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Brooklyn Law School ($24k scholarship) or Fordham Law School ($10k scholarship). Both evening programs. Help me decide!
Thanks for this. Fordham was my top choice, given my constraints to NYC evening programs. From my understanding, scholarships tend to be less generous for evening programs and the cost of attendance is higher given the additional fourth year.
Excellent question re: the evening program statistics into big law. I'll do some digging on that piece, specifically.
If NYC part-time is a must then Fordham really is your best option not considering price. Looks like tuition+fees for both is ~$55k so cost is 220k - 40k = 180k versus 220k - 96k = 124k assuming both are unconditional 4 years.
So your decision is really 124k for law school at this moment versus waiting, and then 56k additional for Fordham.
509 report for scholarships shows youre on Fordham's low end and slightly under Brooklyn's median (part-time 50th is $28k). Meaning you actually have potential for more scholarship in terms of what they could give, so there is R&R potential if your scores are low, or if you do decide Brooklyn be sure to at least ask for more before telling them yes (e.g. "I'm leaning Fordham, but I would choose Brooklyn if you could raise to X amount").
Brooklyn scholarship data for reference:
The real answer here is neither until you get that scholly up
Fordham
If you are committed to BigLaw, Fordham seems like the better deal. The improved employment outcomes outweigh the $14,000 per year savings.
Even without BigLaw, the savings aren't that impressive. Have you applied to Hofstra and/or New York Law School? If they were to give you a substantial package, it might be worth checking out.
just look at employment outcomes for the schools if that's your goal
Fordham and it’s not close.
Fordham— assuming you want BL on account of the salary. Fordham’s stats are really great at showing general “punching above” its weight class in BL, but what it doesn’t show is the placement of grads at boutique and mid-law in NYC, both of which often pay market or above. BLS might be that too, but I’ve never heard of it. Also factor in expense— riding the J or Z to Manhattan might get old.
Source: interned at NYSOAG for over a year and was hired at Olshan, but ultimately took a job here in CA.
Thank you. Fordham is undoubtedly the better school. I did hear a lot of positive things about BLS from recent alum and current students who I had the opportunity to chat with. The general sense I got from these folks as well is that in NYC specifically, BLS punches well above its rank. Granted, the rank is quite low.
For evening programs, Fordham and Georgetown are known as the gold standards. Ive worked at two big law firms, and worked with more people who went to Fordham evening than I did with people who went to Brooklyn. I also clerked with a fordham evening student and they are a rockstar.
How long are the evening programs?
How long are the evening programs? Also, what're your scores?
My recommendation is that you pick BLS - given that neither school is T14, you will need to be in the top 10-15% of your class to get into big law regardless of which school you choose so you might as well go to the school that gave you more money.
Horrible advice. Fordham is much better and the difference in scholarships is not large enough to pick Brooklyn here.
Thanks for this. To be fair, I've definitely heard this a few time now. I'm leaning towards Fordham but I've found myself veering in the opposite direction at times for this exact reason.
Of course, I was only speaking from my own experience as someone who went to a lower ranked law school on scholarship and currently work in big law (but as you can see, most disagree). For me money was a very large factor. If I didn’t make it into big law I would have substantial debt without the big law salary to help pay it off so I gambled and went with the school that gave me the most money and it did pay off for me.
I have colleagues from Fordham and BLS, so I really don’t think you can go wrong (so long as you get good grades). All the best with law school!
The issue is that you can afford to do worse at Fordham and still have a much better shot at Big Law.
Again, horrible, horrible advice.
Brooklyn and Fordham are about the same size (~400), and Brooklyn sent 77 grads of the last available data year to 501+ person firms, Fordham sent 178.
The median person at either school is not going to big law, but the chance is higher at Fordham. Whether that difference (and any other differences) is worth ~42k over three years (or more? How does part-time work? And whatever tuition+CoL difference; though I think they're similar) is up to you.
Keep in mind you are the median person at a given school until proven otherwise, and that can't really be known until after 1L. Consider what non-big law outcomes, salaries, etc. look like for each.
All costs equal, Fordham is certainly the better school, and better for your purposes. The price determination if it is worth it at that price is up to you.
Being evening programs may change the cost math or the big law chance math, but I don't know the specifics. Try to find out about those specific programs if you can, or check if they're on parity with OCI, Law Review, etc. (I suspect maybe not?)
Finally, always keep in mind your next best alternative. It is not a binary/dichotomous choice. You are free to deny both and either keep with your current job or retake & reapply for next year, though if you're constrained to part-time your potential ceiling is Georgetown and Fordham. Higher scores could still potentially get higher scholarships.