Duke 1L (soon to be 2L) taking questions Forum

[TMC116]

What schools were you choosing between? Are you happy w you're decision to pick Duke? (beyond what you've said about the education?)

[lawyerwannabe]

What schools were you choosing between? Are you happy w you're decision to pick Duke? (beyond what you've said about the education?)

Duke and UPenn. I am very happy that I chose the warmer (and less costly) environment. I really enjoy outdoor bars and outdoor eating at restaurants. Plus, the greenery is beautiful (and is definitely something you do not get in city located law schools).

[beachbum]

What schools were you choosing between? Are you happy w you're decision to pick Duke? (beyond what you've said about the education?)

Because of my mediocre uGPA, I had to ED to break the T14. So the other schools I was seriously considering were Penn, UVA, and Michigan (in that order). But I went with my gut and used my ED on Duke (twice, actually - once in Round I and once in Round II).

I'm very happy with my decision. As lawyerwannabe noted, the quality of life here is just fantastic, and this counts for A LOT when you're stressing through 1L year. Durham offers a nice middle ground between city and small college town (that is, there's plenty to do when you have free time, but not enough to distract you). And the people here are generally relaxed and friendly.

So I guess for me, with the lower T14 (MVPBDCNG) pretty much equivalent in placement power and equal in cost, I decided to go for the school with the best weather/quality of life/personal fit. And now I can't really imagine attending law school anywhere else.

[Jacky D.]

What are you doing this summer?

[beachbum]

What are you doing this summer?

Interning for a district judge

[rickgrimes69]

I'm very happy with my decision. As lawyerwannabe noted, the quality of life here is just fantastic, and this counts for A LOT when you're stressing through 1L year. Durham offers a nice middle ground between city and small college town (that is, there's plenty to do when you have free time, but not enough to distract you). And the people here are generally relaxed and friendly.

So I guess for me, with the lower T14 (MVPBDCNG) pretty much equivalent in placement power and equal in cost, I decided to go for the school with the best weather/quality of life/personal fit. And now I can't really imagine attending law school anywhere else.

This makes me happy to hear, since it pretty much sums up my rationale for wanting to go there. That and the lower COL which is very attractive as well given that I won't have a job most of the year.

[beachbum]

I'm very happy with my decision. As lawyerwannabe noted, the quality of life here is just fantastic, and this counts for A LOT when you're stressing through 1L year. Durham offers a nice middle ground between city and small college town (that is, there's plenty to do when you have free time, but not enough to distract you). And the people here are generally relaxed and friendly.

So I guess for me, with the lower T14 (MVPBDCNG) pretty much equivalent in placement power and equal in cost, I decided to go for the school with the best weather/quality of life/personal fit. And now I can't really imagine attending law school anywhere else.

This makes me happy to hear, since it pretty much sums up my rationale for wanting to go there. That and the lower COL which is very attractive as well given that I won't have a job most of the year.

yeah, the COL is definitely a plus, too. I was coming from a midwestern (non-Chicago) city, and for less than what I was paying for a tiny studio apartment over there, I got an awesome, brand new, much larger apartment over here, with great amenities. And free parking.

[Jacky D.]

What are you doing this summer?

Interning for a district judge

Have you heard of anyone landing a 1L biglaw SA?

[beachbum]

What are you doing this summer?

Interning for a district judge

Have you heard of anyone landing a 1L biglaw SA?

Oh yeah. Honestly, far more people were landing 1L SAs than I would've expected (based on TLS "common knowledge," anyway). Of my close friends here, three have SAs. And I can think of a bunch of other people with SAs just off the top of my head. We even have one student doing an SA at WLRK.

I actually had interview requests from just about every major firm in my target market, but turned them down once I was offered/accepted my judicial internship (which I'm very excited about). So it can be done. I think the trick, though, is to have good ties to a secondary market that hires 1Ls. If your only ties are to NYC or LA, then you're probably gonna have to nail your first semester grades (or have some other outstanding quality) to be competitive. But if you're looking at secondary markets, your odds might be better than you think.

