Top Law Schools

George Washington Class of 2015




First post, long time lurker though. I'm around 90% sure I'm going to GW, but it looks like theres no movement in the forums. Where are my future classmates hiding? I guess I'll just update on my status. Admitted in December, received an email saying I was not being considered for merit aid but I could express interest in April if they had more funds. Applied for need-based aid though, not sure how much I could potentially receive, but I'm crossing my fingers it'll be a good amount. I sent an email adding my name to the Aston wait list too.

Overall, I'm increasingly excited about GW though, been watching a few videos by the new dean and I really like the guy. I'm also looking forward to the USNWR rankings, I know they don't mean much, but it'd be nice to see GW go up. I was pretty surprised at some of the rejections they gave out this year. I wonder if they're thinking about decreasing the class size, which would actually alleviate one of my concerns.

Could be anything... I got rejected by GWU today. I had a 2.81 and a 167 so it was a bit of a reach. In at American, but not sure I'd cross the country to go there at sticker, as they will no doubt say I have to. Probably staying Midwest. Anyway, congrats on getting in! And if I had to guess, I would say GWU will go up. Just a guess though.

Hey all. I'm probably GW bound as well and am a current GW undergrad. To respond to some of the issues raised already...

GW's undergrad program gives out need-based aid like it's candy. The Law School caps it at $16K/year. Merit-based is harder to come by as GW operates largely on tuition funds, rather than endowment. That's changing, but that really only impacts the finances of students twenty years from now.

The Aston is good if proximity is a top priority for you, but it's pricey for a relatively small room. Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, and the surrounding neighborhoods are obscenely expensive. If you're comfortable taking the Metro instead of just walking to campus, I would recommend looking along the Blue Line or the Orange Line in Northern Virginia. As soon as you lose the "DC" in the name, you can cut hundreds off of your rent on a comparable apartment. The Metro can be a pain on weekends, but during the week is completely reliable and there is stuff to do in Virginia.

To address the rankings and the admissions thing in one, the current theory is that GW is making a concerted effort to raise its average LSAT score to 168 or even 169 to up their ranking. Law School Numbers shows a pretty sharp drop off once the LSAT scores go below 168, while those with a 168 or better seem to have gotten in regardless of GPA. A splitter's dream in the top 20, I suppose.

I'm happy to answer any questions about GW or DC if you have them. Perhaps I shall see you here in the fall.

colinmac wrote:Hey all. I'm probably GW bound as well and am a current GW undergrad. To respond to some of the issues raised already...

GW's undergrad program gives out need-based aid like it's candy. The Law School caps it at $16K/year. Merit-based is harder to come by as GW operates largely on tuition funds, rather than endowment. That's changing, but that really only impacts the finances of students twenty years from now.

The Aston is good if proximity is a top priority for you, but it's pricey for a relatively small room. Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, and the surrounding neighborhoods are obscenely expensive. If you're comfortable taking the Metro instead of just walking to campus, I would recommend looking along the Blue Line or the Orange Line in Northern Virginia. As soon as you lose the "DC" in the name, you can cut hundreds off of your rent on a comparable apartment. The Metro can be a pain on weekends, but during the week is completely reliable and there is stuff to do in Virginia.

To address the rankings and the admissions thing in one, the current theory is that GW is making a concerted effort to raise its average LSAT score to 168 or even 169 to up their ranking. Law School Numbers shows a pretty sharp drop off once the LSAT scores go below 168, while those with a 168 or better seem to have gotten in regardless of GPA. A splitter's dream in the top 20, I suppose.

I'm happy to answer any questions about GW or DC if you have them. Perhaps I shall see you here in the fall.

Hey, thanks for your reply. I know the Aston is probably more expensive than another option in the city, but for my first year I rather not have to worry about housing. Eventually for 2l and 3l years I'll find somewhere else to live. Also, it sounds like a good place to meet a lot of your fellow classmates.

