TCR^

Do you enjoy the Durham area (thats where Duke is right)? Do you believe you made the right decision to go to law school?

What are the best housing options for 1L's? How safe are these communities? How important do you think living in a community with other 1L's is?

Thanks for your help.

I grew up in the Triangle, so I don't know if I'm even all that qualified to talk about it. I love Durham and I've loved living here. Downtown Durham around the ballpark has become a really awesome place. It's a total 180 from how it was when I was a kid, when we'd sneak in to go to Bulls games and then get out as fast as we could.

I bought a house in the area for law school. It is feasible and for me was worth doing. Everybody seems to live in the complexes around campus...It's fun socially, but sometimes you just need to get away.

I really enjoy Durham; its certainly much more livable than its TLS reputation might suggest. And I've found that it's a great middle ground (between city and college town) for law school. It has more than enough to keep me occupied when I get some free time, but not enough to distract from studying. That is, there's plenty of bars, great restaurants (Dame's Chicken and Waffles FTW), and fun stuff to do on weekends (Bulls games are awesome), but there isn't crazy shit going on all the time like there is in a major city. I hope that makes sense, but Durham really is a great place to live for law school. And if you want to relive undergrad, Chapel Hill/Franklin Street is right around the corner.

The weather's pretty solid here, too.

And yeah, I really do think I made the right call in deciding to attend law school, and deciding to attend Duke in particular. (And I'm writing this in the middle of finals, no less). I really don't mind the amount or type of work in law school, and I think my skills and career goals match up pretty well with law. The stress of law school isn't as bad as people on here make it seem. And yeah, I really like it at Duke. It's not perfect, but I can't imagine going to school anywhere else.

I feel like this is kinda vague, but my thoughts are kinda scrambled right now with finals. I'd be happy to answer more specific questions.

Or the free B.o.B concert tomorrow night on the Duke quad (last year was Ludacris)

And these apartment complexes in SW Durham are safe, haha. Look up Pinnacle Ridge, Addington Farms, Alexan Garrett Farms. They have pools, gates, and pretty much all graduate students. We pay 900/mo total for a 2 BR.

I have a question regarding employment statistics. I attended ASW where they passed out employment information for the class of 2011 broken down by student. I expected that this information would be publicly available in aggregate form, but it is not on the website. Also I don't have any information regarding salaries. Can anyone direct me to this information?

I just got in off the waitlist and I'm feel like I have a big dilemma. I am currently deposited at UCLA (with a 20k/yr scholarship) and I am very happy with my decision. I think I want to go in to entertainment law ultimately, so UCLA makes sense. I don't know much about Duke at all - but I really liked the pitch I heard when Dean Hoye came to my college to talk about Duke, and I'll admit I'm sort of scared to move to Los Angeles (I'm from NJ and quite close with my family.) Even with my career goals in mind, can a current student give me a compelling reason or two or three why Duke would be a good choice. (For the record, I'm looking to end up in either LA or NY, and I have absolutely no ties to North Carolina whatsoever. Or Los Angeles for that matter, unless you define ties in the very loosest sense of the word.)

PM sent.

I commented in your "choosing a law school" thread as well. 60k scholly won't result in a huge difference in cost when you consider that UCLA has higher tuition and L.A. will be significantly more expensive than Durham so you should primarily look at it in terms of career prospects.

Duke definitely has better placement and a more national reputation but it does sound like UCLA is what you want to do and where you want to do it, and you just said you already deposited and are happy with your decision. I'd say go UCLA.

Can I get this too? I'm deposited at GULC! Thanks!

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For the non-summer starters in the bunch, did you feel like cliques had already formed and it was hard to make connections? Or is that not something to worry about? The class size just seems so small with 50 people already there and set with friends.