Top Law Schools

Any info? Academic, Atlanta job prospects for graduate, Georgia...etc? Any info is appreciated.

hmm ok, ill rebait the hook and cast back out there....
Specifically, can anyone speak on how awful the competition in ATL is with Emory and UGeorgia grads? Hopefully from experience? Any 1L's out there...?

Bumping this. Hopefully someone has info on this school now. I did a buncha google searches and nothing really came up.

To be honest, 1Ls are the best to tell you their experience on the competition against UGA and Emory for jobs in Atlanta. I've heard mixed things... On one hand, there are firms that have a certain number of "spots" for graduates of certain schools. At one firm I know of, there are several spots for UGA students, some for Emory, some for other "name" schools in the SE, and then several spots that are "open" to anyone - that's where GSU candidates have to fit in... Similarly, I know of another, smaller firm that has a spot or two reserved in the same manner FOR a GSU student (or 2? can't remember).

However, that's not to say GSU doesn't have a great reputation in Atlanta among employers, because it does. The problem IMHO is that the reputation just isn't AS high as other schools, or the other schools just have more of a history at these firms. In one case (I think the exception rather than the rule - but it was eye-opening nonetheless), a partner at a firm in town told me, "We don't have anyone from GSU, I don't think we even recruit there." In fact, they do and they do. But he wasn't aware of it... Lots of explanations for this of course, but my own takeaway was "we're just not quite there yet," at least not on equal footing with the schools ahead of us in the rankings.

All that being said, it depends on what kind of law you want to do. The closer you get to "biglaw" or even medium-sized firms, the more important (though not solely important!) School brand recognition and grades are. the closer to the public interest or government area you want to be, the less the school matters (and in fact GSU arguably has some edge).

The top graduates from GSU don't have a problem getting the top jobs in Atlanta (plus a few outliers for other reasons) , if that's what they want. But top here is 5-10%, rather than going a little deeper into the pool at UGA and Emory. To me, Emory would not be worth the money if you really want to work in Atlanta when you can probably get into UGA too. If you've got it in gobs, go for it. But if you can't get into either, GSU is a great bet.

I know lots of classmates who turned down "higher" ranked schools outside the region. Now, I don't know anyone who turned down Emory or UGA, but I'm talking anywhere in the 20s to 60s in US News Rankings. Cost and other considerations factor in, of course. One person I know turned down a much higher ranked school to go here because he has kids and a wife here. On the other hand, he said he wants to get a federal appellate clerkship, so it's a tough road to hoe from here...

Lots of considerations for you, with no right answer. If you want to go to law school and become a lawyer, you need to get comfortable with that...

Appreciate the tip, but that was actually very helpful. Still not sure whether I want to apply there or not, but that definitely helped me towards my decision. Much appreciated!

ugawarrent wrote:Now, I don't know anyone who turned down Emory or UGA, but I'm talking anywhere in the 20s to 60s in US News Rankings.

I do know someone who is a 3L at GSU this year and she turned down Emory for GSU, she said "If you want Atl., GSU places just as well as Emory/UGA but is not nearly as competitive or expensive (as Emory)..." (something to that effect)

I've spoken to lawyers in Atlanta, and GA State has an excellent reputation. Emory is definitely better if you're looking to get jobs out of state because of its reputation; however, if you want to stay in the Atlanta area, State is definitely not bad and you can't beat the price, right?

Hudda Budda wrote:Bumping this. Hopefully someone has info on this school now. I did a buncha google searches and nothing really came up.

what does "bump" mean in the context of this forum

Bumping back up to the top since when someone posts in the thread, it moves to the top of the page.

I am considering GSU for my choice as well, but I am probably going to try and transfer to Emory after 1L or 2L. Not sure yet.

Has anybody visited the campus yet? I haven't heard much about the facilities.

jennylynn wrote:Has anybody visited the campus yet? I haven't heard much about the facilities.

I visited it on the 25th of November. The campus itself is basically a 6 or 7 story office building that is connected to the student center. The law students for our class don't have to drive all over down town to get to classes thankfully. It is pretty sweet, the mock court rooms look exactly like the real deal but with desks attached to the comfy seats. Classrooms are amphitheater in layout and for 1L it's roughly 50-100 students to the instructor and the 2L-3L classes are MUCH smaller than that. The faculty was SUPER NICE to me and they all seemed to legitimately care about their work. The law library is fairly big as well with a ton of study space for students and those electronic moving bookshelves haha. Law students also have their own private computer lab, a career center that helps with externships and job placement, as well as various guest speakers throughout the year (like Sandra Day O'Connor). All in all, it is a great school for Atlanta I think.

