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University of Virginia School of Law

Special thanks to Jason Trujillo, Senior Assistant Dean for Admissions at the University of Virginia School of Law, and TLS students who are attending UVA School of Law for providing great insight into this profile.

Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, Virginia Law is one of the oldest legal institutions in the United States, and has steadily maintained the prestige and employment opportunities that come from being a top ten law school while providing students with an exceptional quality of life. Students are able to enjoy both the attractions of Charlottesville and the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains while attending school near the major legal markets of the East Coast. They also attend a school that has national reach in placing its graduates, with a strong network of alumni in both the judicial system and the private sector.

Current students say there is nothing like living in Charlottesville. In fact, it is a big draw for prospective students, as it has been rated as one of the country’s best places to live. The city offers a low cost of living compared to other cities with top schools. This helps make the law school experience less stressful for students, as graduates from Virginia Law carry less debt than graduates from any other top law school.

While the University of Virginia has a reputation for being a “fratty” school, students should not worry too much about this. Current students report that everyone works hard, and while many planned events do have alcohol, the important thing is that students have a sense of solidarity with their classmates.

Apart from the school’s vibe, Virginia Law offers what a top law school ought to offer – an exceptional legal education, outstanding faculty, an intelligent and diverse student body, and many opportunities for employment upon graduation.

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Admissions

Virginia Law is not easy to get into. In 2009, the holy grail of law school rankings (U.S. News and World Report) had it locked in a three-way tie with Duke and Northwestern for the 10^th best law school. Partially because of this reputation and partially because of the troubling state of the economy, the law school received an unprecedented 20 percent increase in applications in 2009. From 7,880 applicants, Virginia Law selectively picked about 1,150 of their favorites from 40 states and 10 foreign countries. Of those, 368 students enrolled.

Admissions Basics:

GPA and LSAT medians are competitive, at 3.85 and 170 (98^th percentile) for the Class of 2012. In addition to the numbers, several factors are used to decide on who gets accepted into Virginia Law. According to Dean of Admissions Jason Trujillo, the ideal students show a commitment to the communities they associate with, display intellectual curiosity, and have done well in their activities or jobs to date.

While the prestige or ranking of one’s undergraduate institution does not seem to matter, Trujillo does look at “the LSAT college mean for the school and the relative grade inflation at that school.” He also admits to using letters of recommendations from professors to assess the relative difficulty of an applicant’s undergraduate major. “If an engineering professor writes that while the overall GPA at the university is 3.4, in the School of Engineering it is a 2.9,” this information will place that applicant’s GPA “into better perspective.”

Prospective students should keep in mind that the University of Virginia is a publicly-funded university. Consequently, it reserves 40 percent of its seats for residents and the remaining 60 percent for nonresidents. This leaves nonresidents at a slight disadvantage, which is discussed in more detail below.

The school offers an early decision option for applicants who would be considered “reach.” Students who opt into this will receive notification in 15 days, which is an impressively quick turnaround for a top school. Those who send in their completed applications by November will likely receive a response by the middle of December. The first wave of admissions decisions has traditionally started rolling out in mid-November.

What to do to increase your chances:

Apply early. Dean Trujillo unequivocally states, “You want to apply when no offers have been extended [instead of when] several hundred offers have been extended.”

Anticipate and eliminate possible “questions in the file reader’s mind.” If you have a downward GPA trend, then you should submit an addendum. If there are any periods when you have neither been in school nor working, then you should submit an addendum. Otherwise, Trujillo says, “negative inferences” can be made by the person who reads your file. These inferences can be benign or unsavory, and you do not want a file reader to imagine you lazing around mom’s house or drug muling when you were legitimately taking time off from school. Addenda will help keep the file reader’s imagination from running wild.

Get only stellar letters of recommendation. If a letter is “lukewarm, or says something along the lines of ‘brilliant, but lazy,’ or ‘has trouble expressing his viewpoint in a non-confrontational manner’ – that is going to be a mark against that applicant.” Trujillo wants students to know that such letters of recommendation can give him pause, and he has waitlisted or even rejected a number of applicants on this basis. To avoid this, he advises, only ask “someone who knows you well” to write a recommendation, not someone with an impressive-sounding title “who doesn’t know you as well.”

Personal Statements:

Statements are allowed to be “generic;” that is, broad explanations or narratives about why or how law became the path for you. However, Trujillo says, “We do have people stating they want to be at Virginia Law for a particular reason, and that can be persuasive. It need not be in the personal statement though, and can instead be part of an addendum.” Indeed, the admissions office, while it does not require or explicitly ask for one, accepts a Why Virginia statement.

