Top Law Schools

.

NU is making a serious push after their latest donation. It might a good buy low sell high opportunity

A better school for... what, exactly? What job opportunities are you absolutely convinced Northwestern will not give you that Chicago does?

If you're angling for a future academic career or some very specific job types that Chicago is better situated to provide, then it would make sense to think that Northwestern isn't going to get you what you want. But if you just have the generic goal of getting Chicago or NY biglaw, you'll get a job from Northwestern.

what kind of URM? did you apply to other t-14?

If you wanted to live in Chicago as you said in your title, then NU is a much better place to live than UChicago.

joeyc328 wrote:NU is making a serious push after their latest donation. It might a good buy low sell high opportunity

Great point, I was thinking about that as well.

cavalier1138 wrote:A better school for... what, exactly? What job opportunities are you absolutely convinced Northwestern will not give you that Chicago does?

If you're angling for a future academic career or some very specific job types that Chicago is better situated to provide, then it would make sense to think that Northwestern isn't going to get you what you want. But if you just have the generic goal of getting Chicago or NY biglaw, you'll get a job from Northwestern.

Thats the thing, like I am not viewing this schools as just platforms for the next season in my life. I think there is value found in the quality of education from the law school. I am under the impression that the quality of education at UChicago might be higher than NU (I hope I am wrong). The experience I get at each of these schools matters very much to me. For example, UChicago encourages students to take classes at the main campus while NU actually (quoted) discourages it. I do see myself wanting to do BigLaw early in my career but would love to have the door open for academia. Currently I am in at Berkeley, UVA, Cornell. I think Cornell would get me closer to a "UChicago experience" than NU but Cornell is not in Chi-Town

cdotson2 wrote:what kind of URM? did you apply to other t-14?

Cuban + Peruvian (idk if this counts as URM anymore tbh)

I applied to

UChicago - ED, WL
Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
NYU
Penn - WL
Berkeley - IN
UVA - IN
NU
Cornell - IN
Duke -WL

pipipipi wrote:If you wanted to live in Chicago as you said in your title, then NU is a much better place to live than UChicago.

Would the 10 miles between downtown and Hyde Park make that much of a difference?

btruj777 wrote:

pipipipi wrote:If you wanted to live in Chicago as you said in your title, then NU is a much better place to live than UChicago.

Would the 10 miles between downtown and Hyde Park make that much of a difference?

yes

this is like saying that living in New Jersey is the same thing as living in Manhattan

btruj777 wrote: Thats the thing, like I am not viewing this schools as just platforms for the next season in my life. I think there is value found in the quality of education from the law school. I am under the impression that the quality of education at UChicago might be higher than NU (I hope I am wrong). The experience I get at each of these schools matters very much to me. For example, UChicago encourages students to take classes at the main campus while NU actually (quoted) discourages it. I do see myself wanting to do BigLaw early in my career but would love to have the door open for academia. Currently I am in at Berkeley, UVA, Cornell. I think Cornell would get me closer to a "UChicago experience" than NU but Cornell is not in Chi-Town

You are looking at the wrong factors, then. Education at law schools in this tier is widely the same. All of your professors will have attended the top schools in the country themselves, and they will all teach you the same material. The professors at Northwestern are just as smart and good at their jobs (or not, depending on the teacher) as the professors at Chicago, NYU, Cornell, etc. Unless there is one particular professor you want to work with, the "academic excellence" of a school should not factor in to your decision. Same goes for getting to take courses at the university, although I'd imagine the main reason Northwestern discourages that is due to the law school's distance from the main campus and the radically different academic calendars.

On a separate note, why Chicago (the city)? It sounds like you don't know the area very well, so I don't understand why you're set on it.
The only valid reason for not going to Northwestern that you voiced is your desire to potentially work in academia. If that's really your endgame, then Northwestern will make it a much harder goal to achieve than Chicago will. But by that same token, academia is a hard outcome from anywhere that isn't HYS (strong emphasis on the HY).

acr wrote:

btruj777 wrote:

pipipipi wrote:If you wanted to live in Chicago as you said in your title, then NU is a much better place to live than UChicago.

Would the 10 miles between downtown and Hyde Park make that much of a difference?

yes

this is like saying that living in New Jersey is the same thing as living in Manhattan

I could attend UChicago and live in the city, which seems to be the case after 1L for some of the students at UChiacgo. I am not understanding the harsh difference 10 mile would make.

btruj777 wrote:

acr wrote:

btruj777 wrote:

pipipipi wrote:If you wanted to live in Chicago as you said in your title, then NU is a much better place to live than UChicago.

Would the 10 miles between downtown and Hyde Park make that much of a difference?

yes

this is like saying that living in New Jersey is the same thing as living in Manhattan

I could attend UChicago and live in the city, which seems to be the case after 1L for some of the students at UChiacgo. I am not understanding the harsh difference 10 mile would make.

You're not understanding it because you've never lived in the city. The university is at least 45 minutes to an hour away from downtown by public transit, maybe less by car (which I don't recommend owning). Hyde Park is a radically different area of town from the Loop.

As someone who grew up with family in the region of Indiana and going to White Sox games and the Science Museum it's not even close to the same as the area NWestern is in. While the specific area isn't bad, you're a stone's throw from some pretty rough neighborhoods.

