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Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:27 pm
by NDray
I know people are still deciding between schools, but based on other threads, many posters are seriously considering WUSTL. Some have recently attended an Admitted Student day, and others are planning on attending later this month. If you'd like to share information or ask questions - feel free to do so.

Here are some links that might be helpful:

ASD thread - http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... =8&t=25270

OCI list - --LinkRemoved--

Survival Guide - http://law.wustl.edu/admissions/documen ... de2006.pdf

Student Apt. Survey - --LinkRemoved--

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:18 pm
by NDray
COUGHbumpCOUGH!!

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:39 pm
by typodragon
i remain fairly annoyed at the stories that the st louis bar deliberately excludes grads from wustl. does anyone have any experience with this?

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:44 pm
by egrubs
typodragon wrote:i remain fairly annoyed at the stories that the st louis bar deliberately excludes grads from wustl. does anyone have any experience with this?
I'm confused.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:55 pm
by typodragon
I have heard repeatedly that st louis law firms are unfriendly in their hiring toward graduates of washington university who are not originally from st louis. this may be an unsubstantiated rumour, or it may be a legitimate concern. if it is reality, then it is very annoying, because I think that I would rather like living in st louis.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:56 pm
by upgrade
egrubs wrote:
typodragon wrote:i remain fairly annoyed at the stories that the st louis bar deliberately excludes grads from wustl. does anyone have any experience with this?
I'm confused.
I think he is talking about situations where one comes from outside Missouri to attend WUSTL, they may be shut out by St. Louis law firms. WUSTL is represented well in St. Louis, but, from what I have read, firms see these WUSTL graduates as flight risks.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:25 pm
by egrubs
Ahhhh... Ok. Thank-you. :D

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:01 am
by BJK1903
I would think that demonstrating your desire to work in St. Louis would greatly mitigate that fear for potential employers. For example, if a student consistently did internships in St. Louis and assured the employer that they wanted to stay in St. Louis, I really don't think this would be a problem. WUSTL definitely has a stellar reputation in St. Louis, so that is not the problem. People my parents work with were impressed that I got a fee waiver to apply there, and were stunned when I got accepted and offered money.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:28 am
by jonnybeard
Hmmm, interesting. If it's true that STL law firms exclude out-of-towners, then maybe making some minor commitment to some local organization while in law school would be a good way to demonstrate you're hear to stay. There's an organization here in STL called Metropolis which is basically a group of young professionals dedicated to urban renewal. They sponsor everything from pub crawls in various city neighborhoods to community clean-up days (and really, what could be more fun than beer and picking up trash?). I'll bet if you joined up and talked about how you've really come to love the city and plant roots here and blah blah blah you'd be fine. And you'd get extra points if you're from Chi-town and you say how much better you like STL than that!

Yes, we have a huge collective inferiority complex! :oops:

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:29 am
by upgrade
BJK1903 wrote:I would think that demonstrating your desire to work in St. Louis would greatly mitigate that fear for potential employers. For example, if a student consistently did internships in St. Louis and assured the employer that they wanted to stay in St. Louis, I really don't think this would be a problem. WUSTL definitely has a stellar reputation in St. Louis, so that is not the problem. People my parents work with were impressed that I got a fee waiver to apply there, and were stunned when I got accepted and offered money.
WUSTL's reputation in St. Louis is indeed stellar, however, many of the older attorneys (25+ years practice) I have talked with are surprised to learn that WUSTL's law school is ranked significantly better than MU's. I do not think they are involved in hiring and probably have never seen the rankings in USNWR, but the recent rise in WUSTL's law school rankings may not have fully infiltrated the hiring partners at firms in St. Louis. You also have another school in the city that graduates 250 students a year, most of which stay in the city, which probably means there are more SLU graduates in positions to hire new associates. WUSTL also seems to be more focused on its image as a national law school.

There are some interesting posts on LSD by current WUSTL students who have decent-ties to St. Louis (girlfriend/fiancee(?) from St. Louis) who were shut out of St. Louis as were some of their friends who really wanted to stick around in St. Louis as well.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:13 pm
by NDray
the recent rise in WUSTL's law school rankings may not have fully infiltrated the hiring partners at firms in St. Louis
I agree, but I don't think a rise in rankings matters too much to firms within the town the law school is based. They probably rely more on the kind of job Wash U grads do for them and other firms in St. Louis - which is probably how they go about generalizing SLU and MU students as well. This could be good (intelligent, hard-working students?) or bad (flight-risk) for WUSTL students.
There are some interesting posts on LSD by current WUSTL students who have decent-ties to St. Louis (girlfriend/fiancee(?) from St. Louis) who were shut out of St. Louis as were some of their friends who really wanted to stick around in St. Louis as well.
While first-hand, this is still a very limited sample. Common sense would lead me to think this is probably the case:
I would think that demonstrating your desire to work in St. Louis would greatly mitigate that fear for potential employers.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:35 pm
by egrubs
So long as I'm allowed to root against the Cardinals, I could imagine St. Louis being just fine.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:43 pm
by BJK1903
egrubs wrote:So long as I'm allowed to root against the Cardinals, I could imagine St. Louis being just fine.
Unfortunately, that is not an option. Rooting for the Cardinals is mandatory in St. Louis, as per a new city ordinance, enforceable by a $150/day fine.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:51 pm
by typodragon
yeah. i donno about your cardinals hating. i hear that as far as local sports are concerned, the cards are number 1. I figure things would be different if the rams played outside. strange people and their domes. at least the team isn't run by eccentrics anymore.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:56 pm
by egrubs
No Cardinals hatred. Just happen to root for a different national league team. It's not like I'm a Cubs fan.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:30 pm
by LawSchoolWannaBe
Go Brewers!!!

