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UNL 2L here to answer your questions.

what would you say the vibe around NE is concerning Creighton v UNL?

romanticegotist wrote:what would you say the vibe around NE is concerning Creighton v UNL?

I work at a firm in Nebraska and know quite a few attorneys in the area (Creighton and UNL alumn). My understanding is that there used to be a big difference between the two and that Creighton was way better than UNL for education/prestige etc. But UNL has done a lot of work to rectify that. Now, there isn't that big of a difference, and every attorney I talk to says that the cost difference definitely isn't worth it since UNL is beginning to be better than Creighton now.

Thanks for the reply. I have a full ride at Creighton and would rather eat an arm than live in Lincoln (no offense) so I was just trying to get a feel. Hoping not to attend in Omaha though as I left and never intend to go back.

romanticegotist wrote:Thanks for the reply. I have a full ride at Creighton and would rather eat an arm than live in Lincoln (no offense) so I was just trying to get a feel. Hoping not to attend in Omaha though as I left and never intend to go back.

I commute from Omaha to Lincoln to attend UNL. It's a pain, but possible, so if you don't want to live in Lincoln, it is still possible to attend UNL. There is a small but significant number of students who make that commute.

If you don't want to live and practice in Nebraska, western Iowa or South Dakota, I would probably not chose either Creigton or UNL. I think UNL is a great school and I know very little about Creigton other than it places very well in the Omaha market, but neither school has a particularly national reach. While students find jobs in Colorado, Kansas, and Iowa, most of these students had ties to those markets and continued to develop them through law school.

I would follow the conventional wisdom here: If you don't want to work in Nebraska, then go to a school in the market where you want to work.

DocHawkeye wrote:I would follow the conventional wisdom here: If you don't want to work in Nebraska, then go to a school in the market where you want to work.

I wish people unfamiliar with the legal profession would understand that (such as my family).

Would it be a bad idea to attend Nebraska or Creighton w/o any ties to the state. I'm from Oklahoma.

cooldude87 wrote:Would it be a bad idea to attend Nebraska or Creighton w/o any ties to the state. I'm from Oklahoma.

I don't think it would be a bad idea per se. I think you could do better if your goal is to return to Oklahoma right after law school, but both schools place pretty well in the state and if you are ok with practicing in Nebraska for a few years, you should be fine. Seeing how I go to UNL, I would give the slight edge to that school of Creighton but I am sure that others would diasgree with me.

DocHawkeye wrote:

cooldude87 wrote:Would it be a bad idea to attend Nebraska or Creighton w/o any ties to the state. I'm from Oklahoma.

I don't think it would be a bad idea per se. I think you could do better if your goal is to return to Oklahoma right after law school, but both schools place pretty well in the state and if you are ok with practicing in Nebraska for a few years, you should be fine. Seeing how I go to UNL, I would give the slight edge to that school of Creighton but I am sure that others would diasgree with me.

So you don't think as an out of state student with no Nebraska ties I would be at a disadvantage when looking for jobs with Nebraska firms, as long as I go to law school there?

cooldude87 wrote:

DocHawkeye wrote:

cooldude87 wrote:Would it be a bad idea to attend Nebraska or Creighton w/o any ties to the state. I'm from Oklahoma.

I don't think it would be a bad idea per se. I think you could do better if your goal is to return to Oklahoma right after law school, but both schools place pretty well in the state and if you are ok with practicing in Nebraska for a few years, you should be fine. Seeing how I go to UNL, I would give the slight edge to that school of Creighton but I am sure that others would diasgree with me.

So you don't think as an out of state student with no Nebraska ties I would be at a disadvantage when looking for jobs with Nebraska firms, as long as I go to law school there?

I am largely in the same boat and I don't think it has hurt me.

