Good questions to ask during school visit/interview Forum

[SportsFanatic]

What questions have you asked on during your interviews/visits to law schools? Hopefully this will help others think of topics they might not have considered previously. I will update with questions I intend to ask when I have more time.

[rekopter]

Ask about jobs and where the school places its graduates.

[Rocketman11]

like "im on a tour and fact finding about the school" questoins or "i'm talking to the dean of admissions" questions?

[SportsFanatic]

like "im on a tour and fact finding about the school" questoins or "i'm talking to the dean of admissions" questions?

Both.

Here are a couple that I've thought of:

1. What strenghths do you believe separate your school from some of the other comparably ranked law schools?
2. How important is demographics when placing students into jobs? I.E. Is city x or region x preferred for placement (similar to the post above)

[Jericwithers]

I enjoyed asking about interdisciplinary studies and the first year curriculum. Maybe ask about student organizations if you like that kind of stuff. For deans of admissions, I would think asking about subjects that interest you and how it relates to the school would be better than "what is best about your school." For the latter question, I only got answers like "we do it all" except from Columbia (their rep. impressed me). This was at a law fair at my school, so it might be a different experience than a tour.

[Rasta10]

Nice topic, I've got a visit 2moro, keep them coming.

[SilverE2]

You can ask about how accessible the professors are. My interviewer seemed to like the question.

[terpette]

You can ask about how accessible the professors are. My interviewer seemed to like the question.

I like this question as well.

What are some more that people can think of - especially regarding things you "wouldn't find on the website"?

[wired]

You can ask about how accessible the professors are. My interviewer seemed to like the question.

In a similar vein, what type of research assistant opportunities are there? Are they handled through a central hiring group or directly with the professors?

[heyyitskatie]

If you are asking questions that might be useful for deciding whether or not you want to go (as opposed to questions to impress a dean / faculty member), here are some suggestions:

1) Do you have to apply for secondary journal membership or all applicants accepted?

2) How accessible are the clinical opportunities? (Often, schools advertise lots of great resources, but they are only available to a relatively small number of people in a given semester or year)

3) What are the class sizes like (I mean this differently than your whole 1L or even the "average class size." Specifically, ask how many people will be in your core 1L classes and then how many people will be in seminar type and/or elective classes)

4) Is the school doing anything unique/special to help place students post crash?

5) What types of options are generally available to students at the median of the class? (Obviously, you want to do the best you can, but realistically, you have to account for the 9/10 chance that you won't be in the top 10%. Most schools can boast of a few kids each year who do absolutely amazing things, but those are the kids who would have done something amazing with or without law school...hopefully this question will get more at what this law school can actually do for you).


Hope this helps a bit!