Emory: Class of 2018 Applicants (2014-2015 Cycle) Forum

[LawsRUs]

Where do law students live? Which neighborhoods? Would you mind making some recommendations?

[nickhalden]

Dang is cost of living really that high in ATL? I got a decent scholarship and was considering this option but I'm coming from Utah where a 2 bedroom apartments rents for $700 lol

That's because there's not much demand for two bedroom apartments in Utah. Maybe after your marriage, one for each wife, but once the kids come?

[buckiguy_sucks]

.

[LSATobsessed]

books will not cost more than 1000, definitely no more than 400 loss if you buy and sell

[Law1491]

How difficult is it to find a job in GA with Emory JD without any ties to the area? Is it possible to find a job with Emory JD in DC/VA/NC area?

[Yaaaas2013]

It really depends part of a Atlanta you want to live in. The Druid Hills area near the school will run you that much. Many folks will prob recommend that you don't stray too far away from the downtown/ midtown neighborhoods. It's honestly a matter of preference. Fifteen or so miles away from the school will allow you to find decent 3-4 bedroom apartments for $900. Shrug...

Why do people recommend not straying from downtown/midtown? And where are some areas to look for 3-4 bedroom apartments for that price? The places I was looking at for a roommate were like $650 before utilities. I feel like if I'm going to have roommates I might as well save as much money as possible. I would be very happy if I could rent a place for that price.[/quote]

In terms of recommending neighborhoods to those who are new to city and are moving there to start school/ work, the conventional advice would be to suggest locations near the school since the student would spend most of their time there. Now of course this is just advice for the first year. Emory is about ten to fifteen minutes away from the heart of Atlanta and parts of Midtown. Marta will take you from the law school to Piedmont in ten minutes lol. Don't get me wrong, midtown is a great area with lots of amenities, stores, restaurants, etc. However, it's a bit more costly than say parts of Decatur, Stone Mountain, Lithonia. Those areas are about 25-30 outside of Emory, but worth the commute.

The caveat to those areas brings in the issue of race. It may not overly be discussed but the gentrification in Atlanta and the surrounding neighborhoods is real lol and definitely determines COLs and who's willing to suggest certain zip codes over others.

Regardless, ATL isn't expensive. You'll be fine. If you meet some classmates prior to move in, you'll be able to find a nice house to rent out.

Can we discuss Atlanta eateries lol? I need some new places to visit.

[TetrisBlock]

Thanks again to the students/alumni answering questions. This is very helpful!

To anyone who has graduated or is a student and knows some people that have graduated, what are the employment prospects of the students who are in school funded jobs? Do most end up getting JD-required employment once they pass the bar (since regional schools often have lower at graduation employment numbers, but high employment upon passage of the bar)? I'm just trying to figure out if I'm median if I'm still likely to get a law job in Georgia. I've lived in Georgia for several years and half of my family lives here, which hopefully counts as ties.

books will not cost more than 1000, definitely no more than 400 loss if you buy and sell

That's terrific to hear. $1000 on books for all of 1l if I shop smart? I was worried about how high the planned expense for books is on the Emory site. I was hoping it was like CoL where they put a rather high number, but frugal students can come in quite a bit below that.

[svx5013]

for those who earned lower than median grades, where did they end up after graduation? any bar passage required employment for them (other than university funded positions) at all?

[TetrisBlock]

In terms of recommending neighborhoods to those who are new to city and are moving there to start school/ work, the conventional advice would be to suggest locations near the school since the student would spend most of their time there. Now of course this is just advice for the first year. Emory is about ten to fifteen minutes away from the heart of Atlanta and parts of Midtown. Marta will take you from the law school to Piedmont in ten minutes lol. Don't get me wrong, midtown is a great area with lots of amenities, stores, restaurants, etc. However, it's a bit more costly than say parts of Decatur, Stone Mountain, Lithonia. Those areas are about 25-30 outside of Emory, but worth the commute.

The caveat to those areas brings in the issue of race. It may not overly be discussed but the gentrification in Atlanta and the surrounding neighborhoods is real lol and definitely determines COLs and who's willing to suggest certain zip codes over others.

Regardless, ATL isn't expensive. You'll be fine. If you meet some classmates prior to move in, you'll be able to find a nice house to rent out.

Can we discuss Atlanta eateries lol? I need some new places to visit.

Thank you, the Stone Mountain/Decatur areas aren't too bad from what I recall and they're near the Dekalb Farmer's market which is great. I'll look around there and check prices.

As for food, anything except for Varsity. Varsity is definitely worth trying once so you can taste the disappointment.

