GULC vs. GWU

I still haven't made up my mind, so this was just an attempt to throw some ideas off the wall and see what others thought.

For me the issue is: Two identical candidates apply for 1 position (everything equal except the school they got their LLM), which one would a recruiter hire.

Both schools are in DC, so any arguments related to location (being the in capital or close to the patten office) are moot. GWU does have an internship type program with the patten office, but I don't the details or whether GULC has a similar program.

As far as education, both are great schools that offer a wide selection of IP classes. Easily enough class selections to keep anyone busy for a year. My guess is the material you learn in classes with the same name will be similiar. GWU seems to be geared more towards practical application. GWU touts themself as being the oldest IP law school in the nation, and they do have a very good program, but Georgetown offers many of the same type of classes, so its tough to know what students from the two programs actually take with them from these two. And does this matter to recruiters? I'm really not sure.

There are tons of people who say don't pay attention to the rankings. Rankings are somewhat arbitrary and vary greatly based on who is publishing the report. But firms pay attention, so it would be silly to ignore rankings altogether. So....Even though GULC's IP program is rated much lower than GWU, name recognition (and overall ranking) is much higher for Georgetown. Again how does a recruiter for a firm look at this? (Note rankings for '06 come out around the 1st of April, it'll be interesting to see if there are any changes.)

Intangibles: From what I've read on other boards GULC has a great career services. GWU hasn't gotten as rosey of reviews for theirs. (I have no first hand knowledge of either, just going off of reviews I read.) Coming from a school whose career services were quite lacking, this very important to me.

Alumni network: How much does this matter and how much does this differ between the two? I don't have a clue. (anyone?)

well, before we can help you, we do need to know what kind of job you are offering on this position. and i think llm is only a 9 month advanced study, it's not going to be a decisive factor. i.e. you cannot ignore other aspects of your candidates, like where did they study before llm, what job did they do. i would be suprised if those are all identical.

Hello All,

I was recently accepted into the Litigation and Dispute Resolution program. I also got into AU for Law and Government. I'm pretty sure I will attend GW though. I just need to find a job and a place to stay.

i'm in now, will be waiting for the scholarship decision...