Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

All right, well I won't say this trip was useless, but I'm no closer to making a decision than I was three weeks ago. I went to Duke, thought I had to go there, went to UVa, thought I had to go THERE, and now I'm here thinking, "why on earth would I ever not go to NYU?" this is getting ridiculous.

students: This was the weak point of NYU's presentation, but I don't think it's anything to be concerned about. At Duke I had friends to stay with, and at UVa I hung out with a student host, but at NYU I didn't really get a chance to hang out with any current students and get a sense from them of what they're like. But I went to student panels and the like, and frankly they came across as just like the students at UVa or Duke, except the NYU students are probably a little more diverse and probably a little more from New York City. So basically what you'd expect.

professors: NYU had fewer events with professors than Duke did. That said, NYU sat a professor down at every eight-person table at lunch and let us grill them (speaking of grilling, the chicken was awesome too). There's no point in being shy at these things, and the guy answered all my concerns and then some. I asked him if a student strolled into his office asking if there was any work he could do, if the professor would let him, and the professor said, "oh, I only wish that would happen." (That's a great response, because wherever I go I'm going to try to latch on to the professors in whatever disciplines I'm interested in.) Like everyone, he embraced the idea of a law school in NYC, especially in contrast to his last position, at UVa. I asked him what he thought of UVa, and he said he loved his time there and would never say a bad word, and then he proceeded to say that the beer-and-softball atmosphere at UVa interferes with learning. At UVa, the idea of balance seemed really appealing, at NYU it felt like an unproductive use of my time. So, as always, I have no point.

the area: This is the big deal with NYU. I had assumed that a law school in NYC would be too unconcentrated for my tastes. I want to meet new people and make new connections, not just for professional reasons but to make new friends. I was a little concerned going in that NYU students would all be too distracted to form a tight community with the other students, but that seems not to be the case. The class size is the biggest (about 430 per class, in contrast to 360 at UVa and 200 at Duke), but like the other schools NYU Law first-years get put into 25- to 30-person sections that become really close, go have dinner at professors' houses and go out drinking together on the weekends. Like Duke, a premium was placed on initiative, but at NYU the reason was because there's an infinite array of choices in the city. The area itself is very nice too; the law school is on the southwest corner of Washington Square, so not only is there a beautiful park right outside the building but I can get weed any time I want to. (Mom, that's a joke.) The campus is located in the Village (I'm still not confident in my knowledge of the East-West Village geography) by a lot of sweet restaurants and stores and coffeeshops and the like. Plus when you leave the law school front door, the Empire State Building is right in front of you. How do you beat that?

the crushing amounts of debt: Well, like all the law schools I looked at, you can get a sweet gig out of law school, where you sell your existence to a law firm for as long as you can handle it. Duke and UVa claim it's easier to get an NYC firm job from them because NYU is more competitive, NYU claims it's easier to make contacts in the city when you're in the city too. Either way, NYU is the most expensive of the three, by a fair amount, because it's more expensive living in New York. Uncle Tim asks what 8-10,000 dollars is in terms of your whole life's path, and I've heard that a law school applicant should embrace the best school they get into for basically the same reason. NYU is indeed the highest ranked law school I got into, though since it's newly good, a school like Columbia supposedly has a better rep around the city. And since I'm concerned with the general picture here, not the edges, I don't really care.

differences with Duke and UVa: I could tell at the end of my time at Haverford that I was ready for a more exciting time of life: an extensive and complicated social scene, events happening all around, and people unencumbered by the social awkwardness that permeates the air on Haverford's campus. And honestly, three years later, I'm still waiting. I postponed having fun for campaigns, three times, and while I'm certainly not overburdened by responsibility with my current occupation of sleeping until noon, it's not that exciting either. UVa, socially, seems like a more mature version of Haverford, i.e. a big happy family. My memory of Duke could stand a little refreshing, but I'm pretty sure it felt like a more academic version of the Edwards campaign. I loved Haverford. I loved the Edwards campaign. Is my time better spent repeating one of those experiences, or starting the new one I've been waiting for?