If you choose to write such a statement, you should definitely double-check the essay to make sure it is addressed to the correct school. Trujillo admits that he gets “a number of ‘Why X Law School’ essays all the time, where X is (accidentally) not Virginia Law. That is a sure way to get yourself waitlisted or rejected.” Nobody wants their application to go up in smoke because of a clerical error.

So, whatever you do, proofread carefully and do not write anything at the last minute. A personal statement that is “poorly written, bland, contains spelling or grammatical errors, or otherwise shows a lack of care” will damage even the best of applications.

In that vein, you should treat your personal statement as a unique piece of the application puzzle. In other words, do not to rehash the material in your resume or addenda. Trujillo says his office wants writing that “gives us something we cannot find elsewhere in your application. We do not conduct interviews, so use the personal statement as a substitute.” He encourages applicants to “tell me something about yourself that you would want me to know if you had 10 minutes with me.”

This advice may not make the personal statement any easier to write, but it is a good prompt for students interested in Virginia Law.

Virginia Residents:

Dean Trujillo insists, “There is no particular “boost” given to residents. But residents have mathematics on their side.” In fact, there are “over nine nonresident applications for every resident application.” So, out of 7,880 applications in 2008, about 7,000 were from nonresidents. The ratio of resident to nonresident admittance is 60 to 40, so “nonresidents get only 1.5 seats for every resident seat in the entering class,” which is a huge boon for resident applicants.

Still, there are no special considerations given to Virginia residents who do not meet the school’s high LSAT and GPA standards. A sizable number of highly qualified applicants live in Virginia, and Trujillo lets it be known that “the medians between the pools are not statistically distinguishable.” This has led him to “joke that getting in…is ridiculously difficult (for nonresidents) rather than just being plain hard (for residents).”

Multiple LSAT Scores:

When considering an applicant who sat for the LSAT more than once, Trujillo very simply states, “We will look at all of an applicant’s LSAT scores.” If you submit an addendum that explains why one score should be weighted more strongly than the other (lower) score, admissions counselors will often take notice and focus on the higher score.

Early Decision:

Students who fall below Virginia Law’s medians can increase their chances of admission by applying Early Decision. Trujillo says:

If we are going to “reach” for someone, it will often be through the early decision process. Virginia is, for some applicants, truly their dream school and they apply early decision. If I can make that person’s dream a reality, I will strive to do so.

If you fall into this category and are worried about obtaining scholarship money, have no fear. Applying ED does not affect an applicant’s merit scholarship prospects. In fact, Trujillo states:

I treat the ED applicants the same as if they applied regular decision. If I did not, word would spread pretty quickly and I’d expect far fewer ED applicants the following year. Some who apply ED and receive scholarship assistance are quite shocked. For example, I gave $20,000+ scholarships to two ED applicants and they were quite surprised.

Scholarships:

Trujillo insists that the current state of the economy has not decreased the amount of aid the law school has distributed since then. “We knew we had to cut costs, but in the end we have decided to save money in other areas such as admissions-related travel, printing and brochure costs, and mailing costs…We have left the scholarship budgets untouched.”

Virginia Law gave grants or scholarships to about 58 percent of its student body in 2007, which is the third highest amount among the T14 (the closest rival was Michigan at 57 percent). Also, its median grant amount in 2007 was $14,500, about $5,200 higher than Michigan’s, which has a comparable class size. Still, Michigan has it beat in one category – it offers about 46 scholarships of full tuition or more, while Virginia only offers about 7 such scholarships.

The Waitlist:

Dean Trujillo had the following to offer on the unpredictable nature of the waitlist:

We typically make at least several hundred wait list offers. In the years that I have been doing this, we have filled zero to more than 20 percent of the class via the wait list. So, literally, in some years I have made zero waitlist offers and one year I made 92. It’s crazy. You just can’t predict it and you have to be prepared.

Transferring:

Regarding incoming transfer students, about 200 applications are received each year and, from those, 20 or less are accepted. The most important factors, naturally, are “class rank and the relative difficulty of the school.” Trujillo notes, “If you want to transfer to Virginia, you should be working as hard as you can at your present law school. LSAT and undergraduate GPA are discounted in favor of your law school performance. It is a good way for someone to get a fresh start.”

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Law School Culture

Since it is an elite school, one would expect a discussion of Virginia Law to include mentions of students closing out the library en masse just to beat the curve. While this may be the case during exams, one 1L notes, “The atmosphere [at UVA] is, in my judgment, about as relaxed as law school can be.” A typical day can look like anything, notes another 1L: “I can spend 12 hours working if I have a memo or none at all if I already completed the assigned reading and feel like relaxing.”

