Texas Law c/o 2020 - Hook 'em!!! [Under New Management] Forum

[Torres1893]

Just had one of the scariest moments of my life. I was entering the parking garage going up a ramp to get a ticket and when I let go of the brake and pressed on the gas I started to roll back into traffic on the street. I'm lucky my brakes still worked cuz some how my car died on that ramp. Had to park it and restart the engine on the ramp lmao. It's weird never had something like that happen to this car. I'm shaking typing this out from the adrenaline.

[Torres1893]

Ok so the admitted student/alumni reception was awesome. I highly recommend you go if one pops up in your city. I'll post or edit in a detailed description (or just brief notes if I'm lazy) of the event in a bit.

The reception was located in downtown Houston on essentially the highest floor (49th) of the building. It was an awesome view. We were in a ballroom and had some snacks provided for us and drinks (alcoholll). The student reception was supposed to take place first, but a lot of the alumni came when the event started, so I had little time to talk to other applicants, but a lot of time to talk to alumni. I think I spoke with someone who works in every major legal field. One was a public defender and now works for a hospital. One works for a local DA's office, and another has been accepted to the DOJ Honors program and is off to DC. I also spoke with someone who works in public interest, and someone who does transactional work and recruitment for Biglaw.

I learned a lot of stuff about starting careers in these fields and got some business cards, but of course we mostly spoke about UT. I'm going to be lazy and just write a list of what we talked about. If you want to know more about a topic just let me know and I can go into detail if I can remember.

Topics:
Costs
Debt (some that I talked to had law school debt, but didn't seemed too worried about it or had a plan to pay it off. They all said the costs shouldn't scare you off since the degree will pay for itself in time)
UT vs local schools, t14
Best school in 1000 mile radius
School has national outreach
housing
diversity
Over 100 firms at OCI (LSN says 56 so I was surprised)
career services
Clerkships - quite a few that I spoke to did clerkships. They basically said if you wanted one and worked for it you could get it.
Median grades = still good job
law journal
Friendly competition at school
Mentorship program
No regrets going to UT over a fullride at another school or going to a t14 school
They loved law school
Clinics (alumni didn't speak much about it, but Dean Farnsworth talked about in both of his speeches as a main talking point)

I only have one bad thing to say about the reception. I didn't grab the parking voucher and had to pay $24 for using the parking garage. Ouch.

[Torres1893]

I forgot to mention that I spoke with the assistant dean of admissions regarding ASD II and scholarships.

**ASD II is a full day not a half day like it is stated online**

She also reiterated that scholarship offers are sent out 2-3 weeks post acceptance.

[brinicolec]

I forgot to mention that I spoke with the assistant dean of admissions regarding ASD II and scholarships.

**ASD II is a full day not a half day like it is stated online**

She also reiterated that scholarship offers are sent out 2-3 weeks post acceptance.

Lord I need them to hurry up with the scholly info! Lol.

[brinicolec]

Ok so the admitted student/alumni reception was awesome. I highly recommend you go if one pops up in your city. I'll post or edit in a detailed description (or just brief notes if I'm lazy) of the event in a bit.

The reception was located in downtown Houston on essentially the highest floor (49th) of the building. It was an awesome view. We were in a ballroom and had some snacks provided for us and drinks (alcoholll). The student reception was supposed to take place first, but a lot of the alumni came when the event started, so I had little time to talk to other applicants, but a lot of time to talk to alumni. I think I spoke with someone who works in every major legal field. One was a public defender and now works for a hospital. One works for a local DA's office, and another has been accepted to the DOJ Honors program and is off to DC. I also spoke with someone who works in public interest, and someone who does transactional work and recruitment for Biglaw.

I learned a lot of stuff about starting careers in these fields and got some business cards, but of course we mostly spoke about UT. I'm going to be lazy and just write a list of what we talked about. If you want to know more about a topic just let me know and I can go into detail if I can remember.

