Top Law Schools

No preference between Dallas or Atlanta

SMU scholarship is $26k/year. Emory is $23k/year.

Where do you have ties?

Emory for sure. it might have tanked lately, but its the strongest school in the Atl region, and probably still a better school in absolute terms than SMU

disclaimer: i'm from atlanta, no ties to emory

The question is whether you want Dallas or Atlanta. Where do you see yourself being happier?

Would you rather live in Dallas or Atlanta?

So which city do you want to end up in, Dallas or Atlanta?

Not sure if this has been covered, but where would you rather live? Dallas or Atlanta?


LOL....

Do you want to work in Dallas or Atlanta?

Either is fine if you want to work for Delta Airlines; otherwise, select the law school in the city where you want to work after finishing law school.

Funny. I think this is the decision I'll end up having to make, too. Emory accepted me with a good amount of money - SMU has yet to accept me - but I anticipate it. I'm originally from Dallas - live in Austin now. I've never been to Atlanta. Emory seems like such a great school - which makes me lean there - but my connections are to Texas.

Have you been able to put up the schools next to each other head to head in terms of course and program offerings? They seem like pretty similar schools on the surface.

sandlot wrote:Funny. I think this is the decision I'll end up having to make, too. Emory accepted me with a good amount of money - SMU has yet to accept me - but I anticipate it. I'm originally from Dallas - live in Austin now. I've never been to Atlanta. Emory seems like such a great school - which makes me lean there - but my connections are to Texas.

Have you been able to put up the schools next to each other head to head in terms of course and program offerings? They seem like pretty similar schools on the surface.

Cost should be your biggest concern, but assuming you get into SMU with a hefty scholarship too, I'd recommend SMU over Emory for you. As someone with a pretty good knowledge of both markets, here's my take:

The Dallas and Atlanta markets are roughly similar in size and both are somewhat provincial, as in, they prefer ties, but very high grades can offset ties—at least at the larger firms (in Atlanta, think K&S, A&B, Jones Day; in Dallas, think Big3, TK, HB, and satellites). Given that you have Dallas ties, it would make more sense for you to target Dallas so in case you miss the cutoff for the big firms, you can still network with midlaw firms in town. Emory, on the other hand, has a reputation in the city for being the carpetbagger school. Top of the class still gets the biglaw shops in town, but once you move past that cutoff, it becomes extremely difficult for a non-local to get their foot in the door at midlaw and smaller firms.

The Atlanta market is also probably more competitive than Dallas (at least from what I've seen). In addition to the higher ranked schools which feed into the market (ie, Vandy, UVA, Duke), Emory faces a peer school that's also the state flagship. SMU, while also facing higher ranked schools (ie, UT), doesn't really have a peer school to compete with in the city. Again, this is just an observation I've made with no real hard data to back up this claim. Still, it's something to think about.

Also, SMU has some pretty cool programs for if you miss out in OCI. They really do try and help you get a permanent job.