JakeL wrote:Thank you for a very informative post. Care to talk about your peers? Is the student body nice?
I've been genuinely impressed with the student body here. People are very friendly and there are lots of law-related social events for students to get to know one another. We have bar reviews 3 times a week - though I don't know what 1Ls can really go out on Thursday night when you've got 8am classes the next day. The people I've met don't really seem competitive either. I mean sure everyone knows we're on a curve and the job market is not the greatest (mostly for big firm work) but people aren't trying to one-up each other. When grades came out, everyone was very supportive (save the gunner or two) and always looking to make others feel better about grades they maybe weren't too pleased with. Everyone realizes that 90% of the people they know didn't do as well as they wanted.
I've never asked someone for notes and been told no. In fact, there have been times where fellow classmates of mine have seen me going home instead of going to class and offered to give me notes without my asking. 2 & 3Ls have also been really friendly in offering advice to the 1Ls. People also don't seem to be out to make these super exclusive like study groups either. Personally, I've been able to jump into other's study groups when mine wasn't meeting frequently enough.
That being said, there are certainly those few people that are... less than pleasant to be around. They've been figured out though, most pretty quickly and people just deal with them.
Law school is a lot like high school, except less awkward. You go to class with the same people and get to know them all very well. People do eventually form their little cliques, but again, they're not exclusive. You just tend to naturally hang out with people that are similar to you. For instance I generally go out with the same people, though were we go there's always other law students and everyone has a good time. I'm still in the process of meeting new 1Ls and there have only been a handful of people that I can say were truly...
lame.
Also, I want to say again that I've been really impressed with the professors here. One of my professors from last semester definitely qualifies for the best professor I've
ever had. Emory really did a good job picking a strong group of people to teach their students.
Re: living/estimated cost of attendance
A lot of students live at Campus Crossings. Rent for a 1/1 is about $1035 + $50 for parking and if you like to live
comfortably, utilities will probably be $40-50 a month. By comfortably I mean 70-73 in the summer, and 69-71 in the winter. This might seem pricey, but they're furnished apartments and rent includes internet access (which is actually really good and reliable). The apartments are very nice as well. I chose to live at Campus Crossings because when I came home I wanted to feel good about where I lived. Also, I don't have to pay for campus parking ($650/year) because there's a shuttle that comes to Campus Crossings and goes directly to the law school. You can probably find other 1/1s for the $800-950 range, but you'll have to invest in furniture, pay water/sewer and internet. Most of those apartments will be older as well and thus not as efficient with utilities.
That being said, I never looked at anything other than 1/1s. When I come home, I want to come home to
my home. Nothing against roommates, I just like my space. Plus, since I'm paying for this all on my own, I figure that another $10,000 (roughly) over the course of three years for living alone isn't that bad. Bills are less of a hassle than a bad roommate.
I took out the full loan amount minus my scholarship. Assuming I land a summer job in Atlanta that doesn't pay, I'll be happy I did.
