San Antonio, St. Mary's and general info

[ESagent]

So overall, would you say you like it at St. Mary's?  What are some other pros/cons?  Does it have a nice campus, cool people, etc.?

[txlec]

I am most likely going to attend St. Marys in the fall.  I already live in San Antonio and I really like it.  Although St. Mary's was not my top choice, I don't want to leave the city and I got a nice scholarship.  As far as housing, I would probably choose to not live around campus - it is not located in the best part of town.  Most places around town are pretty reasonable for housing.  As far as the job market after graduation, I hear it is decent since St. Mary's is the only law school in the South Texas area.  Good luck!

[NATUREBOY]

So overall, would you say you like it at St. Mary's?  What are some other pros/cons?  Does it have a nice campus, cool people, etc.?

Yeah, I like it.  The weather's always nice, there's an outdoor swimming pool, the people are friendly, there's lots of good Mexican restaurants nearby.  It's a nice place to go to school.

What I was trying to get at with my other post is that this is a "working man's" law school.  You're not going to get B's just for coming to class and breathing (like at many other schools).  You really have to work hard to get decent grades.   

[FreddyPharkas]

I hear it is decent since St. Mary's is the only law school in the South Texas area.  Good luck!

This is definitely true.

Oh, except SOUTH TEXAS College of Law, University of Houston, and TEXAS SOUTHERN University...All of those are equal or better than St. Marys.

Oh, and an hour and 20 minutes north is the University of Texas, which is unquestionably the best law school within 900 miles, and you have to go at least 1,300 miles to find a legitimately better law school.

[thorc954]

I have a visiting professor from St. Mary's.  If anyone goes there and has access to an exam database, it would greatly be appreciated.  I want to get a general idea of what the profs exams are likely. 

[NATUREBOY]

I hear it is decent since St. Mary's is the only law school in the South Texas area.  Good luck!

This is definitely true.

Oh, except SOUTH TEXAS College of Law, University of Houston, and TEXAS SOUTHERN University...All of those are equal or better than St. Marys.

Oh, and an hour and 20 minutes north is the University of Texas, which is unquestionably the best law school within 900 miles, and you have to go at least 1,300 miles to find a legitimately better law school.

None of those schools are in south Texas.  Houston is a good 5 hour drive EAST of San Antonio.

The downtown San Antonio legal market is about 70/30 St Mary's/UT (excluding biglaw).

[EarlyAction]

I hear it is decent since St. Mary's is the only law school in the South Texas area.  Good luck!

Oh, and an hour and 20 minutes north is the University of Texas, which is unquestionably the best law school within 900 miles, and you have to go at least 1,300 miles to find a legitimately better law school.

Well Chicago is about 1165 miles from Austin and Vanderbilt is less than 900 miles.  UT may be the best law school in the region, but its ranking is down (to 18); the 2007 pass rate on the Texas Bar was not so hot (ranking 7th out of the 9 Texas Law schools on the July 2007 exam and posting a 79% pass rate for the Feb. 2007 exam); a lot of its faculty members have left/may be leaving; the school wants to raise tuition by almost 50%; schools like Vandy, UCLA and GW now have higher medians; the law school is simply too large, given its location, to become elite; and it is located in a relatively small market.  So, I'm not so sure it's so great.

[divineangst]

Houston is a good 5 hour drive EAST of San Antonio.

No. Try 3 hours, max, straight shot on IH-10.  Which, in Texas, is not a long drive.

And San Antonio is not really South Texas.  It's Central Texas.  There are no law schools in South Texas.  But there are no law schools in West Texas, either (Texas Tech, in Lubbock, is more in the Panhandle).

[Contract2008]

The top 5% have a shot at biglaw.  Of the remaining 95%, the upper half typically take jobs with the DA or JAG, or with a small firm; and the bottom half start up their own firms.

Really? How many law students are capable of starting their own practice right after graduation?  Doesn't it require start up costs, experience, etc.? 

[FreddyPharkas]

I hear it is decent since St. Mary's is the only law school in the South Texas area.  Good luck!

Oh, and an hour and 20 minutes north is the University of Texas, which is unquestionably the best law school within 900 miles, and you have to go at least 1,300 miles to find a legitimately better law school.

Well Chicago is about 1165 miles from Austin and Vanderbilt is less than 900 miles.  UT may be the best law school in the region, but its ranking is down (to 18); the 2007 pass rate on the Texas Bar was not so hot (ranking 7th out of the 9 Texas Law schools on the July 2007 exam and posting a 79% pass rate for the Feb. 2007 exam); a lot of its faculty members have left/may be leaving; the school wants to raise tuition by almost 50%; schools like Vandy, UCLA and GW now have higher medians; the law school is simply too large, given its location, to become elite; and it is located in a relatively small market.  So, I'm not so sure it's so great.

Yeah, Vandy is about 900 miles, which is the one I was referring to. I thought UC was further though, I was thinking about Duke originally. Regardless, the point still stands.

However, what's your point with the rest? It's not like another LS is going to spring up and beat TX in the rankings. The only schools that could dream of coming close in the region are UH, Baylor, and SMU. We know that won't happen, even if Baylor keeps its absurdly high bar passage rate.

Texas is a large market, unless you're referring to Austin specifically. However, that's not the scope of UT. People go to UT if they are smart enough to get in and want to practice in any major TX market (Austin, Dallas, or Houston) or in the south somewhere.

As far as tuition, its in state would need to double to be comparable to the tuition of its peer schools.

It's certainly not the best school in the country, but someone would be a fool to choose another Texas school over it for practicing in Texas. This is especially true given that the tuition is much better for an in stater than Baylor/SMU and the functional equivalent to UH.