I am really tired right now, and not completely coherent, but I thought I would post my early completely general impression.

I loved it.

I will elaborate more on that after I get home tomorrow.

Wow, Duke was great. The students were, very nice and the prof's were even nicer. The students seemed more "normal/ regular joe" then other schools and the presentations and panels were great. The UG campus is unreal, and the whole college seems very small yet looks unreal, i love neo-gothic i guess. Also lunch at Cameron Indoor was cool, esp when I snuck in to see the court. Small 1L class sze (around 200) also sounds great (UVA's class of 370 is something I didn't like)

Sad note. I probably won't be going as Duke strengths (International law and LLM -which seemed awesome- and enviromental law) aren't really what i'm interested in.

Rankings be damned. The other schools are going to have a hard sell to entice me away from Duke. This is so subjective that I won't bother elaborating too much, but all of the concerns I had about Duke yesterday no longer exist today. Every question I had was answered and then some. The faculty and students seem awesome - they're collegial, engaged, and genuinely seem to care about what it is they're doing.

At the UVA ASD last week, I got the sense that this is what they were trying to portray, but it came off a bit insincere. Still more of these things to go, but the bar has been raised significantly today.

+1

This is the impression that I got when I visited the campus in February. The atmosphere just seemed great. Everyone was so friendly and seemed to know everyone. I really wish I could have made it to the ASD, but prior commitments made it impossible.

On a side note, my status checkers date changed a few days ago. I have heard this meant that scholarship information was sent out. Anyone know the validity of this?

That's what happened to me, and I've heard other people say the same.

I can confirm that scholarship offers were sent really recently so that should be it. Mine was in the mail this week right before ASW.

Currently a 1L and i didn't even realize that International Law and environmental law were our strengths...although i don't doubt we're good at that. I think our biggest strength, hands down, is in corporate law. Both our rockstar corp law faculty and unsurpassed biglaw placement speak to that.

Double wow, Duke's Open House was amazing.

This was my first open house so I'm not sure how it compares to others but I was floored by everyone's niceness.

-Both students and faculty seem genuinely happy to be studying and teaching at Duke-- There was a really positive vibe the whole weekend.
-The campus is so beautiful (but the weather was a lot colder than expected).
-The two mock classes (contracts & criminal law) was fun! I really enjoyed the professor's teaching style.
-Facilities are modern and up-to-date.
-I love how the sections are small ~30 people.
-The apartment complexes are so extravagant, the walk-in closets are about the same size as my studio in NYC for half the price. They also have tennis courts, beach volleyball courts, ponds galore! What a way to live for a humble law student.
-North Carolina has everything a law student can want (I saw a Whole Foods!)... no complaints about Durham or NC at all.

The whole open house was run extremely well, kudos to the whole team and all the volunteers. I have to agree with the other posters on this board, rankings be damned! Duke has set a really high bar for the other Law School's ASWs.

Thanks Duke for the awesome weekend =)

...

+1 again. Duke was the shit.

Duke > than people on TLS tend to realize.

Okay, so I'm pretty much dead tired and ready to pass out, but like a good TLSer, I can't sleep without a thread or two.

This is probably going to be totally incoherent:

First off, I had a blast. Second, campus and the law school alone could have pretty much sold me on it (pictures will come once I figure out how to upload them). Third, cost of living in NC is amazing, considering how much I currently pay for my little south central LA apartment. Fourth, for all you gym addicts, the gym was much nicer than the one we have here. And fifth, they seem to really want to work with students who WANT to go there, which is phenomenal.

The only real negatives I experienced:
-Yes, Durham isn't exactly NYC, LA, or Chicago. I didn't get to see Chapel Hill, but I honestly don't see it as an issue. The low COL is great, and many people who have lived in the area for a longer period speak very highly of Durham. Both the law students and undergrads spoke pretty highly about the QOL there. Plus, the downtown is being developed, so that's a good thing.
-I did get to see a glimpse of the "bad side" of Durham, or whatever you might call it. It's not really a point of concern, as they didn't seem very bad to me, and they were very far from pretty much everything that we saw through the law school. Durham is very spread out, and it's hard to believe that Duke and the apartments we toured are even remotely connected to these areas - frankly, I don't think you'd ever come across them if you didn't want to.
-It seems like many nights will be spent going out to bars with other law students. This could be hit or miss depending on who you're talking to.
-You will need a car. I'm used to this, some people might not be. Then again, parking seems affordable on campus and there's parking pretty much everywhere at the apartments. Cabs are available, and the public transportation seemed confusing and limited based on what I saw.
-While the food was good (and free, along with some drinks), I didn't really get to experience any of the local flavor. It was very region-neutral food for the most part. I did enjoy a North Carolina Ale though.


