As I slowly walked towards the Oxford Road Building, my head was filled with memories of the few previous Williams Memorial lectures I attended, including one where a certain someone gave the entire audience a cold. Even though I was required to attend all the Williams lectures for my physics course, not even one of them has been remotely close to the subject. I arrived at the lecture room, I checked my calendar on Canvas and saw that the lecture topic was “Great Works of Palaeontology”. This caused me immediately to think of Jurassic Park and life from way back. I mentally prepared myself to listen to a speech about some dinosaur books for 45 minutes and took a seat.
The poster for the movie based on Dr. Lipstadt
As the doors closed, the lecturer, Dr. Lipstadt, was introduced as Emory’s most famous professor. I recognized the name, but couldn’t quite remember where I had heard it. Strangely enough, the introduction had nothing to do with dinosaurs, but instead talked about Dr. Lipstadt’s work as a Jewish historian, disproving Holocaust deniers in legal court. At this moment, I remembered where I had heard the name: I had seen countless trailers for a movie which is based on “Emory’s most famous professor” and her battle to fight Holocaust denial. I also realized that palaeontology is not limited to dinosaurs.
Dr. Lipstadt started her lecture in a similar fashion to all the other Williams lectures, claiming that it is difficult to choose a few books to talk about since there are so many “history-changing” books about the Holocaust. Therefore, she decided to present the books that spoke to her the most. These books were mostly memoirs or diaries. The first person perspective that they gave and the specifics that they went into were able to paint a picture in my head.
Between Dignity and Despair, a book that Dr. Lipstadt presented
I enjoyed the way Dr. Lipstadt presented the books she brought with. She would start by flipping open a book, which she would read until she found a good place to stop. After closing the book, she would then explain to the audience in very specific detail what was going on in the time frame she had just read about. Her explanations gave a lot of insight on the Jewish situation inside the ghettos during the war. For example, Dr. Lipstadt told a story of how in the ghetto, there were specific Jews who were responsible for being the intermediary between the Nazis and the ghetto residents. These people always saw the list of Jews who were taken out of the ghetto. In one particular ghetto, this intermediate person between the Nazis and ghetto residents would always convict himself that the people were being taken away to do labor. However, when he saw that children started to appear on the list, he couldn’t stand it anymore and took his own life. The stories like these that Dr. Lipstadt told really brought the books she presented to life.
Dr. Lipstadt reading to the audience
The crowd at the lecture was mostly students who were forced to be there, due to their class being in the Voluntary Core Curriculum like mine. There was also the usual group of older people there, who were attending just to hear Dr. Lipstadt’s words. Even though I found the lecture very engaging, about half of the students who I saw were on their mobile devices for the entire lecture. Also, at the end of the lecture during the question and answer period, I noticed that the audience had much fewer questions than what was normal for a Williams lecture. This was probably due to the fact that Jewish studies is a less popular subject area at Emory than what the previous lectures had been about (law, psychology, etc.). This might also explain the unengaged audience who were there just to get an attendance grade. I think that if she were to relate her stories she told back to her time in court fighting against Holocaust deniers, as well as the movie that was recently made, the lecture could have been more intriguing than it already was.
Emory’s teaching mission statements
Overall, I think that Dr. Lipstadt’s lecture was incredibly insightful. Having gone to a Jewish school, I was exposed to memoirs of the Holocaust and talks from survivors from a young age. The materials that Dr. Lipstadt presented went into the same amount of details that I hear every time I listen to a unique story. Every memoir, testimony, and diary has historical importance in providing the information to support Dr. Lipstadt’s work. After looking at Emory University’s mission statements, I can easily say that Dr. Lipstadt is well suited to be “Emory’s most famous professor”, with her work and teachings fitting all of the categories.
Although there’s still months before the spring semester starts, freshmen must figure out what courses they plan on taking. It can be very overwhelming, especially since we are in the midst of yet another midterm-filled period of the semester. As a student who’s never missed a PACE class, I’m here to help you compartmentalize and learn exactly what to do in order to get what you want during registration.
