I find myself stuck between the two schools. Neither offers any $. My plan for future career is business lawyering or inhouse counseling.

They are so close in terms of the US News rankings, i.e, #8 vs #6(or 7).

The tuitions are almost the same in light of the figures of last year.

LLM students are eligible for advanced standing in the event of transfer into the JD program.

However, Penn allows LLM students to take upper lever courses only while Chicago has no such restrictions on course selection.

Chicago grades students on 180 scale while Penn grades students on A through F.

Penn is one hour's ride from NYC by train; Chicago is a midwest metropolis.

Thoughts?

I'm sorry I can't help you about that, but when did you get your Penn's acceptation decision please?

I'm sorry I can't help you about that, but when did you get your Penn's acceptation decision please?

I cant help you with that, because I am at the same dilemma.I think I will go to UPenn.....

Penn for me too...unless you want to specialize in Law & Econ

No doubt Penn

Thank you guys. No specific reasons?

But the yankees (lawyers and lay persons) I consulted tend to agree that Chicago is more prestigious, particularly in the field of PE which happens to be my practicing area....

UPenn rules. It is the best choice for corporate / business.

They all say that CLS is the best one, but I have doubts on that. First, I've been to CLS several times and you do not have a "campus life"experience. NYC is a great city and expensive, dirty and busy. Remember, most of the wall street wizards were counseled by CLS people (with the CDOs and CDS stuff!!).

Chicago is also a great city, yet UofC is in the south of the city (strange place) and far from the "good" part of chicago.

People here must have in mind that they are going to spend most of the time in the University studying. For that UPenn is awesome and the city is like a "manageable" NY, with great transportation and near NY and DC.

Chicago is very academic oriented with great professors, but not practical (why do you need Posner if you are not going to academia?). The students from Chicago (JD, etc.) are more NERD than any other Law School. The weather in chicago sucks. I`d rather go to NW (if you want to go to Chicago).

U Chicago

UPENN >>>> UofC

hi all... I am new to this board.

have been following the discussions and its very helpeful.

congrats to all of you.

i am in doubt between Penn and Columbia.

been admitted to both (and chicago, but I am not going there, it is to cold for me).

looking at the board, it looks like Penn it is really great with an amazing campus and near new york.

could someone please help me... how good is Penn?

i work with corporate / business for a steel company.

thank you :)

No doubt Columbia is the best in Business/Corporate law and at par with NYU.

@marta111 - how can you assure that? have you been to CLS? Are you a ranking whore? Because of Cofee?

Additionally, to those who are ranking fans, I believe the University is as important as the Law School. In that sense, please find below the TOP 10 Universities in the US accordingly to US NEWS!!!

Score Costs 2008 Total enrollment Fall 2008 Acceptance rate

1- Harvard University - Cambridge, MA

100 2009-2010 Tuition: $37,012 19,230 7.9%

1- Princeton University - Princeton, NJ

100 2009-2010 Tuition: $35,340 7,497 9.9%

3- Yale University - New Haven, CT

98 2009-2010 Tuition: $36,500 11,446 8.6%

4- California Institute of Technology - Pasadena, CA

93 2009-2010 Tuition: $34,584 2,126 17.4%

4- Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA

93 2009-2010 Tuition: $37,782 10,299 11.9%

4- Stanford University - Stanford, CA

93 2009-2010 Tuition: $37,881 17,833 9.5%

4- University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA

93 2009-2010 Tuition: $38,970 19,018 16.9%

8- Columbia University - New York, NY

91 2009-2010 Tuition: $41,316 23,196 10.0%

8- University of Chicago - Chicago, IL

91 2009-2010 Tuition: $39,381 12,386 27.9%

10- Duke University - Durham, NC

good shout Wizard

Have a good one!!!

Considering the above mentioned:

Benjamin Franklin (upenn) > Wall Street Credit Crunch (cls) > Posner and Coase (chicago).

Hi guys!

I am a current LL.M.-student at Penn and would like to share my thoughts with you.
If you are particularly interested in Business Law then Penn is the best address to go due to the variety and quality of classes. For example the Law School offers besides the basic corporations class also M&A, Anatomy of a Merger (taught by 2 alumni who are parnters at Sullivan & Cromwell), Corporate Finance, International Finance, Securities Regulation, Business Strategies and Corporate Law (taught by an alumnus who is a partner at KKR, Wharton MBA students are also attending this class) and some more business-related classes which I do not recall.
The campus is very nice and Philly isn't as bad as its reputation. I think Chicago is also a great university but I would definitely go to Penn if I had to choose again. Some of my classmates have rejected offers from Columbia and even Harvard to go to Penn.
I hope that this is a little bit helpful for the decision-making.

Additionally, to those who are ranking fans, I believe the University is as important as the Law School.

Additionally, to those who are ranking fans, I believe the University is as important as the Law School.

I disagree. Some law / business schools are exceptionally known despite the parent university being relatively less known. A few are modest in all departments. Comparisons on the basis of universities can be confusing and may actually hinder selection of the optimum law school. UPenn may be ranked #4 in your list but can it be honestly said that UPenn Law is better than all of these - NYU, Chicago, Cornell and CLS ??

I believe you're hung up on UPenn for some reason best known to you and anyone reading your posts should be aware of this.

I agree. I think Penn is certainly better than Cornell, and, at the very least, not worse than NYU and Chicago. I'm not sure about Columbia, but, if there's any difference in it, I think it slight.