Neat, thanks for the info. I want to visit, but apparently they only give tours on Mondays and Wednesdays, which aren't usually good for me. Maybe I'll get over there at some point.

jennylynn wrote:Neat, thanks for the info. I want to visit, but apparently they only give tours on Mondays and Wednesdays, which aren't usually good for me. Maybe I'll get over there at some point.

Yeah when I went they were on Thanksgiving break. I was lucky enough to run into the lady who would be my admissions coordinator and she made the time to give me like a 2 hour tour of the school herself! It was seriously a blast and I hope it helps when it comes down to acceptances!

wow, that kind of personal attention is nice! That definitely reflects well on the school.

I currently an UG at GSU and I worked in the law library so was able to interact with a lot of students. If anyone has any questions on the facilities or what students who I knew thought about the school pm me.

bella16 wrote:I currently an UG at GSU and I worked in the law library so was able to interact with a lot of students. If anyone has any questions on the facilities or what students who I knew thought about the school pm me.

The admissions counselor I spoke to obviously painted a rosy picture for me of how top-law-schools.com is... how is it for the students would you say? Does it seem to wrench their very soul from their bodies like so many horror stories say?

Good question! I'd like to know that, too...as well as where students live in Atlanta. do they stay outside the city and commute (MARTA) or do they live in Atlanta?

jennylynn wrote:Good question! I'd like to know that, too...as well as where students live in Atlanta. do they stay outside the city and commute (MARTA) or do they live in Atlanta?

Students live all over Atlanta and the surrounding area. The perimeter would be like dowtown midtown but are extremely expensive. You can expand out a little bit and pay considerably less. GSU is largely a commuter school. Some people take marta some don't. Parking isn't a problem as we can park at Turner Field for free, pay to park in the parking decks etc... MARTA is a problem all on its own. I live about 10 miles from school and it takes an hour to get there but that's Atlanta traffic for ya.

At GSU, everyone is pretty much apathetic and my experience working at the law library proved to be no exception. There isn't ANY real sense of community here. I worked on the weekends too so I was really able to chat it up with students since my supervisor wasn't there. It's an older more mature crowd. These people have jobs, families, and are just trying to get that degree and get out of here (similar to UG). The workload is intense here though. People underrate it. People would have their set study groups or isolate themselves. And the law library is HORRIBLE. It floods on a regular basis (all of the buildings on our campus used to be parking garages & the library is on p1). It's dark and dated. The whole building should be condemned but they have reinovated the bathrooms because they said they want them to look good for moot court visitors and important people. Smart thinking, people do have to go to the bathroom. Also, if you're not in the top 25% a job making more than $80,000 seems hard to come by from the people I talked to. They told me about stiff competition from Emory and UGA grads. I always thought being in Atlanta would put them at number 1 but it doesn't. To their benefit, a lot of the govt jobs are filled with GSU grads since we're in the same neighborhood.

hm...not exactly a rosy picture you paint. lol

bella16 wrote:

jennylynn wrote:Good question! I'd like to know that, too...as well as where students live in Atlanta. do they stay outside the city and commute (MARTA) or do they live in Atlanta?

Students live all over Atlanta and the surrounding area. The perimeter would be like dowtown midtown but are extremely expensive. You can expand out a little bit and pay considerably less. GSU is largely a commuter school. Some people take marta some don't. Parking isn't a problem as we can park at Turner Field for free, pay to park in the parking decks etc... MARTA is a problem all on its own. I live about 10 miles from school and it takes an hour to get there but that's Atlanta traffic for ya.

At GSU, everyone is pretty much apathetic and my experience working at the law library proved to be no exception. There isn't ANY real sense of community here. I worked on the weekends too so I was really able to chat it up with students since my supervisor wasn't there. It's an older more mature crowd. These people have jobs, families, and are just trying to get that degree and get out of here (similar to UG). The workload is intense here though. People underrate it. People would have their set study groups or isolate themselves. And the law library is HORRIBLE. It floods on a regular basis (all of the buildings on our campus used to be parking garages & the library is on p1). It's dark and dated. The whole building should be condemned but they have reinovated the bathrooms because they said they want them to look good for moot court visitors and important people. Smart thinking, people do have to go to the bathroom. Also, if you're not in the top 25% a job making more than $80,000 seems hard to come by from the people I talked to. They told me about stiff competition from Emory and UGA grads. I always thought being in Atlanta would put them at number 1 but it doesn't. To their benefit, a lot of the govt jobs are filled with GSU grads since we're in the same neighborhood.

