UDC

[Victor]

Can current students or anyone tell me more about the school? What is its local reputation in the DC area? Has anyone transferred out of there? Is it easy to do? What if you have little interest in public service law?

[alwaystheunderdog]

it is relativley new to DC, its the former antioch law school that fell apart.  it is in a city with 4 other lawschools, each is more well known.  from what i have heard, it is good for actual legal practice and theory instead of just theory.  there are 2 mandatory legal clinics that are 350 hours 2nd semester 2L and 1st 3L.  i wouldnt advise going there with just the intent of transferring, i am sure that there are 25 others there with the same hopes and not everyone can pull it off.  the people there are very nice and the faculty is quite accomplished.  it tends to lean left and has a strong public service focus, but you learn the same law as anywhere else. 

thought id get that in before people started jumping all over you and telling you what a moron you are for considering it and all of the usual mumbo jumbo that you hear on the online boards.  good luck wherever you go, and if you go to UDC theres a good chance ill see you there

[980eQ]

i go to howard and my friend goes to UDC as a 2L he enjoys it very much. I have visited... the facilities are good, while the library layout is a little wierd, but its decent

[alwaystheunderdog]

see, i thought the library was a nice layout.  by far not a traditional law library, but a very contemporary look to it.  very nice for a school under 300

[Victor]

alwaystheunderdog,

Thank you for the reply. If you don't already work for the school, they don't know what they're missing. Unfortunately we live in a world were name and reputation mean more than they should, thus the question about transferring.

Why do 25 students try to transfer out from such a small class (besides name recognition)? Why do you say that not everyone can pull it off? Is UDC not receptive to students transferring out? How do other law schools in the region feel about UDC students?

[alwaystheunderdog]

i dont work there, i will probably be a 1L this fall. 

i dont know how many for sure, i was throwing it out as a hypothetical, but i could only surmise that in a school a bit farther down in the rankings and with a class size under 100, only the top 1-5 students would be able to transfer (unless there are a bunch of people with amazing gpa's).  i did hear from one guy that they are traditionally late in handing out 1L grades to make this a bit tougher, dont know if there is any truth to that.

i dont know about the reputation (its a law school right) - if you read some of the online comments, you will be scared out of your mind, but most of them are from people who just want to bash you for the sake of basing you (to bad you dont go to HYS, you will fail in life type of stuff).  UDC does a great service to the city and i have heard that anyone who at the very lest wants an internship in a government office over the summer is pretty much guarenteed one.