Post
by captainplanet » Sat May 09, 2015 1:59 pm
I just graduated from NU and did Berkeley for undergrad, so I know both schools.
Assuming you're guaranteed to get that extra $ at Berkeley for 2L & 3L, an extra 10-30 grand is not a big difference in the scheme of things, especially if you want to do BigLaw. But if that money could fall through and the $ gap ends up being much bigger, that's something to consider.
Plenty of people from NU do California BigLaw (including me), so I don't think you'll have a problem finding a job. Berkeley might have an edge for CA BigLaw though simply because more firms do on-campus recruiting and the school probably has more local connections.
Since it's basically a tie cost-wise, here are some things I recommend considering:
1. Local ties: While Nu profs and career advisors had ties to CA, they knew much more about the Chicago market, and I'm sure the same would be true in Berkeley. Also, many more of your classmates will end up in CA so it'll be easier for networking in the future. This is not a major factor, but more of a tie breaker to consider.
2. Living expenses and experience and moving in the summer:
Living expenses: Overall, Chicago is less expensive than the Bay Area. I haven't lived in Berkeley for a while so I don't know how rents are but you would probably pay less living in Chicago, depending where you live. If you live near Campus in Chicago, that area is pretty expensive so rents are probably around $1,500. But, the area near campus is all high rises so they're pretty nice and have a lot of amenities (my building has a view of the lake, a pool, 24-hr doorman, gym, etc.), whereas living near campus in Berkeley probably means paying around the same amount for an old, small, basic apartment. If you live farther away from campus, you can easily find a place for $1,000 or less ... so that could mean savings of $5,000 per year.
Moving in the summer: If you do NU, you'll have to move to CA for your summer job. It's not a huge inconvenience, and you might have to move from Berkeley too if you do LA in the summer, but something to consider.
Experience: Would you rather live in a city or a college town? Do you want to have a car? I personally love Chicago, it's a great city. The area near campus is much safer than Berkeley (although obviously parts of Chicago are really unsafe). Chicago has a lot of opportunities to work with judges or legal non-profits, although San Francisco will have that too. On the other hand, OMG Chicago winters are death, so weather is definitely a plus for Berkeley.
3. School experience: Have you visited both campuses? I think whether you like your classmates and the school vibe can have a big impact on your experience and your success. I actually hated Berkeley as an undergrad and was unhappy there, while I love NU. Of course, every person's experience and preferences are different, and the law school could be very different from the undergrad experience. I know people at Berkeley law who love it. If you haven't visited these schools, I highly recommend reaching out to current law students to ask about their experiences. Also, Berkeley's law school is part of the main campus, while NU law is in downtown Chicago next to the medical school and a few grad programs, while the rest of the school and all the undergrads are in Evanston. So it depends on whether you'd prefer to have a more college-like experience or not. For example, I would guess Berkeley Law is much more political than NU, because you get all the protests from the rest of campus, while NU law certainly has political organizations and many people who are passionate about all types of things but I've never seen a protest on our campus (though I'm sure they have them on the main campus in Evanston). As an undergrad, Berkeley is really big student population-wise and as a public university, you're sharing limited resources with a lot of people and funding is limited. At NU, the law school has its own services since it's a separate campus and it's small (every class is about 240 people) and it's a private school with a lot of resources so I felt like it was much easier to get help here from career services to figuring out health insurance to support when you're freaking out 1L year. I really felt supported here, while at Berkeley I felt I had to fight for things sometimes and figure out for myself where to get services. However, Berkeley law could have a totally separate situation with regard to services from the rest of the campus. When I toured Berkeley law, it was about 100x nicer than the rest of the campus, so I would guess they have a lot of law school funding and maybe their own endowment funds and might have great resources too.
4. Classes and specialization: Is there a particular type of law you want to practice? NU is pretty heavy on business law, and there are a lot of great classes for transactional law (and plenty litigation classes too). I'm sure both schools have all the main types of classes you might want, but one school could be better than the other for certain areas of law. I don't know much about what Berkeley law offers, but what I like about NU is that there are a lot of classes that offer opportunities to get practical experience and skills. For example, this semester I took a structuring transactions class where our professors were practicing attorneys with a lot of experience and we actually got to do a whole deal start to finish and put together all the legal documents. Or, the Bluhm Legal Clinic lets students work on actual cases under the supervision of attorneys. And students can do externships for school credit with non-profit legal organizations, government agencies, or judges. (But again, Berkeley could have a lot of the same opportunities, I just don't know what they offer).
Either way, you have two great choices. I would lean a little toward Berkeley since you want to stay in CA, but try to talk to students and think a lot about what your experience will be like and whether you'd like both schools. Good luck!
