Anyone done any campus visits?

[!@#$%]

Oh, I forgot to mentino this.  AU Law has crappy food in the building.  But it has a chicken out and a starbucks across the street.  GW also has ben&jerrys, einstein bagels, wendys, and some other decent stuff on campus.  You can also use your meal points at TGI Fridays.

I went to the Marvin Center at GW today for lunch.  All geared up for a Chik-fil-a chicken sammich, I discovered (much to my horror) that the Chik-fil-a is either gone or has moved to somewhere I don't know.  Any GW students out there know where the Chik-fil-a-went over the summer?  However, (much to my delight) I also discovered that there is now a jamba in there.

[!@#$%]

on topic:  i met kdg when she came to Emory.  She is a sweetie and was too flattering of me in her thread about Emory.  I'm a as$hole and we all know it.

Oops.  Sorry, Desi.  Didn't mean to refute your LSD rep! 

Edit to my other Emory post: Desi is totally f*ing awesome in a badass sort of way.

[SuicideNixon]

Madison has a thai restaurant called "Suk Ho"

[Doubledown Trent]

I went to the Marvin Center at GW today for lunch.  All geared up for a Chik-fil-a chicken sammich, I discovered (much to my horror) that the Chik-fil-a is either gone or has moved to somewhere I don't know.  Any GW students out there know where the Chik-fil-a-went over the summer?  However, (much to my delight) I also discovered that there is now a jamba in there.

What?  No chick-fil-a?  Oh, well.  That's what they get for making you pay for lettuce and tomatoes.  I think that the Jamba Juice was always there though.  It was in the basement next to Ben and Jerrys.

[Doubledown Trent]

Thanks for the update on the disappearance of Ben and Jerrys.  There's also a seven eleven inside a dorm that you can use points at as well I think.  No matter what, food at GW is way, way better than the food at American law.

[bbaltzic]

I had an interview with Pace on Wednesday.  It's a really nice place.  White Plains is apparently the coutny seat of Westchester County, which is apparently the swankiest suburb or NYC.  Apartments are therefore $1000 a month for a studio.  It costs money to park in the mall parking lot ($2), so it's not a cheap area. 

The town is large and seems to have lots of bars/cafes to check out.

The law school campus is by itself in White Plains, the undergrad is in Manhattan.  There are about 10 buildings.  The admin building is in an old church-style building with stained glass windows they bought from the Catholic boarding school next door.  When I went in that building, it looks, inside, exactly like the interior (and exterior) of the old buildings at the University of Pennsylvania, which gives it a real sort of northeast "college" feel.  Then they have two classroom buildings, one of which is very modern and new.  There is the law building, housing a sizeable library and then a dorm which has room for like 150 students, double or single rooms available.

There is a student life building, and then there are separate buildings for each of their law centers, like their land use center, environmental law center, etc.  Those buildings were a decent size in and of themselves.  It was quite a bit larger than lots of other law schools which only have one or two buildings, so that was the biggest surprise.

There are a few parking lots and a parking deck, too.  I parked in a lot and one of the professors offered me a ride back to the campus, so I got a real welcoming, friendly feeling from the people there right away.  Students on campus said hi and were friendly as they passed by.  The staff and students all seem pretty liberal, but that makes sense since the school is so focussed on the environment.  They seem to take that pretty seriously, too; there were a few hybrid cars parked around campus.

All in all a real positive vibe, very friendly and laid-back, and they really seemed to have their sh*t organized and together.  I can send pictures I took with my cell phone if anyone is interested in this school and wants to see what the buildings looked like.

White Plains can be rather expensive, although if you live in nearby West Harrison you can find one bedroom apartments for about $1,000.  It definitely is not the swankiest suburb of Westchester county, although there is a lot to do.  Pace's undergrad is in Pleasantville, the Graduate Business School is in Manhattan near City Hall.  The bars in the area are very fun, and rather inexpensive depending on where you go, especially compared to NYC.  Manhattan is a short 35 minute train ride into Grand Central, and Yankee Stadium is about a 20 minute drive without traffic.

