GW vs UW Forum

[xylitolazy]

Hi, I was just wondering...If no aids and if I would like to work in NY, which should I go?
GW sounds better, but I know a couple of friends who went to UW and found a job in NY. (and UW is cheaper even without aids...)
Which would you go and why?

By the way, is it true that GW ranked within 20 a few years ago? I wonder what happened...is it only due to the cheating thing?

[UVA2B]

I sincerely hope you're joking/trolling, but in the unlikely event this is an actual decision you're facing: neither are good for that goal, and the rest of your questions are irrelevant to making a decision like this.

[xylitolazy]

I sincerely hope you're joking/trolling, but in the unlikely event this is an actual decision you're facing: neither are good for that goal, and the rest of your questions are irrelevant to making a decision like this.

Um...I'm serious actually.
Because I'm an international student, it is kind of hard to get aids...
Can you tell me why those two are not good for my goal?

[doritoslocostacos316]

not sure why the previous poster feels the need to be so rude but...congratulations on your options! I would say definitely go for GW

[guynourmin]

Can you tell me why those two are not good for my goal?

Law schools are regional. If you want to work in NY, there are over a dozen law schools in NY. You shouldn't go to Washington/Wisconsin because they place almost solely in Washington/Wisconsin (for your question it literally does not matter which school you are considering: they are both bad choices). While GW seems to place okay in NY, you're talking about going into a ton of debt for a school that still doesn't align with your goals very well. That is, if your only goal is to work in New York and you are committed to spending over a quarter of a million dollars on law school, Fordham is a much better choice than GW, and retaking until you can get into Cornell/NYU/Columbia/any t14 is an even better choice than Fordham. Also, pretty much no one on this website is going to be very encouraging about sticker price anywhere, because it is just a whole lot of money.

Do you have goals other than just working in New York? or, do you have skills that would allow you to work in New York without getting a law degree?

[UVA2B]

I'm sorry if you felt that was rude, but this is a fantastically bad question because neither of them will set you up for your goals. You want to end up in NYC following graduation, you're international which means you'll be taking out private loans in order to attend, and you're talking about paying full price at a school that places minimally at best in your desired market. Do you have family assistance in paying for law school or are you just fantastically wealthy? Will you require an H1B visa to practice in NYC?

GW places ~35-40% of grads into jobs that will likely sponsor a visa (if you need one, but I'm assuming no green card marriage or other path to being here for now). That's a horrible financial gamble to begin with because you're talking about paying $308k (or whatever GW is at sticker) for at best a 40% chance of reaching your goal. If you understood how the forced curve of law school works, you'd understand why that's such a fantastically poor decision. Layer on top of that a desire to practice in NYC, where neither UW or GWU place any large percentage of grads following graduation, and you're cooking a recipe for financial disaster.

Forgive the lack of using kid gloves, but unless you have the freedom to throw hundreds of thousands of dollars of free cash at a below-mediocre shot of reaching your goal, going to either GW or UW would more than likely be financial suicide. Why do you think either of these will get you to your goals?

Please see the below website regarding the placement power of GW and UW. They will not put you in NYC following graduation. I'm sorry.

https://www.lstreports.com/compare/gw/washington/

[88888888]

GW! I have a friend that did well there and transferred to Harvard. Congratulations!

[charles117]

id lean towards gw

[Thomas Hagan, ESQ.]

technically you get hiv first and not aids.

[mcmand]

I'm usually rah-rah-rah UW as a double Husky, but if you're going to NY, we're not really the best fit. I'm sure it's possible (albeit pretty unlikely) to land a NY job out of UW, and I bet if I had time to kill I could find UW alum at firms in NY doing cool stuff, but it wouldn't be an overwhelming number of them. (With that said, I have one classmate who summered at Cleary in NY. But she's the exception, not the rule.)

Are you looking at UW because you're considering the LLM so you can qualify to sit for either the NY or Washington bar? That would make sense to me because not as many schools offer that program, and UW Law does. We have a lot of international students here pursuing their LLM to sit for the bar exam, so you'd fit right in, and the LLM is a pretty short program. But if you're looking for a JD, you should just wait and reapply to some New York schools. There is no need to create additional barriers for yourself at the outset, as nice as it is here in Seattle.

[xylitolazy]

Thank you for your replies and congrats!
I decided to go to GW.

Can you tell me why those two are not good for my goal?

Law schools are regional. If you want to work in NY, there are over a dozen law schools in NY. You shouldn't go to Washington/Wisconsin because they place almost solely in Washington/Wisconsin (for your question it literally does not matter which school you are considering: they are both bad choices). While GW seems to place okay in NY, you're talking about going into a ton of debt for a school that still doesn't align with your goals very well. That is, if your only goal is to work in New York and you are committed to spending over a quarter of a million dollars on law school, Fordham is a much better choice than GW, and retaking until you can get into Cornell/NYU/Columbia/any t14 is an even better choice than Fordham. Also, pretty much no one on this website is going to be very encouraging about sticker price anywhere, because it is just a whole lot of money.

Do you have goals other than just working in New York? or, do you have skills that would allow you to work in New York without getting a law degree?

Hopefully I can work in NY, but in other states is fine too. I just thought because I am an international student, NY will give me more options.

technically you get hiv first and not aids.

Um...I'm sorry but what is hiv?

I'm usually rah-rah-rah UW as a double Husky, but if you're going to NY, we're not really the best fit. I'm sure it's possible (albeit pretty unlikely) to land a NY job out of UW, and I bet if I had time to kill I could find UW alum at firms in NY doing cool stuff, but it wouldn't be an overwhelming number of them. (With that said, I have one classmate who summered at Cleary in NY. But she's the exception, not the rule.)

Are you looking at UW because you're considering the LLM so you can qualify to sit for either the NY or Washington bar? That would make sense to me because not as many schools offer that program, and UW Law does. We have a lot of international students here pursuing their LLM to sit for the bar exam, so you'd fit right in, and the LLM is a pretty short program. But if you're looking for a JD, you should just wait and reapply to some New York schools. There is no need to create additional barriers for yourself at the outset, as nice as it is here in Seattle.

I'm going to pursue JD actually. I was thinking to work in WA too, but I thought maybe NY has a bigger market for international students to work. Do you work at UW?

[UVA2B]

This is literally the worst version of a choosing thread I've seen in awhile. Good luck at GW. I hope it doesn't lead to financial ruin for you.