Topics:
Costs
Debt (some that I talked to had law school debt, but didn't seemed too worried about it or had a plan to pay it off. They all said the costs shouldn't scare you off since the degree will pay for itself in time)
UT vs local schools, t14
Best school in 1000 mile radius
School has national outreach
housing
diversity
Over 100 firms at OCI (LSN says 56 so I was surprised)
career services
Clerkships - quite a few that I spoke to did clerkships. They basically said if you wanted one and worked for it you could get it.
Median grades = still good job
law journal
Friendly competition at school
Mentorship program
No regrets going to UT over a fullride at another school or going to a t14 school
They loved law school
Clinics (alumni didn't speak much about it, but Dean Farnsworth talked about in both of his speeches as a main talking point)

I only have one bad thing to say about the reception. I didn't grab the parking voucher and had to pay $24 for using the parking garage. Ouch.

Would be interested in the UT v. T14, as well as the diversity.

[poptart123]

UT vs. T-14.

The dean and many others were very candid and asked what their competition is. 5/6 people I spoke to (including the dean) about T6 vs. UT said I couldn't go wrong wither either choice, but they hope I choose UT. I felt that all of the responses to all of my questions were not sugar-coated and were very truthful.

The rest is covered above very well.

[Mjvance2]

So I'll cosign everything Torres1893 said about the Admitted Students reception. I didn't ask anyone if they were on TLS, so we may or may not have spoken, but I did get a chance to meet a few of the admitted students and find out what they were considering for law school.

Overall though, the night was great. I got to meet a number of people working in a variety of jobs as well. Most people were curious as to what my law school choices were and when I told them I was trying to decide between UT and UVA, I was pretty much assured that I couldn't make a bad choice but obviously they would advise me to go to UT. One guy who I met works in-house at Exxon and his wife also works at Exxon and went to UVA for law school. He invited me to lunch with them and said they would both pitch their respective alma maters and see who could make the best pitch.

All in all the UT community seems very collegial and we all know it is well represented/respected in Texas. I know for a fact I'll be staying in Texas, so while UVA is my dream school, last night's event made a very strong case for UT.

[Tx878]

Ok so the admitted student/alumni reception was awesome. I highly recommend you go if one pops up in your city. I'll post or edit in a detailed description (or just brief notes if I'm lazy) of the event in a bit.

The reception was located in downtown Houston on essentially the highest floor (49th) of the building. It was an awesome view. We were in a ballroom and had some snacks provided for us and drinks (alcoholll). The student reception was supposed to take place first, but a lot of the alumni came when the event started, so I had little time to talk to other applicants, but a lot of time to talk to alumni. I think I spoke with someone who works in every major legal field. One was a public defender and now works for a hospital. One works for a local DA's office, and another has been accepted to the DOJ Honors program and is off to DC. I also spoke with someone who works in public interest, and someone who does transactional work and recruitment for Biglaw.

I learned a lot of stuff about starting careers in these fields and got some business cards, but of course we mostly spoke about UT. I'm going to be lazy and just write a list of what we talked about. If you want to know more about a topic just let me know and I can go into detail if I can remember.

Topics:
Costs
Debt (some that I talked to had law school debt, but didn't seemed too worried about it or had a plan to pay it off. They all said the costs shouldn't scare you off since the degree will pay for itself in time)
UT vs local schools, t14
Best school in 1000 mile radius
School has national outreach
housing
diversity
Over 100 firms at OCI (LSN says 56 so I was surprised)
career services
Clerkships - quite a few that I spoke to did clerkships. They basically said if you wanted one and worked for it you could get it.
Median grades = still good job
law journal
Friendly competition at school
Mentorship program
No regrets going to UT over a fullride at another school or going to a t14 school
They loved law school
Clinics (alumni didn't speak much about it, but Dean Farnsworth talked about in both of his speeches as a main talking point)

I only have one bad thing to say about the reception. I didn't grab the parking voucher and had to pay $24 for using the parking garage. Ouch.

Wow, thanks for all your info! I'd like to hear more about what they said regarding UT v other schools/T14 and median grades getting good jobs!

[Torres1893]

Ok so the admitted student/alumni reception was awesome. I highly recommend you go if one pops up in your city. I'll post or edit in a detailed description (or just brief notes if I'm lazy) of the event in a bit.

The reception was located in downtown Houston on essentially the highest floor (49th) of the building. It was an awesome view. We were in a ballroom and had some snacks provided for us and drinks (alcoholll). The student reception was supposed to take place first, but a lot of the alumni came when the event started, so I had little time to talk to other applicants, but a lot of time to talk to alumni. I think I spoke with someone who works in every major legal field. One was a public defender and now works for a hospital. One works for a local DA's office, and another has been accepted to the DOJ Honors program and is off to DC. I also spoke with someone who works in public interest, and someone who does transactional work and recruitment for Biglaw.