[buckiguy_sucks]

.

[Yaaaas2013]

The caveat to those areas brings in the issue of race. It may not overly be discussed but the gentrification in Atlanta and the surrounding neighborhoods is real lol and definitely determines COLs and who's willing to suggest certain zip codes over others.

I've heard that ATL is really bad about this, like to the point that even like Bankhead is gentrifying

It's bad everywhere smh. Just ride through the Old Fourth Ward ( which is about ten minutes from Emory. Everything is about 20-30 mins away for us native folks lol). The street that makes up that neighborhood is a cluster f**k. Every other block is a mixture of poverty and gentrification... Especially near The King Center.

[Yaaaas2013]

In terms of recommending neighborhoods to those who are new to city and are moving there to start school/ work, the conventional advice would be to suggest locations near the school since the student would spend most of their time there. Now of course this is just advice for the first year. Emory is about ten to fifteen minutes away from the heart of Atlanta and parts of Midtown. Marta will take you from the law school to Piedmont in ten minutes lol. Don't get me wrong, midtown is a great area with lots of amenities, stores, restaurants, etc. However, it's a bit more costly than say parts of Decatur, Stone Mountain, Lithonia. Those areas are about 25-30 outside of Emory, but worth the commute.

The caveat to those areas brings in the issue of race. It may not overly be discussed but the gentrification in Atlanta and the surrounding neighborhoods is real lol and definitely determines COLs and who's willing to suggest certain zip codes over others.

Regardless, ATL isn't expensive. You'll be fine. If you meet some classmates prior to move in, you'll be able to find a nice house to rent out.

Can we discuss Atlanta eateries lol? I need some new places to visit.

Thank you, the Stone Mountain/Decatur areas aren't too bad from what I recall and they're near the Dekalb Farmer's market which is great. I'll look around there and check prices.

As for food, anything except for Varsity. Varsity is definitely worth trying once so you can taste the disappointment.

The Farmers Market is amazing ! Lots of great deals. I'm personally excited about the new Ponce Marketplace that's opening in the old City Hall building.

[Marie1976]

Dang is cost of living really that high in ATL? I got a decent scholarship and was considering this option but I'm coming from Utah where a 2 bedroom apartments rents for $700 lol

That's because there's not much demand for two bedroom apartments in Utah. Maybe after your marriage, one for each wife, but once the kids come?

You think I haven't heard that joke before? lol, so original.

I'm female and I have two kids. Hence I need a two bedroom apartment.

[hearsay77]

Finally received my packet and scholarship in the mail after receiving the weird email a couple of days ago. They were quite generous in terms of $$!

[svx5013]

anyone got any ideas???

for those who earned lower than median grades in Emory, where did they end up after graduation? any bar passage required employment for them (other than university funded positions) at all?

[forty-two]

for those who earned lower than median grades, where did they end up after graduation? any bar passage required employment for them (other than university funded positions) at all?

I don't quite understand part of your question, so I'll explain a bit about legal hiring to see if that helps. People get big firm jobs and clerkships before graduation. A ton of other types of legal jobs don't hire until after people have bar results. This is because many small firms and places like DA's and PD's offices don't have much use for people who aren't lawyers yet. Some of these places hire pre graduation, sure, but many don't. I had a school funded fellowship for a few months, and some of my friends had them too for awhile. We all ended up getting full time legal jobs after we passed the bar, but we used the fellowships as a way to earn some money and get good experience until we eventually found our full time jobs. I got my current job just a week or two after bar results came out, but I'm obviously still counted as someone who had a school funded fellowship.

As for people median and below, it is my honest opinion that grades don't matter all that much outside of large firms and clerkships (I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but while I think good grades help, I don't think they're necessary). In my experience, small firms and crim law jobs care much more about experience, and effective networking helps a lot. Most of my friends got their jobs through a mixture of networking and having the right resume. For example, I always had an internship after 1L year. Every summer and every semester I worked somewhere. Not only did I get great experience in the area I eventually went into, but I met a lot of people who ended up helping me out when it came time to find a job. Most of my friends had similar experiences. Networking isn't just going to networking events, it's making meaningful connections with people such that they'll want to help you out later on. Most of the people I know who interned or worked all throughout law school either had job offers at the place they interned at or their boss actively helped them out in their job search.

I'm not going to lie, graduating without a job sucked. I had just spent a ton of money on a degree that I worked so hard to get, and I was unemployed and in massive debt. The long waiting period between taking the bar and getting results only made things worse. But I ended up with a great job doing exactly what I wanted to do. So in the end it was definitely worth it.