Edit: Not saying it's easy, though. If you come away with poor first semester grades, you're still gonna be facing quite an uphill battle.

[lawyerwannabe]

What are you doing this summer?

Interning for a district judge

Have you heard of anyone landing a 1L biglaw SA?

Oh yeah. Honestly, far more people were landing 1L SAs than I would've expected (based on TLS "common knowledge," anyway). Of my close friends here, three have SAs. And I can think of a bunch of other people with SAs just off the top of my head. We even have one student doing an SA at WLRK.

I actually had interview requests from just about every major firm in my target market, but turned them down once I was offered/accepted my judicial internship (which I'm very excited about). So it can be done. I think the trick, though, is to have good ties to a secondary market that hires 1Ls. If your only ties are to NYC or LA, then you're probably gonna have to nail your first semester grades (or have some other outstanding quality) to be competitive. But if you're looking at secondary markets, your odds might be better than you think.

Edit: Not saying it's easy, though. If you come away with poor first semester grades, you're still gonna be facing quite an uphill battle.

One side note. NYC 1L SAs are very hard to come by, regardless of grades. Wait 'til OCI for these positions.

[Jacky D.]

I think the trick, though, is to have good ties to a secondary market that hires 1Ls. If your only ties are to NYC or LA, then you're probably gonna have to nail your first semester grades (or have some other outstanding quality) to be competitive. But if you're looking at secondary markets, your odds might be better than you think.

Is there any anecdotal evidence for which secondary markets are known for hiring 1Ls? My ties are in the Carolinas, so semi-southern but not quite Alabama (where I hear a lot of firms prefer 1Ls). Any idea on how that would affect 1L SAs, grades notwithstanding?

[lawyerwannabe]

I think the trick, though, is to have good ties to a secondary market that hires 1Ls. If your only ties are to NYC or LA, then you're probably gonna have to nail your first semester grades (or have some other outstanding quality) to be competitive. But if you're looking at secondary markets, your odds might be better than you think.

Is there any anecdotal evidence for which secondary markets are known for hiring 1Ls? My ties are in the Carolinas, so semi-southern but not quite Alabama (where I hear a lot of firms prefer 1Ls). Any idea on how that would affect 1L SAs, grades notwithstanding?

The Carolina firms often view Duke students with a certain level of skepticism (being a national law school they assume you are going to be gunning for the bigger markets). But if you have lived there your whole life I would assume you would have a much easier time convincing them you want to work there and in this region long-term than most Duke students.

[beachbum]

I think the trick, though, is to have good ties to a secondary market that hires 1Ls. If your only ties are to NYC or LA, then you're probably gonna have to nail your first semester grades (or have some other outstanding quality) to be competitive. But if you're looking at secondary markets, your odds might be better than you think.

Is there any anecdotal evidence for which secondary markets are known for hiring 1Ls? My ties are in the Carolinas, so semi-southern but not quite Alabama (where I hear a lot of firms prefer 1Ls). Any idea on how that would affect 1L SAs, grades notwithstanding?

The Carolina firms often view Duke students with a certain level of skepticism (being a national law school they assume you are going to be gunning for the bigger markets). But if you have lived there your whole life I would assume you would have a much easier time convincing them you want to work there and in this region long-term than most Duke students.

+1. I also think it'd be worth it to apply to markets like Birmingham, just to see what you can do. One of my buddies is SAing in Bham this summer, and his ties to Alabama are pretty minimal (though he has strong ties to the south in general). So it might be worth a shot if you can concoct any type of story about why you want to work in Bham.

I'm not sure what the 1L market looks like in ATL these days, but that might be another viable target.

[wiseowl]

I think the trick, though, is to have good ties to a secondary market that hires 1Ls. If your only ties are to NYC or LA, then you're probably gonna have to nail your first semester grades (or have some other outstanding quality) to be competitive. But if you're looking at secondary markets, your odds might be better than you think.

Is there any anecdotal evidence for which secondary markets are known for hiring 1Ls? My ties are in the Carolinas, so semi-southern but not quite Alabama (where I hear a lot of firms prefer 1Ls). Any idea on how that would affect 1L SAs, grades notwithstanding?