Students, if they play hard, work hard. The law school has a rigorous curriculum, and all students eventually crack their casebooks open and do their work. Many professors will cold call, which helps keep an entire class of smart, accomplished students on its toes.

Two factors help maintain the relaxed atmosphere. Classes are graded on a B+ curve, which is generous, and to keep competition less cutthroat, no class rank is issued. The result of the lack of ranking, says a first-semester student, “means no direct rivalry; you’re not looking at a list and seeing a couple other students directly above [you] and getting an urge to sabotage them to help yourself.” Accordingly, students seem to freely share notes and information, supporting each other wherever possible.

Still, by looking at GPA, students can get a sense for who is at the top of their class (those above a 3.7, or A-) and who is at the median (those with a 3.3, or B+).

Due to the school’s “laid-back nature,” the sociability of the student body, and the alcohol-centric nature of some of its events, the school has been branded as a “party school.” However, many events are purely law-related and meant to enrich every student’s experience. For example, the school offers guest lecturers (in the past, John Grisham and Ronald Dworkin); JAG panels; discussions on issues such as legalizing drugs, women in the judiciary or diplomatic immunity; and everything else that falls between moot court, law review and a pie and cookie social.

Finally, one student asserts that though “the sections regularly have play dates…that involve copious amounts of liquor,” there is a “path less traveled” available to all students, “which is traveled surprisingly frequently:”

The library is spacious, the building is quiet and open late, and the help staff is always on point. There is a coffee machine and enough nooks and crannies to not see another person for a very long time. If you so desire, you can easily find someone who loves studying as much as you do and before you know it, you'll be e-mailing each other Crim Law hypos while pretending to your friends that you haven't done the reading in months. Everyone pretends to be carefree and such, but nobody got here by being a spaz. Even the crazy party people go home, buckle down, and do their work. Despite that and the economy, nobody appears to be conniving or trying to make others fail.

Political Leanings:

As far as political leanings go, while the state itself vacillates between Democratic and Republican leadership, the city of Charlottesville, according to one 1L, is “deep in left field.” The law school, states this student, is “more to the right than probably any other law school in the T14, but overall center-right in the American context.”

Another student offers this opinion: “It’s not really that conservative of an environment - I'm very left leaning and I don't feel uncomfortable at all. Yes, there are some conservatives, but that's a good thing. It provides for interesting discussions.”

A third student says, “I think UVA is very well-balanced politically. I’ve heard that Northwestern is the only other T14 with a sizable group of politically conservative faculty members.” Even if professors are of a particular political bent, one student says, “They don’t really bring their views to their lectures.”

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Professors

Virginia Law, in its materials, claims to have professors that “build intellectual and personal relationships with students.” Indeed, one recent graduate has described professors with an overwhelmingly positive range of adjectives: “one of the funniest [Cushman]…absolutely amazing…charismatic [O’Connell]…very intimidating…but entertaining if you can stand the heat [Kraus]…incredible [Coughlin]” Many students repeat this unabashed praise for their professors, and in some cases get great joy out of being called on by someone they consider to be a rock star of the law.

Studying at the University of Virginia puts students in front of some of the most active members of the Charlottesville community. Professors may be accomplished in academic circles, like Frederick Schauer, rated “one of the three most influential people in legal education…for his work in the areas of rules and the First Amendment.” Others may spend their time directing a legal clinic or hosting a fundraiser for students interested in summer public interest work. Faculty members are often more than just professors – they are philanthropists, legal scholars, policy experts, career advisors and mentors. Above all, they are clearly dedicated to their students and to a rigorous study of the law.

With 150 total faculty members and a student to faculty ratio 13.5 to 1, these individuals seem to be a rare bunch indeed. Students have not had complaints about access to their professors, and some faculty members have even hosted informal section dinners for students. Still, the ratio remains the highest out of any T14, trailing behind a 12.4 ratio at Michigan.

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Classes

Sections:

Virginia Law splits its students into small sections of about 30 students each. The larger lectures range from 60 to 120 students. Total class size usually ends up at around 370, a number only surpassed by four other top law schools—Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and Georgetown.

Required first-year courses include civil procedure, contracts, criminal law, torts, constitutional law, property, and legal writing. Students must also choose two electives, so there is some leeway in the first year.