[kaest4]

Has anyone visited Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisc?

[forkids]

Ok, got some visits under my belt to share...

1.  Temple: Nice campus, GREAT city.  The buildings were a little boding from the outside and it rained and there were HUGE puddles all around the law building making it very difficult to get in.  Had to wade through the water, yuk.  Went on a Sunday to visit because I was just in Philly for a day (due to a family emergency) and the guards would NOT listen or let us look around.  Kept telling us to come back Monday, we couldn't be there then so a little frusterating. I would have liked to see the inside of the buildings and then I would have had a more positive experience.

2. Brooklyn Law:  Very very very urban right smack dab in the middle of Brooklyn.  Basically 2 buildings.  Admin was very accessible and talk with  and I liked the "self guided" tour.  Cafeteria was beatuiful and moot court room was nice. 

Also, I am going to Loyola-Chicago in a couple of weeks.  I will let you know what I think, I hear the location is fabulous.  I currently live in Madison, WI and LOVE the University of WI campus, the best mix of urban and college feel possible.  Also heading to Marquette sometime soon and will let you know, I do know it is very urban.  My friends who went to UG there liked it.

[ilsox7]

Loyola is a block from Mich Ave...phenomenal location in the best city!

[SleepyGuyYawn]

Some schools I've visited:

Hofstra -- just stopped by really (not an offical visit).  It was alright.  People say it's a beautiful campus, but I didn't find that.  Maybe in relation to the rest of Hempstead it's beautiful.  The facility is adequate... the campus is alright.  Long Island is okay, but some of the other towns a few miles away are much, much nicer than Hempstead.  All and all I wasn't that impressed with Hofstra.

Brooklyn - I visited probably a year ago when I was visiting a friend who goes there.  It's a pretty nice building.  I like the area, although Brooklyn Heights is quite expensive.  You're virtually guarenteed a pretty good commute.  I do get the impression (from lots of interactions) that Brooklyn LS is a very, very competetive school.

Temple - about a year ago.  Had the same problem with the guards -- they weren't going to let me in at all.  But I got lucky that a prof was passing through at the same time.  He was so nice -- gave me almost an hour tour of the facility -- it was the best tour of any college or law school I've ever had -- like I couldn't get him to shut up -- he was obviously very proud of the school.  I left Temple extremely impressed.  In my opinion it isn't just the recession that has made Temple much harder to get into.

American - I've seen from the outside.  It's not on American Universities Campus, but still it isn't in an area that is really convenient to anything. 

George Washington - Visited in Feb of '03 (happened to be in town for the anti-war protests so I went over to GW the day before).  I quite like the are it's in -- pretty urban, but nice.  Seemed like pretty good facilities, but don't remember that well.

Rutgers Newark - Very nice law school building (quite new), if a tad small compared to most I've seen.  While I liked the design of the building quite well, both me and the friend I was with didn't like the area around the law school.  Still I would highly recommend Rutgers b/c of the fact that out-of-state students can reliably get in-state tuition after 6 months of living in Jersey (Jersey has lax requirements to decare residency).

Rutgers Camden - Has everything that Newark does without the great jobs and nice facility.... so that equals low tuition.  Camden is even more bleak that Newark.  The law school facility is getting older -- it's alright.  It is close to Philly -- I can give it that.

Villanova - Old, Old, Old building that they, from all I've heard, don't want to put any money into b/c they expect to start building a new facility sometime in the future.  But meanwhile you'd be stuck at the old place.  The law library (where I assume you'd be spending a good part of your time) is probably the worst law library I've ever seen.  It's one school that I decided not to apply to just b/c of the building. 
But all that said, the area around Villanova is fantastic -- right by Bryn Mawr, a short public transport ride from Philly (maybe a half hour).  And lots of great shopping in the area.

