Top Law Schools

Hey TLS,

After reading posts for the better part of a year (pre-LSAT, post-LSAT, during applying and right now!) the time has come to make the big decision!

UVA and Duke are the best schools I've gotten into. UVA has offered enough loans to cover the costs and they seem to have a pretty decent LRAP. Duke has offered me $48K total in scholarships, and enough loans to cover the rest-- also with a decent LRAP. I want to go into international law (human rights/humanitarian) and so I've gotten into Duke's JD/LLM program, and I would apply to UVA's dual degree with Sciences Po (Paris) if I ended up going there.

Do you guys have any opinion on their respective international reputations? I'm looking to practice outside of the US, and not via Big Law. The feeling that I've gotten is that UVA might be slightly more respected in the legal community, but Duke is probably a bigger name for lay people. Although if I did the Sciences Po program, it wouldn't be an issue since it's so well-respected in the EU.

Any advice would be helpful! Also if any UVA or Duke current students have done interesting things abroad (summer/ J-term work, international human rights clinics, etc.) I'd love to hear about it. Thanks in advance!

They probably have about equal international reputation - no one has heard of either of them because they're not Harvard. Duke might have a slight edge because its UG is more reputable.

I would take the money at Duke in a heartbeat. Much better deal.

In talking to international students, I've gathered that the only law schools with strong international reputations are Ivy League schools and Stanford. One LLM student at U.Va. told me that he almost chose Cornell instead because that's the name he recognized.

International lay prestige, if it exists, is nothing like what it is in the United States. Outside of the Ivies and Stanford, foreigners look at the rankings to determine the best school. They probably rely on U.S. News more than we do.

Internationally, lay people will not have impressions of Duke because very few people will have watched Dick Vitale slobber all over Coach K regularly on ESPN. Lawyers will consider U.Va. the slightly better school because it's consistently ranked slightly higher by U.S. News.

Again, these are my impressions based on my conversations with foreigners. Take it for what it's worth.

duckmoney wrote:They probably have about equal international reputation - no one has heard of either of them because they're not Harvard. Duke might have a slight edge because its UG is more reputable.

I would take the money at Duke in a heartbeat. Much better deal.

TITCR. Nobody's going to care about the negligible (if any) difference between UVA and Duke.