BC v. BU v. Cornell Forum

[ytemchenko]

I understand these comparison threads have been posted plenty of times, but I have yet to find one which is similar to my story. If I may ask from this community, I would like to hear your advice on which of these three schools I ought to chose.

About me:
LSAT/GPA: 165/3.85 from BU in Philosophy
Aspiration: Human Rights/International Law either with Geneva or in Asia
Secondary aspiration: Teach someday, either towards a SJD or a PhD in Philosophy
Language abilities: English, Russian, German, Japanese

Law schools and offers:
Boston College: awarded 75,000 [has a study/work abroad with Geneva and a dual PhD/JD program]
Boston University: awarded 90,000 [has a study/work abroad with Geneva] could also work as a Resident Assistant for additional 14,000 a year
Cornell: awarded 45,000 [has semesters with universities in Japan and a dual PhD/JD program]

I have been leaning towards Cornell, but this is a really hard decision to make. I was wondering what your advice is. Thank you for taking the time to read/answer.

Cordially,

y.temchenko

Edit: forgot to note, if I get accepted into either BC or Cornell dual degree program, I get 5 years of graduate school funding as a teaching fellow.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Getting a JD does not really make sense if you want to teach. A PhD will allow you to teach hs, community college, and possible adjunct or full time at a university. Why not do that? Also it's free whereas any of these schools are $$$.

[ytemchenko]

Getting a JD does not really make sense if you want to teach. A PhD will allow you to teach hs, community college, and possible adjunct or full time at a university. Why not do that? Also it's free whereas any of these schools are $$$.

True, and I do agree. What I wanted to teach, however, was Philosophy of Law, or something similar. For long term academia, I also see it valuable to have 20-30 years of law practice. Teaching is a very long-term goal. I do want to practice law, please don't misunderstand that. But thank you for your comment, it does give me things to think about.

[Other25BeforeYou]

Getting a JD does not really make sense if you want to teach. A PhD will allow you to teach hs, community college, and possible adjunct or full time at a university. Why not do that? Also it's free whereas any of these schools are $$$.

True, and I do agree. What I wanted to teach, however, was Philosophy of Law, or something similar. For long term academia, I also see it valuable to have 20-30 years of law practice. Teaching is a very long-term goal. I do want to practice law, please don't misunderstand that. But thank you for your comment, it does give me things to think about.

With your goals you should definitely consider a retake. Pretty unlikely Cornell, BU, or BC are going to give you the option of doing human rights/international law. And even if you decide you want to do Cornell, with just a few more LSAT points you would be looking at serious money.

[ytemchenko]

Getting a JD does not really make sense if you want to teach. A PhD will allow you to teach hs, community college, and possible adjunct or full time at a university. Why not do that? Also it's free whereas any of these schools are $$$.

True, and I do agree. What I wanted to teach, however, was Philosophy of Law, or something similar. For long term academia, I also see it valuable to have 20-30 years of law practice. Teaching is a very long-term goal. I do want to practice law, please don't misunderstand that. But thank you for your comment, it does give me things to think about.

With your goals you should definitely consider a retake. Pretty unlikely Cornell, BU, or BC are going to give you the option of doing human rights/international law. And even if you decide you want to do Cornell, with just a few more LSAT points you would be looking at serious money.

Pardon the question, but why would they not give me the option of doing those programs? I do understand that none of the three are particularly specialized in those fields, but they do seem to have that concentration. Thank you.

[kingpin101]

Academia and human rights law are two very, very selective fields. The chances are overwhelming that if you attend any of the three schools you will not get into either field.

[Rigo]

Definitely not BC. Personally, I would take Cornell here. It's worth the ~$45k difference.

[Hand]

bluelotus call-in thread

[Gut_instinct]

Cornell. Good luck!!!

[Other25BeforeYou]

Getting a JD does not really make sense if you want to teach. A PhD will allow you to teach hs, community college, and possible adjunct or full time at a university. Why not do that? Also it's free whereas any of these schools are $$$.

True, and I do agree. What I wanted to teach, however, was Philosophy of Law, or something similar. For long term academia, I also see it valuable to have 20-30 years of law practice. Teaching is a very long-term goal. I do want to practice law, please don't misunderstand that. But thank you for your comment, it does give me things to think about.