Pittsburgh - What a cool city.  I was really blown away that the city had so much character.   It's got to be one of my favorite cities in the US (I know that sounds crazy, but it's true).  The law school itself is big and pretty open -- right on Pitt's campus.  I liked it quite well.  In the "Oakland" neighborhood of Pitt, kind of dangerous for Pitt, but some cool shopping too.

Seton Hall: Visited right before Rutgers.  My friend and I were really impressed by the building.  It's this huge, modern, open buiding.  And the acustics in the classrooms are incredible.  The law library is great too.  This is one school that I almost put on my list just b/c of the building (even though I had no intention of doing so -- we visited more b/c my friend was interested).  It is a bit of an expensive school compared to Rutgers Newark, but the building is absolutely amazing.  Students were friendly -- several just came up to us and started talking to us about the school (all good).  Again Seton Hall's in Newark -- but Newark isn't that far from Manhattan (half hour by train or less?).  And nobody says you have to live in Newark (you can live in Hoboken).

St. Johns:  Pretty nice facility, although I'll admit I don't like Queens (safer than Newark, with a much different feel, but I just can't stand how many people are packed into such a small area -- too craxy for me).  I got a really corporate feeling from St. Johns, kinda cold really.  The lady who led us on the tour was nice, but certainly emphasized corporate stuff (which is fine, but kind of limiting).  I got the impression that the students were pretty competetive and didn't know each other well.  Both my friend and I were not that impressed by St. Johns.

City University of New York:  My friend was interested in Public Interest so we visited CUNY.  It's ... basic.  Yes, you have everything you need at CUNY and not much more.  It's sort of bare bones.  And it's in a very densely populated area of Queens.  But the students seem to really like each other and collaborate, so that's good. 

Cardozo: People were quite friendly.  Students were nice, if not  a bit serious -- so it seemed.  The building might be in about the nicest location of any school in the NYC area.  The facility is also very good.  But I'm just not a bit fan of having a law school in an office building (Brooklyn and Cardozo).  In any case, Cardozo's big plus is where it is in the city.  And it's a quite safe part of the city.  But you'd certainly have to commute unless you were rich.

Columbia: Haven't been in the law school but visited a friend who goes to UG there -- it's so, so, so beautiful.  Not that I'd have a chance in hell of getting in, but very beautiful.

Miami:  This was the most beautiful campus I've ever seen, no question.  The law school is on the UG campus, which is incredible.  This is the only school I've heard from yet (I got in) and I'm thinking seriously of going even if I get into a significantly better school. 
The law school buildings (there are four) are built around a courtyard called the bricks.  And since the weather is always nice in Miami, everybody hangs out in the courtyard when they're not in classes.  That seems to lead to people knowing each other quite well (despite being a large school with almost 1200 students).  From all the students I talked to I determined that Miami seemed to be less competetive than many schools out east. And I noticed something else that was interesting -- I rarely saw a student sitting alone in the bricks.  Students would hang out in groups, and when a student would sit down alone s/he would soon be joined by one, then two or more, students. 
To add to that, everybody I met (a few professors, the associate dean, admissions people) were among the most helpful and easy-going people I've interacted with in the law school app process.

Case Western Reserve:  Didn't like Cleveland all that well.  Maybe it was just me, but I never found the parts of Cleveland that people rave about.  Certainly the area around the law school was pretty nice... but not all that exciting.  In fact it was kind of dull.  The student were nice, but not all that helpful.  They seemed to like Case, but weren't excited about it.  The facility itself isn't new and isn't old -- it's just a big brick facility that's designed well, but not amazingly...
So all and all I thought Case was average -- certainly not impressive.  I was going to apply to Case Western but when I was admitted into Miami earlier than I'd planned I scrapped my app to Case.  The way I'd describe case is average, average, average.

Wayne State University: City of Detroit sucks (I lived there for a year).  Wayne has a good reputation and you'll get a relatively good job in Michigan.  But otherwise Wayne State's law school is very average.  The facility itself is half brand new, and half 1960's.  The area around the law school is a bit bleak, but pretty safe, during the day.  At night it's pretty dangerous.