NYU vs. WashU (please help)

nyu_times_two
Sat, 16 May 2009 00:43:19 +0000

To increase your chances of getting into a T14 law school, you’ll want to go to the most academically rigorous school that you can do the best at. In other words, for example, a 3.5 at Harvard is going to be equivalent (if not greater than) a 4.0 at a random state school. Going to a more difficult school AND doing well means you’ll have a lot more leeway with your LSAT. Not a lot, mind you; you’ll still have to get a 167+ to have a good chance at GULC (and that’s the minimum, though of course there are exceptions). But your overall grades count for a lot, too. And the importance of going to a highly ranked law school (for which the ranking system is a lot more accurate than for colleges) is that it’ll make it much, much easier to get a job at a place like the DOJ, which is incredibly competitive.

The thing is, though, NYU doesn’t have an actual pre-law track. They have a list of recommended courses, but I didn’t take a single one and did just fine (I am now at NYU Law). Generally, you can major in just about anything and still go to a T14 law school so long as your grades are good and your LSAT score is high up there. However, they also don’t really have anything approximating criminology; you’d have to cobble together courses to try to get an overview, or study in Gallatin and make your own major.

What I can tell you, though, is that the Arabic language offerings at NYU are great. I had a couple friends who finished with degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, and they seemed incredibly happy with their breadth of choices. I also had a non-MES friend take Arabic, and she had no trouble getting into the class; she eventually didn’t take any more classes, but that was more because it’s a ridiculously difficult language to learn than anything else. The other thing is that there are many federal agencies, if not the FBI itself, in New York City, so you’d have a good chance of getting an internship at one of them (for instance, at the Port Authority of NY and NJ, or at one of the DOJ branches in the city (though those are just as competitive to get as the actual jobs)).