Also, holy cow sorry for the forever long post.

[svx5013]

for those who earned lower than median grades, where did they end up after graduation? any bar passage required employment for them (other than university funded positions) at all?

I don't quite understand part of your question, so I'll explain a bit about legal hiring to see if that helps. People get big firm jobs and clerkships before graduation. A ton of other types of legal jobs don't hire until after people have bar results. This is because many small firms and places like DA's and PD's offices don't have much use for people who aren't lawyers yet. Some of these places hire pre graduation, sure, but many don't. I had a school funded fellowship for a few months, and some of my friends had them too for awhile. We all ended up getting full time legal jobs after we passed the bar, but we used the fellowships as a way to earn some money and get good experience until we eventually found our full time jobs. I got my current job just a week or two after bar results came out, but I'm obviously still counted as someone who had a school funded fellowship.

As for people median and below, it is my honest opinion that grades don't matter all that much outside of large firms and clerkships (I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but while I think good grades help, I don't think they're necessary). In my experience, small firms and crim law jobs care much more about experience, and effective networking helps a lot. Most of my friends got their jobs through a mixture of networking and having the right resume. For example, I always had an internship after 1L year. Every summer and every semester I worked somewhere. Not only did I get great experience in the area I eventually went into, but I met a lot of people who ended up helping me out when it came time to find a job. Most of my friends had similar experiences. Networking isn't just going to networking events, it's making meaningful connections with people such that they'll want to help you out later on. Most of the people I know who interned or worked all throughout law school either had job offers at the place they interned at or their boss actively helped them out in their job search.

I'm not going to lie, graduating without a job sucked. I had just spent a ton of money on a degree that I worked so hard to get, and I was unemployed and in massive debt. The long waiting period between taking the bar and getting results only made things worse. But I ended up with a great job doing exactly what I wanted to do. So in the end it was definitely worth it.

Also, holy cow sorry for the forever long post.

Thanks so much for your reply! I am deeply worried about going to Emory since I am an international student, and I don't think I would be a top student based on my LSAT. So I just want to get prepared for the worst case scenario. Again, thank you for your info!!!

[LawsRUs]

@42, Thanks so much for sharing your experience !! Getting the job that you want must be really nice, as opposed to being forced into taking one. Thanks again!

PS. I'm going to take a wild guess that your username is a reference to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide?

[forty-two]

Thanks so much for your reply! I am deeply worried about going to Emory since I am an international student, and I don't think I would be a top student based on my LSAT. So I just want to get prepared for the worst case scenario. Again, thank you for your info!!!

I mean, I'm just sharing my experience. I don't want to say that everyone gets the job they want, because I'm sure that's not true. Just check out the vale of tears thread in the employment forum. There are people with good grades from great schools that are unemployed despite doing everything right. However, try not to worry that your LSAT score is going to lead to low grades. That's not necessarily true. At all.

[Jimlaw77]

for those who earned lower than median grades, where did they end up after graduation? any bar passage required employment for them (other than university funded positions) at all?

I don't quite understand part of your question, so I'll explain a bit about legal hiring to see if that helps. People get big firm jobs and clerkships before graduation. A ton of other types of legal jobs don't hire until after people have bar results. This is because many small firms and places like DA's and PD's offices don't have much use for people who aren't lawyers yet. Some of these places hire pre graduation, sure, but many don't. I had a school funded fellowship for a few months, and some of my friends had them too for awhile. We all ended up getting full time legal jobs after we passed the bar, but we used the fellowships as a way to earn some money and get good experience until we eventually found our full time jobs. I got my current job just a week or two after bar results came out, but I'm obviously still counted as someone who had a school funded fellowship.

As for people median and below, it is my honest opinion that grades don't matter all that much outside of large firms and clerkships (I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but while I think good grades help, I don't think they're necessary). In my experience, small firms and crim law jobs care much more about experience, and effective networking helps a lot. Most of my friends got their jobs through a mixture of networking and having the right resume. For example, I always had an internship after 1L year. Every summer and every semester I worked somewhere. Not only did I get great experience in the area I eventually went into, but I met a lot of people who ended up helping me out when it came time to find a job. Most of my friends had similar experiences. Networking isn't just going to networking events, it's making meaningful connections with people such that they'll want to help you out later on. Most of the people I know who interned or worked all throughout law school either had job offers at the place they interned at or their boss actively helped them out in their job search.

I'm not going to lie, graduating without a job sucked. I had just spent a ton of money on a degree that I worked so hard to get, and I was unemployed and in massive debt. The long waiting period between taking the bar and getting results only made things worse. But I ended up with a great job doing exactly what I wanted to do. So in the end it was definitely worth it.