1Ls take all of their first semester courses with the members of their smaller section, fostering a sense of community within the larger class. Sections will even go so far as to form softball teams. According to one 1L, there is actually “lots and lots of softball…I understand there's some kind of tournament [at the end of the year] where we compete for bragging rights. That kind of thing also helps bring us together to bond, as a section and a team.”

The sense of camaraderie among students is only helped by the “generous and level grading curve” that “nearly negates competition.” The only exception to the B+ curve is a pass/fail Legal Writing course in the first year. Otherwise, the curve is curriculum-wide, unlike some other programs that limit it to primary courses (and not those offered for clinical or seminar credit). Although students regard Virginia's curriculum as challenging, they are quick to point out the good intra-sectional vibes and strong teaching abilities of the faculty.

The Socratic Method:

Students report various things about the use of cold calling—that is, picking out students at random to answer questions—and the prevalence of the Socratic Method, a more dialectical, back-and-forth method of inquiry:

My professors vary in their adherence Socratic Method, but they all cold call.

Socratic Method is present in every class but is so varied that it can't even be called the Socratic Method in some classes. Where it is utilized well, there is a kinetic energy to the lecture because everyone comes to class prepared, and pays full attention the entire time.

For the core classes, I've got two that cold call and two that don't. The ones that do, I would say definitely are very Socratic. They use cold calling to push kids to reason through a case and different variations of it like you heard law school is like. One of my professors likes to use cold calls to ask kids about random pop-culture trivia which he then works into one of his example stories, and it can be kind of frustrating or confusing because he's asking you stuff that has nothing to do with the case or the law. One of the professors that doesn't cold call just uses volunteers when he asks questions, and goes on and explains the answer himself if nobody volunteers it. So it's kind of semi-Socratic. If nobody wants to participate, it'd just turn into a lecture, but usually there's at least someone in class trying to answer.

Class atmosphere is generally extremely positive. None of my professors are harsh cold callers; most are lobbing softball questions or are asking tough questions they don't necessarily expect you to answer with much clarity - they're using what they can get out of you to launch into what the REAL answer or explanation is. Chances are, if you've read the case and given it any thought, you're not going to be embarrassed. Even if you do fall flat on your face, no one cares. People vary in their cold call ability, and apparently it has very little correlation with how smart they actually are, how well they actually know the law, or the grades they'll eventually receive. So, no worries.

Laptops:

The law school does not require students to own a computer, though many students bring a laptop into class or other on-campus events, as the school is fully wired. The Financial Aid Office can grant a one-time allotment of $2,500 in additional loan money for students who wish to purchase a laptop. This is only granted after a written request and supporting documentation are provided to the office. The law school also offers a laptop bundle for students to purchase through Cavalier Computers, the details of which can be viewed here in mid-May.

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Curricular Opportunities

The law school has eighteen different concentration areas that cover just about everything. If you want to focus on business, constitutional, criminal justice, environmental, family, health, intellectual property, public policy or tax law, Virginia will allow you to do so. One would not expect less at any top law school, and these offerings are actually standard fare at any T14.

What separates Virginia Law from the pack is its faculty. They have helped to build strong focuses in commercial, constitutional, corporation securities, and labor law. Tax and intellectual property are also highlights of the Virginia Law program. The law school also offers a significant basis for study in human rights and environmental law for those less geared to the private sector. Virginia Law enjoys a strong reputation for public service work, and many meet the Pro Bono Program’s “Virginia Law Challenge,” which asks each student “to provide at least 25 hours of free legal work annually.”

Joint Degree Programs:

A complete listing of Virginia Law’s combined-degree programs can be found here. If you are interested, you can obtain a joint degree in Accounting, Business, English, Government, Public Health or Urban and Environmental Planning. The law school also has partnerships with Princeton (for Public Affairs), Tufts (for Law and Diplomacy) and Johns Hopkins (for International Relations).

Students interested in a particular program should visit the website provided above, as each combined-degree program is paired with a professor or faculty advisor who can answer any questions you may have.

Clinics:

Virginia Law highlights a few of its clinics on promotional materials, including the Innocence Project, a yearlong clinic that investigates “three potential wrongful convictions of incarcerated individuals in Virginia.” Other notable offerings include the Family Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic, another yearlong clinic where students represent clients in negotiations or, if those fail, in court litigations, and the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, in which students take State Supreme Court or U.S. Court of Appeals cases and research them, identify candidates, draft petitions and send them to the Supreme Court to review. Since 2007, at least one case from the Litigation Clinic has been reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. In some cases, students will argue for why the court should not grant a hearing for a particular case.

