UVA law or Georgetown?

[Anonymous]

I have direct experience with both schools. There is no quality difference between them. Really, none. Both have great faculties full of well known people, both have strong students. UVA is great if you like small towns and close knit communities. Georgetown is great if you like cities, like DC, want to do policy work or have a specialized interest - with its larger size, Georgetown has a far wider range of course offerings. At Georgetown students can do externships and internships and take courses from the kind of all-star-adjuncts the best law school in DC can get. UVA is more laid back- major beer and softball culture.

Both these schools are fantastic but they have a very different feel.

[Anonymous]

Georgetown, whatever your thoughts about the current sitting President doesn’t matter——it is a big feat for a current sitting President’s daughter to attend. I predict Georgetown will slide in solid top 10 after Tiffany graduates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have direct experience with both schools. There is no quality difference between them. Really, none. Both have great faculties full of well known people, both have strong students. UVA is great if you like small towns and close knit communities. Georgetown is great if you like cities, like DC, want to do policy work or have a specialized interest - with its larger size, Georgetown has a far wider range of course offerings. At Georgetown students can do externships and internships and take courses from the kind of all-star-adjuncts the best law school in DC can get. UVA is more laid back- major beer and softball culture.

Both these schools are fantastic but they have a very different feel.

Agree with this completely; these are both excellent schools with very different locations and culture, so it's about your personal preference, OP. One factor to consider, would be that Georgetown has more than twice as many students as UVA (approx. 2000 students v. approx 900). Both my husband and I are lawyers, and our oldest son is completing the first year of law school. In my experience, and from my observations of my son's experience, class size makes a significant difference in the culture of a law school. Law schools attract highly competitive and argumentative people (I'm sure this is coming as news to everyone reading this) and when you have more of those people, the intensity can get ratcheted up in an unpleasant way. At a small school, the fact that you're going to see people over and over again in classes, at parties, etc., mitigates that tendency.

[Anonymous]

Have you even taken the LSAT yet?

How about this: get into both and then come back and start this conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown is a top school on the rise, in a highly relevant city for the practice of law. If you can get in, go.

I thought it dropped below the T14?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown is a top school on the rise, in a highly relevant city for the practice of law. If you can get in, go.

I thought it dropped below the T14?

You thought wrong.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA. Ranked higher, and you get to spend three years in Charlottesville.

Am I being punished?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I’m looking to apply for Fall 2020. I’m compiling places that are close to DC that I could commute to. I own a condo and wouldn’t want to give that up to move. I also like already being here for internship/clerkship possibilities.

Could people who attended either school speak to the following?

-Social Life
- Community surrounding the school
- Clinic experiences
- Bar exam preparation
- Employment opportunities
-Professor Quality
-Financial Aid
-Things you wish you knew
- Social Connections are Law School

- Bar exam preparation: Completely irrelevant. Law schools don't, or shouldn't get involved in this. Take a commercial class.

-Professor Quality: I'm sure the full time professors are roughly equal. However, at GT you'll get more interesting adjuncts, who live and work in the DC area. I wouldn't let that sway your decision, though.

As amy others have said, it's completely nuts to commute from DC to UVA. Also, the only sensible thing to do here is apply to both and see how the admissions process plays out. It's likely this won't be an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA is NOT a “better law school” thank Georgetown. It is ranked more highly by US News, true- but USN notoriously uses a methodology this ppat makes it almost impossible for larger schools with smaller endowments to move up in the rankings. Look at the internal numbers. Georgetown has better students and they get better jobs. Look at rankings other than USN, which focus more on faculty quality and employment.

And read this. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3353256

There is a reason more students choose Georgetown over other schools.

I would be MISERABLE at GU. When you live life up someone’s a$$ the view stinks,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GT if you want to work near DC. More connections.