Probably more to come after some other people have shared their thoughts...

Hey all,

I was unable to attend the ASW this past weekend but will be visiting the campus tomorrow, any suggestions for places that I should visit or people that I should go talk to?

Any of the apartment complexes shown having deals for students? Thanks and glad you all had a great time.

I feel so happy and vindicated to see people who ACTUALLY VISITED Duke Law giving it the love it rightfully deserves. I've been trying to convey for quite some time the total insanity of the duke bashing on this board. The fact that everyone on TLS instantly gets an uncontrollable erection when they here "UVA" while simultaneously bashing duke seemed like the height of insanity to me given that the two schools are virtually identical in so many ways (ranking, culture, location, placement, etc...), and Duke has smaller class sizes and greater lay prestige. And i'm glad duke was handing out placement information at ASW so that people can stop passing around this complete BS about Duke placing largely in southern and secondary markets. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, UNC students find it much easier to get summer jobs in NC for 1L precisely because NC firms know that the Duke students are all going to leave for major markets.

Duke is a GREAT place to go to law school. If anyone has any questions, feel free to post them here or PM me and i'll give you candid answers.

One thing you should definitely do is if you're seriously thinking about Duke is ask for the bag they put together for people going on the apartment tour- this has lots of good information about living options.

Also definitely go to class. I know I have been tempted on a few occasions to skip the class visit while looking at law schools (all the 1L stuff is the same...right?) but Duke's professors seem really personable and I think it's a selling point.

I am still making a long write up for the benefit of those who were not able to attend, but this sums up my experience. I liked Cornell after their ASD--I fell in love with Duke. At this point, I think Stanford is all that can drag me away.

PS-In case anyone is interested, if you were in the larger classroom for the class I was the one in the red shirt who was called on for raising his hand to say he was from west of the Mississippi.

Hey! I know who you are now!

I'm in the same boat as everyone else here; Duke was awesome. The students and faculty were fantastic and more than collegial. There was almost like a familial feel to the place. And to the earlier poster who said that UVA tried to push that but felt insincere, I couldn't agree more. The campus is gorgeous and the facilities are top notch. I feel like everything I'm feeling has already been said, so I'll just stop there.

Oh, and the admitted students I hung out with were kickass. Especially the folks who came to the townie bar and wandered through Durham at 2:00am looking for a pizza joint! We definitely need to coordinate our school decisions.

I took a few pictures that I'll try to post up here in a bit. Again, as I said with the UVA pics, apologies in advance for my terrible photography skills!

I would not let that completely dissuade you from going to Duke. From what I have been told, the specialties don't matter as much as you may think. Any law education is going to be, for the most part, a general education. If you like everything else about both schools you are deciding between pretty much equally then sure, go for the one with the specialty in the area you like. If you really like Duke and only tolerate the other school though, I would not let the specialties impact your decision too much.

That said, Duke is pretty strong in both areas I am interested in (Constitutional law and IP-patent- law) so the whole thing is a non issue for me.

This is a shot from coming out of the parking deck and walking towards the law school. That weird camel thing would be on the right for those who were there!



Shot of the law school walking south on Science Drive.



Another shot of the school.



A shot of the side of the school, from Towerview Drive.

The main (?) entrance to the law school.



A typical hallway, nice and open with plenty of natural light (no, not the beer).



A blurry shot of the library.

Star Commons, an awesome place to hang out.



Different-ish angle of Star Commons.



A big classroom, most are much smaller. Apologies to those unlucky ones who are inadvertently in the picture!

The rest of these pictures are from the rest of the campus...

This is a shot of the gardens where the reception happened.



Shot down a road with a cool look at the Duke Chapel.



The Duke Chapel.

Different angle of the Duke Chapel with some other random building.



The inside of the Chapel.



Outside of the basketball arena. Apparently, this place is a big deal. (I hate basketball!)



The football field! This was especially comical to me since I come from a big SEC school. It was awesome to be able to walk on the field though, something that would never be allowed at my undergrad.