The first thing you should do, if you haven’t already, is schedule an appointment with your pre-major advisor. Despite what you may think, they are a useful tool and know a lot about the registration process. Not only that, but you cannot register for courses until your advisor removes the “lock” that was put on your OPUS account.
Emory’s GER subject areas
After you schedule your meeting, you should start to look for the classes you want to take. If you already know what you wish to major in, look at the requirements and see if you can take any of them. If you do not know what you plan to study, you can use Emory’s general education requirements (GERs) as a guide to what you maybe should be taking. Also, your advisor may recommend some courses based on your interests and academic strengths. If you still find that you are struggling to pick what courses you may want, sit down with a friend who has similar interests and see what courses they’re taking. If you both sign up for a course that you don’t like, at least you’ll be together.
So now you may be wondering where you can find all the classes that Emory offers. The Course Atlas (link: http://atlas.college.emory.edu) is probably the most useful tool for checking out courses. On the website, you can filter classes by subject/department, the GER that they fulfill, or look at classes that are deemed appropriate for freshmen by the faculty. When you click on a class, you will be given information about it including its time, instructor, location, number of credit hours, the GER it fulfills, and a short description of the content in the class. Even though the Course Atlas is packed with classes, it still does not contain everything that Emory has to offer. The Course Atlas only has courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences, so if you decide to take a class in the Business School per se, you must find its information from the Business School website. This is why it’s necessary to check your major requirements if you know what you wish to major in.
A weekly planner to use
After you have a list of the classes you think you might want to take, add them all to your shopping cart in OPUS. Even if you aren’t entirely sure you want a course, you should still add it just to be safe. There is no limit to how many courses you can add to your shopping cart, so go crazy. Once you think you’ve finished that, you should start to fill in some hypothetical schedules. It may be tedious, but it will save you from having 5 classes in one day and make sure you don’t have any time-conflicting classes. OPUS won’t let you register for courses that are time-conflicting, so you should have everything sorted out before registration time comes.
Intro Psych 1 has 1 seat left this semester
So now that you’ve decided what courses you’re going to take, you need to actually sign up for them. During your first registration period, you can sign up for up to 8 credit hours, and during your second you can add until your total is up to 19 credit hours (22 if you keep a cumulative 3.0 GPA). Keep in mind you need to take 12 credit hours to be a full-time student. Before your registration period begins, you need to make the potentially schedule-changing decision of which courses you should sign up for first. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to check how full the classes you want to take are in this semester. If you go to OPUS and search for classes but leave the semester as Fall 2017, you can view all the sections of the class you want to take next semester. You’ll be able to see the total class capacity and how many empty seats are left. From this information, you can tell which classes tend to be more difficult to get in to, and decide which you wish to register for first. Keep in mind that upperclassmen have already registered for courses, so if you plan to take any classes that aren’t restricted to freshmen, you should check how full they are by using the same method.
Once you’ve done all of this, the only thing left to do is actually register for the courses. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to login 2 minutes before your registration period begins, check off the courses you wish to take from your shopping cart and spam the “enrol” button at the bottom of the page until you either get in to your classes or are told they are full and get put on the waitlist.
My registration periods
I think that course registration is kind of a mess. It makes sense that upperclassmen get to register before the freshmen do, but the first appointment times for all freshmen are different. My appointment time is at 7:30pm, while I’ve heard some people got times as early as 6pm. It doesn’t really seem fair, and I think there should be a better way to do it. Also, I find that the OPUS interface is a bit difficult to navigate, and clicking one bad thing could effectively ruin your chances of getting in to your dream class. When advisor say that not getting the classes you want is a good opportunity to explore new subject areas, it’s just an excuse for the shortcomings of the registration period. Although Emory’s course registration may be flawed, by following these steps you can give yourself as much control as possible over your classes.
