Dear all,
I have offer from Columbia with jagdish bhagwati fellowship and from NYU with Vanderbilt scholarship. My areas of interest relate to intl arbitration, investment treaties and laws and trade. Since both have good reputation and have offered competitive scholarship it's a bit difficult to decide.

I want to base my decision on which university is stronger in these areas and future opportunities of internship/externship at WTO/UN/UNCTAD or similar organisations. It would also be great to hear from students who have received these scholarships in the past. Any information would really help me make an informed decision. Thanks

For the areas that you mentioned, I think Columbia would give you the greater advantage. This is based on an anecdotal knowledge of the UNs selection process through friends that now work there.

Thanks for the info cwlaw.

For a decision as serious as this, maybe flip a coin will solve the problem.

As you said, both programs are great and you received prestigious scholarship rom both program. I think you rather need a quick decision rather than a well-thought decision.

Best of luck!

@Taxbear: True, I need to make a quick decision. And I am also leaning towards Columbia.
But now I am being offered Hauser Scolarship by NYU (which will also cover living expenses).
Is Hauser Scholarship known as more prestigious or advantageous ? Also, I don't want to base my decision solely on money, but since both are strong in my areas of interest, will it still be worth to choose Columbia ?

<blockquote>@Taxbear: True, I need to make a quick decision. And I am also leaning towards Columbia.
But now I am being offered Hauser Scolarship by NYU (which will also cover living expenses).
Is Hauser Scholarship known as more prestigious or advantageous ? Also, I don't want to base my decision solely on money, but since both are strong in my areas of interest, will it still be worth to choose Columbia ? </blockquote>

Psychologically speaking, if we, as humans, have to make a decision based on more than 3 factors, we tend to rely on our unconsciousness, i.e., instinct, for processing, and the decision yielded by such unconscious processing tends to be a correct one. So choose Columbia if your instinct tells you so because that might be most rational choice you would have made.

As to the prestigiousness of Hauser, I know beyond a reasonable doubt that it is by far one of the most prestigious scholarship for an LLM candidate to NYU could get. But as to comparison with Columbia admission/program, you might compare an orange to an apple here. As to the advantageousness, then full scholarship plus living expenses is financially advantageous to you beyond anything else.

Hey congratulations!! these are great offers. I was just wondering did you negotiate with NYU to increase the scholarship from Vanderbilt to Hauser? Or was it the case that Hauser was announced sometime later.

Thank you!!

<blockquote>Dear all,
I have offer from Columbia with jagdish bhagwati fellowship and from NYU with Vanderbilt scholarship. My areas of interest relate to intl arbitration, investment treaties and laws and trade. Since both have good reputation and have offered competitive scholarship it's a bit difficult to decide.

I want to base my decision on which university is stronger in these areas and future opportunities of internship/externship at WTO/UN/UNCTAD or similar organisations. It would also be great to hear from students who have received these scholarships in the past. Any information would really help me make an informed decision. Thanks</blockquote>

As cool as they sound the unfortunate reality is that these scholarships count for zilch after your enrolment. The school won't care for it, employers certainly don't and within academia folks only care whether you matriculate with honors and if you're a named scholar or invited to an academic society. All the Knox and Sachs recipients I knew in my class cringe at being introduced as such today.

Hi kan10, congrats on the amazing offers! I have been going through the same weighing exercise and seemed to come out even on the NYU vs Columbia in reputation for int economic law. I've ended up going for Columbia because my partner's studying there as well. On balance, I would be inclined to NYU in your situation because living in NY is so very expensive, and a bit of extra funding will allow you to enjoy the city more. Also, NYU is in the West Village - the best part of the city, especially if you're living in subsidized student accommodation (it's virtually unaffordable without it!) while Columbia is way uptown, a bit out of the way. Would be interested to know what decision you'll make - maybe see you at Columbia!

@TaxBear: That's some sound advice and you rightly pointed out all the factors that got me in a tough spot but I guess as you said I should mostly choose what my instinct says.

@nilacar: Sorry for a late reply, I somehow did not get any notification about this post. No, I did not negotiate for scholarship, it was just announced later.

@jsd: That's some new information. I had clearly no idea about this situation !!