I could deal with everything in St. Louis besides being a Cards fan. Brewers will always be #1 in my heart. Hell, I can even drink Bud w/o feeling guilty. How many people from Milwaukee can say that!?!?

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:14 pm
by typodragon
LawSchoolWannaBe wrote:Go Brewers!!!

I could deal with everything in St. Louis besides being a Cards fan. Brewers will always be #1 in my heart. Hell, I can even drink Bud w/o feeling guilty. How many people from Milwaukee can say that!?!?
guilt doesn't factor into it. when i drink bud, i get splitting headaches within a few minutes. of course, i don't drink natty bo either.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:36 pm
by hammer_philosophie
I was accepted on March 3, but have yet to receive any financial aid offers. Have others received $$ offers immediately, or should I keep waiting for an offer? As of now, WUSTL is my top-ranked acceptance but I hesitate to attend paying full sticker. :?

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:50 pm
by typodragon
hammer_philosophie wrote:I was accepted on March 3, but have yet to receive any financial aid offers. Have others received $$ offers immediately, or should I keep waiting for an offer? As of now, WUSTL is my top-ranked acceptance but I hesitate to attend paying full sticker. :?
I don't know what they are going to do, but I know that they are releasing merit aid in waves. so i'd wait and you'll probly hear back if you're in their number range for receiving offers.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:40 pm
by BJK1903
typodragon wrote:yeah. i donno about your cardinals hating. i hear that as far as local sports are concerned, the cards are number 1. I figure things would be different if the rams played outside. strange people and their domes. at least the team isn't run by eccentrics anymore.
Take it from me, Cardinals games are a lot of fun. Everyone is extremely nice (not like the fans of a certain East coast team, and another upper Mid-West team), and there's nothing like good weather, a few (large) brews, and some good baseball (although the team will likely be awful this year). And the view from the new stadium is amazing.

And if you like hockey, Blues games are also extremely fun.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:33 pm
by upgrade
typodragon wrote:
hammer_philosophie wrote:I was accepted on March 3, but have yet to receive any financial aid offers. Have others received $$ offers immediately, or should I keep waiting for an offer? As of now, WUSTL is my top-ranked acceptance but I hesitate to attend paying full sticker. :?
I don't know what they are going to do, but I know that they are releasing merit aid in waves. so i'd wait and you'll probly hear back if you're in their number range for receiving offers.
At this stage, they are probably tapped out and sending out new offers as people withdraw.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:42 pm
by egrubs
Sent some e-mails to the CSO, and received some of the 2007 numbers (which made me nervous by not being on the website). This all but sealed the deal for me, since it appears to be basically what people said. Top half you're okay. Top third to top quarter and you're in good shape. Bottom half - buyer beware.

189 of 252 reporting

97% employed at graduation

Overall salary range:
25% - $52,000
50% - $100,000
75% - $145,000
Mean - $96,612

Firm - 145 of 189
Judicial Clerk - 17 of 189

In MO - 66 of 189
In CA - 17 of 189
In TX - 9 of 189

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:16 pm
by NDray
In MO - 66 of 189
In CA - 17 of 189
In TX - 9 of 189
Interesting. Did you specifically request numbers for Texas and California, or is that what he/she chose to send?

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:31 pm
by egrubs
I specifically requested for those areas since I figured those were the three areas I was most likely to target at OCIs.

Re: Washington University in St. Louis Class of '11

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:17 pm
by typodragon
egrubs wrote: 189 of 252 reporting

97% employed at graduation

Overall salary range:
25% - $52,000
50% - $100,000
75% - $145,000
Mean - $96,612

Firm - 145 of 189
Judicial Clerk - 17 of 189
This is very interesting. 3/4 of the students responding went to firms, and 3/4 of the students responding earned more than 52 grand. likely 2/3 of the students who went to firms earned six figures. if you consider that a large number of WUSTL students stay in the midwest and smaller markets, those numbers look really good. even when you consider that 1/4 of the class did not respond, I find this very encouraging.