Top Law Schools

Right now, I am deciding between Hofstra and Brooklyn and keep switching back and forth between the two. I received 35K/year at Hofstra, but nothing at Brooklyn. I was impressed by the clinical/externship opportunities at Brooklyn, but I really dislike the area, and even the idea of being in a large city. I am leaning towards Hofstra because of the scholarship, but I am having serious difficulty deciding. Thoughts?

have you visited hofstra? its not exactly in the greatest area either, imo

goraiders13 wrote:Right now, I am deciding between Hofstra and Brooklyn and keep switching back and forth between the two. I received 35K/year at Hofstra, but nothing at Brooklyn. I was impressed by the clinical/externship opportunities at Brooklyn, but I really dislike the area, and even the idea of being in a large city. I am leaning towards Hofstra because of the scholarship, but I am having serious difficulty deciding. Thoughts?

What?! You don't like all the fried chicken/pizza joints, wig shops and cell phone stores around BLS? Fine!

Btw. You walk 15 minutes NW and you're in Brooklyn Heights.

erniesto wrote:

goraiders13 wrote:Right now, I am deciding between Hofstra and Brooklyn and keep switching back and forth between the two. I received 35K/year at Hofstra, but nothing at Brooklyn. I was impressed by the clinical/externship opportunities at Brooklyn, but I really dislike the area, and even the idea of being in a large city. I am leaning towards Hofstra because of the scholarship, but I am having serious difficulty deciding. Thoughts?

What?! You don't like all the fried chicken/pizza joints, wig shops and cell phone stores around BLS? Fine!

Btw. You walk 15 minutes NW and you're in Brooklyn Heights.

you dont like brooklyn law's area? have you visited hofstra? Brooklyn law school is in a pretty nice area i thought, right near brooklyn heights, 20 mins subway ride from downtown manhattan, YOUR CRAZY MAN.

but seriously, now that my rant is over, since i tend to love bk in general, brooklyn is certainly a better school, but i dont think its 35,000 dollars better. I have friends who go to both, and i will confirm that the bk kids are smarter, and my lone hofstra student does not have a job, but then again, i know people at real good law schools without them, so that doesnt really mean much.

id take the money

with Hofstra you'll never get into big law, @ brooklyn you have a chance. so it depends on what you want to do.

I'd take Brooklyn. Much better school, better job prospects, Hofstra's in a terrible area. Also, that scholarship I'm pretty sure is contingent on being in the top 40% which is a pretty steep requirement. You could end up losing that scholly and paying the same you could have payed for BLS. Just something to think about...

You should have applied to St. John's.

From both of these schools, you have a great shot at being marginally employed and buried under a mountain of debt in an incredibly saturated market. If you must go to law school (think long and hard about this), go to Hofstra for the sole reason that it's cheaper, but if you lose your scholarship, you might be screwed.

Brooklyn is $45,000 a year. That's already $135,000 plus a modest 30k for all three years of living expenses (really low balling it) and you are up to 165 k at least. Brooklyn is ranked 61st i think.....horrible choice.

At least at Hofstra the 35k a year scholarship covers all but about 6k of your expenses plus living, so you can possibly graduate with about less than 50k. If you lose the scholarship, which idk, I think you could maintain if you tried, then prob drop out. I don't think anyone would ever say you were unreasonable for that type of choice if you lost that much.


But Cmon....Brooklyn IMO is too expensive. Fordham for that is too expensive too.

I am a strong believer that most people outside this web site fit into a more sensible group of people, who aren't swayed by rankings so much and simply go where they can minimize debt the most.

Going 150K more into debt so you can live in a better area for three years while you won't have any time to do anything anyway is INSANITY. DO NOT DO THAT. GO TO HOFSTRA OR JUST DON'T GO.

I'm actually interested in working for the DA, perhaps on Long Island, so not being able to go into BigLaw isn't really a drawback of Hofstra. I did like the fact that I could go into Manhattan if I hop onto the subway for a few stops, but who will have time for that anyway? I'm not expecting to have much free time in law school.

goraiders13 wrote:I'm actually interested in working for the DA, perhaps on Long Island, so not being able to go into BigLaw isn't really a drawback of Hofstra. I did like the fact that I could go into Manhattan if I hop onto the subway for a few stops, but who will have time for that anyway? I'm not expecting to have much free time in law school.

I'm from long island too, and i had the same predicament. but because i wanted big law, i went to villanova at sticker. but for you want, you'd be a fool not to take the money! if you want to go to hofstra, go to hofstra, it will be worth it.

goraiders13 wrote:I'm actually interested in working for the DA, perhaps on Long Island, so not being able to go into BigLaw isn't really a drawback of Hofstra. I did like the fact that I could go into Manhattan if I hop onto the subway for a few stops, but who will have time for that anyway? I'm not expecting to have much free time in law school.