The law school also has clinics that involve students in Advocacy for the Elderly, Child Advocacy, First Amendment Law, and Mental Health Law. Some clinics, like the Immigration Law Clinic, are only a semester long. A full list (with links to a description and, in many cases, a short, informative video) is available here.

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Job Placement

Virginia Law takes pride in the fact that it is one of a select few institutions to have placed alumni into each of the current Vault 100 law firms. Most students end up in the private sector, and very few work in academia or for corporations. About 14% of each class will obtain a judicial clerkship, a fairly low percentage for a Top 14 school, but the university ranks 7^th for Supreme Court clerkships from 2000-2008.

As a Virginia Law graduate, it should not be too challenging to find work. The school enjoys a national reputation, and its at-graduation employment rate has been at around 96 percent (nine months later, 99 percent of students are employed). At any rate, the school’s alumni base might help offset any drop in the legal economy. Virginia Law has one of the most loyal alumni bases out of any T14 school, as over half of its alumni gave money to the school in 2008-2009.

The University of Virginia is ranked third (according to Law Firms Yellow Book) in “the number of alumni who are chairpersons and managing partners at law firms nationwide.” This bodes well for prospective students, as other top law schools have tapped into their alumni base thus far to ensure students are working by graduation.

The median salaries for 2007 graduates had a bimodal distribution. That is, there were two spikes on the charts for how salaries turned out for graduates. For those working in the private sector, the median was $145,000. For those employed in the public sector, the median was $55,000.

Geographic Placement:

Virginia Law graduates go pretty much everywhere except for Iowa, Kansas and the Dakotas. Mostly, graduates flock to firms in D.C. and New York City. To a much lesser extent, graduates can be seen in California, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and Richmond. You can view an extremely helpful map with median salaries per location here. The map also has information on the small number of students who work abroad.

Bar Passage:

Students fare extremely well on the bar exam no matter where they go. Even on the notoriously difficult California State Bar exam, students surpass the overall passage rate each time. There is no question that UVA trains some of the best law students in the country, and their high level of readiness is one of the reasons the law school has maintained its reputation among employers.

Clerkships:

The University of Virginia is ranked 7^th in clerkship placement in the Leiter rankings, and from 2007 to 2009, alumni clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court (9 alumni), the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (44 alumni), and U.S. District Courts/other federal courts (93 alumni). Students will sometimes work elsewhere for a year or two before applying to these prestigious clerkships.

Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP):

Students who go into low-paying public sector or government work may find themselves signing up for Virginia Law’s LRAP. The program has been criticized as less generous than the federal Income-Based Repayment (IBR) program, which works on a similar basis and will forgive a student’s debt after 10 years of public service work.

Under Virginia’s program, students can enroll in the program upon graduation at any point for up to 10 years after graduation. If at any point the graduate takes a job that deems them ineligible for enrollment, that person cannot opt back into the program in the future.

According to the website:

Public service employment is defined broadly to include jobs worldwide with federal, state, or local governments, legal aid offices, prosecutors, public defenders, the military, public interest organizations, and legal reform groups that qualify as nonprofit organizations.

Graduates working in private practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia are also eligible for loan assistance because those earning a qualifying salary are likely to be practicing in an underserved area and therefore performing a public service.

Graduates in judicial clerkships are not eligible while clerking, but become eligible if they enter public service employment within two years of the end of the clerkship.

1L Summer Placement:

Most students will work in either Charlottesville, D.C., or Richmond for their summer job. A select few will find summer work in another big city such as New York City or Chicago. Many of the jobs are academic, though most students work in either a law firm, the federal government, or in a judicial capacity.

The Public Interest Law Association (PILA) awards fellowships to about 50 students who choose to work in low-paying summer jobs or service internships. A full list of where these students worked can be found here, though a quick glance shows many positions in the federal, state, and local government as well as in nonprofits and public interest organizations.

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Quality of Life

UVA is situated in what can, by all measures, be called a college town. Charlottesville is small and packed with greenery. Chances are high that while walking around the city or shopping at the mall, you will see someone you know. The law school is a short drive from the airport and not too far from the Appalachian Trail. Many find the intimate surroundings a welcome relief from the bustle of a big city lifestyle.

One exuberant 1L offers the following assessment of Charlottesville:

I love it so far. It's a great town, at least in my opinion. The city feels very friendly, it's very green (lots of trees and natural spaces), there's plenty of stuff going on. It's largely a college town, and has a lot of typical college-town stuff (bars and clubs near the main grounds, intramural sports and clubs all over the place, college-student discounts at grocery stores, etc). It's old and historic, and has a great relaxed feel to it.

