Seattle University School of Law

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Seattle University School of Law is located in Seattle, WA. It appears on the Top Law Schools Rankings page.

Please "post a reply" and add any comments you have about the Seattle University School of Law. Many generations of prospective law students will benefit by the information you share.

[tmo]

I'm thinking about applying here for Fall of 2008. Does anyone have any information on how well this school places/ranks for the Seattle area? Would going here limit me to Washington or would I perhaps have some connections and opportunities in Oregon as well?

[stuffedburrito]

I really would like to learn more about the school through students' outlook. Anyone?

[kn6542]

I really would like to learn about students' outlook on SU. Anyone?

Overcast.

[stuffedburrito]

I really would like to learn about students' outlook on SU. Anyone?

Overcast.

Ha, what bout the school itself?

[stuffedburrito]

According to USNews, Seattle U has the second best legal writing program in the nation.

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/brief/lawsp09_brief.php

Just something that's nice to know =)

[roleary]

job prospects from experience....anyone....? westcoast, eastcoast?

[stuffedburrito]

job prospects from experience....anyone....? westcoast, eastcoast?

I'm concerned about this as well. I'm from CA, so if I do attend SU, I want to know that I have a chance to practice in CA if I chose to.

[roleary]

yeah i hate the thought of restrictions upon graduation, but i hate the lsat even more! lol

[stuffedburrito]

yeah i hate the thought of restrictions upon graduation, but i hate the lsat even more! lol

The LSAT is a hate/love kinda thing. Don't you love the feeling of getting a question right, or increasing your score after persistently studying painfully dry material?

[roleary]

no i just hate it...lol...yes i do know the feeling of joy a higher score brings but the anxiety leading up to the test and even worse during the three weeks waiting for a score has left me permanently angry and fearful towards all forms of standardized tests

[stuffedburrito]

no i just hate it...lol...yes i do know the feeling of joy a higher score brings but the anxiety leading up to the test and even worse during the three weeks waiting for a score has left me permanently angry and fearful towards all forms of standardized tests

Haha, isn't that type of feeling similar to what you'll inevitably experience in law school and when you start practicing? =) Gotta learn to enjoy it.

[Gobears555]

I would love to get a Seattle U discussion going... I'm curious for anyones thoughts. Current students? Prospective Students? Students that got in? Graduated from there? From Seattle?

I just found out I got in two days ago and I was really excited!

Here's what I know:
I've been to the school and it was beautiful. It was modern, clean, and incorporated very well. The library seemed great. The area immediately around the school is not the best area but Seattle is amazing! My dealings with the staff have been great, very warm welcoming and helpful. I talked to one graduate from there who said that his time there was great and he enjoyed the sense of community within the school.

Stuffed Burrito, I also am from CA....you thinking about going there?

I'm curious about where people live in Seattle? I was thinking Belltown is the coolest?

Also, I second the hating the LSAT.

[stuffedburrito]

Hey Gobears,

Congrats on the acceptance! I am leaning towards SU actually. However, I received some bad news today: SU is trying to boost their rankings, so they are going to start spending more, meaning tuition is going up.

According to this article (--LinkRemoved--), the tuition for its law school will increase 13% starting Fall 08, which makes the cost at about $34k. Damn . They didn't offer me any scholarship money as well.

[roleary]

I attended Seattle Central Community College for three years as part of a highschool running start program, and SCCC is located about five minute walk away from SU Law so I can speak from experience on the city itself and the location of the school in particular. I will say that capitol hill gets a bit strange and old pretty fast depending on the individual, for me, it got old real fast, however you SF people perhaps will not be as put off by the generally really liberal and adverse climate... specifically I will say that, while not trying to offend anyone or anything, I tend to find the people a bit strange around the area. If you live around the school expect alot of full bodied tattoos, cross dressing street people, heroin addicts, mentally unstable homeless drunks causing ruckus, and things of the sort. Ummmm...lets see, if you go out around at night sometimes you might actually pull out your blackberry to check the calender due to your suddenly coming under the impression that it is Halloween, plenty of people looking as though they were in vampire costumes and various other strange get ups, and in fact sometimes people may actually be wearing Halloween costumes..lol. And its also Seattles predominant gay neighborhood with plenty of bars hangouts if you are into that kind of atmosphere.
That being said capitol hill in general has plenty of good places to eat, get coffee, loiter, pay a huge amount in rent, etc. As for SU law, I myself have many questions and am hoping to hear from some people who can spread light on SU's rep outside of the NW.

