G.W. 1L Ready to take questions Forum

[mi-chan17]

If you are on Law Review can you also be on Moot Court / Mock Trial?

Yes. You might be a little busy, depending on how involved you are with Moot Court/Mock Trial external stuff, but many people are on both a journal and a skills board.

[2011Law]

If you are on Law Review can you also be on Moot Court / Mock Trial?

Yes. You might be a little busy, depending on how involved you are with Moot Court/Mock Trial external stuff, but many people are on both a journal and a skills board.

Thanks, not sure if I'd do it if I even got the chance, but I thought I had heard that GW or some other school didn't let you do that and just wanted some clarification.

[predent/prelaw]

If you are on Law Review can you also be on Moot Court / Mock Trial?

Yes. You might be a little busy, depending on how involved you are with Moot Court/Mock Trial external stuff, but many people are on both a journal and a skills board.

If you really want to be a trial lawyer/ in the court room one day is moot court/mock trial a necessity?

[Paichka]

If you are on Law Review can you also be on Moot Court / Mock Trial?

Yes. You might be a little busy, depending on how involved you are with Moot Court/Mock Trial external stuff, but many people are on both a journal and a skills board.

If you really want to be a trial lawyer/ in the court room one day is moot court/mock trial a necessity?

A necessity? I don't know, probably not. A good idea, if only to get comfortable with being in front of a judge? Yeah, definitely. I'm on both the Mock Trial and Moot Court boards (and LR...busy bee) and I know that I've gotten exponentially better at oral advocacy from participating in both.

PLUS -- competing is a great way to get a nice, ungraded credit. I've done the 1L competitions, did Cohen & Cohen last semester, and am competing in a moot court competition this semester. It's all been fun, and it isn't THAT time consuming if you plan for it when you're picking upper-level classes.

[dudders]

Also a GW 1L here - kudos to this thread. For all the 0L doubters out there, the info on this thread is pretty accurate.

For anyone asking about need-based aid, don't hold your horses. Need-based aid maxes out at $16k/yr, and as mentioned above you can't receive merit aid and need-based aid. Even if you're lucky and get the full need-based grant (which I did), it obviously doesn't put a big dent in your total debt load.

[haus]

@dudders,

Sure, given the sticker cost for GW, 16k/year still leaves one with a big bill that they need to deal with, but it is better than nothing.

Think of it this way, that 16k is roughly the cost of a Honda FIt every year, or if you prefer, a stripped down BMW 528 over the three years of law school that you will not need to be paying off when your done.

Happy Hunting,

[dudders]

@dudders,

Sure, given the sticker cost for GW, 16k/year still leaves one with a big bill that they need to deal with, but it is better than nothing.

Think of it this way, that 16k is roughly the cost of a Honda FIt every year, or if you prefer, a stripped down BMW 528 over the three years of law school that you will not need to be paying off when your done.

Happy Hunting,

I'm not saying I'm unthankful or that it didn't contribute to my decision to come here. It's certainly WAY better than nothing. I just meant to convey that for anyone who's debt averse or is really trying to keep their costs down, maxing out on aid at GW will still leave you with $170k plus whatever interest accrues on the non-subsidized portions before you graduate. If you're keeping your fingers crossed for need-based aid to make your GW debt load palatable, all I'm saying is that's the bottom line, best-case scenario.

And for the record I drive a Subaru (Colorado, holla).

[coldshoulder]

Everyone seems interested in either ip or pi, what are biglaw prospects for GW students like?

[grayfoxx13]

Do you think a JD from GW is portable to areas outside of DC such as Chicago, Boston, and California?

[bender18]

Everyone seems interested in either ip or pi, what are biglaw prospects for GW students like?

+1

[LawStudent_DC]

While we're on the topic of IP, what percentage (to the best of your knowledge) of a given class wants to pursue a career in IP law? I'm guessing it's higher than most schools, and with GW's class size being higher than most also, does the increased competition (purely from a numbers standpoint) ever seem overwhelming?

Thanks in advance, probably going to ask these same questions on Friday at the preview day, but the more opinions I get the better.

[dudders]

While we're on the topic of IP, what percentage (to the best of your knowledge) of a given class wants to pursue a career in IP law? I'm guessing it's higher than most schools, and with GW's class size being higher than most also, does the increased competition (purely from a numbers standpoint) ever seem overwhelming?

Thanks in advance, probably going to ask these same questions on Friday at the preview day, but the more opinions I get the better.

GW is known for IP, but students going that route (even as 1Ls) as less common than you might think, I think in part due to the patent bar requirements. I only know about 3 or 4 people with IP aspirations, but I suspect it may be more common among PT and LLM students. I can't give any more specific a percentage than that.

I CAN tell you, however, that GW has close to 2,000 students, and there's 170 (total) 2Ls and 3Ls enrolled in Copyright, Trademark and Patent Law for the fall. (No one was bumped from any of these, and enrollment was not capped.) Even assuming no students are taking more than one of those classes, and every single one of them wants IP, obviously the IP crowd is by no means an overwhelming proportion of the school.

[jarofsoup]

Any one transfer over from American? You probably dont know this as a 1L

[Always Credited]

Do you think a JD from GW is portable to areas outside of DC such as Chicago, Boston, and California?

Depends in large part on your ties to the prospective area. If you're attempting a cold move from, say, Miami pre-GW to DC to Chicago, it probably won't work out in your favor unless there is some compelling reason why Chicago employers should take interest in you.

