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.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW SCHOOL

We arrived in Philadelphia today around noon and went straight to our favorite lunch spot for the best cheese steaks in town-- By George in Reading Terminal Market. We each enjoyed most of our sandwiches--only most because we simply got way too full. So we packed up what was left for breakfast tomorrow morning and headed for U Penn. Once on far west side of the city, we payed the outrageous $12 for parking and headed in to the Ivy League school. We checked in with both security checkpoints and were finally able to get up to the admissions office with hopes of speaking with a counselor since we were here on a weekday instead of saturday! Unfortunately, no such luck. The receptionist in the office insisted that no counselors were available to meet with us, however she would be happy to answer our questions. Yet our questions were mostly answered with, "You'll have to check out website", so we quickly realized that we were not going to get anything special from these people. So we walked around the school briefly before departing. We saw they had a relatively pretty campus-- it was especially nice to see a lush, green courtyard in the middle of a bustling city. The Moot Court Room and Classrooms were on the higher end of average, and the student lounges--"The Clock" and "The Goat"--looked comfortable and well loved by students. The goat (pictured at left) for which the lounge is named carries with it a legend about how ancient courts used to decide the outcome of difficult cases; they would bring out the goat, and he would butt only the guilty. An interesting story.

FUN FACTS:

- Students at Penn Law are encouraged to pursue a dual-degree during their 3 years.
- Students are required to complete 70 hours of Pro Bono service.
- Philadelphia is the 5th largest city in the nation.

ITINERARY CHANGED

As you see, we went ahead of schedule. We saw all 4 DC schools today, so make sure you get to read about all 4 of them, even though they are in the reverse order of how we saw them. Enjoy! :)

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON COLLEGE OF LAW

And we just kept going! We decided that even though we were scheduled for a student led tour tomorrow at 2pm, we should see our final school today so we could get to Philly earlier. So we rode out to Tenleytown, on the outskirts of DC. By this time--around 2pm-- it was quite hot. We arrived in the metro station and saw on a map that the Law School (WCL) was almost a mile away. In this heat, it was going to be quite a walk. But we all decided that we were willing to do it; so off we went. But before we even got out of the tunnel we saw a sign for the American University Shuttle! WOOO! We ran to the bus and found that it was very similar to the M-Bus--anyone can ride for free and they drop off at several different stops around the campus. So we got right to the Law building and were able to meet briefly with a counselor. We really got lucky that each of these schools were able to fit us in on such short notice.

FUN FACTS:

- American U has a good program for International Law.

- Admitted students are invited to participate in a housing conference in the end of June/beginning of July in order to find affordable places to live in the fall.