Do you agree that Chicago is a place that tells you why M&As are done and NYU tells you, on the other hand, how to do them?

true!

633SP, I am not familiar with this statement. I was admitted to Chicago and waiting for a response from NYU. Can you please elaborate and explain your statement? It sounds interesting.
Thanks.

Chicago has an intellectual approach while NYU has a paractical approach.

I'd rather believe such good Uni's have both.

Reading a lot about NYU and Chicago, I would say they are both outstanding places. I posed the question so it maybe could help me reason if indeed Chicago has a more academic approach than NYU. I was accepted at Chicago and also am waiting on NYU.

NYU is the legal factory for Wall Street's needs. Chicago is home of several Nobel Prizes. I believe this points out that maybe Chicago helps you reason instead of acquiring practice. However, I'm confident both schools offer you practical clinics.

Choosing between these schools will maybe depend on studying on a campus instead of scattered buildings in big and live city like NYC. If accepted in both, there will be a 'good' problem to be solved.

I really believe both schools can offer all you need from an academic or practical approach and have equal reputation. It doesn't help, I know, I'm also waiting on NYU (and CLS and Berkeley) :-)

I really think it comes down to which city you want to live in and what kind of LLM "experience" (as Chicago puts it) you're looking for.

I tend to think Chicago's LLM is superior to NYU's, but it's just a hunch. I think small classes and contact with the faculty, when considering top Uni's like these, should be the main criteria. But what "should be" may not be what it will be for me, as I give great (too much?) value to the location criterion!

An interesting post in another thread by cmplxlitigator comparing UChicago and CLS :

If you have the opportunity to visit both cities please do. As I said you simply can't make a wrong choice regarding what school you choice. It is purely subjective.

The choice of cities is also a subjective choice but even more so. Both are very cosmopolitan. I've lived in Southern California, San Francisco, NYC, Chicago et al. Of all those places I think Chicago is the best city in the US and San Francisco next. As I said that is an entirely subjective opinion. I may prefer Chicago because I grew up in the Midwest.

UofC is not in Downtown Chicago but in a city neighborhood very close to Downtown. The campus is self contained and forms a community of it's own. The surrounding neighborhood has a high crime rate but it is becoming gentrified and crime is going down. This neighborhood has no more crime than Morningside Heights where Columbia is located.

Downtown Chicago is known for it's architecture. It is very cultured and cosmopolitan. Because it is smaller than NYC it is easy to get around. Night life is great. Chicago is where the US comodities market is located. Dozens of hedge funds are headquartered in Chicago. With technology as it is financial businesses don't have to be located on Wall Street like they used to be.

Now Columbia. It is the archtypical urban university. I don't know of any urban university in US with a nicer Campus although NYU is awesome too. The campus buildings are a combination of traditional collegiate as well as modern architecture. Once on campus it is easy to get around. Depending on where you live getting to campus can require patience. The neighborhood surrounding the campus, Morningside Heights, has a crime rate, but like the neighborhood where UofC is located, it is becoming gentrified. Additionally, Columbia is buying up large tracts of property for an ambitious expansion project. Like UofC, Columbia is a place for serious scholarship and the campus is condusive to scholarly pursuits.

New Yorkers will tell you the sun rises and sets in their city. It is important to point out that when the "world" refers to NYC they are referring to Manhattan Island which is really one of five boroughs that comprise the City of New York. New York is one of the great cosmopolitan locations in the world but the verity of that statement is for all practical purposes confined to Manhattan. NYC. Is very expensive but if you chose Columbia it would be a worthy investment.

One final statement. The UofC has for at least the send half of the 20th Century been considered the equivalent of the Ivy League in reputation. Much like MIT or Stanford are as prestigious as any Ivy League institution.

This turned out to be a much longer discourse than I intended. I'm sitting in court waiting for my case to be called for a motion hearing. Still waiting. I hope this is helpful to you and anyone else who might have the same questions. Remember I only intend this to be my personal opinion regarding choice of location and attributes of the respective colleges. My statements regarding the relative quality and prestige of the schools should stand-up to objective scrutiny. I apologize for any typographical errors or misspelled words. I'm typing this on my iPhone.

Both are good schools. The way I see it, you only have a problem if both offer you full tuition. If not, then go to the one that offers you the most or where you have to spend the least.