As a fun Family Weekend activity and a birthday present, I had the opportunity to attend a soccer match with my family between Atlanta United FC and the team I support, Toronto FC. The match was the last of the regular season, and both teams had something to play for; Atlanta United could score a bye in the first round of the playoffs, while Toronto could achieve the highest ever point-tally in Major League Soccer (MLS) history. The atmosphere truly reflected the importance of the game, with over 71,000 people showing up to watch (an MLS attendance record). The passion of the fans and the amount of noise made it pretty uncomfortable to cheer for the away team.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium
The match took place in the brand-new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which Atlanta United share with the Atlanta Falcons. The stadium is located just southwest of Centennial Olympic Park, close to the center of downtown Atlanta. This causes a lot of traffic before and after their games, but we didn’t really have a problem getting out. The unique shape of the stadium makes it stand out in the downtown area. All the noise coming from the area also draws lots of attention. I found that all of the stadium staff were very efficient and friendly. We never really had to wait in a line, despite there being 70,000 other people there.
Toronto FC star Sebastian Giovinco signing autographs
In order to get to our seats, we had to walk past the tunnel where they players enter the field from. Fans of Atlanta United were lined up along the sides, waiting for their heroes to come out. As the players came out of the dressing room, they jogged down the tunnel and high-fived all the fans who stuck their hands out. After the players were on the field, we got to watch them warm up from the field-side and then took our seats. We just so happened to be sandwiched between Atlanta United fans, but from looking around the stadium I could tell that they were everywhere. I was only able to find a few other Toronto supporters during the match.
Before the game started, Atlanta United displayed their tradition of taking a golden spike, signed by fans of the team, and hitting it with a sledgehammer as the fans spell the name of the team. This match, the honours of hitting the spike were given to Atlanta recording artist 2 Chainz. Afterwards, the anthem was sung by another Atlanta recording artist, CeeLo Green. As the match started, everyone remained on their feet and did not sit for the entire 90 minutes. The energy in the stadium was truly unmatchable by any other team in MLS.
2 Chainz with the sledgehammer and CeeLo Green singing the anthemFinal score: 2-2
The match was very even throughout and ended in a 2-2 draw. While both teams were hoping to win, a draw suited Toronto just fine – they achieved the most ever points in MLS history with 69 (20W-9D-5L). However, because Atlanta did not win, they were unable to move into second place, so they must play in a knockout game against Columbus Crew S.C. in order to stay alive in the playoffs. Tickets to this game are already practically sold out, as fans of the team are very excited to see Atlanta United in the playoffs in their inaugural season.
Following the MLS and keeping an eye on Atlanta United has made me think about one question: How are Atlanta United so successful? There has to be an explanation to how they can get over 70,000 people to come to a game. There are a few reasons, and combined it all makes perfect sense.
The first reason is undoubtedly the success. There is no way that the team would have so many fans without it doing well in the league. The owner of the team, Arthur Blank, invested lots of money from the get-go in order to start the franchise on a high note. Atlanta brought in talented players from across South America and a coach who understood what the fans want to see. The result is an exciting team that plays fast-paced, interesting soccer that the fans love to watch. When the supporters see their team doing well, it reinforces their pride and makes them feel happy. Atlanta were excited when they got their team, and the success that they’ve had in their first year has kept that excitement going.
The Atlanta United Supporter’s Section
A deeper reason why that many people come out is that it is a team of the people. The team name, Atlanta United really means that it is a medium to unite everyone in the city. Having the word united in the name has special significance to the supporters, as it makes them feel that they are just as big a part of the club as anyone else. Not only that, but Atlanta is a city on the rise with lots of young people. This club is something that they feel they can take and make theirs. This leads to the creation of supporters groups, who sit together, chant together, and… support together.
The supporter groups have really done a great job of getting people to join in and support their club. To quote an interview done by Copa90, “Hip-hop was the lubricant to bring people in who are newbies and show them a good time”. The interview showed the various things the supporter groups do to lure people in to joining. These include playing hip-hop music, tailgating, and creating tifos, which are large displays that the fans hold up to show support for the club.
An Atlanta United tifo
Overall, Atlanta United F.C. is a successful franchise on many levels. The success of the team as well as the fans is really something special. However, it will be worthwhile to see how they do in the playoffs, and if the hype will last from season to season.
