An Interesting Take on Gtown

[InVinoVeritas]

from a georgetown 3L.  post is by way of xoxo (http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=163418&mc=1&forum_id=2).

My two cents, as a Gtown 3L...

First, Gtown's journals suck. Absolutely suck. This hurts us. I sat on the Law Center's Publications committe last year, and I brought to the committee's attention several instances of all our public interest journals publishing articles citing statutes that were repealed in 1997 as support for current legal arguments (this was 2003). The rampant proliferations of crappy journals on gtown's campus has SEVERELY injured our esteem in the professional world, let alone hurt our ranking. I chose not to do a journal, and to my surprise, I was commended on that wise choice repeatedly during interviews. Sad.

Second, we built the new buildings so we could ACCEPT MORE STUDENTS. Um, hello? This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of a school doing, and will undoubtedly cause us to fall in the rankings, not improve. Many professionals see gtown as a "law factory" and not a school, churning out huge numbers of alumni who have had absolutely no individualized attention throughout the course of their legal studies. At the rate we're going, we'd have to add TEN new tenured faculty members each year to provide something even close to what other schools can provide to their students in terms of small classes and faculty attention.

In my humble opinion, Georgetown has set itself up for a rankings-slide. When choosing a law school, I chose Gtown over Penn, Michigan and Columbia precisely because of the variety of classes gtown offered, the variety of clinical programs, and the amazing bar passage and employment stats. I have spent the past three years awed by the kind of attention that my friends got at Penn, Michigan, and Columbia, and I have been merely one more among the herds at Georgetown. I am so glad that I will graduate in May and watch my degree continue to depreciate.

As a soon-to-be professional, I do not plan on hiring gtown grads when I am in a position to recruit, precisely because I am personally acquainted with the crappy legal education they received. I would not be at all surprised to find Georgetown lower in the rankings next year.

Posted 4/10/2005 at 4:59 PM by mas88.

[Who's Crowdaddy]

I don't know. He is talking about how he won't hire g-town grads and he isn't even a graduate yet. Hard to imagine being commended for not being on journals. I don't know anything about it, maybe he is legit.

I am visiting the campus as we speak, writing from their international library. The facilities sure seem nice, as is the gym, pool, fitness center. I can try and give more perspective on the school after I sit in on classes tomorrow. I can try and ask students if they feel like they get individualized attention. I thought when I looked at student faculty ratio, that it wasn't bad, but I can't remember the numbers.

[InVinoVeritas]

it's only one person's opinion, and this person could very well be in the minority.  so do take it with a grain of salt.  still, these are pretty strong opinions for someone who has more to lose than to gain by trashing his own alma mater (or soon to be alma mater).

[hocuspocus]

I chose Gtown over Penn, Michigan and Columbia precisely because of the variety of classes gtown offered, the variety of clinical programs, and the amazing bar passage and employment stats. I have spent the past three years awed by the kind of attention that my friends got at Penn, Michigan, and Columbia, and I have been merely one more among the herds at Georgetown.

Legit or not, it would take a lot of balls to choose Georgetown over all of those schools, unless there was some overriding interest in being in DC or a lot of merit aid involved.

[ccorsi]

Why would it take 'balls', as you so elequently stated, to choose G Town over the other schools?

Aren't they all T14?

And please don't tell me it is because they are a few places off from one another on the US News list because if so I'm going to hurl and then 'explain something to you like you are a 2 year old' (bonus points for whoever can name the movie that line is from).

Penn is 19 points away from Yale on the US News scale.  Pretty big difference for a school that is 6 places away right?  Ok, now look at Penn to G Town - only 6 points away.

See, accordingy to US News it is 3 times further away from Penn to Yale than G Town to Penn.

So, Penn & G Town are pretty damn close especially considering the US News system is so F-ing convoluted.

C2

[hocuspocus]

Why would it take 'balls', as you so elequently stated, to choose G Town over the other schools?

Aren't they all T14?

And please don't tell me it is because they are a few places off from one another on the US News list because if so I'm going to hurl

Actually, wasn't thinking of rankings at all.  Columbia is clearly better than Georgetown.  The others can be debated until you're blue in the face, but in a vacuum where U.S. News did not exist, I think most folks would probably still give Penn and Michigan a slight edge over Georgetown.

That said, you are correct -- it probably doesn't take balls to choose Georgetown over those schools, as I previously indicated.  It does, however, take confidence that you can handle a very large law school where there is added pressure to perform well academically ... because if you don't, there will be hundreds of fellow Gtown-ers in line ahead of you competing for top jobs.