Also, holy cow sorry for the forever long post.

Thanks so much for your reply! I am deeply worried about going to Emory since I am an international student, and I don't think I would be a top student based on my LSAT. So I just want to get prepared for the worst case scenario. Again, thank you for your info!!!

Where are you from? What degree did you do at undergrad? why you want an American J.D? did get a scholarship or paying sticker at Emory?

[svx5013]

for those who earned lower than median grades, where did they end up after graduation? any bar passage required employment for them (other than university funded positions) at all?

I don't quite understand part of your question, so I'll explain a bit about legal hiring to see if that helps. People get big firm jobs and clerkships before graduation. A ton of other types of legal jobs don't hire until after people have bar results. This is because many small firms and places like DA's and PD's offices don't have much use for people who aren't lawyers yet. Some of these places hire pre graduation, sure, but many don't. I had a school funded fellowship for a few months, and some of my friends had them too for awhile. We all ended up getting full time legal jobs after we passed the bar, but we used the fellowships as a way to earn some money and get good experience until we eventually found our full time jobs. I got my current job just a week or two after bar results came out, but I'm obviously still counted as someone who had a school funded fellowship.

As for people median and below, it is my honest opinion that grades don't matter all that much outside of large firms and clerkships (I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but while I think good grades help, I don't think they're necessary). In my experience, small firms and crim law jobs care much more about experience, and effective networking helps a lot. Most of my friends got their jobs through a mixture of networking and having the right resume. For example, I always had an internship after 1L year. Every summer and every semester I worked somewhere. Not only did I get great experience in the area I eventually went into, but I met a lot of people who ended up helping me out when it came time to find a job. Most of my friends had similar experiences. Networking isn't just going to networking events, it's making meaningful connections with people such that they'll want to help you out later on. Most of the people I know who interned or worked all throughout law school either had job offers at the place they interned at or their boss actively helped them out in their job search.

I'm not going to lie, graduating without a job sucked. I had just spent a ton of money on a degree that I worked so hard to get, and I was unemployed and in massive debt. The long waiting period between taking the bar and getting results only made things worse. But I ended up with a great job doing exactly what I wanted to do. So in the end it was definitely worth it.

Also, holy cow sorry for the forever long post.

Thanks so much for your reply! I am deeply worried about going to Emory since I am an international student, and I don't think I would be a top student based on my LSAT. So I just want to get prepared for the worst case scenario. Again, thank you for your info!!!

Where are you from? What degree did you do at undergrad? why you want an American J.D? did get a scholarship or paying sticker at Emory?

triple major in UG, plsc, econ, phil. cum laude with perfect gpa in philosophy. 20000+ scholarship at emory per year. and why i want an anerican jd? b/c i wanna study law and im not eligible for any law degree elsewhere.

i did look into philosophy phd programs, the selectivity is like 5 to 15 admits among 200+ applicants each yr (no matter which school ur talking about), and most of them cant be hired by any higher education institution after graduation.

[svs89]

I just tried posting on here but I don't know if it went through....


Again, I am prefacing this post with the fact that I am bad at all forms of social media and am technologically challenged. I can't figure out how to search to see if this question has already been answered. I just wanted to find out if anyone else is having an issue booking a free hotel for the visiting students day at the end of March. When go in through the Emory website, I'm still getting charged $95. Are they going to reimburse us later or am I doing something wrong? Please help

[TetrisBlock]

Where are you from? What degree did you do at undergrad? why you want an American J.D? did get a scholarship or paying sticker at Emory?

triple major in UG, plsc, econ, phil. cum laude with perfect gpa in philosophy. 20000+ scholarship at emory per year. and why i want an anerican jd? b/c i wanna study law and im not eligible for any law degree elsewhere.

Keep in mind that if your scholarship is ~70k you'd still be paying ((56+58+60) - 70) $104,000 on tuition+healthcare+books+fees alone. You may be able to save money on CoL if you make some sacrifices and get it down to 12-15k. That still would be $140,000 in debt when a lot of Emory grads make $60,000 a year. If you have some money saved up then I'm not complete opposed to the idea of ~$100,000 of debt. It's a personal decision either way, but I just want to caution you if you're thinking of taking on twice the amount of debt of what your likely salary will be. I don't think you should assume you'll be below median because of your LSAT score or because you're an international student. The most likely outcome for any student--and what their plans should assume will be their outcome--is median.
Emory is a good school because it has good overall employment numbers and if you're above median you have a good chance at a six figure salary. Most t1 schools don't have that kind of benefit, but you need to remember that tuition is like $15,000 a year higher than it was just 8 years ago. A lot of older advice where people were going with 70k scholarships was when tuition for schools was around $130-140,000 rather than $180,000, meaning it was 1/2 of the school cost rather than 1/3.

