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Hey everyone,

I'd like to clerk federally and then pursue a career in appellate litigation. Ideally I'd like to practice in D.C. or California. I understand that this career path is a bit harder to break into, and I'd like to make sure that I reconcile employment outcomes with cost of attendance. I don't have any strong ties to any of these schools, so I'm wondering what the most pragmatic option is simply based on CoA, employment outcomes, and my specific career goals. I've got about $30,000 in savings and I plan to work in a BigLaw firm 2L summer, but everything else will be taken out with loans.

Scholarship amount is in parentheses.

Chicago ($75,000)
NYU ($91,000)
UPenn ($124,000)
NU ($150,000)

What's total COA for each?

AdieuCali wrote:What's total COA for each?

As follows, roughly based on the calculations given by their websites:

Chicago: $209,000
NYU: $192,000
Penn: $153,000
NU: $104,000

NU lists their yearly CoA as $84,733, which is at least $5,000/year less than everything else. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but hopefully this is a good estimate.

Appellate Lit is gonna be really hard from anywhere. Are you from CA?

existentialcrisis wrote:Appellate Lit is gonna be really hard from anywhere. Are you from CA?

I am. I'm still waiting on Stanford (and Yale), but I'm not holding my breath at this point.

Have you tried scholarship negotiation yet?

kernel_man wrote:

AdieuCali wrote:What's total COA for each?

As follows, roughly based on the calculations given by their websites:

Chicago: $209,000
NYU: $192,000
Penn: $153,000
NU: $104,000

NU lists their yearly CoA as $84,733, which is at least $5,000/year less than everything else. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but hopefully this is a good estimate.

Northwestern. Not sure if those numbers take into account your savings and a 2L SA, but it doesn't matter: 100% NU.

As a sidenote: I find it interesting that so many 0Ls now want to clerk then do appellate litigation. How many 0Ls even know what appellate litigation entails? And do they know how difficult it is to do the kind of appellate litigation they are likely envisioning (i.e., not state appellate litigation or immigration)? Is "appellate litigation" the new "international human rights" around here?

I think your poll is misleading since people will not figure out your COA's for you. I think that Penn is ahead because people are thinking it's only $25k pricier than Northwestern when it's really $50k.

LSRAT wrote:Have you tried scholarship negotiation yet?

Chicago went up from 60 and Penn went up from 114. NYU denied negotiations, and I'm waiting on NU (I asked for +5/year).

Rigo wrote:I think your poll is misleading since people will not figure out your COA's for you. I think that Penn is ahead because people are thinking it's only $25k pricier than Northwestern when it's really $50k.

I think you're right. I'm also not sure how much people are voting just based off of "general harder to get BigLaw" vs "needs an appellate clerkship in order to pursue this career path." Still, the opinions seem pretty overwhelming Penn vs. NU, which is useful for me.

I have roughly the same decision and goals as you and am headed to Philly next year.

I'd be wary any of these just because a few more people landed a federal clerkship.
$105k extra for Chicago is a lot to pay for 9% more clerkships imo, but it's really up to you just how much you value that extra little likelihood of landing one.
Chances are you'll end up in the exact same place in Biglaw just with a very different debt load.