George Washington 2L Taking Questions Forum

[shipbound]

Do many people commute from the suburbs? I could live for free with family not far from a metro stop and the idea of going to school in DC without taking out debt for most cost of living is quite attractive.

[kapenak]

What are job prospectives for people with tech backgrounds? Would you say it is hard getting an IP job out of GW through OCI or pretty solid prospectives?

[monceau]

Did any of you guys have luck negotiating a bigger scholly?

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

I'm looking to sublet from late may to the end of July. Preferably on orange line. Hit me up.

[dudders]

Do many people commute from the suburbs? I could live for free with family not far from a metro stop and the idea of going to school in DC without taking out debt for most cost of living is quite attractive.

Not a lot of people I knew lived far out. Most lived in DC or Arlington, period, with a few in Friendship Heights MD, Takoma, Alexandria.

But it's certainly doable, especially if it's rent free. If you live on the outskirts of any metro line though, take a hard look at off-peak, night, and weekend metro schedules before you pull the trigger. Trains to the end of the lines run infrequently at non rush-hour. If you're fine with most of your schoolmates living in DC or Arlington, while you're in Reston/Shady Grove/Springfield, and you're fine with a longer commute, and that's all cool with you, free rent is free rent.

There's lots of "minimize the commute" naysayers on TLS ... I think a longer commute can be a valuable trade off in circumstances like these. Lots of students, especially 2Ls and 3Ls, who aren't springing for $2k for rent in Foggy Bottom or Dupont, live farther out in DC like Cap Hill, Mount Pleasant, Glover Park, Columbia Heights, Petworth, etc. People with families live in far Arlington (not Rosslyn or Court House). A 30-45 commute is completely doable and tons of people do it. Plus as a 2L/3L, unless you choose such a schedule, you likely won't be at school every day anyway. A little farther out isn't the end of the world if it's free.

(pro tip - if you will be living on the red line or green/yellow Md burbs, look at just walking from Farragut North. it's like 2 blocks farther than walking to the law school from foggy bottom but wastes way less time than switching to the blue/orange at L'Enfant. also, depending on where your family lives, there may be express charter commuter buses as an option as well. these tend to run strict business hours but there's a million of them and lots pick/up drop off over by the World Bank building on 18th i think)

[dudders]

Hello,
Do you know of any students who commuted to school (from Baltimore)?
Is this plausible?
Thank you !

I knew one person who did this. It's not impossible but it is a long-ass commute.
It's an hour on MARC from Baltimore Union Station to DC Union Station.
Assume a half hour from Union Station to school.
Plus however long it'll take you to get from home to Baltimore station.

x2 for roundtrip. daily. 4 hour roundtrip commute? ew. do not recommend.

(however, i knew people not in law school who commuted on MARC or commuted for a summer internship and they had great things to say about MARC in terms of reliability, easy to get a seat, you can chill for an hour on the train and maybe do some reading. but still. ew.)

[OutOfTheQuestion]

Did any of you guys have luck negotiating a bigger scholly?

I'm interested in this as well!

Thanks for this thread, btw.

[abc__]

I'm not sure if this thread is still active, but how late in the summer can you decide to attend GW and still find adequate housing? Ie, if I don't find housing until July, is that too late?

[Marylander25]

I'm not sure if this thread is still active, but how late in the summer can you decide to attend GW and still find adequate housing? Ie, if I don't find housing until July, is that too late?

Depends--what does "adequate" mean to you? There will still be plenty of places to rent in DC and Arlington in July in any event, but cost and distance may vary.

[zot1]

How come you didn't transfer to Georgetown?

[barbarahp]

Hi! I am about to commit to GW for the Fall 2016 term, but I have some unanswered questions, which could not be answered by looking at the website. If you have insight for me on these 3 questions, I will be so appreciative!

