying my tuition and bills to not worry about the cost, so lets not dwell too much on expenses here. I am mostly concerned with hearing from testimony of an NYU student so that I can fully judge the merits of the school.

I am from TX, have significant ties here, and would like to return after graduating. But I am open to other markets if that's where the jobs end up.

I plan to study business law. I will likely apply to JD/MBA programs to keep that option open (although I am not certain I would do the MBA at this point). I have my eye on biglaw, and perhaps moving in house somewhere after gaining a few year of experience.

169/3.84 took the test once.

I'd retake and try to get close to a full scholly

He's not paying.

Does Duke carry weight across the South? If it does that may be the best.

lol shut up. If my parents were going to pay all my tuition I would still try to get a full scholly.

gentlemanscholar wrote:I might add that I took the official lsat once, but I practiced for over a year and I had pretty much plateaued. I only ever had a couple PTs that were above 169 out of the 70ish that I took.

I am also in UT with 75K, which is significant when you consider how cheap it is. I could maybe negotiate for more. But the employment prospects out of UT are scary. Below median kids can have trouble there, and I ain't a gamblin' man.

UT's prospects aren't exactly "scary" for a Texan who wants to practice in Texas. Yeah, you'll need to do all right to get biglaw, but I would have a very hard time understanding how a "not gambling man" would consider 250K @ NYU to get Texas biglaw better than 25K @ UT to get Texas biglaw. Must be nice to have been born into an exceedingly wealthy family.

also, basing you school decisions on your conversations with random students you stop in the hall on a campus visit is not a good idea. Jobs = geography = money >>>>>>>>>>>> everything else.

Duke does carry weight across the South. I just finished my visit there and really liked it. The kids, the facilities, and the campus were all very nice. I thought it was a little weird that everybody lived quite a ways off campus and drove in for class. They told us that most kids have cars. Off campus living arrangements were nice and affordable, but from what I could tell it seemed kinda boring and quiet.

My biggest reservation about duke is that its biglaw employment numbers are roughly 8% below penn and over 10-15% below NYU when you consider self selection for PI.

My worst fear is ending significantly below median at Duke and being the person in that differential.

Post removed.

I would try to wipe your mind of everything you experienced on your visits. do let emotion or tangential factors mix into your decision. If money is sincerely no object, you need to worry exclusively about placement power and placement geography, and consider any other factors only if those two considerations are equal.

Penn makes no sense here. NYU can likely get you back to Texas but it is not worth that much money for that goal when UT is available for almost no money at all. Many Texans consider UT, at the least, equivalent to all non-HYS T14 schools. While I think that sentiment is a bit overstated, if Texas is truly where you want to be, I don't think going to school in another region is a great idea unless it is HYS or the offer is seriously compelling. I would not consider that NYU offer to be compelling, but, again, I'm not rich as fuck.

If I could go to NYU and live in the village on someone else's dime I'd be pretty goddamn ecstatic

That is, of course, assuming that law school expenses would be a drop in the bucket for parents/benefactors and not their life savings or something. Your parents would need to be pretty rich for this to be the case

edit typo

NYU has "better numbers" than Duke, period, paragraph break.

NYU does not have $100k's worth of better numbers than Duke, period, paragraph break.

THEREFORE, only pick NYU over Duke if (1) 100k is truly a drop in the bucket for your parents [whereas at which point, you should seriously consider not doing law school at all and just inherit the family business], or (2) if the money is in an "education fund" wherein your parents will not be leaving it to you when you die, and any money you don't spend is wasted.

People at both NYU and Duke seem very happy overall. NYU has ungraded LRW, so there is that.

Nice name, Ron Don. That is my favorite episode of steve brule.

At texas, 33% are getting biglaw anywhere, and 8% are getting fed clerkships. There are definitely some people doing PI that could otherwise have done biglaw if the wanted, but that will only get us to around 50ish percent.

I am a good student, but I am not prepared to just assume that I will be in the top half of my class. So I do consider it a gamble.

yomisterd wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote:

gentlemanscholar wrote:Here is the full information so that y'all have the whole picture.

Duke: $158,250

Penn: $237,690

NYU: $245,166 (shit)

I am encouraged by those who will be paying my tuition and bills to not worry about the cost, so lets not dwell too much on expenses here. I am mostly concerned with hearing from testimony of an NYU student so that I can fully judge the merits of the school.

I am from TX, have significant ties here, and would like to return after graduating. But I am open to other markets if that's where the jobs end up.

I plan to study business law. I will likely apply to JD/MBA programs to keep that option open (although I am not certain I would do the MBA at this point). I have my eye on biglaw, and perhaps moving in house somewhere after gaining a few year of experience.

169/3.84 took the test once.

I'd retake and try to get close to a full scholly

He's not paying.

Does Duke carry weight across the South? If it does that may be the best.

Yes Duke does, it's only matched in south by harvard and yale. You would be insane to not go to Duke. It's numbers are basically the same as NYU. Convo would be different with Stanford, Chicago, or Columbia, maybe, but not nyu. Duke will also be less expensive COL by a long shot, more fun (much better town, place to be for 3 years) etc. etc. and sends a higher percentage to TX.

FlamingDragon wrote:Yes Duke does, it's only matched in south by harvard and yale. You would be insane to not go to Duke. It's numbers are basically the same as NYU. Convo would be different with Stanford, Chicago, or Columbia, maybe, but not nyu. Duke will also be less expensive COL by a long shot, more fun (much better town, place to be for 3 years) etc. etc. and sends a higher percentage to TX.

Lol

Post removed.

Yeah duke makes sense in a lot of ways, especially considering the way it carries in Texas.

I will probably land biglaw without a problem. I am just preoccupied with the small chance that I botch everything about law school and graduate jobless. But in the case where I seriously botch, NYU or Penn might not help at all anyway.

Eh, I wouldn't be too sure of Duke being better than UT for ending up in Texas. Sure, it sends graduates to Texas but...so does Texas. Full disclosure, I myself and choosing UT over Duke for some of those regional placement reasons. From recent data, clerkship rates look pretty similar (although quality could be debated), and there's about a ~15% delta for biglaw employment.

My reasons for staying include some ties in the legal market that I've established independently of legal practice, so that makes my decision easier.