Top Law Schools

This comparison has been made multiple times. Thus, as an (almost) rising 3L at UVA, I would like to give my 2 cents on UVA, and the ways in which I imagine it's similar/different from Duke. Hopefully, a Dukie will join and put in their two cents.
I think this is a worthy thread, b/c if $ is equal, it's a fairly apples to apples comparison, so hopefully, us students can flush out some of the nuances.

Quality of Life:
1. My sense is that both schools will attract the same type of people (lots of people here went to Duke for UG, I suspect vice versa is true)
2. It is in the South --> there are certain cultural aspects (which as a non-southerner can be enjoyable)
3. Neither are anywhere close to a city --> this part sucks for us people who like cities
4. In my view, the biggest tangible difference is that UVA Law is completely separated from the main grounds, whereas Duke Law is part of the larger Duke University ... this alone makes me wish I had gone to Duke. A small little law school bubble may sound cute at first, but it quickly becomes a prison (+ it becomes more difficult to join mainstream extracurriculars like "yoga club" or "cycling club" ... instead it will be "law yoga club")
5. "Bling Factor" --> I'm from California. Duke is considered prestigious -- no lay person has ever heard of UVA. Should this matter? No. Do most of us have egos? Yes.

Employment:
1. For most people, the difference is negligible
2. If you want D.C., UVA is probably better (but the caveat is you still need to be top 1/4 even at UVA)
3. If you want NYC (a far safer bet), Duke is definitely superior ... mostly b/c UVA's NYC placement kind of sucks relative to other east coast T-14's

Seems plausible, except QOL #3. Duke is located in a city of 250,000 and is ~30 minutes away from the state's capital (at 500,000 residents). Sure, it's not MFH, but it's also substantially larger than Charlottesville.

0Ls -- if you think being constantly surrounded by Duke undergrads sounds awesome, and if you want to impress people on the other side of the country with how prestigious you are, don't come to UVA.

Though I know a bunch of people at UVA who participate in the undergraduate clubs if for some reason you want to mingle with undergrads outside the bar scene. Plus plenty of people live outside of the law school bubble. There are like 8 yoga studios downtown. The employment points are fair though, Duke places better in NYC.

So if you only look at placement data UVA outperforms duke by 0.8% when it comes to aggregate placement in DC and NYC. I would call this a tie. I am not going to get into it right now, but I am a strong believer that TLS reads too much into some statistics.

I think the poster makes some good points. For example, some prospective students might like to have more undergrad life around them then others - I, for example, do not want to be surrounded by 18-20 year olds. Some people may be put off on living in a smaller city. I think it is a bonus to live in a place where you can enjoy the countryside since the majority of law students will be living the rest of their life in an urban environment. In the end the differences will be positive or negative depending on what you want.

I will say one thing that I think is wrong about the post, which is the idea that the law school is a "bubble." That sounds like something self-imposed. I have friends and acquaintances at UVA from a smattering of schools, undergrad to the various graduate programs, as well as friends in Charlottesville with no connection to the university. It really takes minimal effort to do something that doesn't have "law" in the group's title.

DetroitRed wrote:Seems plausible, except QOL #3. Duke is located in a city of 250,000 and is ~30 minutes away from the state's capital (at 500,000 residents). Sure, it's not MFH, but it's also substantially larger than Charlottesville.

30 min if you're driving between 5 and 6 pm. 15-20 otherwise.

UVAIce wrote:So if you only look at placement data UVA outperforms duke by 0.8% when it comes to aggregate placement in DC and NYC. I would call this a tie. I am not going to get into it right now, but I am a strong believer that TLS reads too much into some statistics.

I think the poster makes some good points. For example, some prospective students might like to have more undergrad life around them then others - I, for example, do not want to be surrounded by 18-20 year olds. Some people may be put off on living in a smaller city. I think it is a bonus to live in a place where you can enjoy the countryside since the majority of law students will be living the rest of their life in an urban environment. In the end the differences will be positive or negative depending on what you want.

I will say one thing that I think is wrong about the post, which is the idea that the law school is a "bubble." That sounds like something self-imposed. I have friends and acquaintances at UVA from a smattering of schools, undergrad to the various graduate programs, as well as friends in Charlottesville with no connection to the university. It really takes minimal effort to do something that doesn't have "law" in the group's title.

We became lawyers because we are bad with figures in general.