UVA/Columbia/Duke/Penn for DC Law Forum

[DuncND2013]

I want a law job (maybe biglaw, maybe not) in the DC area and to stay East Coast for school.

3.8
172
VA resident

Would UVA be the move?

[Mack.Hambleton]

wait until you get accepted and know what your finances are

[DuncND2013]

wait until you get accepted and know what your finances are

A solid point. For the sake of argument though--let's say, all things being equal, no $$ from any. Is UVA the best option? GULC with $$?

[BigZuck]

If you faced sticker with those numbers I would sit out a cycle and figure out wtf went wrong because clearly you screwed something up along the way and you would be well-advised to fix it.

Can't really answer your original question without knowing the money situation, hypothetical speculation is kinda pointless. Just see what happens and start a choosing thread when all your ducks are right in front of you.

[TheSpanishMain]

Yeah, with those numbers, you will get money, so there's really no point in doing the analysis until you actually know your options.

[DuncND2013]

If you faced sticker with those numbers I would sit out a cycle and figure out wtf went wrong because clearly you screwed something up along the way and you would be well-advised to fix it.

Can't really answer your original question without knowing the money situation, hypothetical speculation is kinda pointless. Just see what happens and start a choosing thread when all your ducks are right in front of you.

Thanks for the answer. Will have some parental help with tuition (not sure how much yet). Will have a SO with a job, though she has a few student loans of her own coming up. I also will have about 40k saved from 2 years of postgrad work by the start of the school year. UVA also saves me about 20k total compared to the other school tuitions due to in-state status.

But yeah, I figured this might be a little pre-emptive. I more was asking if UVA is the best look for D.C. law amongst those schools.

[jbagelboy]

UVA has the most people targeting DC, but that doesn't necessarily make it "easier." Penn and UVA have DC as the most popular destination among those four schools, and you'll find the most DC-targeted initiatives there. Conversely, far fewer Columbia students bid on or apply to DC offices. I only know a handful of people who truly targeted DC and they were all successful there -- then again, they knew they had the credentials going in. People with low grades don't bid on DC so we don't see them fail as often.

Which brings me to the main point, which is that it really won't matter which school you're at unless you're a competitive applicant, i.e., strong grades. DC tears up students at every school (see Chicago and Harvard OCI threads for testimonials). The summer class sizes of DC offices are several times smaller than New York, often even smaller than Los Angeles. Tread lightly when making decisions about law school based on perceived ability to target DC. Finances are a far more relevant consideration.

[BruceWayne]

There aren't any schools that are "strong" for DC, excluding HYS, in the sense of allowing you to get a job there with a lower class rank. And from what I've heard DC is actually not that easy for HYS students either. That being said, if you DO get high grades at UVA there are so many DC firms and so many opportunities to connect/network with them that it will just make getting a job there less of a hassle than say Columbia or Penn. But grade wise/preference DC is pretty much HYS and then the rest of the top 14 in terms of their selectivity.

[daleearnhardt123]

Your financial aid package is likely to be dispositive. With that said, people who don't think UVA has a noticeable edge over other nonHYS T14s are kidding themselves. UVA dwarves the other schools in terms of DC SAs. Gtown is somewhat of an exception to that rule in terms of raw #s but that's because Gtown has so many more students and they're almost ALL targeting DC.