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Old 04-06-2014, 12:57 PM
 
Location: Striving for Avalon
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An interesting dilemma.

I'd be more confident in my following answer if I knew specifically what other school you are considering $200,000 for. the actual major you intend to earn, and what country you come from.

Prestige does warrant a premium, although if you wish to remain in the US, I cannot recommend going into $200,000 debt without the name of the school.

As for your Wall St ambitions, bear in mind that a Hofstra degree wouldn't shut the door. My cousin did her undergrad in finance at Hofstra and has worked at Deutsche Bank since she graduated (8 years ago). She "survived" the financial crisis and DB even paid for her MBA. Take this anecdotal bit as you will. If you are comfortable & confident enough to network and engage campus recruiters, professional groups, etc, you will do OK. On the other hand, if your dream is Goldman Sachs or bust, then that throws a wrench into things.

You say you are an international student, but not your exact country of origin. In the event that you return home (more likely than not, to be perfectly honest*), you will need to consider the relative value of degrees in your home country. I had a friend (I too am an international student) who was looking at Master's programmes in economics. He originally hailed from Shanghai. His mother flat out told him that if he were to be accepted at Columbia, she would buy him an apartment in Manhattan. His parents were Chinese doctors with an income of $35,000 or $40,000 per year. If your home country has a labour market like (or actually is) China, then an American Ivy League/top 20 may indeed be worth the investment.
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Old 04-07-2014, 12:05 AM
 
Location: Long Island, NY
1,775 posts, read 3,776,753 times
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Originally Posted by grilba View Post
I've known people to graduate as undergrads at Farmingdale and Stony Brook and get into wonderful graduate programs, including very good law schools. It is all in how much you study and apply yourself. Study like there is no tomorrow, get a mentor, bug the professors for internships, ect. DO NOT get into debt as an undergraduate-save that $$$ for graduate school or to start your household. 200,000 is a lot of money. And one last piece of advice. The LSAT counts for lot, much more than your choice of undergraduate school. Start studying that test two years in advance.
I agree with this. I also would like to know which schools are your choices, is it $200K loan debt from Yale vs Hofstra for free or $200K from Emory vs Hofstra for free? If Yale offers you a direct pipeline to your intended career track, I would not be averse to the loan debt..as the potential for earning a solid income post-college outweighs the loans, which is just another mortgage payment in your 20s.

Also, law schools do not place as much emphasis on undergrad institution as above posters seem to imply. They care about LSAT and GPA. An applicant with a 3.95 GPA from Hofstra and a 170 LSAT gets into NYU Law over a 2.9 GPA/165 LSAT applicant from Cornell. This actually happened to a lawyer acquaintance from NYU Law except he scored a 173 LSAT as a senior at SUNY Stony Brook. Since you are inquiring only about colleges, I think Stony Brook is probably a better value than Hofstra from a financial standpoint. Graduate school tuition is very expensive and it is better to be cheap w the UG options so that you have more flexibility with undertaking the loans for graduate school.

(By the way, this is what i did, I chose SUNY over higher ranked colleges because I had my sights set on law school, which turned out well as I graduated from law school with less than $65k loan debt).
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Old 04-07-2014, 06:22 AM
 
4,171 posts, read 4,046,897 times
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Originally Posted by exoticg View Post
Hofstra university with very little loan or an elite liberal arts college which is in top 5 US News ranking with large 200k loan?
International student with no visa to work in US.
Dream: Wall street, iBanking, law school, MBA

I've made to the most selective school but the money makes me think again. Will I be happy at Hofra?
How would you get a virtually free education at Hofstra? A four year degrees costs about $196,000 in tuition and living expenses. You could get grants and other financial aid but you would get that also at an "elite" school.

Why would Hofstra even be on your radar if you are 8,000 miles away?
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Old 04-07-2014, 06:37 AM
 
12,769 posts, read 18,325,203 times
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I was wondering that too and any co he decides to work at he would have to make sure they would sponsor a work visa. Otherwise it all could be for naught.
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Old 04-07-2014, 08:14 AM
 
344 posts, read 716,283 times
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That is a tough question. If you set your sights a bit lower I would have to say Hofstra.

Law school admissions are a numbers game. A 3.9 GPA from Hofstra may not be that much different than a 3.9 GPA from, let's say, U Penn. If you do well on the LSAT (at least high 160s) you'd have a good shot at Fordham or Cardozo one day, and those are decent feeder schools into NYC Biglaw.

I-banking is probably another story. I graduated with an Economics degree from an Ivy and I don't think it would've been hard for me; Hofstra, probably not.
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Old 04-07-2014, 10:43 AM
 
Location: Nassau, Long Island, NY
16,408 posts, read 33,242,509 times
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Originally Posted by Zytos View Post
That is a tough question. If you set your sights a bit lower I would have to say Hofstra.

Law school admissions are a numbers game. A 3.9 GPA from Hofstra may not be that much different than a 3.9 GPA from, let's say, U Penn. If you do well on the LSAT (at least high 160s) you'd have a good shot at Fordham or Cardozo one day, and those are decent feeder schools into NYC Biglaw.

