Top Law Schools

Now that decisions are rolling in, how are you all deciding which schools to visit? Are you visiting as many as you can or are you narrowing down your list? Are ASWs the best time to get a feel for the school?

Prior to college, I made the mistake of not really visiting many schools and I am SERIOUSLY trying to avoid making that mistake again, but I'm also in a pretty crappy/far location as compared to most of the schools I'm interested in to just be taking trips all the time.

ASWs are helpful because they subsidize the trip and the school will have stuff going on geared to you (meaning they will throw students at you so you can talk to an actual student rather than some admissions person who's job it is to get you to matriculate).

I think I visited 6 schools: 2 ASWs and 2 were to help with the WL because they were nearby (i.e. free). The other 2 were because my sister lives near them and I was really going to see my sister but decided to stay an extra few days because the timing worked out well.

brinicolec wrote:Now that decisions are rolling in, how are you all deciding which schools to visit? Are you visiting as many as you can or are you narrowing down your list? Are ASWs the best time to get a feel for the school?

I think speaking with current students does help, and ASW's would give you that opportunity. Problem is, each school is trying to woo you and so they'll put on a "show" and try to lure you. I think I would take KMart's approach and try to visit more of the schools that subsidize your visits. Trust me, you won't exactly attend Washington and Lee because they have a beautiful campus over Northwestern. Law school selection should be geared towards your professional goals.

KunAgnis wrote:Trust me, you won't exactly attend Washington and Lee because they have a beautiful campus over Northwestern. Law school selection should be geared towards your professional goals.

This is right, but there's a different feel at each school. Choosing between Columbia and NYU will really put you towards the same professional outcomes with generally the same likelihood. At that point, you want to know what culture you're going to excel in. Obviously this presumes about 3 things of OP that we don't know, but there is value in a visit.

brinicolec wrote:Now that decisions are rolling in, how are you all deciding which schools to visit? Are you visiting as many as you can or are you narrowing down your list? Are ASWs the best time to get a feel for the school?

Prior to college, I made the mistake of not really visiting many schools and I am SERIOUSLY trying to avoid making that mistake again, but I'm also in a pretty crappy/far location as compared to most of the schools I'm interested in to just be taking trips all the time.

Agree with everything that's been said, and particularly that you should avoid making the mistake of not visiting many law schools prior to your deciding. If I didn't visit I would have went to a T6 instead of my T10 and I'm quite sure that would have been a bad decision. The school you choose will become a significant part of you. Dropping a couple hundred bucks is well worth it, plus you'll probably have a lot of fun.