Top Law Schools

For some background, I am someone who resides within NYS and would preferably like to go to a law school in metro NY. I have applied to NYU, Cardozo, Brooklyn, St. John's, Fordham and Hofstra. I am currently waiting for decisions from NYU and Fordham and it seems to be delayed because of COVID-19. At the moment, seat deposits are due soon and I have a decision to make, what would you do? If possible please explain your position in terms of bar passage % and future employment. I am someone who would preferably like to remain in small or mid-sized law firm but will do a few years in Big Law if necessary (it probably will be).

(Please be kind as this process is not easy)

I received:
22K per year from Cardozo (#53), where there is no minimum gpa required to retain after each year
30K per year from SJU (#74), if I remain in the top 80% after each year
A full ride from Hofstra (#102) (60k a year), if I remain in the top 50% of my class after each year
36K per year from Brooklyn Law (#83), if I remain in the top 80% after each year.

I would look at the placement stats between I dunno 2011 and 2013 give or take from these schools and assume that you’ll be graduating into the same climate.

Here’s a spoiler alert: they’ll be bad. When the Econ folds, schools of this level (and even Fordham) take a massive hit.

TCR = retake if you don’t land NYU.

LSCANDIDATE wrote:I am someone who would preferably like to remain in small or mid-sized law firm but will do a few years in Big Law if necessary (it probably will be).

Biglaw is not something you can treat as a fallback option from any of these schools. It's an outcome that only the top students in the class get a chance at. And as pointed out, the number of students at these schools who get that opportunity will shrink dramatically in the coming years.

None of these are good options. Hofstra for free sounds nice, but it's a conditional scholarship that you could easily lose. The other schools, even ignoring the conditions on scholarships (any condition is a bad condition), will leave you with too much debt to reasonably service on your likely salary. A biglaw salary would be necessary to pay that debt off, but you almost certainly won't get biglaw from any of these.