You're not far from Monticello, which I already went and toured, and it's an incredible place to see. But the city also has most of the retail outlets you'd expect, a Target, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Best Buy, Office Depot, a mall with Macy's and J.C. Penney's, pretty much everything you could need. It's not that small of a city; it's actually pretty big, certainly big enough that you can find whatever you need in it. It's kind of a good compromise between a small rural area and a big urban metropolis, and in a lot of ways has the best of both. It's not "too big" or "too small" but in many ways it's just right.

Many students add that the beauty of the campus and Charlottesville is unparalleled among the T14. The weather is pleasant and there is nothing like watching the campus change color with the seasons. Charlottesville itself offers a variety of dining and nightlife options. Students also report the high quality of the facilities is a major selling point for the school.

Facilities:

The law school moved from the iconic rotunda to its current location in 1974. Accordingly, the main building is relatively new, which gives it a distinctively modern Jeffersonian look in direct contrast to the classic gothic towers of other top schools. Some students are not that impressed with the stony, blank facade, though others are inspired by the sense of grandness invoked when walking through the pillars of its main entrance.

The locus of school-wide activity is Caplin Pavilion, where lectures and other events or receptions are held. Otherwise, most students will spend their time in the law library, a state-of-the-art facility which has several quiet study areas and a coffee bar where students can get a quick caffeine fix.

The Student-Faculty Center, opened in 2002, has a light-filled lobby, a student study lounge and informal and formal dining areas where students and faculty have been known to congregate. In addition, there is an outdoor terrace where students can sit and eat. It is one of many study areas available to students. The grounds of University of Virginia also allow students plenty of room to meander, find a quiet spot, and catch up on schoolwork.

Housing:

As far as options near or on campus go, one helpful law student provided the following information:

UVA offers family housing in the Copeley complex, which is about as close to campus as one can get. [You can view floor plans here.] Its offerings include apartments with one, two, or three bedrooms.

The University Gardens are a little farther away (across from Highway 29, I think) and do not offer three bedroom leases. [View a floor plan here.] Otherwise, the nearby Ivy Gardens have 1 and 2 bedroom apartments that are slightly pricier and a little farther away from the law school grounds than Copeley but still closer than U. Gardens.

You should also check out Huntington Village if you don't mind adding 5 minutes to your walk - they are town homes instead of apartments, and give the advantages of a more home-like feel and less noise from neighbors.

A recent graduate offers the following:

Many law students and 1Ls especially live close to the school. The most popular place is Ivy Gardens - it's almost like law school dorms. I didn't live there because they were full by the time I started looking, but it's very convenient and it's just easy. It's within walking distance, which is nice and many events are held there - dinners, potlucks, parties, etc. I wound up having to drive over all the time anyways. Jeffersonian Apartments are also very close - anything off of Arlington Blvd will be right by the school.

A little closer to the school year, you'll find law students looking for roommates. Craigslist is useful too - there are plenty of law students on there.

Cost of housing is low in the city, with one-bedroom apartments near campus running as low as $700 and two-bedroom apartments as cheap as $400 per person. Students will find little stress from the city itself, a boon for those who cannot stand the heightened pace and high prices of the likes of New York City, Los Angeles, or Chicago.

One current student gives the following breakdown for prices:

While it depends on your shopping habits, rent if you're sharing a two-bedroom would probably be $400 to $600, rent for a one-bedroom would be $700 to $900. These would be for nice places and/or places close to the law school; knock off $100 or $200 if you're living farther away in non-luxury digs. Electricity runs me about $60-$75 a month during hot months.

Charlottesville:

Despite it having a small population (41,000 in the city; 135,000 in the region), Charlottesville packs a lot of punch for a city its size.

Located in Central Virginia, the city has been ranked by Frommer’s as one of the best places to live in America. The ranking was in part inspired by its low cost of living, strong sense of history, high amount of cultural and intellectual activity (the city’s website boasts a good public school system and “more newspaper readers per capita than anywhere else in the nation”), gorgeous weather, and four colorful seasons that blend into each other in characteristic mid-Atlantic fashion.

The range of dining options is wide, as Charlottesville has some of the finer restaurants on the East Coast. It is not as much of a gustatory center as New York City or Los Angeles, but it does have some upscale options that are nationally renowned. As it is a college town, you can expect a motley assortment of bars, sandwich shops, pizza joints, cafés, and movie theaters. The movie theaters apparently leave something to be desired, according to a current 1L who offers this critique from a film major’s standpoint:

Let me just say that the movie theaters here suck. I still haven't tried the Downtown Mall 6, but the other theaters (Carmike and Regal) are both old, small, and lousy. One is four-screen and one is six-screen; neither have stadium seating; both have hard, uncomfortable seats. They're typical theaters designed in the 70s or 80s. Having come from a metropolis that had several nice, new 18-plus screen theaters, that's a hard adjustment to make for me.

