**Choosing a School for Public Interest Forum

[PI2016]

I live in New York and am interested in public policy and/or public interest work. I have been admitted to Fordham with a scholarship of 30K/50k and am waiting to hear back about need-based aid and other scholarships. Fordham has a public interest program, its competitive but I think I have a decent shot of getting in. I also got into UT Austin and am waiting to hear about financial aid, but they have a lot of PI clinics and its better ranked. I also have full ride at Northeastern and Cardozo, decent scholarship William and Mary, and am waiting to hear back from Vanderbilt and American. Obviously COA is most expensive in NYC.
And my LSAT is 166 and GPA 3.5, although its 4.0 for my MA, which I will have in May.

[bretby]

Is the Fordham scholarship 30k or 50k? That is a really wide range.

[Hand]

withdraw, retake, go to NYU

[nick417]

Any school that is near a major metropolitan area will have tons of opportunities to engage in public interest work. Accordingly, don't be fooled by individual schools promoting themselves as having great public interest programs. Schools (in particular schools lower ranked competing with higher ranked schools in their region) promote themselves as having specialization in x, y, and z. I don't know who verifies these programs or how they are "judged" but don't fall into the trap. Especially for something like public interest.

If you're interested in public interest, go to the best school (that is affordable) in a city that you want to live in. There will be tons of opportunities for PI work in a city so you don't need to go to a school that "specializes" in it or has special clinics.