1. I am committed to studying public interest law- what kind of presence of pub interest law is there at GW? I am really interested in the environmental/energy law area of study. Do you know about this? I am also interested in humanitarian law and civil rights, but I noticed that these are not included in the areas of study at GW.

2. What is the student body like? I know law school is a high stress environment naturally, but would you say that GW has a particularly competitive/cut-throat atmosphere when it comes to academics? Or will I be able to find a supportive group of peers. I am not sure how interested I am in having to deal with a competitive environment.

3. What is your opinion on the class sizes? I see that GW has really large class sizes compared to some other law schools, and I would love to hear your opinion on them. Do you feel like you have access to professors or advisors?

[GWc/o2017]

Did any of you guys have luck negotiating a bigger scholly?

I'm interested in this as well!

Thanks for this thread, btw.

Yes, I had luck. You just have to keep asking. That being said, if your LSAT is around a 165-166, you are not going to get much more than you have already been offered. Of course, having offers from higher ranked schools really helps.

[GWc/o2017]

How come you didn't transfer to Georgetown?

worthless transfer, in my opinion.

[GWc/o2017]

Hi! I am about to commit to GW for the Fall 2016 term, but I have some unanswered questions, which could not be answered by looking at the website. If you have insight for me on these 3 questions, I will be so appreciative!

1. I am committed to studying public interest law- what kind of presence of pub interest law is there at GW? I am really interested in the environmental/energy law area of study. Do you know about this? I am also interested in humanitarian law and civil rights, but I noticed that these are not included in the areas of study at GW.

2. What is the student body like? I know law school is a high stress environment naturally, but would you say that GW has a particularly competitive/cut-throat atmosphere when it comes to academics? Or will I be able to find a supportive group of peers. I am not sure how interested I am in having to deal with a competitive environment.

3. What is your opinion on the class sizes? I see that GW has really large class sizes compared to some other law schools, and I would love to hear your opinion on them. Do you feel like you have access to professors or advisors?

1.) There is a huge public interest law presence at Gw, but you will also find that at most schools. Environmental/Energy is on the up at GW. Professor Emily Hammond leads that study area and she is a rock star. Testified in front of Congress a few months ago. GW is a good place to be if you are looking to go into energy/environmental right now.

2.) GW is very big so you are going to find every personality type here. For the most part, people are friendly and laid back, but every section will have its gunners. People also tend to get more serious about grades second semester 1L year, once you get your first semester grades back. Regardless of where you go, Law School will be competitive. 1L year is a giant rat race. But you should be able to find a group of dedicated, but not cut throat people at GW very easily.

3.) I think the class sizes are too big. I prefer smaller class sizes, and even as an upper level student, most of my small classes have been quite big (30-40 kids). I have found it somewhat difficult to meet professors, though I'm not one to sit around in office hours every day. If you want to form relationships with professors at GW, you will have to put in a big effort. That being said, there are so many kids in each 1L section that the curve works out well. With such large sections, there are always going to be kids who do worse than you do, so having that cushion is nice.

[Love1234]

Hello,
Was wondering what your advice was on some professors? More curious about Turley, Cunningham, Morrison, Cottrol, and Lynch!

[dood]

Hello,
Was wondering what your advice was on some professors? More curious about Turley, Cunningham, Morrison, Cottrol, and Lynch!

turley is a pompus fucktard that you won't learn anything from. cottrol has a weird personality, loves guns and amendment no. 2, not a terrible prof, not great either. HTH

[Love1234]

Hello,
Was wondering what your advice was on some professors? More curious about Turley, Cunningham, Morrison, Cottrol, and Lynch!

turley is a pompus fucktard that you won't learn anything from. cottrol has a weird personality, loves guns and amendment no. 2, not a terrible prof, not great either. HTH

Oh no! So how'd you go about studying for his class?

[PDX4343]

Bumping to see if anyone knows anything about getting around the ridiculous $3,000 seat deposit. I'm interested in GW but I literally won't be able to go at that price upfront.