Despite the aging movie theaters, Charlottesville has a new downtown performance space called the Charlottesville Pavilion and a new John Paul Jones arena, the home of UVA’s basketball team. College basketball is a big draw for residents, and, like all of the university’s sporting events, games are free for students. The arena is not limited to basketball games, however, and has had acts as diverse as Jon Stewart, WWE Presents RAW Live!, John Mayer, and The World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions.

For those looking to leave town, the law school is about 20 minutes from the airport and an hour from the state’s capital, Richmond. Washington D.C. is a bit of a drive, at 2 hours away, and for those who want to see the Atlantic and dip their toes into sand or salty water, Virginia Beach is a 3 hour drive – not too bad for a day trip.

Most students spend their spare time in or near the city, and will volunteer for activities such as trail maintenance, community theater, city revitalization projects or whatever catches their interest. Charlottesville is a thriving cultural, artistic and entertainment hub for Virginia, so chances are, if you search for a creative outlet, others will be there to greet you with open arms.

Overall, students seem to enjoy living in the city and attending such a prestigious university. Three more opinions from current and past students are below:

I'm 28, and I'm enjoying it so far. There is definitely that college atmosphere, but honestly you can choose your own level of acceptance. You can play on the softball team, go out drinking with your classmates, or whatever else is going on, or you can go spend the time in the library studying instead. It really depends on you and what you want, and people don't give you a hard time for not doing something. It's still a very professional and prestigious law school at its core. The fact that it can be more relaxed just makes it a little more comfortable.

So far, I'm enjoying the hell out of living here. It's a very friendly town with a great atmosphere. The traffic and parking sucks, though; live near the law school, so you can walk even if you own a car.

As far as Charlottesville goes, I definitely like it. I don't have a car, but living on Arlington, it's not a problem. I can walk to school, I'm five minutes away from a shopping center that has pretty much everything I could want (two grocery stores, a ton of restaurants, a pharmacy, stores with school supplies, banks, clothing, etc). The city is not very pedestrian friendly, but I can walk to the Corner [the University’s main drag] if need be. The university bus system is, surprisingly, very efficient, especially if you're not opposed to walking a few blocks to catch one. There's a bus that goes to the main grounds (and the Corner), and there's another nearby one that goes to the medical area, so I think the buses will enable you to get all of your needs taken care of.

Indebtedness:

If Virginia Law can be said to blow away its competition in one regard, it is here. Average graduate debt for those who got their JD in 2008 was an impressively low $76,150. Several factors help explain this figure.

Tuition is low for residents, who pay $36,800 each year and make up 40 percent of the incoming class. Charlottesville’s cost of living, as mentioned above, is easy on the pockets. Virginia Law chooses to spread its aid as widely as possible, and as a result, more students are left with less debt coming from UVA than from any other top school in the country.

The only school that comes close is Berkeley, which has comparable in-state tuition rates and grant distribution. Berkeley’s graduates in 2008 had an average of $76,488 in debt. In fact, these are the only two of the T14 that will leave the average graduate with less than $95,000 in student debt, which can be a huge draw for those worried about finding a well-paying job in a shrunken legal economy.

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Extracurricular Opportunities

When it comes to what students get together to do outside of the classroom, one thing comes to mind: softball. “Each section forms a softball team, and then sections play each other,” according to one first-year. Each April, the law school hosts a softball tournament that draws law students from about 50 different law schools.

Events like this give Virginia Law its reputation as a school that values camaraderie and fun. Law school is stressful, but tournaments and the like give students outlets to have a good time and let loose.

It should not be surprising, then, that Virginia Law is home to the infamous Libel Show, an annual variety show held by students that makes light of just about everything related to law. The following advice is given to attending students:

[You should] participate in Libel Show all three years. I waited until 3L year and I regret that - it was so much fun. If you don't know, Libel Show is the annual comedy skit show that pokes fun of lawyers, professors, the school and the legal field in general.

It's a bit of work, but it's fun. You can be involved so many ways, whether it's performing, writing, making props, playing instruments, whatever. Just do it. Here are some good videos of Libel Show, though some of the jokes may be lost on non-UVA 0Ls. [Link 1] [Link 2] [Link 3]

[2008] was the 100th year of Libel Show and we got Justice Scalia and Ted Kennedy to do the intro, which was pretty cool.

