W&L 2011 Applicants Forum

[SrLaw]

Does anyone have any insight on whether the applicants who were just accepted can look forward to in terms of scholarships? Will W&L offer larger offers to the first wave of acceptances then the group that was just accepted?

[ran12]

Does anyone have any insight on whether the applicants who were just accepted can look forward to in terms of scholarships? Will W&L offer larger offers to the first wave of acceptances then the group that was just accepted?

Prob since they do say on their site that funds dry up early.

[Rowinguy2009]

Hey guys W&L 1L here....if you have any questions feel free to ask. (I haven't been on TLS in a long time so I'm not sure if there's another thread where this is already going on, but talking to current students on here really helped me with my decision, so I wanted pay it back as it were).

[aquyenl]

Hey guys W&L 1L here....if you have any questions feel free to ask. (I haven't been on TLS in a long time so I'm not sure if there's another thread where this is already going on, but talking to current students on here really helped me with my decision, so I wanted pay it back as it were).

What schools were u considering prior to choosing w&l? What made you choose w&l over the other schools? Are you happy at w&l so far?

[NorCalBruin]

Also, what are your thoughts on Lexington? I've never been. I've heard "it' small but social". Thoughts?

[dddhhh]

How does the honor code affect your daily routine in law school?

What is the student body like? (I know that's broad, but in your experience- like to party? Mature? Single/Married? Competitive?)

[Rowinguy2009]

Hey guys W&L 1L here....if you have any questions feel free to ask. (I haven't been on TLS in a long time so I'm not sure if there's another thread where this is already going on, but talking to current students on here really helped me with my decision, so I wanted pay it back as it were).

What schools were u considering prior to choosing w&l? What made you choose w&l over the other schools? Are you happy at w&l so far?

I applied to about 10-11 places....my top 3 choices were W&L, W&M, and Emory. To be perfectly honest the real deal maker for W&L was that I got a full ride, and free school is just really damn hard to turn down. That being said I wouldn't have picked W&L if I wasn't comfortable with it for other reasons. When I came down for admitted students weekend I got an awesome vibe from the profs/other admitted students/current students/admissions staff. I really like the third year; I've heard all the arguments for and against it and at the end of the day I would just rather be doing our third year than a typical one. (Personally I am much more interested in the hands on practice of the law than the theoretical discussion of it, I've enjoyed law school discussions/debates, but I hands down want to be a lawyer, not a law professor).

I'm really happy with my decision so far, I've become extremely close to my group of friends, and honestly everyone is nice and easy to get along with. I don't get a competitive vibe at all. Grades were literally just released three days ago and everyone tried to be as supportive as possible given that some people were thrilled and others were crushed.

But while the small size of the school and city makes everyone really close, it can admittedly be claustrophobic at times. You literally see the same people at the grocery store, at the library, at the bars, I think at first this just kinda annoyed me but I'm actually becoming used to it.

There is a mix of personalities, I would guess we have an above average number of people who did not come straight out of undergrad (no stats whatsoever to back this up, but as a person who did come straight out I often get the feeling that most people have at least a couple years in between UG and law school.)

Probably about half the people go out on a regular basis, me being one of them. There are only two bars but we try to switch things up and have parties and the like; the school often hosts events that can be pretty fun, there is honestly never a weekend where there isn't something going on. Most of the people who don't "go out" are still fairly social. Several of the people I studied with last semester were not people who went out normally, and for me it was nice to work with them cause they're not people who I typically hang out with on a day to day basis.

The honor code is awesome, I leave my stuff lying around the library literally every day, my laptop is sitting unattended on a desk in the library as we speak. I went to a big state school for undergrad where you were given no benefit of the doubt in regards to cheating and it's really nice to not have to worry about stuff like exam taking software and whatnot.

I know all this was fairly general... I tried to hit most of the points. Feel free to ask away and I'll try to ellaborate as much as possible.

[softsgalore]

How conservative would you say the general environment is? How conservative are your profs and fellow students?

[energizer]

do you know anyone in off waiting list?

[aquyenl]

do you live on campus? is it necessary to have a car to get around places? i wont have a car at all if i attend. thanks for your answers so far it is really helpful!

[law4vus]

How diverse is W and L? I've heard not very, and that's a really important issue for me because I'm an ethnic minority.

[WVUCelticFan]

I saw you mentioned there being only two bar (fine with me...being a regular - usually - equates to better service). What about coffee shops? Any other places where people tend to usually hang out, especially anything with live music?

[Rowinguy2009]

How conservative would you say the general environment is? How conservative are your profs and fellow students?

I think the students are very diverse when it comes to political views, I would guess we are slightly more conservative than your average law school....but this is just a guess, and there are still more liberal leaning students than conservative leaning.

