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If you had to choose between the two which would it be. I'm interested in public service, clerkships, and possibly biglaw. I'm not sure where I want to work upon graduating.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

socraticmethodman wrote:If you had to choose between the two which would it be. I'm interested in public service, clerkships, and possibly biglaw. I'm not sure where I want to work upon graduating.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

I would go with Duke. The COL is much cheaper in Durham. Although, figure out where you want to work. Placement from both of these schools is good but if you want to be in DC I would go with GT. Duke for everywhere else.

Thanks for the reply.

Any other thoughts?

bump

socraticmethodman wrote:Thanks for the reply.

Any other thoughts?

Remember that lifestyle in these two locations is going to be worlds apart as well. This might not be a great reason to choose a law school, but if you're looking for some way to decide between the two...my personal preference would be for the atmosphere of north Carolina over d.c. Any day, but others are likely just the opposite.

Duke has a smaller class size which might help. You should check the terms of their LRAPs. I know that G has very good clinics that you could work in a PI setting but Duke seems better for other areas. I'd go to Duke but I'm pretty sure I don't want PI

Moral_Midgetry wrote:

socraticmethodman wrote:If you had to choose between the two which would it be. I'm interested in public service, clerkships, and possibly biglaw. I'm not sure where I want to work upon graduating.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

I would go with Duke. The COL is much cheaper in Durham. Although, figure out where you want to work. Placement from both of these schools is good but if you want to be in DC I would go with GT. Duke for everywhere else.

The guy with ....that 'Tar recommends Duke. At least he didn't mention Vanderbilt.

Lulz

Duke for sure. Better school, cheaper COL.

When I visited Duke one of their admissions staff made a good point (granted, I know they were trying to sell their school, but I still thought it made sense). Since Duke has a smaller class size their graduates are rarer and can therefore stand out in the hiring process - even in DC where GT grads are a dime a dozen. It's something to think about anyway.

This, in my opinion, is a tie that simply needs to be decided based upon one's personal preferences. Some may prefer D.C., while others may covet the ease of getting a concurrent master's degree at Duke.

Maybe slight edge in employment prospects to Duke, maybe.

Durham is cheaper, but this is probably negligible considering you're already paying sticker.

Pick whichever you like better, though I'd go Duke if you had a hankering for working in the south.

Unless there is a specific consideration pushing you the other way, the clear answer is Duke. Duke wins in almost every important category that can be considered. All else equal, this isn't really much of a fair fight.

I go to Duke B-school right now and I went to GW undergrad so here are some of my thoughts.

Duke does outpace Gtown in pretty much every important category when it comes to getting a law degree.

Durham def not DC. I have never been more bored being in Durham than anywhere else. But with that said, it's the perfect environment to go to school. No real distractions at all and like others have said, it's much more inexpensive to live in Durham.

If you have any thoughts of getting a dual degree such as MBA, Duke is def the better option. Not only is Fuqua ranked higher, the schools happen to be right next to each other. Gtown on the other hand has the law campus more towards the downtown/courts area while the b-school's on the main Gtown campus. It will be a pain to do a JD/MBA at Gtown b/c of the commute during the last 2 years between campuses. As dumb of a reason as that may sound, it's def something to consider b/c you'll lose a lot of time.

Duke's culture is something that needs to be considered. It is competitive but very collegial at the same time. Duke is much more exclusive as others have said in terms of class size so there is also a degree of more prestige and accomplishment to an extent.

Having lived in both cities, I can definitively say that the food in Durham is surprisingly a lot better than DC. Being from NY, I could never find good pizza in DC but Durham has a number of good NY style places.

Lastly, Duke bball is better than Gtown. I've gone to both Duke and Gtown games and the Cameron Indoor experience is so much better than Verizon Center. Duke fans love their team and it shows big time while most Gtown fans aren't even alum or true fans. Just DC people going to games to say they were there.

The last 2 reasons may not be the best reasons to pick Duke but overall, Duke just gives you a much better experience and lasting effect than Gtown.

Internship/externship opportunities may be more enticing in Wash. D.C. than in Durhan/Raleigh/Chapel Hill area.

ran12 wrote:Duke is much more exclusive as others have said in terms of class size so there is also a degree of more prestige and accomplishment to an extent.

ran12 wrote:Lastly, Duke bball is better than Gtown.

The problem is, to enjoy it, you have to root for Duke. Do you really want to be a Duke fan?

A number of law schools hire their own graduates, some in hourly temp jobs that, as it turns out, coincide with the magical date. Last year, for instance, Georgetown Law sent an e-mail to alums who were “still seeking employment.” It announced three newly created jobs in admissions, paying $20 an hour. The jobs just happened to start on Feb. 1 and lasted six weeks.