With your goals you should definitely consider a retake. Pretty unlikely Cornell, BU, or BC are going to give you the option of doing human rights/international law. And even if you decide you want to do Cornell, with just a few more LSAT points you would be looking at serious money.

Pardon the question, but why would they not give me the option of doing those programs? I do understand that none of the three are particularly specialized in those fields, but they do seem to have that concentration. Thank you.

I didn't mean they wouldn't let you do those particular programs, I just meant that it is very unlikely you will find a job in those fields coming out of any of those three schools. I took you saying your aspiration was "Human Rights/International Law" to mean that you wanted to work in one of those fields after law school. Coming from Cornell, BC, or BU, finding a job in either of those fields isn't likely. If your only goal is to do those programs while in law school, then my apologies for misunderstanding.

[Informative]

"Forgot to note, if I get accepted into either BC or Cornell dual degree program, I get 5 years of graduate school funding as a teaching fellow."

If this is your goal, you should eliminate BU. I would visit BC and Cornell and see whether you would rather live in Ithaca or Boston for five years, which is much longer than a typical three-year law school stint. Personally, I'd rather live in Boston for five years over Ithaca for five years, but you may have different feelings.

[mt2165]

I understand these comparison threads have been posted plenty of times, but I have yet to find one which is similar to my story. If I may ask from this community, I would like to hear your advice on which of these three schools I ought to chose.

About me:
LSAT/GPA: 165/3.85 from BU in Philosophy
Aspiration: Human Rights/International Law either with Geneva or in Asia
Secondary aspiration: Teach someday, either towards a SJD or a PhD in Philosophy
Language abilities: English, Russian, German, Japanese

Law schools and offers:
Boston College: awarded 75,000 [has a study/work abroad with Geneva and a dual PhD/JD program]
Boston University: awarded 90,000 [has a study/work abroad with Geneva] could also work as a Resident Assistant for additional 14,000 a year
Cornell: awarded 45,000 [has semesters with universities in Japan and a dual PhD/JD program]

I have been leaning towards Cornell, but this is a really hard decision to make. I was wondering what your advice is. Thank you for taking the time to read/answer.

Cordially,

y.temchenko

Edit: forgot to note, if I get accepted into either BC or Cornell dual degree program, I get 5 years of graduate school funding as a teaching fellow.

FYI I had pretty similar goals vis a vis Philosophy. Couple things to note: (1) as I'm sure you're well aware PhD philosophy programs are damn selective and you generally need to have a much stronger application to get into a good PhD program than law school. Talking near 4.0, great letters of rec, substantial scholarship, mentoring, good GRE's the whole 9. Consequently, don't bank on getting into any of those JD/PHDs even at the liks of BU or BC and especially Cornell. Not to mention the academic market is fucked (2) international/human rights is also notoriously hard to get into the kind of jobs I think you're imagining either don't readily exist or are so few and far between that they go to absolute superstars or people with ins (3) what you really need to consider is what kinds of jobs people at these schools readily get and how you feel about those jobs, with the added hard look at your level of debt coming out of them. That said, I think Cornell is your best option.

[BlueLotus]

bluelotus call-in thread

Cornell by a landslide.

[malleus discentium]

About me:
LSAT/GPA: 165/3.85 from BU in Philosophy
Aspiration: Human Rights/International Law either with Geneva or in Asia
Secondary aspiration: Teach someday, either towards a SJD or a PhD in Philosophy
Language abilities: English, Russian, German, Japanese

The kinds of jobs I suspect you're imagining in "human rights/international law" pretty much don't exist, and definitely don't exist for people coming from Cornell/BC/BU.
Legal academia is also something of a pipe dream, even from HYS. If you're talking about doing nonlegal academia but with legal-ish topics, it sounds even less likely.
My advice is to do more research about what you think you want to do, because I don't think you have a very good understanding. (For example, what do you mean "with Geneva"? There are bunch of agencies in Geneva that work in IHRL doing different things.) Then look at the credentials of the people who have these jobs and what schools they came from.