Northwestern or Duke Forum

[Cachinggggg]

Ok so I have been accepted at Northwestern and Duke as a Transfer. I honestly never thought I would have such amazing options. As of yesterday (only got accepted to NU today) I was certain I would go to Duke, but now my head is spinning.

My family is originally from Chicago and my parents still live there now. I am working this summer for a private equity group based out of Chicago and all my old friends live in chicago. I'm not certain that chicago is where I want to work forever, but I have amazing connections in this city.

I worked in Los Angeles for sometime before law school and I've been thinking I might want to go back. I would like to work in some form of Financial law, perhaps focusing on Venture Capital and Private Equity work. Basically I want to know what everyone thinks I should do.

My thoughts right now are that Duke has a much smaller transfer class (5-7) while northwestern has a much larger group (30-40) and that this might be a problem. At Duke I would have an easier chance at writing on to a journal and would have less competition from new transfers to grade into the top of the class. However, at Northwestern I would be in a city where I have a ton of connections already laid out.

Does anyone know how transfers do at OCI at Northwestern vs. Duke? and how transfers do for the write on competition?

[decaf735]

northwestern. even without your connections to chicago/desire to work in LA, northwestern would probably be the best choice.

but those connections kind of make this a no brainer

[attractive_NUisance]

There are a number of slots available for transfers for LR and generally everyone gets a secondary journal if not.

The transfers I know into Northwestern did extremely well at OCI. Also, if you are interested in Kirkland they obviously do a lot of PE work and they love northwestern. During the 2011 summer I believe 22 of the total 54 summers in the Chicago office were from NU. Duke wouldn't be a bad choice either, but for Chicago, LA, and NYC with a PE background I think you'd do well at Northwestern.

[CanadianWolf]

Northwestern due to your Chicago connections & interest in the Chicago market.

[shock259]

Northwestern due to your Chicago connections & interest in the Chicago market.

[transferbound]

There are a number of slots available for transfers for LR and generally everyone gets a secondary journal if not.

The transfers I know into Northwestern did extremely well at OCI. Also, if you are interested in Kirkland they obviously do a lot of PE work and they love northwestern. During the 2011 summer I believe 22 of the total 54 summers in the Chicago office were from NU. Duke wouldn't be a bad choice either, but for Chicago, LA, and NYC with a PE background I think you'd do well at Northwestern.

Do you know when their write on is? Or if they have one for transfers? I'm worried time is running out...sorry for the random question in this thread!

[attractive_NUisance]

There is usually a week for the write-on competition sometime in mid-august. You can contact Jim McMasters in NU admin or someone on NULR for more info.

[transferbound]

There is usually a week for the write-on competition sometime in mid-august. You can contact Jim McMasters in NU admin or someone on NULR for more info.

Great! Thank you so much!

[Cachinggggg]

Does anyone have any insight into Duke's small transfer class size (5-7 transfers, around 3% of the graduating class) vs. NU's larger transfer class (30-40, around 10-15% of the graduating class)?

It seems to me that a transfer to Duke is advantaged in a few ways. (1) they will have an easier time getting on a journal as there is almost one journal for every transfer student. (2) the small class sizes seems to be an advantage during OCI as it seems to be much more of a recommendation by the school on the transfer students ability. and (3) the small transfer class size seems to be advantageous in that there will be less gunners coming in and less competition to re-attain your previous school ranking or close too it.

Any thoughts on the advantage of Duke vs. NU in this context would be much appreciated.

[09042014]

NU transfer/AJD write on is in late august. So it won't help for LOLCI. But everyone will get a journal. But this is a good thing. Since you can't know by OCI, you can avoid journal (one of the shittiest parts of law school).

At OCI you get to say "write on contest is in August" when they ask about Journal. It won't hurt you at all. And then you can just never do one.

[traehekat]

Does anyone have any insight into Duke's small transfer class size (5-7 transfers, around 3% of the graduating class) vs. NU's larger transfer class (30-40, around 10-15% of the graduating class)?

It seems to me that a transfer to Duke is advantaged in a few ways. (1) they will have an easier time getting on a journal as there is almost one journal for every transfer student. (2) the small class sizes seems to be an advantage during OCI as it seems to be much more of a recommendation by the school on the transfer students ability. and (3) the small transfer class size seems to be advantageous in that there will be less gunners coming in and less competition to re-attain your previous school ranking or close too it.

Any thoughts on the advantage of Duke vs. NU in this context would be much appreciated.

Pretty much every NU transfer who wanted journal got it, so don't worry about that. Don't worry about retaining your grades from your transfer school, just worry about getting a job. Transfer class size really doesn't have a huge impact on OCI - either your grades are sufficient and they like you, or not. Don't forget that while you may be competing with less transfers at Duke, you are still competing with students from the rest of the schools these firms will be visiting.

Also, I don't know much about Duke's OCI, but I can't imagine that it is better for Chicago or LA than NU is. Unless you want to work in the southern Atlantic region, this is a no brainer.

[beachbum]

Northwestern due to your Chicago connections & interest in the Chicago market.

[WannabeBlueDevil]

I'm in at duke too.

All I know is that the transfers get a personal Recruiting officer who pretty much is dedicated to launching our career.

Pm me if u want. I did my 1L in Chicago.

I'd take duke over nu personally, but if I had ties in Chicago and wanted a career there, then NU makes the most practical sense.

There might be an advantage from doing oci with chicagofirms from duke, then from NU though. Because you might have less intra-school competition.

Ps- duke places everywhere, don't buy into that southern region myth