[craigsol]

haha after all that you want to go to SU?

[roleary]

well ive heard great things about the schools regional placements and education, and if you live away from capitol hill, or at least broadway, you can get into a much more...stable, in my opinion, environment.

[Gobears555]

Thanks for the help roleary! Are you thinking about going to SU?

Stuffedburrito, thanks for the info about the tuition raise. That sucks but its nice to see that they are trying to better the school and would probably be of great benefit to us in the coming years. I too did not get any scholarship money but am leaning toward attending SU as well. Where else are you deciding between? I'm thinking about Pacific Mcgeorge as well.

Also, I hear the average entering age is 28, does anyone know if that has an affect on any school dynamics and if younger students (I'm 21) find it hard to fit in?

Any opinions about the summer school Crim Law class in June? I'm thinking it may be a good idea to do it.

[stuffedburrito]

Thanks for the help roleary! Are you thinking about going to SU?

Stuffedburrito, thanks for the info about the tuition raise. That sucks but its nice to see that they are trying to better the school and would probably be of great benefit to us in the coming years. I too did not get any scholarship money but am leaning toward attending SU as well. Where else are you deciding between? I'm thinking about Pacific Mcgeorge as well.

Also, I hear the average entering age is 28, does anyone know if that has an affect on any school dynamics and if younger students (I'm 21) find it hard to fit in?

Any opinions about the summer school Crim Law class in June? I'm thinking it may be a good idea to do it.

SU is actually the only school that has accepted me thus far =(. But I am very excited about the school if I choose to attend.

In terms of average age, I met another applicant who was accepted and he is 30. But age will not matter. Being surrounded by older students not only brings younger students' maturity level up, but also would benefit you in other areas as well in the long run. I was very surprised that they accepted me though. I'm not a URM. And age 21.

As for the summer program, I am not doing it because I was accepted by CLEO for the 6-week Summer Institute, which will prepare me to handle the first year curriculum. Wouldn't you want to take an extra 6 weeks off before beginning law school? But I do see advantages: Better chance of receiving a higher grade than if you took it in the fall, since you'll have more time to study; prepare you for future exams; get you familiar with SU and the Seattle area; make some new friends; and get a class out of the way. I think your decision should be based on your personal preference, not anyone else's.

Good luck, and I hope to see you there if we both chose to attend!

[northwest]

Hey there,

I'm a 2L at SU. God knows what I'm doing on this site at this ungodly hour....

Ask me anything you wanna know about the school, and I'll try my best to answer.

How's the school?.....not bad. Tuition just shot up 12.8%, so it kind of feels like bait and switch. I started when it was 28k, then it jumped to 30k, now its up to 34k. I'm no good at math, but that's around a 25% increase in 2 years. I'm a little pissed about that.

Job prospects are pretty much limited to Seattle and WA from what I gather. The legal market is pretty saturated, so prospects aren't great. Lots of competition from UW, and if some out-of-stater from t14 applies to the same job as you, you're probably screwed. Most people (myself included) didn't get paying jobs after first year. Not too many OCI opps either. I am in the top 15% of my class, and I am still looking for 2L work. It is easy to find gigs with small or solo firms (most of my friends have), but I'm holding out for something better still (til the end of the month at least!). If you grade on to law review there are a few biglaw summer opps where they pay over 2k per week. But I only know a few people who got those, and 2 of them have big tits (no kidding). But if you want to do prosecutorial, defender, AG, social justice, type jobs (read: summer salary of $10 - $18 per hour) then you can probably get that. I'm not too sure how post-grad employment fares, but the Career Office isn't that great (they keep telling people to network, network, network - kind a way to pass the blame on to students for not finding jobs).

The area is okay. The law school is actually pretty self-contained, and it isn't the freak fest the other poster made it out to be. Although that stuff is pretty close by if you want to hoof it a few blocks.