Quick questions, since you went to GW for undergrad do you feel like the school is overall in G-town's shadow? Just in speaking to friends I've had to explain that G-town and GW are different schools.

colinmac wrote:Hey all. I'm probably GW bound as well and am a current GW undergrad. To respond to some of the issues raised already...

GW's undergrad program gives out need-based aid like it's candy. The Law School caps it at $16K/year. Merit-based is harder to come by as GW operates largely on tuition funds, rather than endowment. That's changing, but that really only impacts the finances of students twenty years from now.

The Aston is good if proximity is a top priority for you, but it's pricey for a relatively small room. Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, and the surrounding neighborhoods are obscenely expensive. If you're comfortable taking the Metro instead of just walking to campus, I would recommend looking along the Blue Line or the Orange Line in Northern Virginia. As soon as you lose the "DC" in the name, you can cut hundreds off of your rent on a comparable apartment. The Metro can be a pain on weekends, but during the week is completely reliable and there is stuff to do in Virginia.

To address the rankings and the admissions thing in one, the current theory is that GW is making a concerted effort to raise its average LSAT score to 168 or even 169 to up their ranking. Law School Numbers shows a pretty sharp drop off once the LSAT scores go below 168, while those with a 168 or better seem to have gotten in regardless of GPA. A splitter's dream in the top 20, I suppose.

I'm happy to answer any questions about GW or DC if you have them. Perhaps I shall see you here in the fall.

I don't live there, but I noticed some good stuff in the capitol hill area. It's nice, but there is nothing there. Columbia Heights and the SW have some good stuff and the commute is pretty decent. The best advice I can give you is: learn to love the bus. Faster and more comprehensive than the metro.

junm wrote:

colinmac wrote:Hey all. I'm probably GW bound as well and am a current GW undergrad. To respond to some of the issues raised already...

GW's undergrad program gives out need-based aid like it's candy. The Law School caps it at $16K/year. Merit-based is harder to come by as GW operates largely on tuition funds, rather than endowment. That's changing, but that really only impacts the finances of students twenty years from now.

The Aston is good if proximity is a top priority for you, but it's pricey for a relatively small room. Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, and the surrounding neighborhoods are obscenely expensive. If you're comfortable taking the Metro instead of just walking to campus, I would recommend looking along the Blue Line or the Orange Line in Northern Virginia. As soon as you lose the "DC" in the name, you can cut hundreds off of your rent on a comparable apartment. The Metro can be a pain on weekends, but during the week is completely reliable and there is stuff to do in Virginia.

To address the rankings and the admissions thing in one, the current theory is that GW is making a concerted effort to raise its average LSAT score to 168 or even 169 to up their ranking. Law School Numbers shows a pretty sharp drop off once the LSAT scores go below 168, while those with a 168 or better seem to have gotten in regardless of GPA. A splitter's dream in the top 20, I suppose.

I'm happy to answer any questions about GW or DC if you have them. Perhaps I shall see you here in the fall.

Hey, thanks for your reply. I know the Aston is probably more expensive than another option in the city, but for my first year I rather not have to worry about housing. Eventually for 2l and 3l years I'll find somewhere else to live. Also, it sounds like a good place to meet a lot of your fellow classmates.

Quick questions, since you went to GW for undergrad do you feel like the school is overall in G-town's shadow? Just in speaking to friends I've had to explain that G-town and GW are different schools.

It would be a lie to say that Georgetown is not the widely regarded "best" of the DC schools more or less across the board. I guess the real question is whether you want to live and work in the DC area. I'm originally from Los Angeles and constantly have to either correct people saying "You're at Georgetown, right?" or just not correct them at all. In DC, everyone knows GW and it is highly respected, and that is especially true for its law school. Regionally, the reputation of GW is very strong and nearly on par with G-Town. Your degree won't be as portable as a Georgetown degree, but that is true of any T14 v. non-T14 comparison.