After a short plane ride back from Chicago, I was left in the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport with one of two options: I could either take an Uber and get back to campus quickly, or I could try to find a cheaper alternative. Using what I learned in my Economics class, I came to the smart decision of taking MARTA. Even though I knew it would take an extra hour to get back to Emory, I decided to go ahead with it. Not only was the trip easy, but it was also borderline enjoyable.
The MARTA station in the airport
I started off by asking the help desk in the airport where to go since it is so massive. Sure enough, they told me to follow the big signs that said “MARTA Station”. After making my way through the terminal, I found some machines where I could buy a ticket. I looked though my wallet only to realize that I had left my day pass, which were so generously given to us, in my room back on campus. However, this didn’t really bother me at all since I knew how much money I was saving. I scanned my ticket, went up the escalator and hopped on a train that was waiting in the station already.
A lovely view of the airport parking lot
Airport station is a terminal stop on MARTA’s red and gold lines, which run north-south. This meant that the only people I saw on the train were airport workers and a lady with some luggage, who seemed to be in my situation. After a solid three minutes of standing still, the train doors closed and we moved out of the station. To my surprise, most of my train ride was above ground. I managed to get a unique view of certain parts of the city from the train, and when I got off I could feel my neck hurting from staring out the window.
The bus to get back to Emory
After 13 stops, my train finally got to my station, Lindbergh Center. I took all my belongings with me upstairs to go catch the bus that would take me to campus. To my luck, there happened to be a #6 Emory/Oxford Rd waiting in the station. I sat down in the back of the bus and we departed for campus. I engaged in conversation with a young man sitting next to me. He told me, “You can get anywhere here for $2.50. I even got on for free because I convinced the driver I have no money, but…” he concluded, pointing to his pocket. Eventually, I started to recognize the area that I was in, so I requested a stop and got off the bus next to the WoodRec. I headed back to my dorm room, very pleased with myself having saved so much money.
Taking such a long ride on MARTA made me compare and contrast it with the transit system in my hometown, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). I was interested in public transit at a young age, so I like taking busses and trains whenever I go someplace new. The first thing I noticed about MARTA was that its vehicles were very clean. There is a no eating or drinking policy on all MARTA vehicles, which makes it less at risk to spills, which probably wouldn’t be cleaned up for a while. Another good addition to MARTA is the “Intercom tour guide”. At every train station, there is an automated announcement that tells passengers the main attractions nearby the station. This is super helpful in figuring out where you are, especially for someone like me who doesn’t know the city at all.
While my experience on MARTA was far from dreadful, I do think that there are some improvements to be made. First of all, I do not think that having overlapping lines is efficient for moving people. It makes stations get more crowded because people have to wait for specific trains, and it leaves only one station (Five Points) for people to transfer between the north-south lines and the east-west lines. In fact, all but one of the green line’s stops are shared with the blue line. I feel like the TTC has done a much better job of figuring out how to effectively get people from point A to point B. One more problem that I have with MARTA is that the bus and train are separated from each other. While the bus stops at train stations, you need to exit the actual station in order to board a bus. The TTC has busses pull into an area which is exclusive for people who have either come off a train/streetcar or paid to enter the station, so no transferring is necessary. This is more efficient for boarding vehicles during rush hour, when there are large crowds. While these are more big-picture problems, there are also some little things that annoyed me, like how the bus doesn’t announce stops like the train does, or how it closes at 12:30 am on weekends.
Map of MARTA trainsTTC’s map of trains
The bottom line is that MARTA is cheap and useful if you have a lot of time on your hands like I did. I personally think that it could use a bit of revamping, since the last time it was really useful was the 1996 Summer Olympics. Even though I may have made out the TTC to be so much better, I am pretty biased. After all, an article on jalopnik.com rates Toronto as the fifth worst public transit system in the world, with Atlanta only being fourth on the list. As a college student, I would really like to see MARTA improve so I’d stop having to pay so much for Uber.
The Oxford Road Building’s lecture room filled up. Interested people, as well as students fulfilling a class attendance requirement found their seats. The doors closed and the speaker, Dr. Brennan, started to introduce herself and the topic: The Milgram Experiment. Just as she proceeded to the second slide of her Powerpoint presentation, it happened. A loud cough, followed by some sniffles came from the back of the lecture room. A couple of heads turned, and saw an uninterested freshman who was busy typing away on his computer. If only they had known then how the rest of the lecture would go, then they would have tried to move as close to the front of the room as possible. For a full 45 minutes, the audience was subjected to Sandro’s coughs, sneezes, computer noises and more. It is truly amazing that he didn’t get thrown out.
