Georgia State University c/o 2015 (2011-2012 cycle) Forum

[Ga0-3L]

Hey guys, I am currently a 1L at Georgia State and I can attest to the fact that it is a great program. I am around the middle of the class ranking wise, and I already have a job lined up for the summer paying $1000 a week. Our new numbers are about to come out, and we should see a jump in rankings (our class had the best numbers so far). All the big ATL firms interview here, and the cost is impossible to beat. I hope everyone considers matriculation in the Fall, and good luck with law school applications, it is stressful, albeit not nearly as much as law school itself (I am either studying or in class about 80 hours per week)

Cheers!

++++++1

[panicunited]

Hey guys, I am currently a 1L at Georgia State and I can attest to the fact that it is a great program. I am around the middle of the class ranking wise, and I already have a job lined up for the summer paying $1000 a week. Our new numbers are about to come out, and we should see a jump in rankings (our class had the best numbers so far). All the big ATL firms interview here, and the cost is impossible to beat. I hope everyone considers matriculation in the Fall, and good luck with law school applications, it is stressful, albeit not nearly as much as law school itself (I am either studying or in class about 80 hours per week)

Cheers!

Thanks for reassuring us! I hope you're right about the rankings jump! I have a nice scholly in my current state at a much lower ranked school. I don't want to live here though; so, a nice bump would cleanse me of second guesses. Do most people have jobs lined up like you for the summer already?

Well, most people that I hang around. We have a summer program in Prague that some people are doing, and others are taking classes or judicial clerkships. A a majority of people will be employed, even during the 1L summer. Employers come here, you interview, and get a position. Its pretty easy, and there are a bunch of firms ( I have interviewed 7 times since Feb).

I believe that the location, ranking and cost combine to give you one of the best law school options around. I chose here over UGA because it would be hard to take an internship in Athens (there are no legal jobs in athens), over Emory because of the expense (Im in-state so even with cost of living I am paying a little over 30k, compared to emory's 72k) and really never considered John Marshal (TTT) or Mercer (Similar).

[panicunited]

Also, you guys will probably have the opportunity to spend a year in the new building were getting (by the time its finished, I will be just out of school)

http://law.gsu.edu/7300.html

[panicunited]

Also, you guys will probably have the opportunity to spend a year in the new building were getting (by the time its finished, I will be just out of school)

http://law.gsu.edu/7300.html

Well, I take that back. PT students will have the opportunity, unless they break ground early. That will also be a nice boost to the school.

[Ga0-3L]

Also, you guys will probably have the opportunity to spend a year in the new building were getting (by the time its finished, I will be just out of school)

http://law.gsu.edu/7300.html

Well, I take that back. PT students will have the opportunity, unless they break ground early. That will also be a nice boost to the school.

How are the current facilities? Location? Do you live close/commute? Anything else you want to tell us? Sorry for the questions I'm just having a hard time figuring out my next steps...

[panicunited]

Also, you guys will probably have the opportunity to spend a year in the new building were getting (by the time its finished, I will be just out of school)

http://law.gsu.edu/7300.html

Well, I take that back. PT students will have the opportunity, unless they break ground early. That will also be a nice boost to the school.

How are the current facilities? Location? Do you live close/commute? Anything else you want to tell us? Sorry for the questions I'm just having a hard time figuring out my next steps...

Well I live in Buckhead now, so its reasonably close to the school (10 mins in good traffic, 30 during rush hour). Right now the school is housed in the Urban life building on floors 1-6ish. Te library is open and controlled by security, so its always super quiet (which is a plus). There are about 20 study rooms that are wired with projectors, whiteboards etc. and available only to law students (they are usually available). The circulation desk allows you to check out cables for connecting your compter to the projectors, dry erase markers etc.

The classrooms are auditorium style for the most part, and other than that its pretty much a standard school/law school set-up. There are plenty of restaurants close to the school, and you can literally spend (an you will) hours here. The only warning that I can give you you is to be wary when outside the realm of the campus, because it is downtown ATL. I have never had any problems, but (like any downtown area) it has the potential to get dicey.