I learned a lot of stuff about starting careers in these fields and got some business cards, but of course we mostly spoke about UT. I'm going to be lazy and just write a list of what we talked about. If you want to know more about a topic just let me know and I can go into detail if I can remember.

Topics:
Costs
Debt (some that I talked to had law school debt, but didn't seemed too worried about it or had a plan to pay it off. They all said the costs shouldn't scare you off since the degree will pay for itself in time)
UT vs local schools, t14
Best school in 1000 mile radius
School has national outreach
housing
diversity
Over 100 firms at OCI (LSN says 56 so I was surprised)
career services
Clerkships - quite a few that I spoke to did clerkships. They basically said if you wanted one and worked for it you could get it.
Median grades = still good job
law journal
Friendly competition at school
Mentorship program
No regrets going to UT over a fullride at another school or going to a t14 school
They loved law school
Clinics (alumni didn't speak much about it, but Dean Farnsworth talked about in both of his speeches as a main talking point)

I only have one bad thing to say about the reception. I didn't grab the parking voucher and had to pay $24 for using the parking garage. Ouch.

Would be interested in the UT v. T14, as well as the diversity.

With the lawyers I spoke to they kind of said the same thing that poptart mentioned, which was you can't go wrong choosing between a t14 or UT. Other than academia you will not have trouble finding the job that you want. I remember one lawyer said that UT is the best school in the south, and another lawyer jumped in and said Duke and UVA are also challengers to that title, but that you will have no trouble in getting an interview or job in another southern state with a UT degree, if anything it will make you standout among other applicants.

The lawyer who works in public interest said that when she was applying for schools she was considering schools with strong PI programs like NYU or Berkeley, but she said a lot of students who go to those schools are also focused in PI work, which would mean less resources/more competition for her. She said that even though UT is known for biglaw, she was able to start a career in PI because what was available for PI at UT could be more tailored to her since there were fewer PI focused students, and what was not available she was able to get on her own by creating associations/events within the school and getting experience from that.

Another important thing they mentioned was costs between UT and t14. They said it was a lot more affordable to go to UT than many of t14 they were accepted to and have similar outcomes, especially as a TX resident, though many of the lawyers were OOS.

I'll pm you about the diversity issue.

[Hikikomorist]

I'd say both Duke and UVA are decisively better schools for the South as a whole.

[Torres1893]

Ok so the admitted student/alumni reception was awesome. I highly recommend you go if one pops up in your city. I'll post or edit in a detailed description (or just brief notes if I'm lazy) of the event in a bit.

The reception was located in downtown Houston on essentially the highest floor (49th) of the building. It was an awesome view. We were in a ballroom and had some snacks provided for us and drinks (alcoholll). The student reception was supposed to take place first, but a lot of the alumni came when the event started, so I had little time to talk to other applicants, but a lot of time to talk to alumni. I think I spoke with someone who works in every major legal field. One was a public defender and now works for a hospital. One works for a local DA's office, and another has been accepted to the DOJ Honors program and is off to DC. I also spoke with someone who works in public interest, and someone who does transactional work and recruitment for Biglaw.

I learned a lot of stuff about starting careers in these fields and got some business cards, but of course we mostly spoke about UT. I'm going to be lazy and just write a list of what we talked about. If you want to know more about a topic just let me know and I can go into detail if I can remember.

Topics:
Costs
Debt (some that I talked to had law school debt, but didn't seemed too worried about it or had a plan to pay it off. They all said the costs shouldn't scare you off since the degree will pay for itself in time)
UT vs local schools, t14
Best school in 1000 mile radius
School has national outreach
housing
diversity
Over 100 firms at OCI (LSN says 56 so I was surprised)
career services
Clerkships - quite a few that I spoke to did clerkships. They basically said if you wanted one and worked for it you could get it.
Median grades = still good job
law journal
Friendly competition at school
Mentorship program
No regrets going to UT over a fullride at another school or going to a t14 school
They loved law school
Clinics (alumni didn't speak much about it, but Dean Farnsworth talked about in both of his speeches as a main talking point)

I only have one bad thing to say about the reception. I didn't grab the parking voucher and had to pay $24 for using the parking garage. Ouch.

