Duquesne ????????????????????????

[goingplaces]

I am putting together a pro/con list for Duquesne and Albany Union.  I have come up with many pros for Albany and few for Duquesne.  I would like to have some postitives for Duquesne.  They seem to have limited clinics and course offerings.  In addition, their 1L orientation was just one day, as Albany was a week, also Dusquene's handbook seemed very rigid and conservative.  IS Duquesne as conservative and Catholic as it appears?  As a Catholic Law school, are they objective, or do they eliminate cutting age topics such as stem cell research, diversity in marriage, etc?

[rapunzel]

Other than the cruxifix on the wall and a prayer at graduation, you could stay completely oblivious of the Duquesne's Catholic nature.  They did cancel classes for 2 hours for a mass for the pope when he died, but that was a big event, and of course no one was required to go. 

There is a healthy mix of liberal to conservative in the student body and with the profs.  I have to say I trully love my experience.  My classmates are on the whole are smart and hardworking.  People are generous, no one is going to hide a book or steer you astray, they are likely to share their outline.

First year writing program is a bit uneven.  You could get an incredible prof or a mediorce one.  (mine was law review editor at Harvard, so I was happy even as my ass was being kicked).  The curriculum has a lot of required courses- to prepare you to take the PA bar.  So if you like lots of electives and the bar you want to take is not PA or a bar that tests similar things, then you may not like that.  Personally I had more than enough room in my scedule to take the classes I wanted and I had a fabulous trip to Rome through the school last summer.

Job prospects are good regionally.  So a Duquesne degree is best if you want to practice in PA.  I have a summer associateship with a big firm, so oppurtunities are there. 

All things being equal, I'd say if you want to practice in NY- Albany is a great choice.  If you want to practice in PA, then don't worry about Duquesne being Catholic.  You won't even notice unless you wanted to to start a lawyers for choice group on campus. 

[duqgrad]

Do Not Choose Duquesne. I recently graduated from there and it was terrible. The school recently slipped to fourth tier...about the lowest you can go. The grading system recently changed to make students grades appear lower than in previous years and the school has failed to alert employers. So now the job search is even harder as you must try to explain your grades, but it just sounds like excuses. The faculty does not care and cannot teach. They hired someone specifically to raise the bar passage rates, but he doesn't actually do anything aside from sending out insulting memos. Its fear mongering about the bar exam and calling in to doubt student abilities when confidence is fragile. It's not worth the aggravation. If you want to practice in PA...look at Pitt. It's also good if you want to practice out of state. If you only want to practice in NY, ALbany can't be bad. Just don't go to Duquesne...it's really not worth the extra tuition.

[MEMEMEME]

As Rapunzel stated, except for the Crucifix, you won't notice. It actually calls itself a liberal Catholic university and suspended a student once for starting an anti-gay Facebook group. I'd say, God may come up once in every course but not as a preachy thing but as an open discussion with no actual religious affiliation. The only problem you may encounter is the students. A lot of them are sort of jerks.....