Overall it is great. Facilities at Emory are a bit nicer, but ill keep my 40k a year.

Apologies for the long post, but ill try to be thorough.

The people are great, students and professors alike. We hold an annual PILA auction (where you can bid on taking your property professor out for drinks etc.) and the law school regularly holds networking events where they have open bars etc. Really, the school provides a nice, professional atmosphere.

I have not had to pay for lunch more than 2 times in any given week, as LexisNexis and Westlaw are constantly putting on events during lunch hour in which they provide free lunch. This is nice as well.

[Ga0-3L]

Also, you guys will probably have the opportunity to spend a year in the new building were getting (by the time its finished, I will be just out of school)

http://law.gsu.edu/7300.html

Well, I take that back. PT students will have the opportunity, unless they break ground early. That will also be a nice boost to the school.

How are the current facilities? Location? Do you live close/commute? Anything else you want to tell us? Sorry for the questions I'm just having a hard time figuring out my next steps...

Well I live in Buckhead now, so its reasonably close to the school (10 mins in good traffic, 30 during rush hour). Right now the school is housed in the Urban life building on floors 1-6ish. Te library is open and controlled by security, so its always super quiet (which is a plus). There are about 20 study rooms that are wired with projectors, whiteboards etc. and available only to law students (they are usually available). The circulation desk allows you to check out cables for connecting your compter to the projectors, dry erase markers etc.

The classrooms are auditorium style for the most part, and other than that its pretty much a standard school/law school set-up. There are plenty of restaurants close to the school, and you can literally spend (an you will) hours here. The only warning that I can give you you is to be wary when outside the realm of the campus, because it is downtown ATL. I have never had any problems, but (like any downtown area) it has the potential to get dicey.

Overall it is great. Facilities at Emory are a bit nicer, but ill keep my 40k a year.

Apologies for the long post, but ill try to be thorough.

The people are great, students and professors alike. We hold an annual PILA auction (where you can bid on taking your property professor out for drinks etc.) and the law school regularly holds networking events where they have open bars etc. Really, the school provides a nice, professional atmosphere.

I have not had to pay for lunch more than 2 times in any given week, as LexisNexis and Westlaw are constantly putting on events during lunch hour in which they provide free lunch. This is nice as well.

Thanks for the info!

[kneedrag]

g

[kroakstool]

Well, #s are live. Interesting.

Emory #24

Georgia #34

Georgia State #58

Everyone moved up. This does not help me at all. lol. Even Washington and Lee moved up to 24. I guess the fact that William and Mary dropped to 35 takes them out of the equation.

[kneedrag]

d

[kneedrag]

d

[kroakstool]

It will be interesting when someone with more free time (and inside knowledge than me) figures out why they each moved up. Was it the new methods for assessing post graduation statistics? better #s? etc.

On a related note - Emory's post graduation employment numbers look bad among those three, something that really does reflect what I have been hearing speaking to 2L/3Ls and current grads. I suppose one tries to weigh that with salary #s, but I just find those (and I suppose, also the employment numbers) so ridiculously misleading.

Apparently Emory adopted the new employment reporting method that USNWR is pushing and that is why it is so low. Also why they experienced a drop recently. Just what i heard.

[kneedrag]

It will be interesting when someone with more free time (and inside knowledge than me) figures out why they each moved up. Was it the new methods for assessing post graduation statistics? better #s? etc.

On a related note - Emory's post graduation employment numbers look bad among those three, something that really does reflect what I have been hearing speaking to 2L/3Ls and current grads. I suppose one tries to weigh that with salary #s, but I just find those (and I suppose, also the employment numbers) so ridiculously misleading.

Apparently Emory adopted the new employment reporting method that USNWR is pushing and that is why it is so low. Also why they experienced a drop recently. Just what i heard.

(I have no idea) but I thought that the speculation was that this year was going to be the first year that everyone was reporting with the new method? (And I thought that was something from USNWR rather than something voluntary).

Are you saying that's also why they dropped from 20-30 a few years back?

I think that's why you're supposed to look at the big picture (tiers, and trends), and not #28 vs #30. The reality is that you didn't have a wholesale change in the universities. At least that was how I was looking at it anyway.

