Postby reverendt » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:34 pm
Cavemanlawyer....
I'm an about-to-graduate 3L, so I'll answer your questions based on what I've seen/learned/experienced.
First the good news.
Pittsburgh is a very cool town. I grew up 10 miles from Manhattan, so I have pretty high standards when it comes to cities. Pittsburgh is much smaller than NYC/Chicago, etc., but I don't consider that a bad thing; it has everything you need in a city.
The COL is quite reasonable, at least by my standards. The wife and I have a LARGE 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath apartment in a subdivided old mansion with a gas fireplace, a big balcony/deck and one spot in the garage, in a great neighborhood, on the busline, for $1050. You can get a 1 bedroom in a good area for probably around $600.
Is it dangerous....some areas are, but you'll have no need to go there. Around the school....there's some crime, but it's not a big problem. Walking around drunk by yourself in the middle of the night is probably not the best idea, but I've never felt unsafe there. In general, it's a relatively safe city.
I wouldn't advise living right near campus. That area is overrun with drunk, partying undergrads, which can get old pretty fast. A mile or two away there's lots of fairly affordable housing in neighborhoods that most grad students find more preferable.
NOW the bad news.
The job situation is ROUGH. It's bad all over, I gather...and Pittsburgh is no exception.
Out of my group of friends, 2 of them secured solid, big or psuedo-biglaw jobs, and they were both in the top 10% of the class and on law review. The rest of us are scrambling. I've done fairly well...probably around top 25%, secondary journal, got my note published, and I'm about to graduate without a job secured. There's a little bit of buzz...it seems like some local firms and city/county jobs are starting to do a little bit of hiring, but it's pretty rough.