I don't know why the forum is indulging the OP. This is fretting over nothing, and if OP is actually so unhealthily neurotic that NW over UChi would nag at him, the answer is still the standard "retake."

cavalier1138 wrote:

btruj777 wrote: Thats the thing, like I am not viewing this schools as just platforms for the next season in my life. I think there is value found in the quality of education from the law school. I am under the impression that the quality of education at UChicago might be higher than NU (I hope I am wrong). The experience I get at each of these schools matters very much to me. For example, UChicago encourages students to take classes at the main campus while NU actually (quoted) discourages it. I do see myself wanting to do BigLaw early in my career but would love to have the door open for academia. Currently I am in at Berkeley, UVA, Cornell. I think Cornell would get me closer to a "UChicago experience" than NU but Cornell is not in Chi-Town

You are looking at the wrong factors, then. Education at law schools in this tier is widely the same. All of your professors will have attended the top schools in the country themselves, and they will all teach you the same material. The professors at Northwestern are just as smart and good at their jobs (or not, depending on the teacher) as the professors at Chicago, NYU, Cornell, etc. Unless there is one particular professor you want to work with, the "academic excellence" of a school should not factor in to your decision. Same goes for getting to take courses at the university, although I'd imagine the main reason Northwestern discourages that is due to the law school's distance from the main campus and the radically different academic calendars.

On a separate note, why Chicago (the city)? It sounds like you don't know the area very well, so I don't understand why you're set on it.
The only valid reason for not going to Northwestern that you voiced is your desire to potentially work in academia. If that's really your endgame, then Northwestern will make it a much harder goal to achieve than Chicago will. But by that same token, academia is a hard outcome from anywhere that isn't HYS (strong emphasis on the HY).

Thanks for your reply. I am unclear on your point about "not knowing the area very well" and being set on a city. But if you must know, I spent a lot of time going from Miami to Chicago often for business and sometimes for pleasure. I am not at all ashamed to say that I feel God is calling me to Chicago. During this season of my life I have had many things happen that seem to validate my belief that God is calling me towards Chicago. I could be wrong about it or God could be pointing towards something else entirely, whatever the case may be, I want to remain faithful to God's plan and purpose. With that said, it may or may not be the case that I know the area well, but I do not see the relevance of how that plays into my decision to pick one school over another in a city.

cavalier1138 wrote:

btruj777 wrote:

acr wrote:

btruj777 wrote:

pipipipi wrote:If you wanted to live in Chicago as you said in your title, then NU is a much better place to live than UChicago.

Would the 10 miles between downtown and Hyde Park make that much of a difference?

yes

this is like saying that living in New Jersey is the same thing as living in Manhattan

I could attend UChicago and live in the city, which seems to be the case after 1L for some of the students at UChiacgo. I am not understanding the harsh difference 10 mile would make.

You're not understanding it because you've never lived in the city. The university is at least 45 minutes to an hour away from downtown by public transit, maybe less by car (which I don't recommend owning). Hyde Park is a radically different area of town from the Loop.

Thanks for your input, but I am still not convinced that an hour long commute should compel me to live in Y over X. I have had longer and worse commutes, I guess I should have told you that. Either way, thanks.

Well, I can't really argue with Jesus. Maybe ask him whether he could show you a map of the city before you make your decisions though, because during your business trips, I really doubt you went to Hyde Park.

cavalier1138 wrote:Well, I can't really argue with Jesus. Maybe ask him whether he could show you a map of the city before you make your decisions though, because during your business trips, I really doubt you went to Hyde Park.

Thanks for your input, good luck with everything!

cavalier1138 wrote:Well, I can't really argue with Jesus. Maybe ask him whether he could show you a map of the city before you make your decisions though, because during your business trips, I really doubt you went to Hyde Park.

I laughed.

If God wills that you are admitted into NU and not Chicago, will you be content with His plan? I would consider this in determining whether or not I am okay with NU.

lol at this thread and the poll results

poptart123 wrote:If God wills that you are admitted into NU and not Chicago, will you be content with His plan? I would consider this in determining whether or not I am okay with NU.

"Lord, if retaking the LSAT a third time that I may strive for the 170+ bracket be Your will, take the cup from my hand."

poptart123 wrote:If God wills that you are admitted into NU and not Chicago, will you be content with His plan? I would consider this in determining whether or not I am okay with NU.

Thats what I have been wrestling with and I appreciate you brining that up. Ideally I would be okay with it, but being the humans we are, I would wrestle with it and be stubborn lol. Sometimes it is hard to serve God's plan and I just wanted to see some of the answers I would get. So far you have been the most helpful response, you got me thinking about His will v. my will, and yea I would have to say His will is > mine

You should visit. When you visit, you should bring a pretty dense book and try to get through a few hours of it commuting from the south loop to hyde park to river north and back to hyde park. Just see how that read goes. Ideally, you would visit in the next 6 weeks so that its kind of shitty outside. I believe after you do that, you and/or God will determine that you don't want to do that commute every day. Not that it would be unbearable, but it wouldn't be productive and you probably wouldn't like it. I would also recommend you walk around the area quite a bit, but, actually, I wouldn't recommend that.

To briefly address everything else you've brought up: LOL.

Seriously: I think a lot of the 'issues' you've brought up are stupid. I think you probably are not stupid, though, which means you should probably just do a lot more research. Talk to students from both schools, talk to administrators, believe us when we say the difference in education is going to be almost non-existent, and, probably, talk to clergy. There are a lot of reasons to pick Chicago over Northwestern, but I can't see you've touched on any of them.

Also, retake. You can go to Chicago next year. Your GPA is there and your LSAT has a lot of room for improvement. If it really matters to you, go. next year.