I'll share something I heard once in court but I am not a lawyer and can't vouch for the truthfulness of it. But once I was waiting for another case in Fredericksburg, VA and I heard an attorney say that he had gone to UVA which is a top ranked school nationally but if he had to do it again he would go to University of Richmond because he would have had a better local network for jobs. All this is to say that you should consider where you want to work and you should get informational interviews with people in that area and ask them about the ins and outs of getting employment.

I am a big fan of informational interviews with people in the field. Twice when I was changing careers I got offers out of informational interviews that never would have happened except through those interviews. Good luck, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uva any day

I beg to differ.

So does Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_University_Law_Center

“From 1996 to 2017, Georgetown Law held an average rank of 13.82 on the U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking, making it one of the 14 law schools that consistently place at the top[11] since the magazine began the rankings in 1987.[12] Georgetown's part-time J.D. program is consistently ranked #1. The school is also ranked #1 in clinical programs, #2 in tax law, #3 in international law, #5 in trial advocacy, #8 in legal writing, #9 in healthcare law, and #11 in environmental law.[16] Georgetown Law was ranked 5th in the 2010 Super Lawyers ranking, which measures the number of graduates from each law school who are voted Super Lawyers.[17] In an exclusive study conducted by The National Jurist in 2011, Georgetown Law ranked #2 in terms of the total number of partners at the nation's largest law firms.[18] In December 2014, Business Insider ranked Georgetown as the 7th best law school in the U.S.[19]

In a recent law school ranking by law professor Brian Leiter, Georgetown Law ranked within the top ten law schools in selectivity, student quality, and Supreme Court clerkship placements respectively.[20][21] Professor Leiter ranked Georgetown Law #9 among U.S. law schools with respect to the total number of students who secured clerkships with the United States Supreme Court between 2003-2013.[22]


The Hotung International Law Building and fitness center at the Georgetown Law campus.
The 2018 Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranked Georgetown Law as the #6 best law school in the world.[23] According to the 2019 QS World University Rankings, Georgetown Law is the 8th best law school in the U.S. and 17th best in the world.[24] In the 2019 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Georgetown Law was ranked 12th in the U.S. and 26th in the world.[25]

Georgetown Law receives the most J.D. applications of any law school in the United States.[26] Georgetown Law was also ranked #1 in a 2019 revealed preferences ranking of law schools where students choose to matriculate.[27]“

That last bit tells you all you need to know.

I have no view on whether any of this is true but I want OP to know that Brian Leiter is a self-important combative lone wolf who publicly attacks graduate students and whose judgment I would not trust. (Ask a philosopher what they think of Brian Leiter.) I wouldn't be surprised if he inserted his own name in here himself.

[Anonymous]

Listen to the lawyers in this thread, not US News.

But first, get a reasonable list of schools together based on location, LSAT, and GPA. Your undergrad should have advising to help you with this.

And be open to renting out your condo or your list of schools dwindles to a handful.

[Anonymous]

BigLaw partner here. Back in the day I applied to both. Flat out denied at UVA, waitlisted at Georgetown. Georgetown is a great law school, but UVA is generally regarded as being even better. And as others have noted, the cultures are dramatically different. If I were choosing, I’d go with UVA.

The OP might prefer Georgetown, though, not only because it’s in DC but because it has a large part time program which UVA does not. Might work better for internships etc.

I agree with others that commuting to UVA is not realistic. Our kids went there for undergrad and it’s not an easy drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you even taken the LSAT yet?

How about this: get into both and then come back and start this conversation.

Wrong, the OP is doing well to map out and plan now which schools they are interested in. From there the OP can probably plan what LSAT scores are needed and should begin research about the school culture. No one should wait until they take the LSAT to begin thinking about which law school to attend. That’s the dumbest decision ever. That’s like waiting until you get accepted into college to prepare saving for tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a MD resident so I wouldn’t get in state tuition at either university. Which would you choose? Pros? Cons?

The tuition difference is neglible. UVA ranks higher and is more selective.

Obviously if you want to keep working in DMV and pursue a part-time J.D, Georgetown is the only option.