(again, I really have no idea, I don't spend enough time reading these boards :-p )

[panicunited]

It will be interesting when someone with more free time (and inside knowledge than me) figures out why they each moved up. Was it the new methods for assessing post graduation statistics? better #s? etc.

On a related note - Emory's post graduation employment numbers look bad among those three, something that really does reflect what I have been hearing speaking to 2L/3Ls and current grads. I suppose one tries to weigh that with salary #s, but I just find those (and I suppose, also the employment numbers) so ridiculously misleading.

Personally, I can't imagine the "thrill" of graduating from Emory after spending close to 300k and having less than a 60% chance of employment. I would imagine that that number wil increase this year (as will employment across GA schools, and others for that matter) because OCI's are much stronger than pervious years.

In my experience, the 7 interviews I had through OCI, each employer was looking for 10-25 interns for the summer. These were pulled from a class of 200 at GA state. Basically, half the class is already employed. I assume this is par across the board in GA (except for JM and Mercer), and I hope so, as having a state with 3 excellent programs is a huge plus for the overall status of the legal market in Georgia. This keeps firms, like mine (King and Spalding), hiring GA students for GA jobs.

I am happy all 3 schools had a good showing, and especially happy that GA state has the lowest student to faculty ratio, lowest acceptance rate, and lowest cost of the three. This means that you get a good education, have good classmates, and you can leave law school with all appendages in tact (financially).

I truly believe that going to school in GA is a good idea, and I am especially preferential to GA State (obviously), who continues to march up through the rankings. Lets hope that trend continues. All of us here are certainly working our asses off to give the next class a great legal name, which will get you a great legal job. It's working for me, and I am glad I came here over UGA, Emory, W&L etc.
-------------------------
3.6 Overall
3.92 Major (Finance)
167 LSAT

Cheers!

[bluebubble05]

has anyone heard of or considered living at westmar? http://westmarlofts.com/index.php

[cutecarmel]

It will be interesting when someone with more free time (and inside knowledge than me) figures out why they each moved up. Was it the new methods for assessing post graduation statistics? better #s? etc.

On a related note - Emory's post graduation employment numbers look bad among those three, something that really does reflect what I have been hearing speaking to 2L/3Ls and current grads. I suppose one tries to weigh that with salary #s, but I just find those (and I suppose, also the employment numbers) so ridiculously misleading.

Apparently Emory adopted the new employment reporting method that USNWR is pushing and that is why it is so low. Also why they experienced a drop recently. Just what i heard.

The website says:

The ABA will start requiring more detailed jobs placement data for the 2011 graduating class that will require law schools to reveal such key stats as how many graduates had jobs that are full time or part time, short term or long term, and that actually require the J.D. degree. U.S. News plans to incorporate this more granular data into our methodology for future rankings.

So I think you will not see everyone using the new method for employment reporting until next year's rankings (since they start collecting data for this year's rankings before class of 2011 would have had all of their employment data in). So I guess this could be a cuase for a lot of drops in rankings.

[kneedrag]

s

[splittinghairs]

It will be interesting when someone with more free time (and inside knowledge than me) figures out why they each moved up. Was it the new methods for assessing post graduation statistics? better #s? etc.

On a related note - Emory's post graduation employment numbers look bad among those three, something that really does reflect what I have been hearing speaking to 2L/3Ls and current grads. I suppose one tries to weigh that with salary #s, but I just find those (and I suppose, also the employment numbers) so ridiculously misleading.

Personally, I can't imagine the "thrill" of graduating from Emory after spending close to 300k and having less than a 60% chance of employment. I would imagine that that number wil increase this year (as will employment across GA schools, and others for that matter) because OCI's are much stronger than pervious years.

In my experience, the 7 interviews I had through OCI, each employer was looking for 10-25 interns for the summer. These were pulled from a class of 200 at GA state. Basically, half the class is already employed. I assume this is par across the board in GA (except for JM and Mercer), and I hope so, as having a state with 3 excellent programs is a huge plus for the overall status of the legal market in Georgia. This keeps firms, like mine (King and Spalding), hiring GA students for GA jobs.