The only real political viewpoint that I've picked up from any of my profs is libertarianism....and I have gotten hints of that from a couple different profs, but other than that it doesn't seem any of them are super opinionated one way or another.

do you know anyone in off waiting list?

Yes I know and am good friends with several people who got off the waiting list. An observation we have made is that far more girls got off the waiting list this year because our class is more than 2/3 dudes so they were trying to correct that ratio a little.

do you live on campus? is it necessary to have a car to get around places? i wont have a car at all if i attend. thanks for your answers so far it is really helpful!

I have an off campus apartment that is extremely close to the law school (probably around a half mile away). I know a couple people that don't have cars so obviously it can be done, but I feel that it would be very difficult to get groceries and stuff like that without one. Public transportation is non-existent. The town is small so you can theoretically walk to most things but I would think that would get old quick.

How diverse is W and L? I've heard not very, and that's a really important issue for me because I'm an ethnic minority.

I think percentage wise we are just as diverse as most schools, but given how small the school is, that translates into a smaller number of minorities than other schools. The undergrads and town folk are fairly vanilla.

[Rowinguy2009]

I saw you mentioned there being only two bar (fine with me...being a regular - usually - equates to better service). What about coffee shops? Any other places where people tend to usually hang out, especially anything with live music?

I'm not a big coffee drinker but I think we have two coffee shops. There was a really cool live music place called Woods Creek that served food and had good drink specials and whatnot....but it closed down this past Friday. It didn't go out of business but was bought by someone else, so no one is really sure what its future is at this point.

Most hanging out is just done at people's houses/apartments. For the size of the city Lexington does have a lot of food places (both fast food and nicer sit down places) and so it's fairly common to hit up those and take advantage of drink specials and stuff like that.

There is also a ton of outdoorsy hiking/climbing type stuff that people take advantage of pretty frequently. There's a cool place called Goshen we went swimming at a few times toward the beginning of the year and had our 1L pig roast at later on in the semester.

PS nice screename I was a WVU undergrad

[WVUCelticFan]

PS nice screename I was a WVU undergrad

Good man yourself.

PM about to be sent.

[weejonbu]

There's a cool place called Goshen we went swimming at a few times toward the beginning of the year and had our 1L pig roast at later on in the semester.

Sweet. Don't know if I even need to go to ASW, I think I have enough information now.

1L pig roast? I'm there =)

[emhellmer]

I have heard nothing but great things about Washington and Lee. I can't wait for ASW.

[softsgalore]

Libertarianism? Thank you for the warning. I will be crossing it off my list. If I have to grit my teeth against one more professor who wants to slyly advocate the policies of Ron Paul or Ayn Rand in class, I will just drop out of school and get a job as a janitor somewhere.

[queenlizzie13]

I have heard nothing but great things about Washington and Lee. I can't wait for ASW.

+1. I have spent a lot of time lately reading up on W&L. After reading the last few posts, I am now even more excited for ASW.

W&L is definitely one of my top choices.

Btw, how are the intramural sports? Have you tried going hiking/running around the trails in the area?

[NorCalBruin]

Libertarianism? Thank you for the warning. I will be crossing it off my list. If I have to grit my teeth against one more professor who wants to slyly advocate the policies of Ron Paul or Ayn Rand in class, I will just drop out of school and get a job as a janitor somewhere.

Good. Sounds like I wouldn't want you in my class anyway.

[softsgalore]

It'd be great. Softsgalore Shrugged, coming soon to a campus free-market evangelist near you.

[Rowinguy2009]

Libertarianism? Thank you for the warning. I will be crossing it off my list. If I have to grit my teeth against one more professor who wants to slyly advocate the policies of Ron Paul or Ayn Rand in class, I will just drop out of school and get a job as a janitor somewhere.

Just to clarify, law school is very different from undergrad. I've never had a professor give a soapbox speech on any issue, I rarely hear them talk at all about political things unless it is very related to the subject at hand.

I had one or two profs last semester, and if you really listened to them it seemed they were in support of less intervention when it came to the law and government. This was not something that was blasted, but something that you really had to pay attention to just to even pick up on.

Other than these subtle undertones the four profs I've had so far (don't know enough about my spring semester ones to say one way or another) were all very apolitical, welcomed differing opinions, and kept the conversation to the black letter law most of the time.


I would think that if you are that opposed to ever hearing a libertarian viewpoint, you should probably jus go ahead and fill out that janitor application.

[ksimon2007]

Got scholarship info this morning with an offer of 15k per year.

[Moral_Midgetry]

Got scholarship info this morning with an offer of 15k per year.

Numbers?

[queenlizzie13]

Got scholarship info this morning with an offer of 15k per year.

Nice! Now this will make me nervous waiting for the mail all day today.