GSU was the obvious choice for my situation. To find a higher ranked PT program, I would have had to have gone to a much larger city and likely paid much more for my education. If FT programs had been an option for me, I might have made another choice. The option of in-state tuition is huge. $8k a year for law school (PT) is difficult to beat. You should be able to get in-state tuition after 1 year of residency, or if you are with an employer from another state that transfers you to one of their locations in Georgia, you can get in-state tuition from day one.
The employment statistics did not frighten me in my situation. For some numbers on the subject, go here: http://www.law.com/img/nlj/charts/composite.pdf If your heart is set on biglaw, then you might have some difficulty. Before attending, I poked around on the websites of the big firms with offices in Atlanta, and nearly all of them (including the biggest ones) had GSU grads. Not a plethora of GSU grads, but it is possible to get into about any big firm in Atlanta from GSU, given the grades. If you're happy living around Atlanta, then GSU is a great value. The reputation is great in the Atlanta area but likely does not extend much farther. My situation is also somewhat different, in that I had a decent job to begin with that would only be aided by a JD in the long run. So, worst case scenario (hopefully
) I can graduate, stay in my current job, and likely still be making at least as much as most new GSU law grads on average. Since I have a fallback plan, it's not that much of a risk for me. There was a question about transferring. I cannot help you on the feasibility of doing so, but I can remind you of one thing - if you're in shape to transfer somewhere like Emory, you are likely around the top 10% at GSU anyway. At that point, you are easily in the running for about any job (including biglaw) in ATL you want. There may be some advantages to transferring, yes, but just remember that if you are even able to do so, you already have some great options.
There was also a question about other PT law programs in the Atlanta area. The only other one is John Marhsall, which costs 3-4 times as much as GSU (comparing in-state tuition for GSU) and is ranked nowhere near GSU (GSU is #77 in the USNWR rankings, if I recall, and has been on an upward trajectory). GSU also seems to have a much better reputation in Atlanta, but that is from the few subjective reports I have heard.
Even as a PT student, I felt extremely welcomed by GSU. The professors and administration really seem to care about the students, and they don't put their second stringers in to teach the night courses. I have zero complaints about anyone I have encountered working for the law school.
The facilities...well let me start with the good news.
They will be building a new law school soon, and I'm sure the admissions staff can give you an idea of what year it should be done (my recollection is that it will be done before anybody here considering GSU is done with law school). I have not dealt with the library flooding, but that does not surprise me. The law school has a very institutional feel to it - not a pretty building by my standards. The library has never been missing anything I have looked for, so it is difficult to complain about its offerings. Whoever designed the library seemed to completely forget about bathrooms, though, as they seem to have been added as an afterthought in any oddly shaped corner they could fit them in. It is the public law library of Atlanta, so you will occasionally see non-students there. There are some other advantages of the library that I would be willing to share via PM. However, I don't quite understand the focus on facilities other than perhaps what the library has to offer, and that is even limited considering how much work can be done online. I would rather pay a higher tuition to see them try to lure in better professors than to build me a feng shui facility to hang out in. GSU is a major commuter school. More so for the grad schools. Even much more so for the PT law students. I live in the midtown area and take MARTA to school. I walk to work, so I don't even use a car at this point. There is a definite lack of places to eat outside of business hours.
Overall, the best sales pitch for GSU is value. Crunch the numbers and see what your risk for each school will be. GSU will be competitive on the FT level when it comes to value, and essentially dominates in the southeast (and perhaps many other areas of the country) when it comes to PT value.
). It's just encouraging to know that if you do well at GSU that anything in Atlanta is a possibility. I was just encouraged to know that you didn't have to do law review to get there.
