Top Law Schools

Hi all,

I'm a rising senior at a liberal arts college, applying to law schools this coming fall. I came up with a list of law schools that I would like to apply to. ANY help on adding/subtracting/editing (ie. move school X from target to reach, safety to target)/etc would be VERY HELPFUL.

Stats: splitter with mid 3.5x gpa with strong upward trend, 172 LSAT, non-KJD
Softs: foreign military experience (intelligence unit), received a medal but not like a super important one
Goals: Big law in New York then switch to M&A (but who the hell really knows for sure)
Caveats: I don't really care TOO much about cost because I am one of those people that believe it is worth going sticker to NYU

List:
Reach: Columbia, NYU, UPenn
Target: Northwestern, UMich, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown
Safety: BU, Fordham (just bc good big law placement in NY), Emory

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Eliminate the word "safety school" from your vocabulary. There is no such thing in law school admissions. There are schools that will give you a reasonable shot at your goals for a price you can afford, and there are schools that won't.

In your case, I'd blanket the T13 (although you're right to leave HYS/Chicago out with your GPA). Maybe throw in UCLA/Vanderbilt/WashU for scholarship negotiation purposes. There's no reason you shouldn't be applying to UVA, and there's no reason you should be applying to Emory.

I also urge you to reconsider the "NYU/[School] is worth it at any price" stance, and I say this as someone who went to NYU. $300k in debt is ten years of significant payments, and you cannot count on being able to stay in biglaw long enough to keep up with those payments. Your numbers will likely get you decent scholarship offers around the lower T13, and if you end up looking at Duke with $$ vs. NYU at sticker, you should go to Duke.

Thanks so much for your input. I guess I've just been dreaming about going to New York for so long that I'm at the point where I'd be willing to pay sticker for NYU law. However, if as you say the situation actually presents itself where I'm choosing between Duke $$ and NYU sticker, I'll get a little more realistic.