I am happy all 3 schools had a good showing, and especially happy that GA state has the lowest student to faculty ratio, lowest acceptance rate, and lowest cost of the three. This means that you get a good education, have good classmates, and you can leave law school with all appendages in tact (financially).

I truly believe that going to school in GA is a good idea, and I am especially preferential to GA State (obviously), who continues to march up through the rankings. Lets hope that trend continues. All of us here are certainly working our asses off to give the next class a great legal name, which will get you a great legal job. It's working for me, and I am glad I came here over UGA, Emory, W&L etc.
-------------------------
3.6 Overall
3.92 Major (Finance)
167 LSAT

Cheers!

Each employer looking to hire 10-25 interns for summer, get outta here. Sorry guys this is absolutely wrong. Check out NALP for Atlanta firms, they list the total number of 2L SAs. Even the biggest firms only hire 10 for 2L. There are no firms hiring 10-25 for 1Ls.

Very few 1Ls get a paid SA at a firm. If this guy indeed got one with median grades, kudos to him. But that is in no way indicative of most ppl's odds. I think median at State will be fine to get a job for graduation if you hustle and network but it wont be handed to you at all. Certainly not a job from OCI if you are median. HTH

[oxeatheman]

has anyone heard of or considered living at westmar? http://westmarlofts.com/index.php

4BR / 1450 sq ft for $900/mo? Thats cheap as shit.

I know where those are, can't really comment on living over there. Near some good stuff in W.Midtown, not too bad a drive down to GSU.

--LinkRemoved--

MetroPointe = Westmar

I have a Georgia Tech undergrad friend who hated that place, can't vouch because I'm from Athens but the reviews aren't too stellar.

[bluebubble05]

has anyone heard of or considered living at westmar? http://westmarlofts.com/index.php

4BR / 1450 sq ft for $900/mo? Thats cheap as shit.

I know where those are, can't really comment on living over there. Near some good stuff in W.Midtown, not too bad a drive down to GSU.

--LinkRemoved--

MetroPointe = Westmar

I have a Georgia Tech undergrad friend who hated that place, can't vouch because I'm from Athens but the reviews aren't too stellar.

omg thank you. i was sold on the place, but after reading reviews after reviews, I'm not even gonna bother to visit the place when I go to Atlanta (I'm coming from California).

[Ga0-3L]

I will say this about Emory - I don't know any thing about their placing students into jobs, but I have been interning for two years and every one I work for (lawyers), work with (other lawyers, judges), have told me NOT to go to Emory (so I would imagine that it is hard for them to place in GA b/c the reputation isn't stellar in the real world). The consensus on why is that they train academics/professors not real lawyers. That UGA has the best training for real lawyers but are so far out that GA State is really the best option for me (because I'm not single and able to live in Athens and then travel the couple hours on top of summer jobs in ATL). For what I want to do I lean very heavily towards Emory but GA State is such a good option as well. If I were a single person who didn't qualify for IBR, I wouldn't look at Emory rankings or no- too impractical.

That said - is 58 a big change for GA State.. we were in a 5 way tie for 61 before... I wouldn't be surprised if GA State were top tier by graduation.

[howell]

It will be interesting when someone with more free time (and inside knowledge than me) figures out why they each moved up. Was it the new methods for assessing post graduation statistics? better #s? etc.

On a related note - Emory's post graduation employment numbers look bad among those three, something that really does reflect what I have been hearing speaking to 2L/3Ls and current grads. I suppose one tries to weigh that with salary #s, but I just find those (and I suppose, also the employment numbers) so ridiculously misleading.

Personally, I can't imagine the "thrill" of graduating from Emory after spending close to 300k and having less than a 60% chance of employment. I would imagine that that number wil increase this year (as will employment across GA schools, and others for that matter) because OCI's are much stronger than pervious years.

In my experience, the 7 interviews I had through OCI, each employer was looking for 10-25 interns for the summer. These were pulled from a class of 200 at GA state. Basically, half the class is already employed. I assume this is par across the board in GA (except for JM and Mercer), and I hope so, as having a state with 3 excellent programs is a huge plus for the overall status of the legal market in Georgia. This keeps firms, like mine (King and Spalding), hiring GA students for GA jobs.

