Top Law Schools

I'm at bu/bc and I am top 3%, LR, with a 25k scholarship (which the school may potentially increase). My goals are big law with a strong preference for NY as my significant other has family in the area though I wouldn't mind Boston.

I was accepted into NYU and moving to NY would probably mean another 60k-70k in loans. I'm not sure if the increased job prospects and the reputation of the school justifies the transfer. Also have an application in to Columbia that is pending but I feel like the same considerations would apply there as well. Any advice is appreciated

A possible way to think about this...what are the chances you don't get NYC big law from BU/BC with top 3% and LR?

I would be completely shocked if you didn't get NYC big law from NYU with those #s (transfers seem to do very well). But if this is a 90% shot already...

Was in your exact situation, pretty much literally. Was at BU/BC with 25K scholarship, took on about 60K extra to go to NYU as a transfer out of desire to end up in NYC. I wasn't ranked quite as high as you are, but I'd still say go for it. Transferring was one of the best choices ever. 6 of us from my class at BU/BC transferred to NYU together, and we all (along with every other transfer I keep in touch with) ended up with great firm jobs, almost all V25 and above. NYU is particularly transfer-friendly, and transfers are among the most successful subsets of students at EIW.

Talk to people who are on LR and ranked very high. Your calculus is a bit different than mine since you are ranked top 3%, whereas I was top 10% and didn't make LR. My ability to get NYC out of BU/BC was a bit diminished compared to yours. If you stay, you likely will end up with an NYC job. I'm pretty certain of that. But NYU will offer you options and open doors that BU/BC won't.

kaiser wrote:Was in your exact situation, pretty much literally. Was at BU/BC with 25K scholarship, took on about 60K extra to go to NYU as a transfer out of desire to end up in NYC. I wasn't ranked quite as high as you are, but I'd still say go for it. Transferring was one of the best choices ever. 6 of us from my class at BU/BC transferred to NYU together, and we all (along with every other transfer I keep in touch with) ended up with great firm jobs, almost all V25 and above. NYU is particularly transfer-friendly, and transfers are among the most successful subsets of students at EIW.

Talk to people who are on LR and ranked very high. Your calculus is a bit different than mine since you are ranked top 3%, whereas I was top 10% and didn't make LR. My ability to get NYC out of BU/BC was a bit diminished compared to yours. If you stay, you likely will end up with an NYC job. I'm pretty certain of that. But NYU will offer you options and open doors that BU/BC won't.

I agree. I'd say go to the school located in the market you want to be in. Plus, the far better name/reputation of the school will help considerably, both now and in the long run. Another consideration that hasn't been mentioned yet is alumni network. NYU is a larger school, and obviously places many more people in NYC than BU/BC - you will thus have more contacts and connections to make at NYU than BU/BC, which, though obviously placing plenty of people in NY, is clearly not nearly the feeder for NY biglaw that NYU/CLS are. I think this is a fairly easy choice.

I am pretty much in your exact same place now, with a few differences. Have you decided what you are going to do?

OP here. I got into Columbia and decided to go. With NY as my target market, it was just too hard to pass up a Columbia JD. I also had cost mitigating factors come up with my living situation that meant I would not be paying the full sticker price to attend.