Don't mean to sound too depressing or turn you off. I generally like SU. The tuition thing blows though. And I figured that job prospects would be a little better. Some people here might conclude that I am some kind of socially inept idiot with no networking skills and piss on my pants to not have a job lined up yet. Hell, I don't know......

[Thomas73]

3L. Northwest is right. The Seattle market is tough, at least for the high paying jobs (90K+). Otherwise, jobs that pay less than 80K are available, although not abundant. Expect the non-big law jobs to offer between 50K-80K, with the greater percentage being at the low end. Government and public interest jobs pay less than the median wage in Washington, which is barely enough to cover student loan payments (expect between 45K-58K). The school doesn't give out full scholarships. Most students supplement their fin aid with outside scholarships or loans.

Yes tuition is ridiculous. 13% in one year; the prior two years, tuition went up 5% per year. Expect the tuition to beat inflation every year you are at the school. Not much bang for the buck though. Big Law doesn't look to SU because it has a weak transactional program. If you are a public interest type, then SU is a good school. But public interest jobs are not well paid, which means you will be living hand to mouth for a few years after graduation. The majority of students have trouble finding jobs before graduation and even after graduation, but most get picked up once bar results are out. I have met more than a few law review/moot court members without jobs at graduation, which is a little odd since they are usually in the top 15%.

SU does have a good reputation in Seattle, but not much of a reputation outside Washington. There are too many equal quality schools in other states. I would attend school in the state you wish to practice. It's easier to get a internship and job when you are in state.

[ilawn]

I'm an 07 Seattle U grad. Just wanted to give a few insights into the school.

Regarding job prospects - I think it is a somewhat regional school in terms of recruitment, and the local competition from UW makes the job market a bit tough. However, SU is well-regarded in the NW area overall, and most would contend that its reputation is improving. One key indication of its reputation is that it seems to consistently get more and more competitive matriculating students every year. Personally, my fellow students and I were able to get a number of interships in the Seattle area through SU's externship program, you've just got to be a bit proactive. Most of my fellow students seemed to do quite well in the job market out of school as well. Still, the city is well-educated and the UW law school makes the the job market for SU students a bit tough. Generally though, according to U.S. News' law school rankings, SU's employment rate statistics are pretty solid.

Regarding its overall reputation - It is still a young school (less than 40 years old, and formerly Puget Sound School of law until about 10 years ago). Only in the last 10 years (since its affiliation with SU) has the school begun to maintain a top 100 status in U.S. News rankings, and begun recruiting students with quite competitive LSAT scores and grades. As such, it has a bit of difficulty competing against the more established UW crop of students (a consistently ranked top 30 school in U.S. News). With the SU name and some respectable grades, I managed to get into an east coast Tax LL.M. program at Georgetown U. Some of my fellow students, those who did better than me while at SU, got into NYU's tax LL.M. program, which is arguably the best tax program in the country. I currently work in Virginia, and didn't have too much difficulty landing a position in that area. That being said, in terms of SU's overall east coast reputation, I still felt it didn't have the type of "national" reach that other more established schools may provide a student. If you want to stick in the NW area or the west coast, I would strongly recommend considering SU. However, if you're thinking beyond the west coast, then I would consider other similarly ranked schools along with SU.

General observations - The school in general is somewhat competitive from my experience. Students study pretty long hours, as they generally have to rank quite well to get into the best firms in town. SU houses a very good legal writing program - one of the best in the country. Legal writing is a core skill that every lawyer needs, and SU's commitment to that program served me well. Definitely one of the highlights of the school. Also, if you like the outdoors, you'll love the Seattle area. Yes, lots of rain, but I'd argue it is one of the most beautiful areas of the country. Without a doubt, that certainly balances out the rain factor.

[pdennis1000]

ilawn,

Thanks for coming in and posting. I always appreciate observations from previous or current students at the schools!

[J Mack]

Calling more SU students, lets hear some more opinions and updates.

[CookNbyTheBooK]

Im from the PNW and took the LSAT there, I was accosted by several groups of law students telling me not to go to law school, and I was just minding my business at a table studying before the test.

I dunno, that doesnt seem like a good sign if you want to go there.