The Carolina firms often view Duke students with a certain level of skepticism (being a national law school they assume you are going to be gunning for the bigger markets). But if you have lived there your whole life I would assume you would have a much easier time convincing them you want to work there and in this region long-term than most Duke students.

+1. I also think it'd be worth it to apply to markets like Birmingham, just to see what you can do. One of my buddies is SAing in Bham this summer, and his ties to Alabama are pretty minimal (though he has strong ties to the south in general). So it might be worth a shot if you can concoct any type of story about why you want to work in Bham.

I'm not sure what the 1L market looks like in ATL these days, but that might be another viable target.

Birmingham has always taken 1L SAs in big numbers.

Re: the other point, I have extremely solid NC ties and was given nary a sniff here, either 1L or 2L.

I think our top markets are NY (by far), then CA, then DC, then things pretty close between places like Texas, Chicago, Atlanta, NC after that.

[lawschoolgal2563]

Thanks for starting this thread! I'm going to be moving down to Durham at the beginning of August but am visiting for a weekend in early June to check out apartments and (hopefully) sign a lease. I really like the Belmont's proximity to campus, but I haven't been able to get as clear a sense of it as I have of other places (Alexan, Pinnacle Ridge, the Lofts etc.). I spoke with their leasing office today and they weren't too pushy about getting me to join a waitlist and were confident they would have apartments available. I didn't know if that might be a reflection of students not really living there/the Belmont not being of as good quality as they claim to be in comparison to other apartment complexes. I am probably reading into all of this too much, but if you by any chance know anything about the Belmont/people's opinions about it I would be very grateful to hear any info. Thank you!

[Eppie]

From looking at numbers Duke does very well with clerkships, any comment on that?

as for clerkships, duke seems to be working hard on becoming a clerkship powerhouse. i personally haven't given it too much thought so i don't know all the details, but i can say that career services just hired a clerkship coordinator who is supposed to be very legit from what i hear. we never had one before, and seemed to be doing well with clerkship placement, so i can only assume that with a reputable clerkship coordinator our stock will only rise in that department.

Duke totally dropped the ball this past year on clerkships. We have had a clerkship manager before, but we lost him (her?) this year. The career office had a couple people present on the process, but it was completely incomprehensible. No one thought it made sense. Totally confusing, and when the director of the career office would make obvious errors his assistant was too timid to correct them. They did hire another clerkship manager for this year, so hopefully this improves, but they waited until after all us rising 3Ls left for the summer. Biggest class in Duke history, and a lot of us are going to be screwed out of clerkships because the career office dropped the ball.

(This is actually fairly typical for the career office . . . if, like me, you're not gunning for NYC or DC they don't really have many resources for ya')

On the other hand, the professors will walk on hot coals to help with clerkships for the students they like. So there's that.

[woeisme]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it SUCK going to Duke? Let's say that 1 = not at all sucky and 10 = extreme suckitude.

[wurst]

Any Duke Law students know whether Atlanta Biglaw is likely out of Duke with very weak to no ties? My grandfather lives in Savannah, but that is the extent of my connection to the entire South. However, I have visited Atlanta numerous times, and I love it there, especially the summer humidity. Furthermore, I am fairly traditional, conservative, friendly and religious. Atlanta appears to be the best fit for me when it comes to major US cities. I have the grades and LSAT to get into Duke (barring a poorly put together application or yield protection), and Duke's Atlanta placement is something I would weigh next cycle if admitted. Could good grades help me overcome weak ties? Cheers!

[beachbum]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it SUCK going to Duke? Let's say that 1 = not at all sucky and 10 = extreme suckitude.

...didn't you go to Cornell?

Any Duke Law students know whether Atlanta Biglaw is likely out of Duke with very weak to no ties? My grandfather lives in Savannah, but that is the extent of my connection to the entire South. However, I have visited Atlanta numerous times, and I love it there, especially the summer humidity. Furthermore, I am fairly traditional, conservative, friendly and religious. Atlanta appears to be the best fit for me when it comes to major US cities. I have the grades and LSAT to get into Duke (barring a poorly put together application or yield protection), and Duke's Atlanta placement is something I would weigh next cycle if admitted. Could good grades help me overcome weak ties? Cheers!

