I am currently a 1L at Albany Law School. I found it to be more competitive than I thought it would be. Some people hide books in the library, and will mislead you. But, there are far more people who are nice and willing to lend a hand when you are confused about something or need help. I am sure every school is like this though. You have some assholes who think they are superior. But, when push comes to shove and you hear them in class they get their asses handed to them by the prof. so it kind of puts them in their place for a few weeks.
The law school grades on a C curve meaning the average grade in your classes will be a C. Which can suck because if most people in your class get an 85 on a test, you get the C where as the person who got the 87 gets the A or B. However, this can work for you. We took a practice test in Civ Pro, I got a 79 which got me an A. So the curve can work for you sometimes. The reason that law schools are competitive is because of the curve. You are not graded on your merits, instead, you are graded based on how you scored in relation to everyone else who took the test. The teachers do not sugar coat this, so it can be a bit overwhelming, but it is just another scare tactic that is used to get you to perform better.
My experience with the school is a good one. Most of the prof. are really nice. A good chunk of the student body is really nice. There are a ton of academic and social activities on campus each week. For the most part, once a week one of the organizations sponsors free beer and food on Thursday nights. There are also pub crawls, and other activities that help relieve the stresses of school (basketball games, dodge ball, and so on). There are also a lot of resources for people who might need extra help or accomodations. The faculty is really all about the students success. For finals, the school bought us dunkin donuts, munchkins, muffins, and coffee each morning that we took a test. Every few days during finals, they also bought pizza for any students that wanted to take a study break.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to send a private message, or ask them here.
Good luck with your decisions!