Would you say it's hard to transfer into Emory form GSU if you are in say.. the top 10%?

savagedm wrote:

bella16 wrote:

jennylynn wrote:Good question! I'd like to know that, too...as well as where students live in Atlanta. do they stay outside the city and commute (MARTA) or do they live in Atlanta?

Students live all over Atlanta and the surrounding area. The perimeter would be like dowtown midtown but are extremely expensive. You can expand out a little bit and pay considerably less. GSU is largely a commuter school. Some people take marta some don't. Parking isn't a problem as we can park at Turner Field for free, pay to park in the parking decks etc... MARTA is a problem all on its own. I live about 10 miles from school and it takes an hour to get there but that's Atlanta traffic for ya.

At GSU, everyone is pretty much apathetic and my experience working at the law library proved to be no exception. There isn't ANY real sense of community here. I worked on the weekends too so I was really able to chat it up with students since my supervisor wasn't there. It's an older more mature crowd. These people have jobs, families, and are just trying to get that degree and get out of here (similar to UG). The workload is intense here though. People underrate it. People would have their set study groups or isolate themselves. And the law library is HORRIBLE. It floods on a regular basis (all of the buildings on our campus used to be parking garages & the library is on p1). It's dark and dated. The whole building should be condemned but they have reinovated the bathrooms because they said they want them to look good for moot court visitors and important people. Smart thinking, people do have to go to the bathroom. Also, if you're not in the top 25% a job making more than $80,000 seems hard to come by from the people I talked to. They told me about stiff competition from Emory and UGA grads. I always thought being in Atlanta would put them at number 1 but it doesn't. To their benefit, a lot of the govt jobs are filled with GSU grads since we're in the same neighborhood.

Would you say it's hard to transfer into Emory form GSU if you are in say.. the top 10%?

Sorry but I wouldn't know. I can ask my friend who just graduated from there when we get back from the holidays. He's working in the library now.

bella16 wrote:

savagedm wrote:

bella16 wrote:

jennylynn wrote:Good question! I'd like to know that, too...as well as where students live in Atlanta. do they stay outside the city and commute (MARTA) or do they live in Atlanta?

Students live all over Atlanta and the surrounding area. The perimeter would be like dowtown midtown but are extremely expensive. You can expand out a little bit and pay considerably less. GSU is largely a commuter school. Some people take marta some don't. Parking isn't a problem as we can park at Turner Field for free, pay to park in the parking decks etc... MARTA is a problem all on its own. I live about 10 miles from school and it takes an hour to get there but that's Atlanta traffic for ya.

At GSU, everyone is pretty much apathetic and my experience working at the law library proved to be no exception. There isn't ANY real sense of community here. I worked on the weekends too so I was really able to chat it up with students since my supervisor wasn't there. It's an older more mature crowd. These people have jobs, families, and are just trying to get that degree and get out of here (similar to UG). The workload is intense here though. People underrate it. People would have their set study groups or isolate themselves. And the law library is HORRIBLE. It floods on a regular basis (all of the buildings on our campus used to be parking garages & the library is on p1). It's dark and dated. The whole building should be condemned but they have reinovated the bathrooms because they said they want them to look good for moot court visitors and important people. Smart thinking, people do have to go to the bathroom. Also, if you're not in the top 25% a job making more than $80,000 seems hard to come by from the people I talked to. They told me about stiff competition from Emory and UGA grads. I always thought being in Atlanta would put them at number 1 but it doesn't. To their benefit, a lot of the govt jobs are filled with GSU grads since we're in the same neighborhood.

Would you say it's hard to transfer into Emory form GSU if you are in say.. the top 10%?

Sorry but I wouldn't know. I can ask my friend who just graduated from there when we get back from the holidays. He's working in the library now.

Ahh cool that would be awesome! It's interesting to see the exact opposite opinion of what I was under the impression GSU was. I figured it would be easy to get a job in downtown after graduating from there since it is located right there. Personally I'm not too worried about my prospects.. I'm young, wont be working and am fairly smart, a law degree couldnt hurt

There is a senior something or other at Alston & Bird that graduated from my UG & went to Duke and now does some of the recruiting and what not for A&B in Atlanta. I met him as we were both part of a panel for UG students interested in law school. I spoke to him afterward about recruitment. He said that the largest majority come from Emory and UGA by far, then next would be Duke, Vanderbilt, and to a lesser extent UNC and Alabama. He said that only recently have they started recruiting from GSU and only in very small numbers so far, kind of like a trial run. So... that's my two cents about GSU's ATL placement.

Wow, the info in this posting helps me a lot with my current delimma on selecting law schools. I would like to ask if anyone here knows of part-time of evening law school programs in the metro-Atlanta (besides GSU)?