I am happy all 3 schools had a good showing, and especially happy that GA state has the lowest student to faculty ratio, lowest acceptance rate, and lowest cost of the three. This means that you get a good education, have good classmates, and you can leave law school with all appendages in tact (financially).

I truly believe that going to school in GA is a good idea, and I am especially preferential to GA State (obviously), who continues to march up through the rankings. Lets hope that trend continues. All of us here are certainly working our asses off to give the next class a great legal name, which will get you a great legal job. It's working for me, and I am glad I came here over UGA, Emory, W&L etc.
-------------------------
3.6 Overall
3.92 Major (Finance)
167 LSAT

Cheers!

As a 3L at GSU, this is a terribly rosy picture of the situation here. The good news is that things ARE getting better for the newer classes due to the economy, but we have people in the top 10 (people, not percent) without jobs as 3Ls. Many in the top 10-20% could not line up summer employment last year. Maybe people are getting paid summer 1L internships w/out diversity programs, but that would be a huge change from what my class experienced as 1Ls, or even as 2Ls. Again, the class behind us (current 2Ls) is having a LOT more success than we did, so hopefully that continues to improve for the classes that come after them.

GSU is one of the cheapest law schools in the country, but combined tuition & fees has gone up nearly 40% since I started in 2008. There is no sign that increase will stop. Certainly, that is just keeping pace with other schools' increases, but the value proposition of law school in general is becoming much, much different. I would think long and hard about whether you're willing to hustle and accept a job that is not financially "worth it" based on a cost-benefit analysis just so you can be a lawyer. For some people, that is certainly the case. For others, not so much.

There are a lot of great things about GSU that I'm certainly willing to discuss, but the economy hit the last few classes really hard. As I said, it seems to be getting a lot better, so I wouldn't be as concerned applying now, but I think there are very few schools where getting a great job will be easy going forward. Hopefully I'm wrong.

[Ga0-3L]

It will be interesting when someone with more free time (and inside knowledge than me) figures out why they each moved up. Was it the new methods for assessing post graduation statistics? better #s? etc.

On a related note - Emory's post graduation employment numbers look bad among those three, something that really does reflect what I have been hearing speaking to 2L/3Ls and current grads. I suppose one tries to weigh that with salary #s, but I just find those (and I suppose, also the employment numbers) so ridiculously misleading.

Personally, I can't imagine the "thrill" of graduating from Emory after spending close to 300k and having less than a 60% chance of employment. I would imagine that that number wil increase this year (as will employment across GA schools, and others for that matter) because OCI's are much stronger than pervious years.

In my experience, the 7 interviews I had through OCI, each employer was looking for 10-25 interns for the summer. These were pulled from a class of 200 at GA state. Basically, half the class is already employed. I assume this is par across the board in GA (except for JM and Mercer), and I hope so, as having a state with 3 excellent programs is a huge plus for the overall status of the legal market in Georgia. This keeps firms, like mine (King and Spalding), hiring GA students for GA jobs.

I am happy all 3 schools had a good showing, and especially happy that GA state has the lowest student to faculty ratio, lowest acceptance rate, and lowest cost of the three. This means that you get a good education, have good classmates, and you can leave law school with all appendages in tact (financially).

I truly believe that going to school in GA is a good idea, and I am especially preferential to GA State (obviously), who continues to march up through the rankings. Lets hope that trend continues. All of us here are certainly working our asses off to give the next class a great legal name, which will get you a great legal job. It's working for me, and I am glad I came here over UGA, Emory, W&L etc.
-------------------------
3.6 Overall
3.92 Major (Finance)
167 LSAT

Cheers!

As a 3L at GSU, this is a terribly rosy picture of the situation here. The good news is that things ARE getting better for the newer classes due to the economy, but we have people in the top 10 (people, not percent) without jobs as 3Ls. Many in the top 10-20% could not line up summer employment last year. Maybe people are getting paid summer 1L internships w/out diversity programs, but that would be a huge change from what my class experienced as 1Ls, or even as 2Ls. Again, the class behind us (current 2Ls) is having a LOT more success than we did, so hopefully that continues to improve for the classes that come after them.