That's good to hear. I read in another Nebraska forum that they don't give out official grades till the end of the first year, is this true? If so what exactly does one use when trying to find summer employment before your 2L year

cooldude87 wrote:That's good to hear. I read in another Nebraska forum that they don't give out official grades till the end of the first year, is this true? If so what exactly does one use when trying to find summer employment before your 2L year

They've re-written the first year curriculum since last year so I'm a little shaky on the details but here goes. Some of the courses are six hours and as a result there are no official, final grades until the end of the first year. I know that contracts works with way and I'm pretty sure that property, legal writing (called "foundational legal skills") and civil procedure do as well. In contrast, torts is a four credit class and you get a final grade in December. Criminal law is three credits and gives you a final grade in December. You will have mid-year exams most of the six credit classes, so you'll get the feel for final exams before they count for very much. Based on your performance on those exams, the professors will rank you into quartiles (1st quartile are the highest ranking students, etc.), so you'll have some idea how you compare to your classmates.

The good news is that all 1L UNL law students are in the same boat and employers seem to know how to deal with it.

That's actually pretty cool. Less stress first semester. Thanks for all the info, I'll keep asking questions if I have any more.

where do most people live, are there houses next to the law school or is is mostly apartments, are there cheap apartments close by

cooldude87 wrote:where do most people live, are there houses next to the law school or is is mostly apartments, are there cheap apartments close by

I live in Omaha, so I can't comment in detail about the housing market in Lincoln but I can say that there are a number of rental houses near the law school. There are also apartments as well. The admissions office can offer some advice about where to live. I'm sorry that I can't really be of more help on this matter.

Accepted today!

Complete 1/16

Full Tuition and Fees

zniha wrote:Accepted today!

Complete 1/16

Full Tuition and Fees

Cool dude, I've got the same offer, do you know if your going.

DocHawkeye wrote:

cooldude87 wrote:where do most people live, are there houses next to the law school or is is mostly apartments, are there cheap apartments close by

I live in Omaha, so I can't comment in detail about the housing market in Lincoln but I can say that there are a number of rental houses near the law school. There are also apartments as well. The admissions office can offer some advice about where to live. I'm sorry that I can't really be of more help on this matter.

i lived in lincoln for a while and if you dont have a car you might want to live by East Campus but i will tell you your quality of life will improve significantly if you live closer to downtown. Great housing options just south of downtown and being able to walk to a coffee shop, food, bar makes Lincoln an decent enough place to live. If i had had to live far enough away from downtown that id had to drive there i would have gone batshit insane. The problem is once you get outside the downtown area theres a serious problem with sprawl and despite low population density traffic sucks due to poor planning/people in lincoln suck at driving and it takes way longer to get places than it should.


ETA: I don't think I'll be attending UNL but i went there for undergrad and lived in Lincoln for a while and am originally from Omaha. Happy to answer any questions people have about the cities. Can't comment too much on job prospects except that you'd be crazy to pick Creighton over UNL if you were looking at either at sticker b/c one doesn't stand out a lot over the other. Scholarships obviously change the math there.

Thanks for the info. I haven't been up to Lincoln yet but I'm probably going to visit sometime next month. I assumed living in downtown would be more fun however I did have a concern about weather. It seems like its cold often and it could snow quite a bit and thus I don't want to live too far away from the law school. Do you have any idea where most of the law students live. Also, how isolated is the law school from the rest of the campus.

cooldude87 wrote:Thanks for the info. I haven't been up to Lincoln yet but I'm probably going to visit sometime next month. I assumed living in downtown would be more fun however I did have a concern about weather. It seems like its cold often and it could snow quite a bit and thus I don't want to live too far away from the law school. Do you have any idea where most of the law students live. Also, how isolated is the law school from the rest of the campus.

I mean the weather can be rough in the winter but you'll really have to deal with it wherever you live and IMO if you live next to east campus and walk to school you'll deal with it for about as long as you would have to if you drove there, parked and walked to campus.

So UNL has two campuses. There's city campus and east campus. City campus is right in downtown. East campus is about 20 blocks east of it. East campus has the law school and a lot of the agricultural stuff going on at it. It is much less happening and quiet than city campus b/c less students have a reason to be out there.

I have friends in law school who live right be east campus, and i have another friend who lived by there first semester and was going crazy (as i would) and moved by downtown and just drives out there for class.

