For those of you who replied who are currently at Duke law, can you tell me what you like and don't like about Duke law. Am considering going there. Choices right now are Georgetown, Duke , Vandy.
Thank you!
Duke vs. GULC vs. Vanderbilt Forum
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MICHELECARTALK
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2019 9:55 am
Duke vs. GULC vs. Vanderbilt
Last edited by cavalier1138 on Fri Feb 21, 2020 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Split into new topic instead of necroing unrelated topic.
Reason: Split into new topic instead of necroing unrelated topic.
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BansheeScream
- Posts: 94
- Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:46 am
Re: Duke vs. GULC vs. Vanderbilt
I got into all three of these schools when I was applying and ultimately ended up at Duke. This was mostly a financial/career decision as Duke matched Vanderbilt's offer and GULC gave me significantly less aid than both. I would say your decision should be based mostly on job placement and total cost of attendance. If you have a much larger scholarship to Vanderbilt and you want to be a prosecutor in Nashville, I'd tell you to go there. In a vacuum, Duke is the better school for most job outcomes but we're not in a vacuum. With that said, my thoughts on Duke are below.
The Good: Duke is a great law school. It places very well in NY and virtually anywhere in the South. Good students (3.5ish with a 3.3 median) don't have trouble getting tougher markets (DC/CA/Chi). The professors are very accessible and I've found career services to be extremely helpful in the job/clerkship search. Our job numbers in general are very good and by second semester 3L I don't know anyone who hasn't found a job doing what they broadly set out to do (firm, prosecutor, PD, etc.) The class is small. You're very connected to both the law school and the university. Durham is cheap but very livable with great restaurants and bars. It's relatively easy to live on the financial aid budget which I have heard is not the case at other law schools.
The Bad (I guess the mediocre because I can't think of anything terrible): Some markets outside the south and NY seem to be harder to crack than they may be if you went to a local T13 of the same caliber (Northwestern for Chi, Berkeley for CA, UVA for DC to a lesser extent). The small class size means you know everyone and there is some drama but it's relatively easy to avoid if you choose to. If you come from a major city, Durham might be an adjustment but it's doable for three years. 90% of your interviewers will bring up basketball so you have to kind of keep up with the team which is annoying if you don't care.
Let me know if you have more specific questions.
The Good: Duke is a great law school. It places very well in NY and virtually anywhere in the South. Good students (3.5ish with a 3.3 median) don't have trouble getting tougher markets (DC/CA/Chi). The professors are very accessible and I've found career services to be extremely helpful in the job/clerkship search. Our job numbers in general are very good and by second semester 3L I don't know anyone who hasn't found a job doing what they broadly set out to do (firm, prosecutor, PD, etc.) The class is small. You're very connected to both the law school and the university. Durham is cheap but very livable with great restaurants and bars. It's relatively easy to live on the financial aid budget which I have heard is not the case at other law schools.
The Bad (I guess the mediocre because I can't think of anything terrible): Some markets outside the south and NY seem to be harder to crack than they may be if you went to a local T13 of the same caliber (Northwestern for Chi, Berkeley for CA, UVA for DC to a lesser extent). The small class size means you know everyone and there is some drama but it's relatively easy to avoid if you choose to. If you come from a major city, Durham might be an adjustment but it's doable for three years. 90% of your interviewers will bring up basketball so you have to kind of keep up with the team which is annoying if you don't care.
Let me know if you have more specific questions.
