Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
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University Of Kentucky • Lexington, KY
Studying Law (completion in 2008)
• 9/16/2011
"I was mostly satisfied with my school. It didn't have many frills or bells and whistles, but it prepared me well for my career and that is most important."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I had a pretty good experience at the school. I therefore would recommend it to others. |
| Program Reputation | 5 | The school is generally thought of as a good program. Most importantly, it is top in the state, which is important for jobs. |
| Program Quality | 7 | University of Kentucky law school offers a good program. I thought it prepared me well for practice. |
| Instruction | 6 | Generally, I would describe the curriculum as somewhat outdated. The professors, however, make up for any shortcomings. |
| How Difficult | 8 | A legal education is always going to be challenging. The key is the amount of effort one wishes to put forth. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The program is mostly book-oriented. I do understand, however, that they are trying to get more experiential classes included. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 3 | The school has no class flexibility. It is a traditional program only - no night or weekend options. |
| Academic Facilities | 4 | The building is quite outdated and desperately needs replacing. |
| Social Life | 6 | The social experience at the law school individually is ok. Not too exciting, and rather clique-oriented. |
| Placement Services | 5 | The school's job placement office is generally competent. But some would say it only helps get jobs for people who don't need much help to start with. |
| Alumni Network | 4 | I am quite unimpressed with my school's alumni network. Their only interest is in soliciting donations. |
University Of Kentucky • Lexington, KY
Studying Law (completion in 2008)
• 10/11/2011
"There is nowhere else I would have liked to get my degree from. It was a very difficult three years, but I feel my experience was more positive than it may have been elsewhere."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | At UK Law, a student gets the best faculty in the state, a good environment, and lots of resources. Classes can be tough, and you will look silly in class, but they make sure you learn a lot from the experience. My JD got me the job I wanted. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | In Kentucky, UK Law has a great reputation. Big firms regularly recruit the top 1% of students. Nationally, I do not know how we rank. Since I practice in Kentucky, this is not a concern. |
| Program Quality | 8 | Overall, I feel that UK Law prepared me to practice. There is no way they could have given me everything I needed, but I felt I had a good grip on the basics, e.g. legal research, fundamentals of law, memo and brief writing. |
| Instruction | 9 | UK Law has great faculty, some of whom have written the most widely used treatise on their given subject area. They were also friendly and amenable to meeting in their offices to talk about some of the discussions/debates we had in class. |
| How Difficult | 10 | There were times during first year when I wanted to quit. There was a lot of pressure, as the first year determines your future academic and professional life. Past that hump, it gets somewhat easier. There were quite a few almost sleepless nights, and I never want to take the Bar again. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Most of my hands on learning came from spending my summers as a clerk for two big law firms in downtown Lexington. As a summer clerk, I was a junior associate. I got to work on current cases, go to court, and have my memos torn to pieces by the partners. I learned a lot about how law works in a non-academic environment, i.e. the issues are not fictional, there is an actual client who wants a specific result and in as cost effective a manner as can be effected. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 6 | At UK Law there is an expectation that you will be physically present in all classes. You are also expected to spend your time in the library. I would not recommend it to an individual who is looking for flexibility. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | We were provided with free unlimited Westlaw access for academic purposes. The library is large, and full of legal encyclopedias, including both AmJur and CJS. There are also lots of treatises. There are not many computer terminals, but I and most everyone had a laptop. There were empty rooms for us to meet in to study, as well as numerous tables. |
| Social Life | 8 | I had a great time with my classmates. Many of them became friends I still keep in touch with. The school provided lots of social events, but there were also many informal parties under the radar. Law students need to blow off steam, and parties provided the opportunities for us to do that. |
| Placement Services | 5 | Once again, I have little to no experience with job placement and career services assistance. I have heard positive and negatives comments from friends, but cannot verify this myself. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | I have not had much interaction with our alumni network. One of the firms I summered at made me an offer prior to graduation. I have heard positive and negative things from friends. |
University Of Kentucky • Lexington, KY
Studying (completion in 2014)
• 10/17/2011
"I felt that my school was a place where students took the study of law seriously without being too competitive. Therefore it was a positive environment where it was easy to learn while meeting friends and maintaining lives outside of school."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | The things I did not like about my school will improve in the near future. Bar passage rates have been high and improvements have been made to the buildings. |
| Program Reputation | 9 | I feel that our law school had a positive reputation. With a high bar passage rate this year, that should increase. |
| Program Quality | 9 | I felt that my school adequately prepared me for my career. My school had various offerings of practical classes, of which I took advantage. |
| Instruction | 9 | I felt that all of my professors were more than competent. Over the course of law school, I took classes of varying sizes with instructors with divergent styles. Thus I felt I had a well-rounded experience. |
| How Difficult | 8 | My work load was intense. However, I was prepared for that so it was manageable. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | I believe that law school necessarily must be a lot of book learning. However, my school did offer a number of more practice-based classes without casebooks, which I took advantage of. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 4 | There were no weekend and few evening options. In fact, it was sometimes difficult for me to fit enough classes that interested me in my schedule to have a full load. |
