Has anyone gone to an admitted student weekend where people were not friendly at all? I've went to the Duke, UVA, and UPenn ASWs and I feel like the panels were designed to shove this point down our throats.

I heard the same story about some kid losing his laptop and being aided by 30 students with copies of their outlines at all 3 schools. At UPenn I heard the word collegial used at least 20 times. EVERYONE i talked to at UVA talked about how friendly the joint was. Duke emphasized the fact that it has a class of only 200 students and that they are like a family.

So where do you all think this is legitimate and where do you think its mostly propaganda?

I know my feelings, but will wait to post them. I don't want to direct the discussion a certain way and am interested to see all your opinions.

You're right. Even worse everyone, including on these boards, seems to constantly allude to this "other" - some school where the kids will kill your firstborn to distract you and then rip up/delete your outlines.

Or even better. "the kids are competitive with themselves, not each other"

I get the feeling that the "other" is supposed to be Harvard. And maybe Chicago or Columbia? Those are the hints I am getting. Who knows.

People at Duke seemed to be genuinely friendly. The friday night of ASD I was waiting for a shuttle to take me back to my hotel and a 1L who was not involved in ASD activities offered me a ride. I take that as a good sign for the school.

I went to all of those 3 ASWs, too. I think the student body was probably collegial at all of them. I think it's a total myth that the general student body is cut-throat anywhere (although I'm sure there are a few asshairs no matter where you go). All of the admitted students and 1Ls I've met at these things have been great, but there were a few more parents at UVA's ASW than I felt comfortable with.

Far more important is how accessible and student-oriented they all told us their faculties are. At Duke, a bunch of professors were around all day, a couple even at the late night social events. We actually got to talk to tons of faculty at the reception and ask them questions about their research, law school, etc. and even just shoot the shit. I believe them completely. At Penn, however, I didn't see any faculty at all - not once. At UVA, I saw faculty only during their program information sessions, and they split as quickly as possible (one guy tried to leave early and didn't know he had to do 2 info sessions). I'd think if the faculty cared, they'd come meet their future students and research assistants. No sale at UVA and Penn, even if it may be true.

Penn's financial aid office also spent an hour telling us how flexible they were. I asked about my scholarship offer's deadline, I was told that even though it isn't technically binding, it is "in the spirit" of the offer that I commit to Penn. I said I'd love to honor that and asked for a 1-2 week extension (since it expires in only 2 weeks or so) to come back to Philly and actually look at housing since that's a huge factor in my decision. I was told "it's a bad year for extensions."

Schools will all put their best faces on and tell you a lot of things during ASWs, but you can generally get the real "vibe" of of place and of the newly admitted students at these things. ASWs have proved far more useful than I ever imagined, and they really allow you to pick the school that fits you best. I used to really worry about rankings/prestige in terms of job placement, etc., but after doing all of my homework for over a year now, as far as I'm concerned there's HYS, and then the rest of the T14. I think that outside of HYS, people should decide on the rest of the T14 based on optimizing personal fit and scholarships/financial concerns. I know everyone won't agree with that assessment, but I feel pretty strongly about it.

OMG yes. What are these mysterious other schools?! Cooley?



But I think TITCR.



Yeah, I talked to a kid who mentioned how at Michigan faculty were really shoved down their throats. I didn't really think about it, but now that you mention it faculty were lacking. They did have the one lunch with faculty though, don't know if you were able to attend that.



I agree with this as well. Penn's financial aid seems iffy, especially the TOLLRAP. The dude's answers were so vague! "We will take your spouse's income into account... but never use it against you." And totally avoided the question on what happens if you're doing PI, your spouse is making biglaw pay and both have loans to pay off... Total BS.

I went to that lunch, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. It was a sit-down affair, so you couldn't mingle. Also, I had an administrator at my table, and some tables had only admitted students (or maybe a 1L). Maybe some tables had faculty, but I didn't see them. There were lots of administrators all weekend but very few faculty (so few, in fact, that I didn't see any of them, and I went to every single event except the tour of Sansom and diversity thing).


Hahaha! But he was all about "transparency" in the process.

Yeesh, that doesn't sound too good re: faculty availability...