I don't think you'll have trouble avoiding the feeling you're in someone's shadow. At the end of the day, GW is a top 20 law school in a cool city with an economy that isn't terrible and that has jobs for lawyers. That's what has me sold.

colinmac wrote:

junm wrote:

colinmac wrote:Hey all. I'm probably GW bound as well and am a current GW undergrad. To respond to some of the issues raised already...

GW's undergrad program gives out need-based aid like it's candy. The Law School caps it at $16K/year. Merit-based is harder to come by as GW operates largely on tuition funds, rather than endowment. That's changing, but that really only impacts the finances of students twenty years from now.

The Aston is good if proximity is a top priority for you, but it's pricey for a relatively small room. Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, and the surrounding neighborhoods are obscenely expensive. If you're comfortable taking the Metro instead of just walking to campus, I would recommend looking along the Blue Line or the Orange Line in Northern Virginia. As soon as you lose the "DC" in the name, you can cut hundreds off of your rent on a comparable apartment. The Metro can be a pain on weekends, but during the week is completely reliable and there is stuff to do in Virginia.

To address the rankings and the admissions thing in one, the current theory is that GW is making a concerted effort to raise its average LSAT score to 168 or even 169 to up their ranking. Law School Numbers shows a pretty sharp drop off once the LSAT scores go below 168, while those with a 168 or better seem to have gotten in regardless of GPA. A splitter's dream in the top 20, I suppose.

I'm happy to answer any questions about GW or DC if you have them. Perhaps I shall see you here in the fall.

Hey, thanks for your reply. I know the Aston is probably more expensive than another option in the city, but for my first year I rather not have to worry about housing. Eventually for 2l and 3l years I'll find somewhere else to live. Also, it sounds like a good place to meet a lot of your fellow classmates.

Quick questions, since you went to GW for undergrad do you feel like the school is overall in G-town's shadow? Just in speaking to friends I've had to explain that G-town and GW are different schools.

It would be a lie to say that Georgetown is not the widely regarded "best" of the DC schools more or less across the board. I guess the real question is whether you want to live and work in the DC area. I'm originally from Los Angeles and constantly have to either correct people saying "You're at Georgetown, right?" or just not correct them at all. In DC, everyone knows GW and it is highly respected, and that is especially true for its law school. Regionally, the reputation of GW is very strong and nearly on par with G-Town. Your degree won't be as portable as a Georgetown degree, but that is true of any T14 v. non-T14 comparison.

I don't think you'll have trouble avoiding the feeling you're in someone's shadow. At the end of the day, GW is a top 20 law school in a cool city with an economy that isn't terrible and that has jobs for lawyers. That's what has me sold.

I think when weighing whether to go to various schools you should ask yourself if you're likely to get an OK job if you're in the middle of your class. If you're at median at GULC, I think you'd be safer getting at job than GW. From what I can tell, GW places its top 1/4-1/3 in really great* jobs, but at median it's less successful. GULC places 1/3-1/2 of its class in really great jobs. Gives you more breathing room. That said, and take from this whatever it means (and most law students would tell you it's BS) but the student body at gulc generally has better UGPA/LSATs, so it may (but probably not) be tougher to place higher than if you went to GW. But then again, even if that edge placed you slightly higher at GW, I don't know if you'd have a leg up necessarily, job wise. *I define "really great" as Biglaw, clerkships, fed gov't, etc.

Just got the winter edition of GW's magazine in the mail. Some pretty interesting articles in there. I really like some of the things the new dean is working on.

Looking forward to starting in the fall! I'm going in straight out of undergrad, not sure what to do with the intervening summer, curious if anyone has any thoughts or wants to share their plans. Also, who else is going to preview day?

Random trivia: Bill Watterson's (Calvin and Hobbes) father got his JD from GW.

westmire wrote:Looking forward to starting in the fall! I'm going in straight out of undergrad, not sure what to do with the intervening summer, curious if anyone has any thoughts or wants to share their plans. Also, who else is going to preview day?

Random trivia: Bill Watterson's (Calvin and Hobbes) father got his JD from GW.