If you want to work for the DA on Long Island, don't you think it would be easier to build connections from Hofstra, in addition to less debt?

rad law wrote:From both of these schools, you have a great shot at being marginally employed and buried under a mountain of debt in an incredibly saturated market. If you must go to law school (think long and hard about this), go to Hofstra for the sole reason that it's cheaper, but if you lose your scholarship, you might be screwed.

such a negative nancy. i work at a big law firm and they hire from brooklyn...

Go to Hofstra, drop out if you lose your scholarship, at that point you aren't getting a decent legal job anyways.

Could you not go to Hofstra, do well, get the scholarship, and transfer way up after your first year? So that you get one year paid for but still graduate from a better school?

phonepro wrote:

rad law wrote:From both of these schools, you have a great shot at being marginally employed and buried under a mountain of debt in an incredibly saturated market. If you must go to law school (think long and hard about this), go to Hofstra for the sole reason that it's cheaper, but if you lose your scholarship, you might be screwed.

such a negative nancy. i work at a big law firm and they hire from brooklyn...

Brooklyn doesn't even make the top 50 in NLJ250 hires. Chicago-Kent, ranked 50th in NLJ250 hires, sends 13.2% to NLJ250. So cool, your "big law firm" hires probably the top 5%-10%-ish of Brooklyn students. Almost $200k in debt for a shot at your "big law firm" sounds like a great investment ITE. Going $200k far into debt at then trying to get a DA job (extremely competitive ITE) and then making a pittance also sounds like a terrible investment.

The real world sucks, don't it?

MJMD wrote:Could you not go to Hofstra, do well, get the scholarship, and transfer way up after your first year? So that you get one year paid for but still graduate from a better school?

Don't count on transferring. The chances are pretty good that you won't. Don't go to a school you wouldn't be happy to go to for three years.

phonepro wrote:

rad law wrote:From both of these schools, you have a great shot at being marginally employed and buried under a mountain of debt in an incredibly saturated market. If you must go to law school (think long and hard about this), go to Hofstra for the sole reason that it's cheaper, but if you lose your scholarship, you might be screwed.

such a negative nancy. i work at a big law firm and they hire from brooklyn...

Almost all big law firms will hire from Brooklyn -- the problem is that they'll typically only consider the top 10-15% of students, and in this economy more like top 5%. He's not being a negative nancy, he's being realistic.

rad law wrote:

phonepro wrote:

rad law wrote:From both of these schools, you have a great shot at being marginally employed and buried under a mountain of debt in an incredibly saturated market. If you must go to law school (think long and hard about this), go to Hofstra for the sole reason that it's cheaper, but if you lose your scholarship, you might be screwed.

such a negative nancy. i work at a big law firm and they hire from brooklyn...

Brooklyn doesn't even make the top 50 in NLJ250 hires. Chicago-Kent, ranked 50th in NLJ250 hires, sends 13.2% to NLJ250. So cool, your "big law firm" hires probably the top 5%-10%-ish of Brooklyn students. Almost $200k in debt for a shot at your "big law firm" sounds like a great investment ITE. Going $200k far into debt at then trying to get a DA job (extremely competitive ITE) and then making a pittance also sounds like a terrible investment.

The real world sucks, don't it?

no reason to be rude. and my "big law firm" is actually davis polk, so IDK why its in quotes lol. I was just saying its not impossible, if you do well.

phonepro wrote:

rad law wrote:

phonepro wrote:

rad law wrote:From both of these schools, you have a great shot at being marginally employed and buried under a mountain of debt in an incredibly saturated market. If you must go to law school (think long and hard about this), go to Hofstra for the sole reason that it's cheaper, but if you lose your scholarship, you might be screwed.

such a negative nancy. i work at a big law firm and they hire from brooklyn...

Brooklyn doesn't even make the top 50 in NLJ250 hires. Chicago-Kent, ranked 50th in NLJ250 hires, sends 13.2% to NLJ250. So cool, your "big law firm" hires probably the top 5%-10%-ish of Brooklyn students. Almost $200k in debt for a shot at your "big law firm" sounds like a great investment ITE. Going $200k far into debt at then trying to get a DA job (extremely competitive ITE) and then making a pittance also sounds like a terrible investment.

The real world sucks, don't it?

I was just saying its not impossible, if you do well.

I didn't say that either, I just said it's a terrible investment.

OP, didn't you say that you don't like the idea of working in a big city? Why not apply to UB up in Buffalo?