Top Law Schools

WWYD:

Penn State (Up) $125,000 unconditional
Cardozo $90,000 unconditional

Would like to practice in northeast (not really looking at big law)
Employment numbers and 1 year Bar passage similar (although slightly higher for Penn State)
Cardozo is more than 70% New York and Penn State seems a little less regional (33% employed in PA)
Total cost of attendance is much higher at Cardozo due to higher tuition, lower scholarship, and higher cost of living in NY (will end up being about $125-$150k more for Cardozo).
Cardozo is ranked slightly higher but I feel like Penn State is the right choice based on my path.
Feedback?

Penn State.

For your goals (which are a bit vague), I'd take the money at Penn State, assuming you'll be in a position to pay off that debt on your likely salary.

As someone who's been practicing for a few years, I had zero clue that Cardozo is ranked higher than Penn State. Rankings don't matter in a situation like this.

Out of those two options, Penn State seems like the obvious pick. Conditional scholarships are trash.

Do you actually have specific career goals? Why are these your options.

Employment outcomes aside, these school could barely be more different. Cardozo is in the heart of roughly the most expensive real estate in the world and Penn State is in a college town in the boonies. Given that ~5% of your remaining life span is going to be at one of these two schools, try to consider if you’d enjoy being a medium sized fish in a small pond or a tiny poor fish in a very expensive ocean. Living in deep Brooklyn/Queens and taking the subway in will get old really fast (not sure if Cardozo has dorms) and Manhattan is just not fun when you don’t have the money to enjoy it imo. Also, the student bodies and profs and admin will likely be more different than most school to school comparisons, mainly due to the urban - rural self selection.