The Oxford Road Building lecture room
This presentation on the Milgram Experiment was a part of the Williams Memorial lecture series, a group of lectures focused on great American works of liberal arts. Students who are enrolled in Emory’s Voluntary Core program are required to attend the lectures and learn about something they might not have found out about otherwise. The lectures typically take place every second Wednesday at 4:30pm. This specific day, Sandro was swarmed with work but somehow managed to make it to the lecture. He decided to bring his computer with him in order to be as efficient as possible, despite how distracting he knew his device would be. Sandro and Josh sat at the back of the lecture room to try and not interfere with the audience, but most people sat near the back anyways because they were uninterested.
Sandro working on his lab
“Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. He examined justifications for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Their defense was often based on “obedience” — that they were just following orders from their superiors. That’s exactly what Milgram wanted to test in his experiment” Exclaimed Dr. Brennan, but all Sandro could think of was that his lab was due at 5:00 PM and it was already 4:58 PM. What would he do? Submit the half-finished lab or- “What’s she talking about ?” said Sandro as he turned to his partner Josh on his right, letting out half a dozen coughs before actually completing the sentence. Josh, completely disregarding Sandro’s cry for help, said that the girl sitting in front of them has turned around and shifted to the farthest point of her seat every time Sandro sneezed or coughed. Both partners laughed as Sandro tapped on her shoulder to get her attention so he could apologize to her, but instead ended up coughing up a lung.
Josh and Sandro sitting in the lecture
Dr. Brennan then proceeded to explain what exactly the experiment encompassed. The procedure was that the participant was paired with another person and they drew lots to find out who would be the ‘learner’ and who would be the ‘teacher’. The draw was fixed so that the participant was always the teacher, and the learner was one of Milgram’s confederates (pretending to be a real participant). The participant was told that they were taking part in a study to test how the brain responds to a pain stimulus when learning new things. It is now 5 PM and Sandro’s chemistry lab has been submitted. Excited, he begins closing his laptop, but not before accidentally hitting the play button on his MacBook Pro™ and blasting Black Dog by Led Zeppelin for everyone to hear (28 minutes and 10 seconds into the lecture video if you want to listen to the tunes). Panicking, he slams his hands on they keyboard letting out a wild sneeze, and by some miracle one of the fingers must’ve hit the play button once more because the music stopped. “F**k”…. “God f**king damn it” said Sandro almost as loudly as his music had played.
Snapping back to the lecture Sandro noticed that Dr. Brennan had begun saying “The learner (a confederate called Mr. Wallace) was taken into a room and had electrodes attached to his arms, and the teacher and researcher went into a room next door that contained an electric shock generator and a row of switches marked from 15 volts (Slight Shock) to 450 volts (XXX). The teacher is told to administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of shock each time.”
The layout of the experiment
The learner gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose), and for each of these, the teacher gave him an “electric shock”, to which the learner pretended was real.
When the teacher refused to administer a shock the experimenter was to give a series of orders/prods to ensure they continued.
There were 4 prods and if one was not obeyed then the experimenter (Mr. Williams) read out the next prod, and so on. 40 minutes into the lecture, Sandro couldn’t help but wonder out loud, “Am I high off cough syrup?” Looking over at Josh he whispered, “I mean.. I’ve been taking 30 milligrams of Dayquil along with 2 pills of advil, and on the bottle it doesn’t even say how much i should be taking, I just.. *cough*”
After surveying the audience about what they thought of the experiment, Dr. Brennan revealed that close to 66% of participants in the experiment blindly followed the instructions of the high-and-mighty experimenter, “shocking” the learner all the way up to 450 volts (XXX). The experiment found that a scary amount of people were absolutely obedient to someone who was in a position of power. Dr. Brennan also provided come statistics for when they varied the conditions of the experiment. For instance, when the teacher had touch proximity to the leaner they found that the number of people who followed until the highest “shock” decreased by a significant amount. The lecture then transitioned into a question and answer segment, where the few people who paid full attention were excited to ask about experiment details and ethics.