Wow, thanks for all your info! I'd like to hear more about what they said regarding UT v other schools/T14 and median grades getting good jobs!

For UT vs t14 look at my reply to Brinicolec since I don't want to type it out again lol.

When I spoke with lawyers who graduated last year they all said many of their classmates who were median or slightly above/below were able to get biglaw jobs. They also said that's it's not biglaw or bust, a lot of median students were able to get non-biglaw jobs that paid over 100k.

The lawyer who does recruitment for his firm said his cutoff at UT is median, while other schools (non t14) were top 10%/5% and some schools they didn't even look at.

[AggieLuna]

Just checking in! Accepted on Monday. I'll most likely be at the ASD next Friday!

[Tx878]

Just checking in! Accepted on Monday. I'll most likely be at the ASD next Friday!

Whoop!

[dietcoke1]

recently met with a Texas alum. Echoing what everyone else has said, she held UT in high regard. Although I will say that I have yet to meet an alum or student who didn't hold their T20 school in high regard. So there is that.

[BigZuck]

Honestly I think a lot of that is recruiting fluff. Some shreds of truth for sure but many shreds of fluff as well.

Real talk though I also probably would have been talking UT up more than usual if Ward was standing 5 feet away from me.

[Torres1893]

Honestly I think a lot of that is recruiting fluff. Some shreds of truth for sure but many shreds of fluff as well.

Real talk though I also probably would have been talking UT up more than usual if Ward was standing 5 feet away from me.

I think the older alumni were the ones hyping up the school more. The more recent alumni I spoke to (2016 grads) were the ones who were more honest. I had a deeper discussion with them regarding a lot of issues and they told me honest answers of what they did not like about UT. They went through the same stuff we are going through now with the resources we have like TLS and LSN so they knew going in what to expect, and they found UT to be more than that.

[dietcoke1]

Honestly I think a lot of that is recruiting fluff. Some shreds of truth for sure but many shreds of fluff as well.

Real talk though I also probably would have been talking UT up more than usual if Ward was standing 5 feet away from me.

I think the older alumni were the ones hyping up the school more. The more recent alumni I spoke to (2016 grads) were the ones who were more honest. I had a deeper discussion with them regarding a lot of issues and they told me honest answers of what they did not like about UT. They went through the same stuff we are going through now with the resources we have like TLS and LSN so they knew going in what to expect, and they found UT to be more than that.

can you elaborate more on what they didn't like about UT?

[Torres1893]

Honestly I think a lot of that is recruiting fluff. Some shreds of truth for sure but many shreds of fluff as well.

Real talk though I also probably would have been talking UT up more than usual if Ward was standing 5 feet away from me.

I think the older alumni were the ones hyping up the school more. The more recent alumni I spoke to (2016 grads) were the ones who were more honest. I had a deeper discussion with them regarding a lot of issues and they told me honest answers of what they did not like about UT. They went through the same stuff we are going through now with the resources we have like TLS and LSN so they knew going in what to expect, and they found UT to be more than that.

can you elaborate more on what they didn't like about UT?

One issue I spoke at length with two 2016 alumni was diversity. They said it wasn't bad, and that UT has worked to improve diversity in the recent classes, but the lack of diversity was noticeable for them. They spoke about how students who come from rich families or a family of lawyers were at times ignorant to the difficulties that minority students face and class discussions would get a little awkward. They didn't say anything about racism, but they did speak highly about how diverse/liberal the campus in general is and Austin.

Another alumni said that being in Austin for 3 years meant he had most of his contacts in Austin, so moving to Houston meant he had to create a new networking group. He said going to a school in a major city would have helped a lot with connections and networking, but that since UT is huge in Texas legal markets it wasn't a problem for him that much as it would be coming from another school.

[ray.bee]

So I'll cosign everything Torres1893 said about the Admitted Students reception. I didn't ask anyone if they were on TLS, so we may or may not have spoken, but I did get a chance to meet a few of the admitted students and find out what they were considering for law school.