I'm going in straight from undergrad too. I'm hoping to do an internship of some kind during the summer. Definitely going to relax as much as I can though. Also, I'm probably not going to be able to make it to preview day. I hope I don't miss anything too important.

Trivia: 5 of the current Supreme Court Justices have presided over the moot court competition over the course of the last 6 years.

westmire wrote:Looking forward to starting in the fall! I'm going in straight out of undergrad, not sure what to do with the intervening summer, curious if anyone has any thoughts or wants to share their plans. Also, who else is going to preview day?

Random trivia: Bill Watterson's (Calvin and Hobbes) father got his JD from GW.

Straight out of undergrad (at GW), too. I'll be at preview day, too.

Random trivia to follow along: The night of preview day is also the opening night of the Clinton Global Initiative's annual CGI-U event and GW is hosting, so Bill Clinton will be on campus that night, too.

Sent in my intent to enroll yesterday. Very excited to come to GW and DC.

Also, found a class of 2015 Facebook group last night in case anyone is interested.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/208792495891380/

Did GW already have their ASD? I was thinking of seeing if I could go (transfer student), but I have no idea if they already had theirs.

TTRansfer wrote:Did GW already have their ASD? I was thinking of seeing if I could go (transfer student), but I have no idea if they already had theirs.

For regular admission students their preview day was March 30th. Don't know if they have a separate one for transfer students.

We are looking for a third roommate to join us in this lovely luxury building in beautiful Cleveland Park. We are both GW undergrads and I will be in the MBA program this fall. This unit is a real gem for the price. One bedrooms in the building rent for over $1,800. There is a private swimming pool, an outdoor grill, our own private double balcony with views that stretch to Columbia Heights, and an in-unit washer/dryer. The service is the building is also stellar (24-hour service guarantee, dry cleaning, 24-hour gym, etc.). I promise you can't find a better deal.

The room rents for $1025 per month.

The current lease ends June 26 but we need to re-up with in the next 10-14 days to lock in our rate. The new occupant would need to sign the lease in a couple weeks. You would not have to pay a penny until the day you move in.

We are two young professionals (male, 25-26) looking for a third roommate (male/female) starting in late June/early July. We are tidy, clean, and neither of us smoke. We are both avid sports fans and are drama-free.

The bedroom that we have available is 10 X 12 and will share a bathroom with one person. The bedroom is wired for cable and has a stunning tree view out on to Porter Street. The unit has a large and sunny common area about 14 X 20 that opens up to our double balcony. The common area is fully furnished and the kitchen is fully stocked.

We have negotiated a great deal on cable and internet and utilities tend to be quite low. You can expect your monthly rent to be about $1075 total. There is garage parking in the building for $150 per month but street parking is free and parking is generally plentiful.

The building is about a quarter mile from the Cleveland Park metro stop. I work at Farragut North and the commute is about 20 minutes door-to-door metro. The neighborhood itself has wonderful restaurants and is a short walk to Rock Creek Park.

I would encourage you to check out the building website for a sense of the common amenities. --LinkRemoved--

Here is a slideshow of the available room and the common space with in the unit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78812420@N04/show/

If you have any questions whatsoever, please be in touch (crestcd28@yahoo.com)!

Hey 2015!

I saw that a lot of the efficiency (studio) apartments and 1-br apartments close to campus have a maximum occupancy of two adults. I'm definitely trying to split an apartment with someone else to save money, with one of us getting the bed and the other getting a futon. Now to find a roommate...

FastLife wrote:I saw that a lot of the efficiency (studio) apartments and 1-br apartments close to campus have a maximum occupancy of two adults. I'm definitely trying to split an apartment with someone else to save money, with one of us getting the bed and the other getting a futon. Now to find a roommate...

To that end...