As a comment on the faculty stuff, I was at a table with a professor at the Penn luncheon, and he was great to talk to. He gave us an honest comparison of teaching at Penn v. teaching at Chicago. Also, I thought that the mock class with Rudovsky was really good. And at UVA, there were professors at the panels and at the closing reception with the clerks. They were very friendly and willing to chat, in my experience.

Haha, I was actually a few people behind you in line. So now I know who you are, I think. Funny.

What a dramatic example.

I wish we all got that experience at Penn's lunch I still think receptions with faculty are better. And thanks for mentioning the UVA reception. I actually left before that and forgot all about it. So, re: UVA's faculty, southernlady votes "sale," and she's definitely got more perspective than I do. Penn still gets a thumbs way down in that department from me.


Yeah, I met a TLSer at Duke. Weird to put a face with the posts, right? Anyway, I hope financial aid was more helpful for you than me.

yeah, UVA has some of the professors and SCOTUS clerks at the reception.....how did you pass on free food and drink?!

Would you mind sharing what he said about teaching at Chicago v. teaching at Penn?

Had to be at work early Saturday morning, so I had to travel back home

Well, you can keep in mind that he is a current Penn professor, so take his comments with a grain of salt. However, this guy was pretty casual and seemed to be just "keeping it real," haha. Not trying to sell Penn.

He said that he was surprised, but that the student quality was indistinguishable between the two schools. He implied that he thought Chicago would have been better going into it, but that it wasn't in his experience. I saw this as evidence that he was not a salesman, haha. Also, he kept using the word "intense" to describe Chicago and saying that the reputation is essentially true. He said that it was not a bad thing, but that it was different from Penn and that some students would fit better at each school for that reason. He also said that he noticed a difference in the way that students relate to each other at each school. More competitive and intense at Chicago. More collaborative at Penn. Less in competition and more just working together to learn.

It was a good convo. I will see what I think about Chicago after i visit.

Thanks for the anecdote. Keep us posted!

Of the three ASWs i attended i was impressed with the level of student involvement at UVA. Whether or not student involvement at an open house can be used as an accurate indicator of the level of allegiance students have towards their law schools could fill an entire thread. Regardless, i thought i would detail my observations.

I attended the March 13th open house at UVA and there were approximately 30-40 students helping out with the days activities excluding the students on the panels. This number was unmatched at the other two open houses. This fact may be explained by the fact that UVA has 370 students while Duke has 200 students and UPenn has 260 students.

There were about 20 students helping out with the days activities at Duke aside from the panels, and there was very little student involvement at UPenn aside from the panels.

Did anyone else make the same observation?

I also felt like there was a strong faculty presence at UVA. I had a faculty member eat dinner at my table at the bbq on Thursday night, I spoke to several profs at the cocktail reception on Friday night, and I noticed that Coughlin stuck around to talk to admitted students after her "mock" class. Plus, I went to the first Health Law session, and even though the one prof. had to leave early to teach a class at the med. school, which I'm assuming he would have gone directly to on a normal day, he still stopped by for 20 minutes or so to answer questions.

Anyone want to comment on this with regard to NYU?

NYU Law, don't know much about it. My friend goes there undergrad and it has a different feel in comparison to any other schools i've been too.

In all fairness, these three schools are known to be really friendly, and I do legitimately know a few people in my class that had the (really unfortunate) laptop situation happen to them! My guess (and it's just a guess, since my thoughts are also just based on visits and friends at other schools) is that ASWs won't be able to do much to help you distinguish between schools that have this reputation (UVA, Penn, Duke, Michigan). I'm not even convinced that there is much of a difference in terms of the friendliness/students -- where the atmosphere changes is likely in the city/town, class size, law school facilities, etc.

Maybe this is a dumb question, but do some of you NOT care about faculty interaction? Since I'm 99% sure I want to go the generic biglaw route, why do I need to interact with profs? I love anonymity...

Unlikely that you would hear a story about students being cut throat at an ASD. +1 re: all the tired collegial stories from student panels and the mythical "other schools". I noted that all the schools mentioned were the top of the heap. It is probably pretty chill at all those places because almost everyone will have a good outcome and the curves tend not to be too harsh.

Somebody's got to write your references, no?