Overall though, the night was great. I got to meet a number of people working in a variety of jobs as well. Most people were curious as to what my law school choices were and when I told them I was trying to decide between UT and UVA, I was pretty much assured that I couldn't make a bad choice but obviously they would advise me to go to UT. One guy who I met works in-house at Exxon and his wife also works at Exxon and went to UVA for law school. He invited me to lunch with them and said they would both pitch their respective alma maters and see who could make the best pitch.

All in all the UT community seems very collegial and we all know it is well represented/respected in Texas. I know for a fact I'll be staying in Texas, so while UVA is my dream school, last night's event made a very strong case for UT.

I'm stuck making the same decision. Have you visited UVA? I just did and its VERY different from city life, so visit both for sure.

[Mjvance2]

So I'll cosign everything Torres1893 said about the Admitted Students reception. I didn't ask anyone if they were on TLS, so we may or may not have spoken, but I did get a chance to meet a few of the admitted students and find out what they were considering for law school.

Overall though, the night was great. I got to meet a number of people working in a variety of jobs as well. Most people were curious as to what my law school choices were and when I told them I was trying to decide between UT and UVA, I was pretty much assured that I couldn't make a bad choice but obviously they would advise me to go to UT. One guy who I met works in-house at Exxon and his wife also works at Exxon and went to UVA for law school. He invited me to lunch with them and said they would both pitch their respective alma maters and see who could make the best pitch.

All in all the UT community seems very collegial and we all know it is well represented/respected in Texas. I know for a fact I'll be staying in Texas, so while UVA is my dream school, last night's event made a very strong case for UT.

I'm stuck making the same decision. Have you visited UVA? I just did and its VERY different from city life, so visit both for sure.

Yeah, I visited UVA last week. It is different, but grew up in a smaller city, so I like the feel of Charlottesville. What did you think of UVA?

[ray.bee]

So I'll cosign everything Torres1893 said about the Admitted Students reception. I didn't ask anyone if they were on TLS, so we may or may not have spoken, but I did get a chance to meet a few of the admitted students and find out what they were considering for law school.

Overall though, the night was great. I got to meet a number of people working in a variety of jobs as well. Most people were curious as to what my law school choices were and when I told them I was trying to decide between UT and UVA, I was pretty much assured that I couldn't make a bad choice but obviously they would advise me to go to UT. One guy who I met works in-house at Exxon and his wife also works at Exxon and went to UVA for law school. He invited me to lunch with them and said they would both pitch their respective alma maters and see who could make the best pitch.

All in all the UT community seems very collegial and we all know it is well represented/respected in Texas. I know for a fact I'll be staying in Texas, so while UVA is my dream school, last night's event made a very strong case for UT.

I'm stuck making the same decision. Have you visited UVA? I just did and its VERY different from city life, so visit both for sure.

Yeah, I visited UVA last week. It is different, but grew up in a smaller city, so I like the feel of Charlottesville. What did you think of UVA?

I loved UVA Law, I didn't care for Charlottesville (SoCal native). So I'm just hoping to love everything at one of the schools I visit. Haha

[Tazewell]

Officially checking in since its UT for sure for me! I'll be at the ASD this Friday and hope to see some fellow TLSers there!

[pipipipi]

Sorry to digress from the topic, I have been complete and ready for review since 12/16 and hadn't heard anything from UT ever since...Shall I be worried? Is there any suggestions? Can someone tell me the general turnaround time at UT?

I am worried mainly becuase I would need scholarship to attend (offer from a T10, but financial concerns are my biggest factor in choosing a school) and I worried getting in late, if I ever got in, would mean not enough money for me...Thank you everyone!

[brinicolec]

Officially checking in since its UT for sure for me! I'll be at the ASD this Friday and hope to see some fellow TLSers there!

I'll be there as well.

[brinicolec]

Sorry to digress from the topic, I have been complete and ready for review since 12/16 and hadn't heard anything from UT ever since...Shall I be worried? Is there any suggestions? Can someone tell me the general turnaround time at UT?

I am worried mainly becuase I would need scholarship to attend (offer from a T10, but financial concerns are my biggest factor in choosing a school) and I worried getting in late, if I ever got in, would mean not enough money for me...Thank you everyone!

Did you already write a Why Texas? If not, that might be a way to add a little something to your application.

I submitted late-November and only heard back a couple weeks ago, if that makes you feel better.