Pro Bono Work:

There are 19 student-led organizations devoted to public service. Students take seriously the challenge to serve their community, and the entire city benefits from the activities of law students. Volunteers have represented veterans to help them receive disability claims, performed legal intake with families at the UVA Children’s Hospital, and represented indigent clients for issues related to divorce, domestic violence, family law, immigration or asylum law.

Some of the legal work takes place in the iconic Rock House, where Hunton and Williams and UVA have established a pro bono partnership.

A recent graduate had this to say:

I love pro bono and you get the chance to really help people while you're in law school. I worked on a project at Legal Aid that gave legal help to prisoners. There's pretty much any group you can think of - take advantage.

Journals:

Virginia Law is home to two noted journals: Journal of Law and Politics, described by the website as “the first and only nonpartisan publication devoted exclusively to examining the interaction between law and politics,” and Virginia Journal of International Law, “the oldest continuously-published, student-edited law review in the U.S. devoted exclusively to the fields of public and private international law.”

A full list of journals can be found here.

How does one become involved in a journal? The process, according to the Virginia Law website, is roughly as follows:

All first-years can partake in the journal trial process and about 90 percent of 1Ls do so, which really raises the bar for competition.

The process takes place over two weekends in the Spring semester, usually in February. Students will be given a Journal Trial Packet, which consists of two parts.

Part one is an editing assessment. You will be given an extract of an article that has deliberate grammatical and bluebooking errors. [Bluebooking is the standard system of citation used by law journals. The Bluebook can be thought of as a style manual, in the vein of The Chicago Manual of Style or MLA Formatting and Style Guide.] Your job will be to find errors, make comments, and correct the errors. Good, quick editing skills and a solid command of language are essential.

Part two is a writing assessment. You will be given a difficult question of the law, one that has not been settled by the courts. Along with this question, you will receive an extremely large, daunting packet full of court cases, articles, and statutes that address this difficult question. Your job will be to write ten pages of a legal argument in memo or brief form. The assessment is to see how well you apply the legal analysis learned in classes to resolve this problem, which has no clear answer.

All students who take part in this process are automatically trying out for the prestigious Virginia Law Review. In addition, students can pick two journals they wish to try out for. Once accepted, most 1Ls will act as members of the editorial board of that journal, which involves plenty of checking of citations, facts, grammar and spelling.

The experience is difficult, and, some would say, boring, but employers definitely look more favorably at students who show an effort to hone their legal-writing skills to perfection.

Moot Court Competitions:

Virginia Law, like every top law school, offers moot court and trial advocacy competitions. The law school’s website has a video that gives some insight into the moot court competition.

“About 150 second-year students” participate in two-person teams for Virginia Law’s most famous event, the William Minor Lile Moot Court Competition. According to the website, “Winners receive a cash prize and their names are inscribed on a plaque located outside the three moot courtrooms.” Students have the chance to get their names engraved on the same wall as previous winners, including former U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and John Tunney.

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Conclusion

Virginia Law offers an easygoing lifestyle and a low cost of living that no other top school can compete with. The professors may not be as plentiful at other schools, nor do they have the name recognition as those at Chicago or Harvard, but they are still top-notch, and they care deeply about their students.

It is hard for a student to go wrong when choosing a law school in the top ten. In some cases, the decision will come down to quality of life. Students from a big city may be surprised or even annoyed at how small Charlottesville is. The proximity of hiking trails, the beach, and a tight-knit section can be hard to beat, but, admittedly, softball, alcohol-centric events, and the chill of winter are not for everyone.

If your choice boils down to sheer cost-value assessment, students should have no qualms choosing Virginia Law. Average debt upon graduation is the lowest in the T14, and median salaries (even in the public sector) are decent enough to pay it back. The Loan Repayment Assistance Program is lacking, but the federal IBR program allows students to choose another option. Employment should be a concern for all prospective law students, but with an active alumni base and strong Vault 100 placement statistics, it does not seem like Virginia Law is going to let its graduates down.

The noncompetitive and sociable atmosphere will likely draw students who are confident in their ability to play hard and work hard. Virginia Law may not be for every personality, but if your goal is to be a lawyer in a top law firm, you should feel confident that an education at the law school can get you there. As always, what you get out of law school will be a product of what you put in, and Virginia Law offers a bounty to the active student.

Interview: Dean Jason Trujillo of UVA Law

Contact Information
University of Virginia School of Law Admissions Office
580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903-1738
Phone: (434) 924-7351
lawadmit@virginia.edu
http://www.law.virginia.edu