GSU is one of the cheapest law schools in the country, but combined tuition & fees has gone up nearly 40% since I started in 2008. There is no sign that increase will stop. Certainly, that is just keeping pace with other schools' increases, but the value proposition of law school in general is becoming much, much different. I would think long and hard about whether you're willing to hustle and accept a job that is not financially "worth it" based on a cost-benefit analysis just so you can be a lawyer. For some people, that is certainly the case. For others, not so much.

There are a lot of great things about GSU that I'm certainly willing to discuss, but the economy hit the last few classes really hard. As I said, it seems to be getting a lot better, so I wouldn't be as concerned applying now, but I think there are very few schools where getting a great job will be easy going forward. Hopefully I'm wrong.

For those of us hoping for public interest work, do all the warnings about jobs still apply? Is the job market depressed for even us, or for only the more "flashy" or "desirable" jobs? For those of us hoping to work with the indigent and hoping to do so at great value - is GSU still a rosy picture?

I hear so much about jobs and top companies and what-not... I don't know how that fits in with my picture of my future.

[flem]

In my experience, the 7 interviews I had through OCI, each employer was looking for 10-25 interns for the summer. These were pulled from a class of 200 at GA state. Basically, half the class is already employed. I assume this is par across the board in GA (except for JM and Mercer), and I hope so, as having a state with 3 excellent programs is a huge plus for the overall status of the legal market in Georgia. This keeps firms, like mine (King and Spalding), hiring GA students for GA jobs.

This seems really optimistic. King and Spalding and Alston and Bird hiring really goes like this:

1) Top 14
2) Vandy
3) Emory/UGA
4) GA State
5) Mercer

ATL firms are notorious prestige and grade whores. Check these firm bios, and pay attention to the date they were admitted to practice. Since 2009, K&S has only hired 3 associates from Georgia State. Alston has hired 7, and 5 of them were class of '09 which went through OCI in '08 before everything went to shit.

That's not to say it's impossible to nab 1L SAs at large firms here, but you have to do REALLY well. If you were median grade wise, I'm willing to bet you either had a killer (read: purple heart) resume or you had some special circumstances in your background. I just don't feel like your situation is anywhere near as representative of the student body as you think it is. That's not to say you don't have good options coming out of GA State, and the price tag is very attractive.

Either way, good for you as paid 1L employment, especially of the $1000/week variety, is very rare, so congratulations.

[howell]

For those of us hoping for public interest work, do all the warnings about jobs still apply? Is the job market depressed for even us, or for only the more "flashy" or "desirable" jobs? For those of us hoping to work with the indigent and hoping to do so at great value - is GSU still a rosy picture?

I hear so much about jobs and top companies and what-not... I don't know how that fits in with my picture of my future.

Unfortunately, I would say it's still very difficult. The jobs that used to be "fall-back" jobs for some are now becoming very competitive, because everyone is falling back on them. We had at least 3 Law Review students interview for one public defender position in a town much smaller than Atlanta. (LR isn't a huge bonus in PD hiring that I'm aware of, but it shows that even the top students are looking for work anywhere they can get it.) I don't have as much knowledge of actual PI placement, because most of that hiring seems to be done toward the end of law school or after bar results come back. I am friends with a person who is near the top of the class, has nearly every accolade from law school you can think of, has a great public interest background & internships, and still has nothing lined up for after school. I am sure this person will land something great, but it's not easy even for those with the best credentials in some lines of work.

One advantage I believe GSU has, however, is its location. It's walking distance from the state capitol, nearly every federal job in Atlanta, the state bar, state and federal agencies, etc. and is a MARTA ride away from many other places to intern/extern/work/volunteer. If you're trying to build a resume for public interest work, it's a really great setup. With a full curriculum offered in the evening, you could essentially spend your 2nd and 3rd years building experience during the day and going to classes at night. A lot of PI positions seem to prefer a demonstrated commitment to that kind of work and would really prefer someone they don't have to train if they can find it.