Sandro leaving the lecture
With this final thought as well as Josh’s quirky “You won’t leave the lecture, you won’t” Sandro got up as the 3rd person had finished asking his question and started heading towards the door. After climbing over 4 people who were sitting in his row, he made it to the door. He gave out the signature cough, sneeze, sniffle, and blow before looking back at Josh and then exiting the lecture room.
As he met up with Josh outside the lecture hall, they started discussing the post, how in the world were they going to make this lecture in any way, shape or form creative to fit the in class rubric? They talked and talked until they came to a conclusion. *cough*
In 1916, Emory University established a law school with a faculty of great teachers with degrees from the most highly regarded institutions of the era, a library of over 5,000 volumes, and a class of just twenty-seven students. Today, ranked number 22nd in the nation, the Emory University School of Law now has an annual enrollment of over 130 faculty members, 800 students and up to 301,490 volumes, a collection of written or printed sheets bound together as a book, at the library. Averaging a 90.7% bar pass rate, 97.6% graduate employment and an average score of 165 on the LSAT, the Emory University School of Law is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the nation.
Outside the School of Law, on Clifton Road
The Emory University School of Law has many programs for students to choose from such as: LLM, JD, JM, SJD and other joint degrees. One of the most prominent degrees is the Juris Master Dual degree program with Georgia Tech. With an annual tuition of $53,350, it is one of the best deals you get considering the ranking of the institution.
The Emory University School of Law offers a practical and disciplined approach to the study of law that engages students in the varied and integral roles the law plays in our community, society, and world. The student-centered focus, innovative programs, and commitment to scholarships prepare graduates to make an immediate and lasting impact. The Emory School of Law provides students a wide variety of opportunities through its many partnerships and programs as well, just to list a few:
The Law School’s Partnership with the Carter Center is an initiative promoting world peace founded by former President Jimmy Carter. The Carter Center provides Emory with exceptional opportunities to understand and engage global challenges such as strengthening rule of law in Liberia, establishing foundations for long-term peace in the Sudans, and fighting diseases like Malaria and Guinea Worm Disease. Emory faculty and graduate students, with the help of the Carter Center programs, have the opportunity to help understand and solve complex problems such as the persistence of gender-based violence in post-conflict societies, the role of elections in transitional contexts, and the gap between theory and practice in disease elimination and eradication. The partnership opportunities are accessible to any and all graduate students of the Law school.
Additionally, graduate students can take part in the the Law School’s own Center for Transactional Law and Practice program. According to Emory University school of Law’s website “Through the Center’s Transactional Law Program, students have the opportunity to acquire a strong foundation in business law doctrine, become financially literate, and practice contract drafting and other critical deal skills”. The program provides a roadmap for every student interested in studying transactional law. Whether through in-class simulations of deals or transactional law externships with actual clients, students in the Transactional Law Program get the chance to experience what being a deal lawyer is really like. This program is accessible to virtually all Emory law school students.
The court room on the first floor
Within this listing, it would be a shame not to mention Emory Law school’s Moot Court Society. The Moot Court Society is a competitive, student-run organization that, according to Emory University school of Law, provides “experiential opportunities to develop oral advocacy and brief-writing skills.” Emory Law students organize and host the annual Civil Rights and LibertiesMoot Court Competition, held at Emory Law in the Fall semester. This year’s competition will be held on October 20-22, 2017. Five professors and professionals will be reviewing the briefs. This program is accessible to all JM degree seekers.
Last but not least, is Emory Law school run Emory Law Mock Court. Graduate students undergo a selective process where they get involved with presenting and debating prosecution and defensive sides for real world cases in a Law school run Mock court. Emory College undergraduate students also have the opportunity to aid graduate students involved in the program as assistant or “secondary lawyers.”
