Thinking About GW?

I've received several emails in recent months from people thinking about attending GW. They often have similar questions, and some other readers who haven't asked may wonder about the same things, so although I'm guessing this comes too late for most since most people have probably made their choices for this fall, below is the most recent wondering-student email (in italics) and my responses.

As a general preface I'll say that whether a school is good for you really depends on what you want out of your law school experience and what you hope to do w/your JD. Know before you go, if you can! Also, visiting your top schools in person before you make your final choice is vital; you need to feel comfortable with a place and the best way to see if you do is to spend some time there in the flesh. I've not made much of a secret of the fact that I haven't loved GW, but I try not to be too negative about it b/c I hated it when I visited in person and decided to come anyway—mainly for the rank and location—so I got pretty much what I deserved. Which reminds me, rank can be a really poor way to choose a school if you care at all about being happy. Go where you think you'll enjoy your three years! GW has provided about what I expected, and it's grown on me a bit; it's a fine place, excellent for many students. Don't decide not to go just because I haven't loved it.

Finally, many other wise people listed in the ai blogroll have given great advice for choosing schools—surf around and do some searches for "advice" on their sites and I'm know you'll come up with some excellent wisdom nuggets.

Without further ado, the wondering-student email and my quick responses:

Hello,

I'm a soon-to be 1L. A friend of mine--who's also going to law school--directed me to your web site. I've enjoyed reading your thoughts on this and that and hoped you might take the time to answer a couple of questions for me. (I tried askastudent@gw...but got no response. Guess I should write at a time other than finals.)

1) How is the general environment? Do people charge after grades and study constantly? Or will I have time to catch up on TV?

I found the environment at GW to be about as competitive as you make it, which means if you want to be watching tv, it doesn't have to be competitive at all. I slacked all year and never really suffered. 80-90% of your fellow students are likely to be very nice and willing to help if you ask (allowing you to borrow notes, recommending the best hornbook that works for them or even letting you borrow theirs, pointing you to other resources and info, etc). Check out Dubitante's law school study group curve—I think a lot of people at GW see things this way when it comes down to study time.

On the other hand, I knew people who got so stressed they became sick, unable to sleep, very very unhappy. Why, I don't know, but they were basically competing against themselves and perhaps a handful of other people who were "gunning" for the straight-A or A+ grades. Unless you're just astoundingly brilliant or find the whole read, memorize, regurgitate (w/analysis) evaluation method very easy, you will have to work very hard to get top grades, but that's probably true at most schools.

2) Is the career planning/placement office helpful? I'm fairly clueless about what I want to do in the future and how to get there.

The career office has been helpful in the sense of the people being nice and available to respond to questions, but I'm looking at public interest career options and they're really only mediocre when it comes to helping in that area. Don't get me wrong; they're great people and they try, but there's only so much they can do. If you want to work for a firm, I get the idea that helping you get the firm job is the reason the career office exists, so you should be fine. They did offer 3-4 ok sessions throughout the year on the subject of "what can you do with a JD" so they can be helpful that way. If you're clueless about your future, you may not want to go to law school. If you're determined to go for whatever reason, I'd definitely at least visit the "Career Boot Camp" at Decision Books.com. It will at least give you a hint of what you should be looking for in a legal career, and will also help you start learning what your options are. I also highly recommend NALP's "Official Guide to Legal Specialties." I read it basically cover to cover before I passed in on to another law student who was as clueless as I am. It's a great introduction to the major "fields" of law and should help you narrow your career choices a bit.

3) Is a car necessary? I averaged about one accident per year of driving when I had a car, and that was in a rural area.

Car not necessary, especially if you live downtown or on the blue or orange Metro lines — GW is at the Foggy Bottom metro stop). If you live on the red line, Farragut North is about a 5-10 minute walk from the law school. Many students live in Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, Adams Morgan, or in Virginia near the Rosslyn, Courthouse, or Clarendon stops. Plan to pay at least $700 if you live with a roommate, or probably $1000-1200 minimum to live alone. The cost blows. But getting back to your question: The public transportation is very good. I share a car w/my girlfriend, but we really only use it to get groceries and dog food. Even that's not necessary since there are grocery stores at several metro stops, but it's a luxury we've decided to maintain for the sake of convenience. Many GW students don't have cars and they do just fine.

One more piece of advice I tell all who will listen: Despite what the computer "support" people tell you, you *can* use a Mac at GW. They won't help you support it, but I can help with many of your questions and I simply haven't had many problems using mine. The only thing you can't do w/a Mac at GW that you can do w/a Windoze machine is print to the network printers from your laptop (that's easy to work around), and take finals. The finals thing is kind of a big deal, so I have an old used Windoze laptop I use for that, but otherwise, my nearly 3-yr-old iBook got me through the first year w/ease, and w/much less hassle and headache than a lot of of my colleagues had w/their Dells.

Good luck with your choice! Let me know if you end up at GW so I can say hello and answer any more questions you might have with your first year.

UPDATE: Oops. This post edited to remove my name, which I had cut and pasted from the email I sent to the inquiring student. As I said, I'm not trying to remain anonymous, only to remain below the "google radar." Thanks to Sam for pointing out the error. I guess that's what I get for trying to convert an email into a blog post.

Also, Sam kindly offered to share his experience w/GW if anyone has more questions, and Scott who just graduated (or will formally graduate very soon) is another potential source for great GW info.

Posted May 10, 2004 07:36 AM | law school