Hi,

 I am a lawyer from India working as a Senior Associate at a leading corporate law firm. I got an offer from NYU@NUS along with a Dean's scholarship of US $ 35000/-. i am not sure how worth the program is? as I am already in a senior position and there are ample chances of becoming a partner in my firm in another three months time. I have also applied to some other top IVY league universities which may communicate the decision by March. I am confused whether I will get a scholarship in these IVY league or should I go for NUS@NYU.

 Regarding my profile

Topper gold medallist from Kerala university with 59%

Winner of several gold medals for law

Seven years of work experience

Represented India inthe XIth Manfred lachs moot court at Sydney 2002.

Interned at World trade organisation at Geneva, Switzerland.

Participated in the Hague Academy Lecture Series at the Hague , The Netherlands with a scholarship

Completed Post graduate course in International Trade Law at Turin Italy conducted by ILO with a scholarship.

Rank holder in B.Sc with 96%.

I am confused! Should I accept the offer from NYU@NUS or should wait for offer from the other U S Schools.

Please some one help.

Hi Shobhan

Sent you a P.M on this. However my suggestion is take the NYU offer. Just pay the 500 $ deposit and book your place at least. It's not too much if you're already a Senior Associate, which means 500$ is not that much money to pay in order to avoid the risk of not getting a scholarship in the other Ivy league colleges. No point taking a huge loan to study when you already have a scholarship. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. lol. :)))) Of course even if you have to come back to India after your course, you can always pay off a loan easily especially at your level of experience. But still I'd think twice before giving up a scholarship which I already had in favour of uncertainty for the other institutes.

Other advantage of NYU@NUS is that you get 2 degrees instead of one. In fact that was one of the main reasons why NYU@NUS was my first preference. Of course now I have to explore other possibilities since I didn't get admission.

Regarding giving up the partnership track, that is a tough decision but you need to decide how important the LLM is compared to the partnership track and why exactly you want to do the LLM.

To be frank, even if I was on a partnership track, I'd probably go for the LLM because of the international exposure and the in depth understanding of the subjects you'd study there. Besides you can always have an arrangement with your law firm that after your course you can come back to them at a partner level. A friend of mine did that in her law firm. She went off to study in US and then came back to India and joined back as a Partner in her firm. Now she's joined a foreign law firm in Singapore.

Think about it and see where you want to go from here in your career and in your professional development.

Cheers
Prashant