I am moving out of my apartment and am moving out around 7/31. It's in the River Place complex, which I highly recommend as it is a block from the Rosslyn metro and one stop away from GW (and an easy bike ride). There are efficiencies, 1 brs and 2 brs. , but I have a junior 1 br which is technically a studio but it has a walled-off sleeping area large enough to fit a queen bed and a dresser. My boyfriend and I live there now, and the rent is $1415/month including heat, water, electric, free wifi, and PARKING. It also has a pool, free gym, and is a really nice place to live. If anyone is interested, or wants some feedback about different DC neighborhoods and their accesibility to Foggy Bottom, PM me and I would be happy to share what I know.

Floor plans are here (mine is most like A-5): http://riverplacenorth.org/floor-plans

I just got in off the waitlist, having been out of school for a few years (graduated undergrad in '08). They said there are still rooms available at the Aston, so I'm probably going to try to live there 1L, rather than figure out an apartment in a city I've never lived in from across the country.

In addition to the Aston, I see there's the HOVA option too, which is cheaper by $5000 a year. Anyone have an opinion about that? I see it's separated from the campus by a highway, is that annoying to cross? I haven't been to DC in years and I don't know the Foggy Bottom area well, so any advice would be appreciated.

Hi guys! just in off the WL. Still on many other WLs, but as of right now, GW is the plan!

Hi all,

If anyone is looking for housing, I am moving to Brazil for the summer and need to give up my part of this wonderful apartment! You will be taking over my part of the lease. The apartment is available starting May 31st but we can negotiate an earlier start date if necessary. The lease officially ends July 28th and then switches to month to month.

The apartment is a 2br/1bath in the great neighborhood of Van Ness. The room available is a good size (10'4" by 15'0") with a walk-in closet. The main living areas are shared and very spacious. There is an awesome balcony for relaxing after school. The $1280 rent includes all utilities except for $20/mth for internet. Garage parking is available at an additional charge.

The complex itself has great amenities: an olympic size pool, laundry facilities on each floor, 24hr doorman, 24hr fitness center, on site dry cleaning valet and ATM, free coffee station, social room & media center with computers and free printing, faxing, and scanning.

It is located right next to the Van Ness Metro stop (Red Line), a minute away from Giant grocery store, CVS, the brand new Walgreens. All the other essentials are close by too, Starbucks, Potbellys, Gold's Gym, etc.

Your roommate is a Howard 2L. We are looking for either a male or female roommate who is clean, responsible in paying rent, a non-smoker and easy to get along with!

You can check out the building website here: --LinkRemoved--

Email me at michelleawinters@gmail.com with questions! Thanks.

Wily wrote:In addition to the Aston, I see there's the HOVA option too, which is cheaper by $5000 a year. Anyone have an opinion about that? I see it's separated from the campus by a highway, is that annoying to cross? I haven't been to DC in years and I don't know the Foggy Bottom area well, so any advice would be appreciated.

Yeah... wanna know more about HOVA.

I found one webpage saying that the sinks have very bad water pressure, I can't control the A/C, spiders are everywhere, and internet is beyond terrible. (http://www.yelp.com/biz/hall-on-virgini ... washington)
Are they all true??

Anyone looking for a place to live - my roommate and I just signed a lease at this awesome new apartment building (will open its doors in June) today! Its in the NoMa neighborhood and is much less expensive than Foggy Bottom area - and obviously much newer. I'd suggest you take a look! They have 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms available now - and currently have a "discount special" going on. The building is called Archstone First and M and is one block from a metro. PM me if you are interested and have any questions!!

qwertpoiuy wrote:

Wily wrote:In addition to the Aston, I see there's the HOVA option too, which is cheaper by $5000 a year. Anyone have an opinion about that? I see it's separated from the campus by a highway, is that annoying to cross? I haven't been to DC in years and I don't know the Foggy Bottom area well, so any advice would be appreciated.

Yeah... wanna know more about HOVA.

I found one webpage saying that the sinks have very bad water pressure, I can't control the A/C, spiders are everywhere, and internet is beyond terrible. (http://www.yelp.com/biz/hall-on-virgini ... washington)
Are they all true??

Kind of a late answer here, but someone posted in the facebook group that they had lived in HOVA and it was terrible. They said definitely not worth the money you save to live there.