I-banking is probably another story. I graduated with an Economics degree from an Ivy and I don't think it would've been hard for me; Hofstra, probably not.
Interesting post. Fordham is lower ranked than the usual suspects, but in there. However, I have never heard of Cardozo as a reliable feeder school for BigLaw.

Anyway, these days BigLaw firms have much, much smaller summer associate programs and also hire much fewer first year associates, so it's more competitive than ever. BigLaw firms are contracting rather than expanding in general. Common advice for these times is if you want to get into BigLaw, you have to get into a T14 law school (one of the top 14 law schools in the country) and get great grades. Then you will at least have a prayer.

Last edited by I_Love_LI_but; 04-07-2014 at 10:59 AM..
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Old 04-07-2014, 11:08 AM
 
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I think I'm having an American Dream in a not-so-american place.
I am from Myanmar and the college I'm saying is Middlebury.
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Old 04-07-2014, 08:44 PM
 
622 posts, read 850,359 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 30to66at55 View Post
Please dont take Naive in Nassau (aka i love li) as entirely the truth. Hofstra has no great reputation. Its a local school catering to local ambitions but it isnt a garbage institution. You can do very well with a degree from hofstra but you wont be recruited by big firms. With that said, if you can make an elite school, and get a job as a lawyer in a big firm or as an investment banker, that 200,000 in debt will be small change.

I Love Li But....where did you go to college? Elite school or local?
Oh come on, you and N.I.N. are both blowing lots of hot air. Truth be told, what you buy at an elite school is the network. At top tier Wall St. firms, those who have attended schools such as Colgate (an ok school) will have a clique. Alumni from Yale will have a clique. Graduates from Villonova and Notre Dame will all have cliques. In the old days, it was good to be in a clique. Fast forward to 2014 and Wall St. is not Wall St. any more. Wall St. is far smaller and growing less lucrative with every effort the government puts forth to rein the business in. Sure, the top 5% from any elite school will make it into the once prestigious training programs, but unless you want to be a number cruncher on the deal team or a bean counter in the work-out group, save your money. Trading and sales your forte? Go hunting for the much, much smaller hedge fund world, because most of the big boys have gotten out of the proprietary trading game and now the places to be are in customer-facing desks like Delta One or Flow Sales, both pay much smaller bonuses. Bottom-line: Wall St. is still real hard to get into and the rewards are eroding away.

Oh, and did I mention, the big Wall St. firms are still laying people off. Sure, much smaller numbers, but they're reducing not building. Just not front-page news any more.

I won't even go into the law thing, suffice to say even the law schools are saying the employment picture is very grim and the costs very high on the way to that once-vaunted JD degree.

I'm not saying not to go to Wall St. or law school. Follow your 'passion'. I'm saying take the money and avoid the debt. Hofstra is fine and will provide you with a degree you can take anywhere. Any hiring manager today is looking for really smart people, whether they come from Hofstra, Harvard or SUNY. Besides, where you go for grad or law school matters far more than where you went to undergrad, if that's the direction you want to take. Either way, Good Luck.
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Old 04-07-2014, 10:37 PM
 
11,597 posts, read 12,636,246 times
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If you get very high LSAT scores and high GPA, you might get quite a bit of funding for law school. My kid's friend attended UCONN for undergrad and got basically a free ride at Cardozo. She will be graduating in June and has some excellent offers in DC as she is interested in public policy. Another friend took out loans to pay for undergrad at Columbia. He basically got no aid. He was so sure of himself getting into Columbia Law, Harvard, etc., but his LSATS were good, but not stellar. He's at Brooklyn Law, but will end up paying for less than half out of pocket.

Medical schools are similar. They are more interested in high grades and MCAT scores, rather than the name of the undergrad institution. Thos LSATs and MCATS count for a great deal. The MBA game is rather different.

OP has not returned to this thread or the similar thread that he posted in another forum.
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Old 04-08-2014, 06:46 AM
 
344 posts, read 716,283 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coney View Post
If you get very high LSAT scores and high GPA, you might get quite a bit of funding for law school. My kid's friend attended UCONN for undergrad and got basically a free ride at Cardozo. She will be graduating in June and has some excellent offers in DC as she is interested in public policy. Another friend took out loans to pay for undergrad at Columbia. He basically got no aid. He was so sure of himself getting into Columbia Law, Harvard, etc., but his LSATS were good, but not stellar. He's at Brooklyn Law, but will end up paying for less than half out of pocket.

Medical schools are similar. They are more interested in high grades and MCAT scores, rather than the name of the undergrad institution. Thos LSATs and MCATS count for a great deal. The MBA game is rather different.

OP has not returned to this thread or the similar thread that he posted in another forum.
I pretty much agree with this. Law school debt is already fairly crushing; I could not imagine having undergrad loans on top. I know it's hard not going to the best school you can get into--I am not sure the 17-year-old me would have had the foresight to understand that graduating from undergrad with a mini-mortgage, except with a shorter term and inability to discharge in BK, is not a good idea. If you find yourself at 25 years old with like $300k in student loans, you have the (not so) golden handcuffs to NYC BIGLAW, and it's not that great a life.
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