[svx5013]

Where are you from? What degree did you do at undergrad? why you want an American J.D? did get a scholarship or paying sticker at Emory?

triple major in UG, plsc, econ, phil. cum laude with perfect gpa in philosophy. 20000+ scholarship at emory per year. and why i want an anerican jd? b/c i wanna study law and im not eligible for any law degree elsewhere.

Keep in mind that if your scholarship is ~70k you'd still be paying ((56+58+60) - 70) $104,000 on tuition+healthcare+books+fees alone. You may be able to save money on CoL if you make some sacrifices and get it down to 12-15k. That still would be $140,000 in debt when a lot of Emory grads make $60,000 a year. If you have some money saved up then I'm not complete opposed to the idea of ~$100,000 of debt. It's a personal decision either way, but I just want to caution you if you're thinking of taking on twice the amount of debt of what your likely salary will be. I don't think you should assume you'll be below median because of your LSAT score or because you're an international student. The most likely outcome for any student--and what their plans should assume will be their outcome--is median.
Emory is a good school because it has good overall employment numbers and if you're above median you have a good chance at a six figure salary. Most t1 schools don't have that kind of benefit, but you need to remember that tuition is like $15,000 a year higher than it was just 8 years ago. A lot of older advice where people were going with 70k scholarships was when tuition for schools was around $130-140,000 rather than $180,000, meaning it was 1/2 of the school cost rather than 1/3.

thanks so much! u guys are just so much more friendly and willing to help than WashULaw ppl. anyways.... i am currently debating between emory & bu which gave me less scholarship, but it seems bu has better biglaw placement (not that i want to work in biglaw, but i think maybe only large firms are willing to sponsor foreign citizens). idk how much we can rely on NLJ's top 50 go to law school statistic, emory doesnt seem competitive there.
About debt and everything, i dont need to borrow money to attend, but in order no to waste my parents' savings completely, i do plan to drop out after 1L if my grade sucks

[TetrisBlock]

Where are you from? What degree did you do at undergrad? why you want an American J.D? did get a scholarship or paying sticker at Emory?

triple major in UG, plsc, econ, phil. cum laude with perfect gpa in philosophy. 20000+ scholarship at emory per year. and why i want an anerican jd? b/c i wanna study law and im not eligible for any law degree elsewhere.

Keep in mind that if your scholarship is ~70k you'd still be paying ((56+58+60) - 70) $104,000 on tuition+healthcare+books+fees alone. You may be able to save money on CoL if you make some sacrifices and get it down to 12-15k. That still would be $140,000 in debt when a lot of Emory grads make $60,000 a year. If you have some money saved up then I'm not complete opposed to the idea of ~$100,000 of debt. It's a personal decision either way, but I just want to caution you if you're thinking of taking on twice the amount of debt of what your likely salary will be. I don't think you should assume you'll be below median because of your LSAT score or because you're an international student. The most likely outcome for any student--and what their plans should assume will be their outcome--is median.
Emory is a good school because it has good overall employment numbers and if you're above median you have a good chance at a six figure salary. Most t1 schools don't have that kind of benefit, but you need to remember that tuition is like $15,000 a year higher than it was just 8 years ago. A lot of older advice where people were going with 70k scholarships was when tuition for schools was around $130-140,000 rather than $180,000, meaning it was 1/2 of the school cost rather than 1/3.

thanks so much! u guys are just so much more friendly and willing to help than WashULaw ppl. anyways.... i am currently debating between emory & bu which gave me less scholarship, but it seems bu has better biglaw placement (not that i want to work in biglaw, but i think maybe only large firms are willing to sponsor foreign citizens). idk how much we can rely on NLJ's top 50 go to law school statistic, emory doesnt seem competitive there.
About debt and everything, i dont need to borrow money to attend, but in order no to waste my parents' savings completely, i do plan to drop out after 1L if my grade sucks

You should definitely post a thread asking for advice. I'm not sure if law school is the best idea for you, but I'm not certain. They can help flesh out what you want so you can make a better informed decision.
I think BU can negotiate so you may be able to get them to raise it up near Emory's, but to me Boston is a frozen hell hole with extremely high cost of living. Then again I want to go to Emory so of course I'd say that lol.
Good luck with your decisions!