YALE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL

Here we are with ANOTHER surprise school! We decided that we should swing by Yale and see it since it was only an extra 5 minute drive out of the way. It was about 8:30am when we got there, so no offices were open to speak with us, but at least we got to walk around the campus. It looked shockingly similar to the Michigan Law School, but upon further research, we found that Yale totally copied UM, not the other way around (UM- 1859, Yale- 1930). Sloppy copy cats. It was nice to see it, but we have little to report.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

Well, here is a little surprise for you! We decided to stop by Columbia after all. We aren't in New York all the time and we figured since we were close and we were going to apply anyway, it was worth swinging by to see it. It turns out that the campus was beautiful and the staff was friendly! We are definitely glad we came. The adviser that we spoke with was incredibly helpful was so accessible, especially in comparison to the other Ivy League School we visited. The
campus is rather large, especially since it includes the Undergraduate campus, but after a little bit of a walk we found everything and had a great little tour. It's also located next to Harlem, which has quite a bit of history. We continued from here to find a good pizza joint and we found John's Pizzeria down by Time Square. It was quite good! The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around and finding all the good tourist locations like 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park. For the evening, we decided to venture all the way down to Coney Island! It was a really great night. Brandon and I rode the Cyclone, one of America's oldest roller coasters and we all indulged in one of Nathan's hot dogs. As we headed back to the metro station, Jim got caught in a broken pier board and now has a bit of a swollen knee, but other than that it was a great day and overall great weekend in NYC!

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

Next stop today was at Fordham University School of Law. Located next to the Lincoln Center, we found this school to be in a really great location. We spoke with an adviser who was very candid about Brandon's unique potential. We took a quick tour around this building as well and found we were quite pleased with the atmosphere. Though it is number 29 (according to US News), a little lower than our typical range, it is still a viable option because of its good location on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

FUN FACTS:

- The apartments on the corner of this campus start at around $2000 for a single. 

- Fordham is nationally ranked in the top 15 for 3 programs (Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property, and Clinical Legal Education). 

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY BENJAMIN CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW

This morning we started off in mid town at Yeshiva University, Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. They are a little lower on the list, but we decided to visit since the application will be free here (Fee Waiver). We did a short self-guided tour and were able to meet with a counselor briefly, though she seemed somewhat uninterested in speaking with us. The facilities were nice: you can see here the main floor student lounge as well as a student lounge with lockers up on the 3rd floor. Overall, it won't be a top choice, but it will be a fine backup option.

FUN FACTS:

- Cardozo is located on 5th avenue in Greenwich Village. 

- The Innocence Project was started at Cardozo 20 years ago.
- Named after Supreme Court Justice Cardozo.

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

We got into new york around 11am this morning and Brandon was happy to have gotten the opportunity to drive through Manhattan. We picked up our friend, Leonard (from UM), who is working at 200 West this summer in Manhattan. By around 1pm, we had dropped off our car at the hotel and taken the metro back into the city. We stopped by NYU, but since it was a Sunday, we didn't get to meet anybody or do a tour. For this reason, we decided to forego any other visits for the day. We had Fordham on the schedule, but since they would actually be pleased to speak with us tomorrow, we decided to reschedule them for tomorrow instead of Columbia. So tomorrow will be tours and perhaps meetings at Yeshiva Cordozo and Fordham schools, and maybe a swing by of Columbia if we decide to make the time. As far as first impressions of New York, it was a fun day. We found a small cafe for lunch and a nice german place for dinner and we saw plenty of sights in between-- the most exciting: Leonard took us on a personal tour of Goldman Sachs. We saw views of the city from the 43rd floor of the building, right across from the new World Trade Center. It was an incredible view and a beautiful building. Thanks, Leonard!

OUR DAY OFF

 We spent our day off -- yesterday-- looking around the historic sites of Philadelphia. Here you see Elfreth's Alley, the Nation's oldest Neighborhood; Christ Church, and Brandon sitting in George Washington's pew; Independence Hall, a court room. It was a really fun and relaxing day! We spent another night in Philadelphia (well, New Jersey) before heading off to New York this morning.

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY JAMES E BEASLEY SCHOOL OF LAW

Next we traveled to the north side of the city and paid another outrageous $14 fee for parking. But it seems it ended up actually being far more worth it than our visit to Penn. We were continuously surprised by Temple. The campus was quite a bit larger than (at least I) expected. The law school was comprised of TWO separate buildings. Of course, we found the wrong building first, haha. So we kept going and found the admissions office. We explained that we were a day early and the Associate Dean of Admissions was more than happy to welcome us into her office and speak with her. She spoke well of her school and of her city, and her enthusiasm was certainly contagious. She had a spunky personality and was a pleasure to talk to. She told us everything we could have wanted to know and then some. She definitely made Temple stand out as  real possibility. We then continued to our self guided tour-- back to the original building we found! We saw their Moot Court, a few classrooms and their law library, and though it wasn't as high tech as most of the other schools we have seen so far, the prestige of the programs keeps the school towards the top of the list.

FUN FACTS:

- Temple is top 2 in Trial Advocacy Programs.

- Temple is top 10 in Legal Writing Programs.

- Temple is top 15 in International Programs. 

- The Broad Street Metro Station, which runs right to the city center, stops right at the Law School.