Help! Need to decide tomorrow! GULC vs. HLS Forum

[nixy]

Georgetown is riskier because part of the prestige academia looks at is firm reputation and clerkship. Georgetown is weaker on both counts.

Are you saying that academic employers track/care about Georgetown’s placement rates in such things and have been noting its decline from the hallowed T14? I would really like to see some evidence of this, because it seems entirely inconsistent with academia to me. If you’re saying that Georgetown is risky because someone is less likely to get the right kind of firm/clerkship - that may well be true, but that isn’t about *Georgetown’s* prestige, only about its placement. Someone with the right firm/clerkship isn’t going to be harmed by the GT name. I agree it’s likely harder to *get* those qualifications from GT than HLS, but I don’t agree with the framing that GT is insuffuciently prestigious for academia.

[septmcc]

I do think that Harvard has some intangible benefits, as well as its biglaw placement being watered down by some self-selection. I chose a T14 for free over H/S, and that was a hard choice-- at 90k, I would've gone with H/S.

Well, rest easy knowing that you made the right choice. Harvard is not a magical school. It is not worth tens of thousands of dollars more than most T13 schools. You're going to do just as well with your degree as you would have from Harvard, and you're not going to have debt.

I'm still eager to hear from the OP on the Northwestern questions.

Thanks everyone for really taking the time to break this down for me. I withdrew from Georgetown which was a good choice, and I feel confident about crossing that off the list.

My reasons for not wanting to choose NU..are unreasonable. A gut feeling, perhaps - not founded on anything. I haven't even been to Chicago. Even though the plane ride to Chicago is clearly shorter than a 4 hour haul up to Cambridge, I have family in New England, so I somehow feel less out of my element. You are all correct, 90K is a huge chunk of money that I think I have pushed to the back of my mind. I wonder if I could negotiate it up? It always feels bizarre using Harvard, which doesn't even give merit aid, to ask for more money from other schools. I am really hoping to hear soon from CLS or NYU. Rejection, waitlist or whatever, I want to move on with my life!

[QContinuum]

Georgetown is riskier because part of the prestige academia looks at is firm reputation and clerkship. Georgetown is weaker on both counts.

Are you saying that academic employers track/care about Georgetown’s placement rates in such things and have been noting its decline from the hallowed T14? I would really like to see some evidence of this, because it seems entirely inconsistent with academia to me. If you’re saying that Georgetown is risky because someone is less likely to get the right kind of firm/clerkship - that may well be true, but that isn’t about *Georgetown’s* prestige, only about its placement. Someone with the right firm/clerkship isn’t going to be harmed by the GT name. I agree it’s likely harder to *get* those qualifications from GT than HLS, but I don’t agree with the framing that GT is insuffuciently prestigious for academia.

I don't think it has anything to do with T14 or not. I think "bottom" of T14 has always been a bit edgy for academia and this was just as true 10 years ago as now. Obviously Georgetown doesn't preclude academia by any means. Someone who's on LR at Georgetown, clerks on the D.C. Circuit, works at Covington, and does a VAP and develops a compelling publication record and research agenda is going to be a stellar candidate and no one will hold Georgetown against her.

And sure, if you prefer the framing that it isn't a matter of Georgetown's prestige per se, but rather the fact that Georgetown makes it harder to get those other qualifications like clerkships and prestigious BigLaw than a higher-ranked T14, that's fine. IMO that's a distinction without any substantive difference. It still leads to the same conclusion that "bottom" of T14 is a bit edgy for academia.

My reasons for not wanting to choose NU..are unreasonable. A gut feeling, perhaps - not founded on anything. I haven't even been to Chicago. Even though the plane ride to Chicago is clearly shorter than a 4 hour haul up to Cambridge, I have family in New England, so I somehow feel less out of my element. You are all correct, 90K is a huge chunk of money that I think I have pushed to the back of my mind. I wonder if I could negotiate it up? It always feels bizarre using Harvard, which doesn't even give merit aid, to ask for more money from other schools.

Not bizarre at all IMO. They will recognize that HLS is a stronger school. Absolutely worth trying to negotiate - worst case, they say no, best case, they give you more money. But how much more would you need to save for you to be willing to reconsider your frankly bizarre anti-Chicago animus? Would $100k do it? $120k?

[VirginiaFan]

Just go to HLS. Clerking and biglaw will be there, and academia will always be a crapshoot.

[cavalier1138]

Just go to HLS. Clerking and biglaw will be there, and academia will always be a crapshoot.

And if you ever start to feel anxious about the extra $100k+ in debt you're carrying, just soothe yourself by staring at your Harvard degree.