From your questions it seems like you will be trying to get a job and stay in the U.S after your LLM so I will take this as given.
There are two job fairs in New York - however they take place during the same weekend so the employers only go to New York once. One is organized by Columbia the otherone by NYU. Columbia job fair is smaller - they take students from Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, UVA, Chicago, Stanford, and I think Yale (altough I didnt see anyone from Yale this year). The NYU job fair is massive and to my knowledge too many schools participate in that one. Now in my opinion it is better to be at the Columbia job fair - everyone I know got at least 5 interviews - I can imagine that this is not the case at the NYU. Now that being said do not expect to get an offer via the job fair and certainly do not expect that offer to come from an New York office or law firm. Many employers at these job fairs recruite for their international offices so it is almost better to think of it as fair where you can get a job in the region where you come from - I am from Europe so there were a plenty of ooportunities as far as London for example. The handful jobs that are offered by american/New YOrk offices those are pretty much all reserved for Spanish/Portuguese speakers. Not that anyone else could not give it a shot but way too many positions have in their descriprions those languages as a requirement. For the rest of the positions where they do not limit themselves to Spanish/port. speakers it is more about luck and other things in the selection process.
Eventually if you are looking for a job you will have to actively seek it on your own. This where a major factor - alumni relations step in. At Michigan the Alumni are very very loyal. I have classmates who randomly call alumni and those lawyers really talk to them. Not all of them lead to a job offer of course but the more you talk to people the higher chances you have. I am sure that alumni relations are string at other schools too - or at least this a thing to investigate. Also with Michigan small program you have smaller competition for connections. This of 450 class at NYU al looking for connections. But again I dont know the details - try to investigate with someone from NYT how it works for them.
As far as differences among the schools it is really hard to say and it largely depends on what your preferences are. In terms of prestige in the U.S I think it is fair to say that they are equals, altough NYU being in New York might give you a bit of an edge if you were looking for a corporate law job in New York. Michigan has its two main job markets in Chicago in New York which works well for people who like to be flexible but NYU will surely have a better establishment in NYC. For Northwestern its Chicago alsmost exlusively I would say, for Berkley it is California at large.
One thing that you might consider is whether you wanna be in a campus based school or not - with NYU and NOrthwestern this is not really the case and you might have ti travel to school quite a bit through the big city traffic. I for instance didnt want this at all and it was one of the main factors that I considered. I wanted to be in a campus like setting where you walk to school and you can walk back to your house after and in between classes. Of course you can stay close to law school at all of the schools but it may be very very very expensive with law school housing.
Also try to find out about the law school culture. FOr instance in Michigan it is very laid back, no formalities as far as professors also as far as dress code. I heard that in Northwestern for example you go to school exclusively in a suit. Now I would straight out hate that. But again your preferences may be different.
Thank you Corfin for your helpful responses. You had mentioned that there is another job fair where only a handful of schools come. Would you tell me what that fair is? One is the ISIP in New York. Which is this other one?
Also, could you elaborate a bit on Michigan's reputation and experience versus a Berkeley, a Northwestern or an NYU?
From your questions it seems like you will be trying to get a job and stay in the U.S after your LLM so I will take this as given.
There are two job fairs in New York - however they take place during the same weekend so the employers only go to New York once. One is organized by Columbia the otherone by NYU. Columbia job fair is smaller - they take students from Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, UVA, Chicago, Stanford, and I think Yale (altough I didnt see anyone from Yale this year). The NYU job fair is massive and to my knowledge too many schools participate in that one. Now in my opinion it is better to be at the Columbia job fair - everyone I know got at least 5 interviews - I can imagine that this is not the case at the NYU. Now that being said do not expect to get an offer via the job fair and certainly do not expect that offer to come from an New York office or law firm. Many employers at these job fairs recruite for their international offices so it is almost better to think of it as fair where you can get a job in the region where you come from - I am from Europe so there were a plenty of ooportunities as far as London for example. The handful jobs that are offered by american/New YOrk offices those are pretty much all reserved for Spanish/Portuguese speakers. Not that anyone else could not give it a shot but way too many positions have in their descriprions those languages as a requirement. For the rest of the positions where they do not limit themselves to Spanish/port. speakers it is more about luck and other things in the selection process.
Eventually if you are looking for a job you will have to actively seek it on your own. This where a major factor - alumni relations step in. At Michigan the Alumni are very very loyal. I have classmates who randomly call alumni and those lawyers really talk to them. Not all of them lead to a job offer of course but the more you talk to people the higher chances you have. I am sure that alumni relations are string at other schools too - or at least this a thing to investigate. Also with Michigan small program you have smaller competition for connections. This of 450 class at NYU al looking for connections. But again I dont know the details - try to investigate with someone from NYT how it works for them.
As far as differences among the schools it is really hard to say and it largely depends on what your preferences are. In terms of prestige in the U.S I think it is fair to say that they are equals, altough NYU being in New York might give you a bit of an edge if you were looking for a corporate law job in New York. Michigan has its two main job markets in Chicago in New York which works well for people who like to be flexible but NYU will surely have a better establishment in NYC. For Northwestern its Chicago alsmost exlusively I would say, for Berkley it is California at large.
One thing that you might consider is whether you wanna be in a campus based school or not - with NYU and NOrthwestern this is not really the case and you might have ti travel to school quite a bit through the big city traffic. I for instance didnt want this at all and it was one of the main factors that I considered. I wanted to be in a campus like setting where you walk to school and you can walk back to your house after and in between classes. Of course you can stay close to law school at all of the schools but it may be very very very expensive with law school housing.
Also try to find out about the law school culture. FOr instance in Michigan it is very laid back, no formalities as far as professors also as far as dress code. I heard that in Northwestern for example you go to school exclusively in a suit. Now I would straight out hate that. But again your preferences may be different.
<blockquote>Thank you Corfin for your helpful responses. You had mentioned that there is another job fair where only a handful of schools come. Would you tell me what that fair is? One is the ISIP in New York. Which is this other one?
Also, could you elaborate a bit on Michigan's reputation and experience versus a Berkeley, a Northwestern or an NYU? </blockquote>
