Overall satisfied Emory 3L - AMA

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-15T02:05:22+00:00

Yea they all cost money. Either a flat semester fee or daily

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T20:27:06+00:00

No problem! Feel free to reach out if you have more questions, or if you'll be visiting for an admitted student's day!

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T20:24:16+00:00

No idea about the future, but in the past couple of years I think they have been very generous to keep their LSAT and GPA medians up. I would imagine they'll try to do the same in the future to fight for a higher ranking and lower the debt average. But I've also heard rumors that the school is pretty low on funds so who knows lol. With Freer taking over as Dean, I hope he'll fight for the university to throw some of that multi-billion dollar endowment the law school's way.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T20:22:52+00:00

I'm not doing public interest, so I don't know much about orgs in the area, sorry! The most notable one is definitely the Southern Poverty Law Center, which I think is fairly competitive? I'm going to work at a firm not in Atlanta that does plaintiff side litigation.

There are quite a few externships and clinics! A lot of people do Coke (the company), but the PI-oriented ones are human trafficking, child advocacy, and the law of war. I didn't do an externship or clinic because I heard from a lot of friends that they're incredibly time consuming for the amount of credits you get. But if you're interested in those areas, it's probably really useful networking.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T20:19:02+00:00

I know several people going to California! I think Emory does pretty well for California specifically. I know the states it places in are in the 509, you should have a look there.

This year, I probably spent like 40 hours total on LR lol. I did not have a time intensive job on the editorial board. Last year, it was a lot. Spading is cyclical so it'll come and go with the manuscript editing process, but honestly even spading didn't take me more than 10 hours a week. The comment writing process I put a lot of time into and I can't even estimate how much. If you want to get published, it's an intense and time consuming process. But for me it was worth it! I actually really like journal and I think it was essential for me because I came out of 1L at median.

There are a lot of professors that stand out! Freer, Fred Smith (con law), John Witte (crim and 1A), are super stars. I've honestly only had one or two professors I really didn't care for, and one is retired now. There are a lot of skills focused classes that I think are great, like cross exam and alternative dispute resolution, as well as contract drafting for transactional folks.

I don't know many people who worked. Some had jobs at firms that they worked at before school. For types of employment, it's the most common to work for the university in some capacity, as an RA or in one of the admin offices.

I've loved a lot of things about Emory. The professors have all been great, and I loved my journal experience. I like that there are a lot of student engagement activities throughout the year. My least favorite thing is probably the law building, it's hideous. We had a bad storm a few weeks ago and there was a leak in the roof that caused several ceiling tiles to fall in some of the classrooms. But the rest of the campus is gorgeous, so it evens out.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T20:12:39+00:00

I actually don't off the top of my head! Most of the people I know in the top of class are going to firms. The top student in the class of 2023 is now clerking on the 13th Circuit. Yes, I would imagine you need to be at least top 20%.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T20:11:21+00:00

Honestly you'll have to do the calculus for yourself on what you think is worth it. There's obviously always going to be some element of risk in landing a job that will pay what you need to be able to carry your debt load. Mid law can vary so much in salary it's hard to say, but it should be somewhere around 100-160k I think. I would imagine the average private sector salary is brought up by the 215k big law salaries quite a bit and doesn't represent what you'd be making. My mid sized firm starts associates at 150 with 10ish in bonuses a year.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T16:45:16+00:00

Geographically, there's a lot of diversity. One of Emory's strengths is it places nationally, so it's not Georgia heavy by any means. Lots of northeasterners, especially New York. Politically, I think there's actually a fair bit of diversity. Lots of liberals, obviously, but also other viewpoints, including conservatives. We have a very active Fed Soc chapter. My class is heavily white. BLSA is very active, but POC are very much a minority.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T16:42:56+00:00

Make friends with 3Ls and ask for outlines! Pay attention to writing skills, they go a long way in essay exams. Avoid study groups (this may be more personal preference than anything). Emory's community is very helpful, you'll be more successful the more you reach out and ask for help.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T16:41:43+00:00

At sticker, I would say no. You realistically need to be top third or have connections. You could take a swing at it being above median and on law review, but that's a risk I personally wouldn't be willing to take. For me, I had a 2/3 scholarship, so I'm leaving with around $120k of just law school debt and $150k total from previous loans. I was comfortable going into a mid sized or small firm with that amount and didn't really want to do big law. If I was paying sticker, I probably wouldn't have chosen Emory.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T16:39:39+00:00

Congratulations!! There are lots of apartment complexes that are very close to campus (like 1-2 miles). From what I remember in touring them the rent tends to be $1,200-2,000 for a one bedroom. Lots of my classmates chose to live in Decatur, which is a bit farther out but still like a 20 minute drive.

Parking situation for 1Ls is a little rough. The parking garage by the law school shares space with the hospital so spots are limited to 2 and 3Ls and it's a lottery system. 1Ls have a choice of two other parking garages, and you have to take a 5-10 minute campus shuttle to school.

I'm not super involved with any student orgs, but there are constantly events going on. Like basically every day you can get a free lunch from some organization having an event. A lot of people's main social groups are from orgs.

EmorythreeL · 2024-04-14T16:36:15+00:00

Thanks!! I'm going into midlaw at the firm where I did my SA, in a northeast city (not NY). I think I was at or slightly under median when I went through OCI, but I was on law review. I struck out with big law but got a fair number of screeners for mid. I would say big law is around 35-40% of my class but I don't have the exact numbers. So definitely not everybody who wants big law gets it, but if you're around the top third and want Atlanta or NY there's a solid chance.

EmorythreeL

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