Top Law Schools

I will be in DC over the summer and was thinking of checking out some law schools while I am there. Since most of the great schools are out on the east coast, and as someone who has never been out of the midwest before and may not get the chance to again before committing to a law school, I thought this would be a good opportunity to go look around while I am closer. I know students will be gone, but I figured i may be nice to get a look at the campus and community around it. Can/should I 'schedule' a tour, or just go mosey around myself? Or is this a total waste of time that I should just skip altogether?

I wouldn't arrange a formal visit. You can always check out the neighborhood if you want to know a bit about housing options, but visiting a law school when it's not in session is largely useless.

cavalier1138 wrote:I wouldn't arrange a formal visit. You can always check out the neighborhood if you want to know a bit about housing options, but visiting a law school when it's not in session is largely useless.

You miss out on the chance to sit in on a class and meet with current students but you should be able to do everything else w/ enough lead time. Though I think law school visits in general aren't that important.

stego wrote:

cavalier1138 wrote:I wouldn't arrange a formal visit. You can always check out the neighborhood if you want to know a bit about housing options, but visiting a law school when it's not in session is largely useless.

You miss out on the chance to sit in on a class and meet with current students but you should be able to do everything else w/ enough lead time. Though I think law school visits in general aren't that important.

But what is "everything else"? You can walk around and chat with adcomms? I agree that there's no much utility to law school visits in the first place, but the only real benefits are getting to sit in on classes and/or talk to students who haven't been pre-selected by the admissions office.

cavalier1138 wrote:

stego wrote:

cavalier1138 wrote:I wouldn't arrange a formal visit. You can always check out the neighborhood if you want to know a bit about housing options, but visiting a law school when it's not in session is largely useless.

You miss out on the chance to sit in on a class and meet with current students but you should be able to do everything else w/ enough lead time. Though I think law school visits in general aren't that important.

But what is "everything else"? You can walk around and chat with adcomms? I agree that there's no much utility to law school visits in the first place, but the only real benefits are getting to sit in on classes and/or talk to students who haven't been pre-selected by the admissions office.

Everything else basically is talking to ad comms and touring the facilities. You could probably meet a professor or two if you made plans far enough in advance. I'm not really sure what law profs do in the summer.
Meeting with current students is a definite plus of visiting during the school year but wouldn't you have to accost random students to meet with one who wasn't pre-selected by the ad comm?
I feel like there is limited value in sitting in on a class if you've already sat in on one at another school.

All the good schools are gonna be 4+ hours outside of DC anyways. That's a hell of a day trip to go to a barren wasteland of a school to see what the "social environment" may be like...when nobody is going to be there

Personally, I have chosen not to do this because I would hate to visit somewhere, love it, and then not be admitted.

lymenheimer wrote:All the good schools are gonna be 4+ hours 2+ hours outside of DC anyways. That's a hell of a day trip to go to a barren wasteland of a school to see what the "social environment" may be like...when nobody is going to be there

*ahem

I mean do a weekend in NYC if you've never been but I wouldn't go out of my way to visit schools.