I interviewed Cale, a prospective student, to hopefully hear a different perspective on how he views the School of Law. I thought it would be interesting to see what makes a student want to apply to the Emory School of Law, how an outsider who wants to be an insider views the institution, and what advice he can give that he has learned his process. Ultimately, I wanted to collect evidence to help guide students at Emory on whether they should attend the Emory School of Law.
In preparation for our interview, I emailed Cale questions that I was going to ask him previous to our meeting so that he would be prepared and well versed. We talked about the Law School in a study lounge in the Woodruff Library. Below is the transcript from our dialogue.
Hunter: Hi Cale. You are considering applying to Emory School of Law, correct?
Cale: Yes, I am thinking of applying.
Hunter: What would you hope to get out of the Law School?
Cale: I wish to get an education on how to practice law. Hopefully a strong foundation in law will help me enact my own moral compass. Not to sound like I am a personal savior, but I hope that law school will provide me an apparatus to right the wrong. Also, I think being a lawyer would be a practical and tangible job for me.
Hunter: What makes you want to apply to Emory School of Law, and what makes you not want to apply?
Cale: Emory School of Law is a highly revered institution. It is ranked by U.S. News as the 22nd best law school in the nation, but it only matters if you give heed to their rankings, like if they actually mean anything. What they do mean, no one can really articulate. I would go for the connections. Emory School of Law has an incredibly noteworthy alumni base.
Emory’s ranking on U.S. News
Honestly, I would have a tough time committing to Emory School of Law as an undergraduate student. After the undergraduate experience, I don’t think I can do Emory again. From what I have heard, there is little difference between the undergraduate experience at Emory and the graduate experience. I want something different. I think that’s how most kids would put it. It’s not social enough, Emory School of Law is a very solitary experience. Students compete with grades; it is very cutthroat.
Hunter: What could Emory’s law school do to give its students a better experience and consequently make it more attractive to prospective students?
Cale: I think they should do more to reach out to the undergraduate students who are not pre-law. I am a philosophy major, a major in which students often continue to law school. I am yet to receive contact from Emory School of Law. As an Emory student who is considering the Law School here, I think they need to do better marketing. Maybe a business degree would have benefited the Law School professors and Law School management.
Hunter: What advice do you have for other students applying to the law school?
Cale: My biggest piece of advice is study the LSAT for at least 200 hours. Take your time. The LSAT score is clearly the most important part of the application to do well. Effective articulation in arguments and correct comprehension of readings is crucial. It is a very technical test. Internships also help. An attractive résumé is always beneficial.
Hunter: Thank you! I wish you the best of luck in the application process.
Cale: Thank you for your wishes. Best of luck to you too. It was a pleasure meeting you.
Here are my conclusions and my advice:
Cale and likely the majority of other prospective students at Emory see Emory School of Law as a potential graduate school of their liking predominately because of its high ranking and how highly revered it is. Students may be shied away from the school’s perceived solitary experience where the environment is highly competitive. Perhaps if Emory did a better job of its, for lack of a better phrase, public relations, they may find a way to change how the school is perceived.
Furthermore, I concluded something about the undergraduate experience in relation to the graduate experience here at Emory and likely at other schools. If you are an undergraduate student at school X, you probably don’t want to be a graduate student at School X. Expand your world. The two experiences are likely too similar.
My advice to Emory students on the pre-law track, if you can get into Emory School of Law, you will likely get into many other law schools of which many will be better suited for you. You should be willing to expand your horizons and be open to applying to different law schools. Moreover, you should not simply attend a school because of its ranking. Apply for more compelling reasons. Also, regardless of your major, be open to considering law because of the many doors it may open in the future. Study the LSAT tirelessly; it is arguably the most important aspect of your application.
By Sandro, Josh, and Hunter
Ranchod-Nilsson, Sita. “The Carter Center.” Emory University main site, www.emory.edu/ACAD_EXCHANGE/issues/2013/autumn%20/stories/ranchod-nilsson/index.html. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.
“Emory Law | Emory University School of Law | Atlanta, GA.” Emory University School of Law, law.emory.edu/. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.
“How Does Emory University School of Law Rank Among America’s Best Law Schools?” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/emory-university-03039. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.
