I got into NU's FT Tax Program this week. Anyone have any thoughts about this program? I'm still waiting to hear from NYU and UF Levin. Have to decide by friday. Applied to NYU (PT) and UF (FT). Assuming I get into all three schools, where should I go?

I don't have a job lined up, so I don't know what I would be doing with my part time schedule if I got into NYU.

My only misgiving about UF is that it's in Florida. I know I do not want to practice in FL or the South for that matter.

Hello,

I got into Northwestern's FT Tax Program and am planning on attending. I've spoken to some Tax Attorneys and everyone seems to have great things to say about Northwestern and its relatively new, but active Tax Program.

Who else is planning on attending? Anybody have any useful information/advice for someone attending NW in August?

Thanks

EDRTax,

Thanks for the response. I've spoken to a few alums from my law school who attended NW's Tax Program, and they generally have good things to say about the school. NW places well at the Big4 nationally. The two I spoke to got jobs in New York in desirably departments, i.e. M&A. But I heard firm jobs are a stretch. I'm still waiting on NYU and Florida.

Thanks for the response.

I believe the lack of law firm hiring says more about the legal market generally than it does about NW's tax program. I know Georgetown and NYU alums from 2009, 2010 who have been unable to land firm jobs. That being said, I hear 2011 has been "much better."

I'm waiting on Florida as well. Good luck

EDR,

Would you attend Florida over NW? I know they are ranked higher, but I'm worried about being stuck in FL. Please correct me if I'm wrong about UF's national hiring.

I'm worried about potentially being stuck in Florida also. But, Florida does have a great reputation and is way cheaper.

I guess I'll have to make that decision when the time comes. I personally really like NW's program. Chicago is a great city. I like the small size of the program (I believe around 40 people in the class). The faculty has been very friendly, approachable and helpful already. The head of career planning convinced me that he cares about EACH of the students in the program. If you are actually into tax, I don't think you can go wrong with either program.

I will be attending UF in the Fall. I am somewhat concerned about getting stuck in Florida, but my primary goal is to remain in the South. For me it came down to the money. I spoke with people at UF and part of the reason that so many UF grads end up in Florida is because that is where they are from. The next biggest groups come from the Academic Common Market states so there are smaller groups of alumni from those states.

I love Chicago as a city, but for one year based on cost UF made the most sense to me.

Congrats on UF. Its a terrific program.

What has UF said about the market for LLMs? I heard its not back to 2005, 2006 levels but is way better than 2009, 2010. Have you heard this also?

That is what I heard from Georgetown when I was there for their admitted students day (they did say estate planning was lagging a bit) and also what I had heard from UF.

The people at UF made the point that UF is a smaller program and their graduates tend to spread out a bit more so you're unlikely to look at X firm in Y city and find as many UF LLM's as you would GULC or NYU.

The flip side of that point though was that the UF alums are a very tight nit group and are willing to help out the current LLM's quite a bit.

Well, yeah. That's the classic argument made by a smaller school. "We don't have as many alums but, because of that, everyone looks out for each other."

Any mention of law firm hiring? How 2011 is faring? Trends in hiring besides Big 4?

I didn't really talk to them too much about specifics. I figure I need to take everything with a huge grain of salt. I'm sure if you wanted to contact them they would be more than willing to talk to about that.

I think the other problem with the small school is that when 75-80% of your students are from one state the sample size of those outside the state isn't statistically significant enough to really make a decision.

I am still waiting for the results, are they dealing with the tax program applications this week?

I'm not sure which program you're talking about NU or UF. I do know that I called UF to check on the status of my application and they were able to give me a timetable for hearing a decision.

It's NU. My app was completed in the early December.I send them a letter regarding the status 2 weeks before. There is no reply. I try not to bombard the admission office with e-mail. But I am quite anxious about the decision. Shall I call the office?

Chopaul,

You should definitely call the office. Their staff is very friendly, and they've been helpful every time I've spoken to them.

Got admitted just 1 minutes before!

Congrats!

Thanks. :)

do you guys know how selective NU tax is?

DRWC - will you be attending Northwestern's tax program this August?

I spoke to a few students who just graduated and they said real good things. Apparently, the legal market for Tax LLMs is much better than the past few years.