Hey guys,

I was accepted to:

- University of Virginia,
- Duke,
- UCLA,
- Northwestern.

My plan is to take either a New York bar or California bar and try to stay in US at least for a year. At all of them I got a scholarship. My specialization would be: International business law/international transactions & international arbitration.

Which school would you suggest?

[Edited by leol95 on Mar 15, 2019]

Hey guys,

I was accepted to:

- University of Virginia,
- Duke,
- UCLA,
- Northwestern.

My plan is to take a New York bar and try to stay in US at least for a year. At all of them I got a scholarship. My specialization would be: International business law/international transactions & international arbitration.

Which school would you suggest?

Hello - Congratulations! I am at Duke, and I am very happy of my choice (I choose Duke over UVA, NW, Cornell and UCLA).

I think that they are all good and quite the same, but thereafter few keys which could help you to decide:
- Ranking: Duke, NW, and UVA are Top10 law schools. UCLA is not.
- Practice Area: you can do a Business Law Certificate at Duke (in connection with the Fuqua Business School) and also at NW (in connection with Kellog Business School). At Duke you have a famous professor in Securities Regulation (Pr. Cox). I don’t know for the others.
- LLM Class size: around 50 (UVA), around 100 (Duke), around 200 (UCLA); NW?. => from my experience the smaller is the better.
- Reputation: it will depends of your country. In my case (France) UVA is not very well-known while it’s ranking is better than UCLA. The other schools are quite the same.
- NY Job Fair: all those Law schools offer the opportunity to attend the January job fair. The NYU’s Job Fair for Duke, NW and UCLA; you are 35 law schools in that job fair, which is a lot, but you are among the best ranked school. The Columbia’s job fair for UVA; you are only few law schools among the most prestigious but you are the worse in ranking.
- Alumni network: I think they are all equivalent.
- Weather: NW it will be cold during the winter. UCLA it will be sunny all year long. Duke and UVA you will have a beautiful Indian summer.
- Location: If you prefer cities (UCLA and NW). If you want to discover the country side (Duke, UVA).

Additional subjective arguments in favor of Duke:
- The law school building and library are new, high-tech, and beautiful;
- The university campus is one of the most beautiful of the USA;
- You are at 3h of the mountains and 2h of the beautiful beaches;
- You will have many opportunities to attend basketball games of the most famous college basketball team (the blue devils);
- The living costs are cheaper because it’s in the country side and you have an international airport at 30min in order to travel everywhere;
- You are in the middle of the east cost, so with your car you can travel and visit New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Charleston, Atlanta, Savannah, Miami, Key West!
- The weather is super nice.

[Edited by # on Mar 15, 2019]