I wish I could help you with this, but I haven't done OCI yet, and I'm not targeting Atlanta. I know Atlanta likes ties and is very competitive, and I know top grades can go a long way in ameliorating a lack of ties. But I can't give you much more than these broad generalizations. If you're dead-set on Atlanta, though, Duke and UVA are certainly your best bets. And you'll definitely want to find employment in Atlanta (or at least the south, if Atlanta isn't possible) during 1L summer. Otherwise, maybe some other Duke students can chime in.

[woeisme]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it SUCK going to Duke? Let's say that 1 = not at all sucky and 10 = extreme suckitude.

...didn't you go to Cornell?

Non-responsive, but yessir.

[lawyerwannabe]

Any Duke Law students know whether Atlanta Biglaw is likely out of Duke with very weak to no ties? My grandfather lives in Savannah, but that is the extent of my connection to the entire South. However, I have visited Atlanta numerous times, and I love it there, especially the summer humidity. Furthermore, I am fairly traditional, conservative, friendly and religious. Atlanta appears to be the best fit for me when it comes to major US cities. I have the grades and LSAT to get into Duke (barring a poorly put together application or yield protection), and Duke's Atlanta placement is something I would weigh next cycle if admitted. Could good grades help me overcome weak ties? Cheers!

Where are you from? You may have a hard time convincing southern employers that you want to work in the South if you are from the North or the West Coast. Like mentioned above, many employers assume, if you are not from the area, that you are interested in NY, DC, or CA.

[lawyerwannabe]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it SUCK going to Duke? Let's say that 1 = not at all sucky and 10 = extreme suckitude.

...didn't you go to Cornell?

Non-responsive, but yessir.

If 1 = the school is pretty awesome and 10 = "extreme suckitude", then a 2.

The parking situation isn't great and we get grades back later than most schools. Other than that, hard to complain about a good looking campus, an elite basketball team, great job prospects, beautiful weather and low cost of living.

[wurst]

Any Duke Law students know whether Atlanta Biglaw is likely out of Duke with very weak to no ties? My grandfather lives in Savannah, but that is the extent of my connection to the entire South. However, I have visited Atlanta numerous times, and I love it there, especially the summer humidity. Furthermore, I am fairly traditional, conservative, friendly and religious. Atlanta appears to be the best fit for me when it comes to major US cities. I have the grades and LSAT to get into Duke (barring a poorly put together application or yield protection), and Duke's Atlanta placement is something I would weigh next cycle if admitted. Could good grades help me overcome weak ties? Cheers!

Where are you from? You may have a hard time convincing southern employers that you want to work in the South if you are from the North or the West Coast. Like mentioned above, many employers assume, if you are not from the area, that you are interested in NY, DC, or CA.

I am from California, but at this point I have very little interest in CA or NY. Thank you, lawyerwannabe and beachbum for your responses. I would greatly appreciate any other Duke Law students, especially 2L's or 3L's, that have any insight to add.

[Funkycrime]

At the risk of sounding like a douchebag, how is the dating and party scene?

[wurst]

Any Duke Law students know whether Atlanta Biglaw is likely out of Duke with very weak to no ties? My grandfather lives in Savannah, but that is the extent of my connection to the entire South. However, I have visited Atlanta numerous times, and I love it there, especially the summer humidity. Furthermore, I am fairly traditional, conservative, friendly and religious. Atlanta appears to be the best fit for me when it comes to major US cities. I have the grades and LSAT to get into Duke (barring a poorly put together application or yield protection), and Duke's Atlanta placement is something I would weigh next cycle if admitted. Could good grades help me overcome weak ties? Cheers!

Where are you from? You may have a hard time convincing southern employers that you want to work in the South if you are from the North or the West Coast. Like mentioned above, many employers assume, if you are not from the area, that you are interested in NY, DC, or CA.

Coming from California, would working in Atlanta during the summer between 1L and 2L be enough to convince Atlanta law firms that I want to be there?