A spokeswoman for the school said that none of these grads were counted as “employed” as a result of these hourly jobs. In a lengthy exchange of e-mails and calls, several different explanations were offered, the oddest of which came from Gihan Fernando, the assistant dean of career services. He said in an interview that Georgetown Law had “lost track” of two of the three alums, even though they were working at the very institution that was looking for them.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/busin ... ef=general

MrAnon wrote:A number of law schools hire their own graduates, some in hourly temp jobs that, as it turns out, coincide with the magical date. Last year, for instance, Georgetown Law sent an e-mail to alums who were “still seeking employment.” It announced three newly created jobs in admissions, paying $20 an hour. The jobs just happened to start on Feb. 1 and lasted six weeks.

A spokeswoman for the school said that none of these grads were counted as “employed” as a result of these hourly jobs. In a lengthy exchange of e-mails and calls, several different explanations were offered, the oddest of which came from Gihan Fernando, the assistant dean of career services. He said in an interview that Georgetown Law had “lost track” of two of the three alums, even though they were working at the very institution that was looking for them.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/busin ... ef=general

So what's your beef with GULC?

Marionberry wrote:

MrAnon wrote:A number of law schools hire their own graduates, some in hourly temp jobs that, as it turns out, coincide with the magical date. Last year, for instance, Georgetown Law sent an e-mail to alums who were “still seeking employment.” It announced three newly created jobs in admissions, paying $20 an hour. The jobs just happened to start on Feb. 1 and lasted six weeks.

A spokeswoman for the school said that none of these grads were counted as “employed” as a result of these hourly jobs. In a lengthy exchange of e-mails and calls, several different explanations were offered, the oddest of which came from Gihan Fernando, the assistant dean of career services. He said in an interview that Georgetown Law had “lost track” of two of the three alums, even though they were working at the very institution that was looking for them.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/busin ... ef=general

So what's your beef with GULC?

I'm confused by this. The jobs weren't used to report employment stats, so all they did was offer temporary jobs without trying to game the system. What is wrong with that? Duke offered jobs to its students and then counted them as employed from what I recall.

It sounds like the GULC temp jobs may or may not have been used to game the stats, but almost every school games the stats, so it's not like this really sets them apart.

"MrAnon" comes on every thread with GULC in the title and starts hating, which I'm assuming is because he got dinged there or something. I may be wrong, but I am gonna keep assuming that.

People tend to overstate the differences between schools like Duke and GULC. The placement stats differ by 5% or less most years.

While GULC suffers from a large class size, Duke suffers from being in an out of the way place for most firms wanting to interview. At GULC, you can choose almost any law firm you want (save Wachtell) to interview with at OCI as almost all the v100 shows up. At Duke, you are much more limited.

Location cuts both ways. For biglaw, in-person networking isn't usually too important. But for public interest or government, living in DC could be very valuable. DC COL is expensive, but not as bad as people make it out to be if you are willing to live frugally.

There is also the question of culture. Durham is a very different place in DC, and my experience is that Duke tends to attract a different type of student. I would encourage the OP to talk to as many students and alums as possible at both schools and to visit both (if possible) to see which school is more your style.

Disclosure: I am a GULC grad.

You should re-title the thread to "Place 200k on the table in Las Vegas or in Reno?"

http://abovethelaw.com/2010/06/the-secr ... -practice/

if you are one of those people who needs a city atmosphere then i'd say g-town. i could see someone getting bummed out enough in durham for their grades to take a little dive. but my perspective is probably a little different than most as my gf went to duke ug so I visited there a few times and have only visited dc as a city and didn't pay too much attention to GULC when I was there.

bk187 wrote:Maybe slight edge in employment prospects to Duke, maybe.

Durham is cheaper, but this is probably negligible considering you're already paying sticker.

Pick whichever you like better, though I'd go Duke if you had a hankering for working in the south.

This, although if you look at it a certain way, that 8-10k extra a year to live in DC could be viewed as a nice 24-30k scholarship to live in Durham.

T6Hopeful wrote:This, although if you look at it a certain way, that 8-10k extra a year to live in DC could be viewed as a nice 24-30k scholarship to live in Durham.

What's a 30k scholarship when you're already close to or over 200k worth of debt?

That's why I called the CoL difference negligible.

If you are dead certain on PI, you should be carefully comparing LRAP. If I remember right, Georgetown has one of the better LRAPs in the T14 and I think its much better than Duke's.