You're just going to have know what kind of person you are, but here's the way I would look at it. I would much rather live by downtown, drive to school in the mornings, go to classes, study and then go home where I could still study but I could also easily walk or bike to any number of places to grab a bite, coffee, a beer. If you live by East campus you pretty much have to drive everywhere. You can bike but its more of a commitment. And Lincoln is an incredibly bikeable city (almost completely flat). But I like to have a beer every now and then and i don't like to drive under the influence for obvious reasons. so here's where the winter gets extra brutal. If you live downtown and drive to school in the winter thats fine b/c you'll presumably be sober when you do that. But now lets say you live on east campus and want to go grab a slice of pizza and a few beers on a saturday. You'll have to bike into downtown or something in the cold which blows. Now even if you don't drink at all it really is a much bigger hassle/commitment to do something downtown (which is the only place to do things) if you live on East Campus. When I lived downtown, if i wanted a change of pace for a bit i could be at say Yia Yia's pizza in five minutes and have a slice and a beer in say 20 and be back at my apartment in five. Total time commitment of about 30 minutes. For whatever reason i guarantee this will be about an hour if you live on east campus. It may not seem like much but for me it would drastically affect my quality of life b/c id be more loathe to go do something even for a bit and inevitably be going crazy at my apartment.

I recommend visiting and just driving around the neighborhoods by east campus and you'll see there is literally nothing to do around there which is really my main point.. It's all the campus, residential neighborhoods and random strips of stuff you don't really want to do.

If you're the kind of person though who knows you'd be way more likely to skip classes and stuff b/c there's a drive involved than maybe it'd be better for you. But I actually enjoyed living in lincoln and my friends who live by east campus sort of hate it. So I would recommend strongly living close to downtown unless you know it will really be an obstacle to you attending classes.

ETA: What do you like to do on the weekends/with your free time and i'll give you some places worth checking out that will help my "downtown lincoln is actually pretty great" pitch. Also since itll probably be cold there when you visit I can assure you it's actually rather pleasant/vibrant the rest of the year while the rest of Lincoln can feel...a little run down.

I'll also add that while i've never looked extensively for housing by east campus i would guess you'll have much better luck snagging an apartment by downtown. Not a lot of apartment buildings by east campus that ive noticed, lots of rental houses and such i feel like but I could be wrong here.

cooldude87 wrote:Also, how isolated is the law school from the rest of the campus.

The law school is quite isolated from the rest of the campus. As the above poster mentioned, UNL's campus is divided with most of the undergrad schools on city campus and a number of agricultural and research facilities on the east campus. I've gone to school on both. I prefer east campus. There are never parking problems - I have parked in the law school parking lot ever class day for more than a year and a half. It is quiet. East campus has its own union and bookstore and there are never any lines to speak of. The biggest perk is that city campus is about a 10 minute drive away with all that it offers. Hope this helps!

DocHawkeye wrote:

cooldude87 wrote:Also, how isolated is the law school from the rest of the campus.

The law school is quite isolated from the rest of the campus. As the above poster mentioned, UNL's campus is divided with most of the undergrad schools on city campus and a number of agricultural and research facilities on the east campus. I've gone to school on both. I prefer east campus. There are never parking problems - I have parked in the law school parking lot ever class day for more than a year and a half. It is quiet. East campus has its own union and bookstore and there are never any lines to speak of. The biggest perk is that city campus is about a 10 minute drive away with all that it offers. Hope this helps!

yeah its really weird b/c strictly in terms of distance east campus isn't that far away but they really do feel worlds apart. I've heard from a lot of people that they prefer east campus for the above reasons, and the east campus union i think is nicer.

and the easy camping on east campus is another reason i would push living downtown. Driving to east campus and parking = easy while driving downtown and parking can suck.

cooldude87 wrote:

zniha wrote:Accepted today!

Complete 1/16

Full Tuition and Fees

Cool dude, I've got the same offer, do you know if your going.

Dont know yet still waiting on a couple other schools will decide soon thought,

Congrats to the recent admits. Come check Nebraska out - I think you're going to like it a lot. Also, please keep the questions coming.