| Academic Facilities | 4 | Our building is in disrepair and is not attractive to potential students. The library is well stocked and useful, though, and strides are being made to improve the appearance of the current building. |
| Social Life | 8 | School spirit and morale is high because our school excels at sports. Thus, students get together for games and support the school. |
| Placement Services | 7 | While there were not a great deal of employers interviewing on campus, career services did make an effort to contact everyone to help with the job search. As I planned to be self employed, I did not fully avail myself of career services. |
| Alumni Network | 6 | I have recently become an alumni, so I cannot judge this yet. However, I have already started to receive invitations to alumni activities. |
University Of Kentucky • Lexington, KY
Studying J.D. (Juris Doctorate) (completion in 2005)
• 2/12/2012
"I had a great time at UK. I think the experience adequately prepared me to be able to successfully practice law."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | UK offers a very hospitable, friendly, and supportive environment. Considering what I hear others say about law school expectations, I have concluded UK is a good choice. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | UK has an excellent reputation in Kentucky and many of my professors taught the judges I now practice in front of. UK also has a good reputation due to the quality of students. |
| Program Quality | 10 | The professors created a comfortable learning environment. In general the entire school was helpful and supportive. |
| Instruction | 10 | The law school at the University of Kentucky prepared me so well that I barely studied for the bar exam, yet I passed on my first try. While no law school can fully prepare you for the realities of practicing law, I feel that UK provided sufficient fundamentals to prepare me to grow and learn how to negotiate the realities of practice. |
| How Difficult | 5 | The work load kept a steady pace but was not overwhelming. The caliber of the student body created a challenging yet rewarding academic environment. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The program was mostly book learning, but that is to be expected from any law school. Experiential classes of various types were available. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 5 | UK offered limited flexibility with their class offerings. However, with such a small student body, many flexible offerings were not to be expected. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | Professors were very accessible with office hours. Facility support (library, classrooms, etc.) was sufficient to meet all of my needs. |
| Social Life | 10 | UK has a wonderful university community surrounding the law school. There were also many social offerings directly from the law school. |
| Placement Services | 5 | Career services had a bad reputation when I was in school, though I found their services to be acceptable. I have not used the services since graduation so I do not know if it has improved. |
| Alumni Network | 10 | UK is one of the best (if not the best) schools to attend if one intends on practicing in Kentucky. Since I practice in Kentucky, I am very satisfied with their level of alumni support. |
Brandeis School Of Law @ Univ. Of Louisville • Louisville, KY
Studying Law (completion in 2006)
• 2/4/2012
"Overall, my problem with law school is about law education in general and U of L is on par with what law education is these days; focus on theory, not on practice. If you do live in KY, the price is great, which is really important because it's not likely you'll find a job that pays over $45,000 in your first year anyway."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | maybe | I would recommend U of L if the student was already in or around Louisville and was not going to spend a ton of money to move in or around Louisville. I would also ensure that I explained to the student that although being a lawyer is awesome, it does not pay well. If you want to help people AND be rich, become a doctor. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | I think U of L has a fair rating and reputation among the state law schools. I hear it is also considered one of the best deals in law schools in the country. This might only be true if you are paying in state tuition. |
| Program Quality | 7 | The law school at the University of Louisville is probably comparable to most law schools in terms of what they teach you. Unfortunately they only teach you theory and no practical work. This is not at all helpful for being a practicing attorney. |
| Instruction | 7 | My professors were all good at teaching theory, however most of them had little to no experience practicing the law. I never learned the basic things about law, like how to file a complaint or respond to one. There is no way I could have left law school and immediately started a legal practice on my own. |
| How Difficult | 8 | I am not particularly fond of theory, so I found law to be difficult. I suppose it could have been harder had I gone to a higher ranked law school. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | If I could give a 12 for "very, very book," I would. For the core classes (torts, contracts, etc), everything was book learning and theory. There was absolutely no practical learning. A few classes, that were electives, were more practical, but how many attorneys in KY actually end up practicing immigration law? | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 7 | U of L recently eliminated their night program, which was a huge loss. While I was there, the night program was a benefit for students looking for flexibility. I'm not sure if they currently have any flexibility without the night program. |
| Academic Facilities | 7 | Professors always had office hours, but it was clear they had favorites and those favorite students always got the best references, assistant jobs, etc. The law library is excellent and the librarians were always helpful. The classroom spaces and the building itself is old and gross. |
| Social Life | 4 | The law school is very isolated from the remainder of campus, though not physically. There is no interaction between any other graduate programs and the law school. I spent 3 years there and did not make any friends outside of the law school. |
| Placement Services | 7 | Career services did not help me find a job or make much of an affirmative effort to help people. If someone went to them, they would try to help out, but if you were not actively asking for help, they would only do the bare minimum. |
| Alumni Network | 8 | There were many networking opportunities. Since KY is a small state and many of the local attorneys went to law school at U of L, there were always many lawyers available to help out at school events. |
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