Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Top 30 Law School Buzz Book is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting.
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Top 30 Law School Buzz Book Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Top 30 Law School Buzz Book is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting. |
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Top 30 Law School Buzz Book In this new and unique guide, we publish extended excerpts from surveys of students and alumni, and sample admissions essays to bring you the inside scoop on different top law school programs. The survey comments cover the following areas:
The guide is intended to serve as a complement to other reference titles on law schools currently available that utilize school-reported data. Unlike those guides, Vault's Buzz Books (which also include the Law School Buzz Book, Business School Buzz Book, Complete Ivies Buzz Book and College Buzz Book) are composed almost entirely of information provided directly to Vault from students and alumni. (We asked the schools to comment on the surveys after they were collected.)
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Admissions
Status: Current student, full-time, Submit Date: April 2008
There is no formal interview process for UCLA, but I highly suggest that you visit the school, and if you are in the area visit with admissions. It is a good way to get to know the school as well as have yourself standout during the process.
The school does look at baseline scores in consideration of your application but each application really does get a thorough read through. So, even if your numbers are not in the "auto-admit" pile, if you have significant experience (either life or work) make sure to write about it in your personal essay or addenda.
Academics
Status: Current student, full-time,
Submit Date: April 2008
There is a tremendous amount of support outside of academics and a variety of other academic programs that are available to deepen your study. Some of these programs include: Williams Institute (GLBTQ issues), critical race studies, public interest law and policy program, business law program, entertainment law program, environmental law program. All of these programs are nationally renowned and many of them are the only programs of its kind in the country. I feel very lucky to have all of these amazing minds at my disposal for mentorship and support!
Employment Prospects
Status: Alumnus/a, full-time,
Dates of Enrollment: 8/2001-5/2004,
Survey Submitted: March 2007
Although a large majority of recent graduates practice law in Southern California, I found that it was actually easier to find employment with East Coast law firms. Many top East Coast law firms indicated to me that they would like to hire more UCLA School of Law graduates, but because so many graduates want to remain in Southern California, it is difficult for East Coast firms to woo them. As someone who wanted to return to the East Coast after law school, I found that this dynamic helped me during the interview season.
Quality of Life
Status: Current student, full-time,
Submit Date: September 2008
Housing is great?Weyburn Terrace is nice, but you always feel like you're living at school. Life in L.A. is cool but you don't see much of it as a first-year law student. Campus is pretty safe and Westwood is a nice place. There are plenty of clubs to join and the weather is perfect. The food is OK?it's school food but Westwood is a couple blocks away.
Social Life
Status: Current student, full-time, Submit Date: September 2008 UCLA knows how to party, even in law school. There are weekly bar reviews where the school SBA plans a party at a particular venue and all the law school students come. It gets old after a little while. School seems very Greek except it doesn't matter for law school. People in law school tend to date each other but it all depends on whether you get along with the people there or not; law school is like high school in terms of gossip so I would try to stay out of the social circles as much as possible. Try to just focus on school because your first year is the main determinate of getting jobs. So social life for the first year should be kind of lacking.
The School Says
UCLA Law has more than 125 faculty members who teach more than 150 individual classes per year to our 1,000 law students. Our faculty have long been known for their innovative approach to legal scholarship and teaching. Their tradition of intellectual excellence transforms the classroom into a real-world laboratory that focuses on some of the most pertinent global problems of our time, such as antiterrorism and the law, international intellectual property and immigration law. The scholarship of our faculty is often focused on topics of public policy and law that have direct impact on issues, including recent changes to the tax code, corporate governance and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Through interdisciplinary programs, students who attend UCLA Law also have access to the entire faculty of the greater UCLA campus, which comprises some of the foremost thought leaders of our time.
