ryguy wrote:What did you love about it? What state are you from?
I am from Florida (I didn't meet anyone else from Florida, most people I met came from the New England area - a lot of Maryland folks!).
First off, everyone was extremely nice. This was to be expected, but it went above and beyond that. When we broke into small groups to get tours of the law school, for example, I heard my two tour guides talking about classes (one was a 3L and the other was a 1L) and the 3L realized that the 1L had the same professor as she had during her 1L year. She immediately offered to give the 1L her outline for the class, to which he happily accepted. The little stuff like that - a school can tell you they are nice, but do you witness it in their own interactions? At GW, I did.
Additionally, the law school facilities are gorgeous, in my opinion. The inside looks recently renovated, and everything is sophisticated and handsome looking - from the library, the study areas, the chairs, the lecture halls, etc. Aesthetics are important to me because I don't want to spend most of my time in an ugly place! I also went to FSU's preview day and while the inside of that building is nice and professional looking, it's not on par with GW.
The professors all seem wonderful. At the end of the day there was a huge reception, with free beer and wine. Tons of professors and current students were there mingling with us prospectives, and it was honestly a great time. I made friends with some current 2Ls who are hilarious and nice, and I talked to several professors who were all laid back and yet very intelligent. The current students seemed to adore the professors, and they told us about some of the major cases that the professors have been involved in at the Supreme Court and such.
The opportunities available in going to a school in DC are immense. Everyone already knows that during the summer, all of the other top schools have lots of students vying for positions in DC. The rest of the year, though, is when GW can dominate the market in DC. as someone said to me, lawyers and agencies don't stop having work during the school year, they still have the work and need the people, and we are those people! We get placement in the summer, but in the fall and spring, too.
The career prospects - GOOD. I went to the career development and clerkships seminar and received an entire list of the firms that participate in OCI. It's absolutely immense, there are several hundred firms on the list from at least 35 states. A lot of of the time on TLS people say GW is approaching a regional school, and I am certain that this perspective is from a process of self-selecting into the area rather than not having the opportunity to practice elsewhere. For firms that don't participate in OCI, but that you are interested in, the career office sets up regional interviews with all of the employers you are looking into and sets up a day of interviewing at a nice hotel in the area, and all those students who would like to can fly out there and participate on location. They do all the legwork - you just have to get to the interview. The office also released to us the unpublished 2009 stats, and from the people who responded (i think 70% of the class), 93% were employed at graduation and the average salary was approximately $140,000.
Also - for those interested in PI, it's a great school for that. I'm interested in PI, and any reservations I had about opportunities, LRAP, etc, have been erased. If you have any specific questions about PI, feel free to PM me and I can get out the notes that I wrote during the seminar. There's two specific career counselors who focus on this stuff, one focuses on purely PI and the other on purely government. What else... location! GW has a great location in the city. It's less than a 10 minute walk to the White House (I did that yesterday) and it's right next to the IMF and World Bank. The Foggy Bottom metro stop is a 5-7 minute walk from the school, it's not bad at all. I didn't go on the tour of the Aston, but I hear that it's all single studio-style apartments, with some of them being bigger than others.
There's probably a lot that I am missing, but I'm just writing this off the top of my head. If anyone has anything to add, please do!! For two last examples, the career office says that the Department of Justice has three schools that it actively selects and chooses from: Harvard, Georgetown, and GW. Additionally, the PI counselor told us that at the combined G-town and GW public interest fair this spring, all the groups and firms involved continued to comment on how well prepared the GW students were. Basically, I had a few reservations (mostly formed from reading TLS), and I am feeling very confident in GW now.