Dria992

Hey,
My name's Alex and right now I'm a Political Economy/Pre Law major at a small Liberal Arts college in the West. I'm trying to narrow down the law schools that I want to apply to and would love some insight into the different atmosphere's of certain schools. Right now I'm considering Duke, Cornell, Berkeley, and USC. I'm looking for somewhere small with a close knit atmosphere similar to my current school, and somewhere that isn't super competitive. I've heard too many horror stories of students hiding important books during finals and making different attempts to psych each other out in order to get ahead. I figure law school is going to be stressful enough without having to deal with that. Any info on these schools would be great, thanks!

happyman2

Law is a number's game so where you went to school doesn't matter too much. However, Duke grads on average have among the highest GMAT and LSAT scores and the school places disproportionately well into the top law and business schools. Duke is also the smallest of your options and therefore most likely to have the intimate atmosphere you desire. I'm sorry, I misinterpreted your question. I thought you were referring to pre law in which case the above advice holds true. Law school is a whole different ball game, but I do know that Duke law does pride itself on its intimate atmosphere. It also does reasonably well in terms of clerkships and really well for big law. In fact, according to data from payscale.com, Duke law grads earn more on average than grads from any other law school (barring Stanford).

muckdogs07

Strong law schools that fit your bill for small class size (less than 300 per class) include Yale (about 200), Duke, Penn, Berkeley, Stanford (less than 200), Chicago, and Cornell. Outside the top 14 some well-respected schools with small class size include Vanderbilt (less than 200), Southern Cal, Emory, and Notre Dame (less than 200). Hard to avoid pressure in law school, but most of these schools are of such quality that at least the top 50% will get top law jobs or clerkships. Yale and Stanford are known for low pressure.