Berkeley v. 105K Cornell v. 25K Columbia

[dinosaur]

sorry to add another of these posts -- unsure if i can handle ithaca weather and cornell scene seemed a little preppy for me/ i like columbia area though law school culture seemed a little professional for me though i do have an nyc social net from undergrad/ liked berkeley

want geographic flexibility (including ability to work intl), dont want nyc or dc big law (could maybe handle firm culture/ hrs in other places), might go public interest

[mbw]

Berkeley, particularly if you want PI.  Both Cornell and Columbia are decent picks too, so I envy the opportunities, but Boalt is just a bit "more", imo.  Plus, the 9th circuit is one of the most interesting in the US, should you look to clerk.  And the grading system is cool, but I'm a dirty old hippie, so am clearly biased. 

Did you get matching funds from Boalt, and/or are you in state?

[dinosaur]

no matching funds yet/ not in-state

let's say i decide to work in Asia post-grad -- to what extent do you think Columbia name trumps Berk?

[mbw]

no matching funds yet/ not in-state

let's say i decide to work in Asia post-grad -- to what extent do you think Columbia name trumps Berk?

Doesn't.  Boalt all the way in that case. 

When I was sixteen (a long time ago - I'm the real dinosaur), I lived in Sweden.  Friends kept asking me if I'd ever visited the great Oo-clah University.  I was, like, what?  You know.  Oo-clah.  U-C-L-A.  Oo-clah!  (being from Connecticut, and an East Coast college snob, I didn't appreciate the import at the time.)

The UC brand is strong around the world, but now with the close ties between Asia and California, you can't go wrong with Berkeley.

[NYU2011]

From what I understand Columbia has really good ties with Asia, someone was talking about it a few weeks ago.

If Columbia is offering money and Berkley isn't I dont know how you'd pass up Columbia. I believe Columbia's LRAP is better than Berkley's as well.

[El_Che]

Columbia with $$. That's a winning combination.

[whartonn]

no matching funds yet/ not in-state

let's say i decide to work in Asia post-grad -- to what extent do you think Columbia name trumps Berk?

Doesn't.  Boalt all the way in that case. 

When I was sixteen (a long time ago - I'm the real dinosaur), I lived in Sweden.  Friends kept asking me if I'd ever visited the great Oo-clah University.  I was, like, what?  You know.  Oo-clah.  U-C-L-A.  Oo-clah!  (being from Connecticut, and an East Coast college snob, I didn't appreciate the import at the time.)

The UC brand is strong around the world, but now with the close ties between Asia and California, you can't go wrong with Berkeley.

While I agree that UC-Berkeley is a strong international brand, but it is debatable whether it is a stronger international brand than Cornell or Columbia. The Times Higher Education Global University Rankings 2007 ranked Columbia 12th, Cornell 19th, and UC-Berkeley 22nd.

UC-Berkeley has fallen in statute quite a bit over the last 10 years and has lost some of its best faculty to Ivy League schools. This is mainly due to growing disparities in funding. Thinking long-term, I would expect Cornell and Columbia to extend their international footprint, especially relative to UC-Berkeley.

If I were OP, I would take the full ride at Cornell or the scholarship at Columbia.

[Special Agent Dana Scully]

doesn't berkeley have a matching program with the t14 (except NU)?  see if they match Cornell, then go to Berkeley.

[Special Agent Dana Scully]

doesn't berkeley have a matching program with the t14 (except NU)?  see if they match Cornell, then go to Berkeley.

They rarely match.  I think that the matching rate is 5%.

regardless of not matching 100%, I'm thinking that the OP should be able to get something from Berkeley.  even still, OP should at least TRY

[Resident CLS Troll]

I agree that step one is to see if either Berkeley or CLS would up their offers based on the Cornell offer.  However I somehow don't see CLS upping as they'd probably still see $25k at CLS as a better offer than $105k at Cornell.

If that doesn't change anything, see what you like better.  I think the objective factors point toward CLS, particularly with money (I don't believe CoL is much lower in the Bay Area so that's not a big factor), but a lot of it in my opinion is what your gut feeling is toward the decision.

If you have any questions about CLS, please feel free to ask.  And to echo Waiting to hear back, CLS does have very strong ties with Asia, among other places.  Not sure if that's as true with Berkeley.