Washington and Lee Vs. Emory

[mangrilla]

I'm currently having an extremely difficult time deciding between the two.  I did undergrad at NYU and enjoy an urban setting so I'm worried about W&L being in the boonies.  At the same time, Emory being in a city seems to offer more job opportunities, and it's higher rank makes me think it will be easier to return to NYC from a place like Emory than from W&L.

The biggest issue is that W&L is giving me a scholarship.  Between that and Lexington, VA's lower cost of living, Emory will end up putting me $60k more into debt.

I'm currently planning on intellectual property law, but want to have some options once I'm in school as I went into NYU with a major that was far too focused and want to keep my options open.

Thoughts, words of wisdom, or people with experience at either of these schools?

[Leverandon]

I see the job opportunities in NYC being about the same from both schools (top 30% of class can land NYC big law). Someone else might disagree with me, but I don't see there being a big difference between W&L and Emory in terms of degree portability. Money is an issue, but to me quality of life for three years is a bigger issue. Like you, I prefer the distractions of an urban environment so I would have to go with Emory. I'd probably go out of my mind in Lexington, VA.

['blueskies]

Did you try asking Emory to match the scholarship?

[mangrilla]

Did you try asking Emory to match the scholarship?

Yes, I've already asked and they've said that based on the number of students who have accepted their offers of admission, they don't anticipate awarding additional scholarship money.

Leverandon: I am leaning toward that philosophy regarding quality of life, but at the same time I just worry that $60k is still a huge chunk of change.  I worry that the extra $60k in loans now might affect my quality of life AFTER these three years as well.

[Ninja1]

Both are very good schools and are very well regarded. Visit both, kick tires, make decision.

[mangrilla]

I have been to both schools and they both had their pros and cons.  Washington and Lee being a small school, I am intrigued by the possibility of much more interaction with the faculty and classmates than I had at my undergrad (NYU).  At the same time, I worry about their new 3rd year program and how that might affect my ability to study some of my varied interests.  When combining a small faculty with a shortened period of "regular" law school classes, I worry that some classes of interest might not fit into the schedule whereas at Emory this doesn't seem to be as much of an issue.  I also worry about exactly how much experiential learning can be provided in such an insular community as Lexington, VA.  I constantly hear of students working with WV coal miner cases or death row cases in VA, but those seem to typically be the only two examples given.

There's also the misleading but hard to ignore rankings issue, where Emory has been moving up while W&L has been moving down.  If the 3L program is a bust and rankings continue to fall, will that make it even more difficult to find a position outside of W&L's current market?

[withasigh]

I have been to both schools and they both had their pros and cons.  Washington and Lee being a small school, I am intrigued by the possibility of much more interaction with the faculty and classmates than I had at my undergrad (NYU).

I can say that there is a lot of faculty student interaction at Emory.  The student/faculty ratio is lower than most schools ranked around Emory, and a lot of those ranked above us.  I've also found the faculty to be very responsive to student questions both in and outside of the classroom. 

[Refused Party Program]

I am going to echo the above poster's response that faculty interaction, at least from my experience, has been excellent. While Emory is bigger than W&L, it is still pretty small per class.

As for IP and NY, I can tell you this: I had A LOT of options in NYC had a chose to go there this summer (which I did not, I ended up going to CA). I have no idea how W&L students do in NYC, but Emory grads do well, especially if they have some sort of tie to that area. The IP work is just icing on the cake. Off the top of my head, I don't know anyone that wanted an IP job in NY, and was qualified, that didn't get an offer there.

Further, Emory has a pretty unique program for IP centric students called TI:GER: http://www.law.emory.edu/programs-centers-clinics/tiger/programs/jd.html . This program is very unique and employers LOVE it. I can tell you that it has really been a great experience being a part of this program and going to Emory.

For the record: I'm an EE patent guy.