However, if you have ANY kind of ties to the region, then yes. I have friends going to NYC, Chicago, Florida, Connecticut, and Boston.

[Teoeo]

Do you think a JD from GW is portable to areas outside of DC such as Chicago, Boston, and California?

Depends in large part on your ties to the prospective area. If you're attempting a cold move from, say, Miami pre-GW to DC to Chicago, it probably won't work out in your favor unless there is some compelling reason why Chicago employers should take interest in you.

However, if you have ANY kind of ties to the region, then yes. I have friends going to NYC, Chicago, Florida, Connecticut, and Boston.

I think this is pretty much dead on. +1

[Paichka]

Everyone seems interested in either ip or pi, what are biglaw prospects for GW students like?

I only have anecdotal evidence for this, but the majority of my friends are going the biglaw route for their 2L summers (I'm not, unless you count Army JAG as biglaw ). As far as the 3Ls I know, the majority appear to also be going biglaw -- several are deferring a year to clerk (couple of circuit courts, mostly district and state supreme), several are doing biglaw for a year and then clerking.

I'm not sure how representative that is, however -- most of the people I've discussed jobs with are on LR or another journal, and are (presumably) at the top of the class grades-wise. I know several people who are working in various PI or government jobs this summer (DOJ, environmental organizations), and I know at least two 3Ls who don't have jobs lined up yet (one of whom is on LR -- I have no idea what his hold up is).

[bender18]

Are there a lot of biglaw firms that interview students from Georgetown that don't interview students from George Washington? I understand that the grade cut-offs would probably be different, but I am still curious.

Also, for the first semester, are we just assigned the classes that we will be taking? Are there any electives?

[dudders]

Also, for the first semester, are we just assigned the classes that we will be taking? Are there any electives?

Your entire first year (schedule, classes and teachers) is assigned by the school.
First semester - Contracts I, Civ Pro I, Torts, Crim Law, LRW
Second semester - Contracts II, Civ Pro II, Property, Con Law I, LRW

Your first semester, one of your four lecture classes is with a smaller subset (30-40 students) of your large section (70-120 students). This is to accommodate the 1L midterm, which is in your small lecture class right before fall break. It counts for 10-15% of your grade and is designed as a practice to teach you how to study and do well on finals before everything is on the line. Most sections had Civ Pro as their small class, but at least one section had Crim instead. Second semester you merge back with your whole section for that class, and usually change professors as well.

The only way you have any control over your schedule is Section 15. Sections 11-14 are the full-time day sections. Section 21 is the part-time evening section. Section 15 is kind of a mix of the two - they have late afternoon classes and evening classes only, I think two of which are a mix of FT and PT students. Otherwise, your section and your schedule is the luck of the draw. Section 15 has been offered for at least the last two years, and it's opt-in only - no one gets assigned to it without requesting it.

[bender18]

Also, for the first semester, are we just assigned the classes that we will be taking? Are there any electives?

Your entire first year (schedule, classes and teachers) is assigned by the school.
First semester - Contracts I, Civ Pro I, Torts, Crim Law, LRW
Second semester - Contracts II, Civ Pro II, Property, Con Law I, LRW

Your first semester, one of your four lecture classes is with a smaller subset (30-40 students) of your large section (70-120 students). This is to accommodate the 1L midterm, which is in your small lecture class right before fall break. It counts for 10-15% of your grade and is designed as a practice to teach you how to study and do well on finals before everything is on the line. Most sections had Civ Pro as their small class, but at least one section had Crim instead. Second semester you merge back with your whole section for that class, and usually change professors as well.

The only way you have any control over your schedule is Section 15. Sections 11-14 are the full-time day sections. Section 21 is the part-time evening section. Section 15 is kind of a mix of the two - they have late afternoon classes and evening classes only, I think two of which are a mix of FT and PT students. Otherwise, your section and your schedule is the luck of the draw. Section 15 has been offered for at least the last two years, and it's opt-in only - no one gets assigned to it without requesting it.

Wow, that was extremely helpful. Thank you for the thorough reply!

[doublefocus4]

I just got some scholly info from GW with a stipulation that I maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. Around where would this fall in terms of class ranking or percentile?

[mi-chan17]

I just got some scholly info from GW with a stipulation that I maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. Around where would this fall in terms of class ranking or percentile?

The median at GW is a 3.2, so a 3.0 requirement doesn't even require that you be in the top half of your class. One of the professors at GW stated that approximately 70% of students have a 3.0 or above.

[fatduck]

do you pay rent in the Aston up-front each semester, or monthly?

and when/where do you request section 15?

[schooner]

This is a great thread. To the current GW students contributing their wisdom here, thank you so much.

Could one of you explain how the grade curving system works? For example, I understand that a 1L student's GPA is *ranked* relative to all other 1Ls, including the part-time students. But what is the group of students to which a particular class grade is *curved* - all the students just in the class, the student's whole section, or the entire 1L cohort?

I had asked the school about this, and the reply I got is that a 1L's class grade is curved relative to all students in the cohort. But that doesn't make sense for several reasons, and I wonder if he thought I was asking about rankings. Could someone explain?

[dood]

Schooner - ur right. school must have misunderstood ur Q. Curved by section, ranked in entire class.

PROTIP: section 15 curve is easier.

[schooner]

Schooner - ur right. school must have misunderstood ur Q. Curved by section, ranked in entire class.

PROTIP: section 15 curve is easier.

Thank you for the answer! That does make me wonder - how are the part-time students in their 4th year ranked?