BC Law or Fordham Law? I need actual help!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Disclaimer: I am not surrendering my decision to the whims of the Dopers; I have done research on both schools and still cannot decide- so I am trying to establish tiebreaker criteria in the event that financial aid packages and academic strengths are tied.

I suppose the title says it all, but allow me to set some parameters.

I have been accepted to both the aforementioned law schools. I haven’t heard back from Harvard or NYU, acceptance to either of which will preclude enrollment at BC or Fordham, acceptance to Harvard trumping NYU.

My interests are criminal defense, individual rights, constitutional law, and Catholic Church law. If anyone knows about strengths or quirks or interesting points about either school’s programs in these areas, I’d love to know about them.
I guess the real question is- what do you law students, grad students, attorneys, what have you, look for when selecting a school?

When all your primary critereia have been satisfied, what helps influence your gut decision?

Because my gut is pretty damn confused right now.

2

Oh, and before any of you ask:

I’m 30, so I don’t care about bar scenes or clubbing/nightlife enough to consider it in my decision-making process.

I’m Northern Irish Catholic.

My girlfriend is in Boston, but she’s a third-year med student and I’ll be a 1-L, so scheduling will provide the exact same obstacle that distance now does, and it is for this reason that we have agreed that she not be a deciding factor (at least, I can’t tell her she was one, regardless of whether she is).

3

Hey Happy Scrappy, congrats on getting on to both Fordham and BC. I’m a graduate of Fordham Law, and I would advise you to seriously consider it. I don’t know much about BC Law, but I think that Fordham has a really strong program.

First of all, an important factor you should consider is where you want to live and practice when you get out. Fordham has extremely strong connections in the New York area, though it is getting better known nationally. In New York, a Fordham degree will likely gain you more than BC, and I’m sure that in Boston it is exactly the opposite. I really don’t know what the comparative view is outside of the northeast.

One thing that is unusual about Fordham is what I see as the community of spirit. From the adminstration on down, everyone tries to make the school a good, humane place to be at. There is somewhat of a family atmosphere, and there is a low degree of “bad” competitiveness between students. From the start, a strong mutual committment between school and students/alumni is emphasized.

Something outstanding about the school is the alumni committment. The annual Fordham alumni luncheon is the largest regular law school alumni event in the country, and the percentage of alumni who donate is very high for law schools. More important, many alumni have a strong concern for helping fellow alumni in their careers and practices. The alumni, along with the adminstration, are also greatly interested in increasing the schools standing and facilities.

The quality of both the education and the students at the school is superb. Although it is a strong academic program, I think there is a very healthy leavening of practical experience and training for the practice of law. One advantage of the New York location is that there are a great many adjunct professors who are highly skilled in their fields who can teach with both an academic and real world perspective. Likewise, many students find New York an attractive place to study. The school’s evening division attracts many working law students who add different perspectives to the classroom.

I think the school suffers from being in the same city as NYU and Columbia. Fordham, unfortunately, is sometimes hidden by the long shadows of those schools. Were it elsewhere, I think it would easily have a national reputation to match its regional one.

As a Northen Irish Catholic, you would not be out of place at Fordham (though I think that the student body actually has more Jews than Catholics). The School has been heavily involved in the Northern Irish peace process, and has sponsored missions and educational programs here and in both parts of Ireland on the issues. Fordham is, of course, a Jesuit school, and I had one Jesuit as a professor. I think its “Jesuitness” manifests itself in two main ways, the community spirit I discussed above and a strong committment to public service.

All in all, I think Fordham would a be a superb place for you to choose for law school. Feel free to e-mail me if you want to discuss it further.

4

Congrats! I am not a graduate of either Fordham or BC (and in fact have not been back east in a loooong time) so I have no advice specific to those schools. Instead, I echo some of what Billdo said.

Look at things like class/section size. Are these large schools? How many people will be in your class? How many in your section? My opinion: smaller is better, because you’ll get more attention.

What do these schools do best? Do they have some outstanding programs? Are those outstanding programs ones you’re interested in?

Where do you want to live after law school? Where do the students from those schools go? If you want to live in New York, and 50% of the BC students go to New York, you’re good. If you want to live in, say, Michigan, and 2% of BC students go there, but 15% of Fordham students do, Fordham’s a better choice because employers in Michigan are more likely to have heard of it and be willing to bring someone out from the east coast for an interview.

Talking about career options, look at their career services office. Based on your interests, you’re not going into big firm life. You’re going to do public interest or government work, most likely. (Or you’ll realize that con law, individual rights, etc., are your interest/hobby, and go big firm.) Point is, you can go big firm from pretty much anywhere. But getting help finding a job doing public interest or government work is harder, and some career services offices (at my esteemed alma mater, for example) act as if you have serious mental problems if you want to go public interest. So talk to people in career services: what contacts do they have in public interest? How many public interest employers come to campus to interview? How many students go into public interest?

(By the way, if I’ve misread you, just substitute “big firm” or “criminal defense firm” for “public interest” in the above list of questions.)

You’re 30. What’s the average age of the students at each school? (You’d likely be better off with an average age of 27 or higher, because that indicates that some of the students worked before attending law school – they aren’t simply coming straight out of college – so your life experiences are more closely tailored to theirs.)

Also, with financial aid: find out if your 1-L packet is going to be substantially similar to what they’ll offer you for your second and third years. Make sure there’s no bait and switch.

Finally, see if you can find any blawgs written by students at each school. They’ll be biased, but it may give you some of the flavor for the school.

One last thing: there were policies and people I hated at my law school (we used to say, $30,000 does not include heat, copies or common courtesy), but overall my experience was great and has gotten me into a good job. Once you’ve done the analysis, go with your gut. No place is perfect, but you’ve got good choices in front of you. Best of luck.

5

I’m having trouble reconciling these two statements :smiley:
As others have said, I think it pretty much comes down to where you want to live after you graduate.

You might want to consider Boston if that’s where your GF is going to school. It’s still kind of nice coming home to someone even if it’s at 1am.
As a slight hijack, 30 is not really that old to be giving up on the bar scene (of which both New York and Boston have aplenty).