Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

Well, that went well. I am sure I'll forget a lot about my Duke visit on Friday and Saturday, so I'll post now to give everyone the heads up.

The students - Frankly, I was impressed. First off, everyone there was smart, and witty, and a solidly nice person. Everyone works pretty hard, but they said explicitly that everyone roots for each other to succeed. There are study groups if you want them, everyone goes bowling together, there are a ton of extracurriculars, and you're encouraged to take initiative and make your law school career your own thing. I spent a fair amount of time with some of the first-years, and they were all friendly, open and interested in me (and they laughed at my jokes), and the admitted students were fine too. (Everyone's a little shy during these things, but I found it a little overwhelming that there weren't chumps in any conversations; everyone had compelling backgrounds and interesting perspectives, and they were all funny and good-natured. Can't complain.

The professors - Well, as the story goes, the professors desperately want to work with students, and do everything they can to make that happen. Students work for professors during the year, they get hired during the summer as research assistants, and they get published with professors a lot of the time too. Here's an example: Erwin Chemerinsky was described to me by separate people as "a constitutional law god" who has apparently argued two or three cases before the Supreme Court this session. Anyhoo, he's charming and witty, and he says some of the students working for him had similar interests, some of them got to know him through class, and some of them just strolled in and asked how they could help. And apparently all the professors are similarly accessible; I must have talked to seven or eight of them at this faculty/student get-together the other night (last night?) and they all seemed to be pretty on the ball. I talked to a Haverford alum who's now a Duke Law professor and a leading figure in sports law (perhaps crucial in my quest to follow Theo Epstein from law school to being a GM), and, rumor has it, is representing Marion Jones in the BALCO "situation." He informed me that Paul Wellstone once won a national title in amateur wrestling. It was pretty solid.

The campus - Well, I spent Thursday night out with my friend Aaron at the Top of the Hill bar in Chapel Hill, on a patio about three floors up overlooking Franklin Street. This is the bar (and the time of year, I think) where Aaron and I two years ago kind of looked at each other and said, "why on earth did we not come here undergrad?" I haven't needed a jacket outside yet, and since the whole place has been built up in the past 30 years, all the roads and buildings are new and actually work right. Also, wow did I miss sweet tea. That shit is underrated. But the point is, having been away for so long I found it really easy to forget just how beautiful and fantastic the Research Triangle area is. Plus, as they say, the beaches and the mountains are both two hours away.

The unbelievably enormous amounts of debt - Well, it's a less frightening concept now than it was about two days ago. First off, if you're willing to go work at a firm for 5 years or so (as I certainly am, I hear it's not that bad), apparently it's easy to pay off your debt completely, as most people make in the vicinity of $125,000 a year at a firm. Now, how hard is it to get a job at a prestigious firm? Well, for starters, none of the first-years I met know anyone who hasn't gotten a summer job yet. Employment rates at graduation have hovered between about 95-97% in the last three years, and the employment rate nine months out is always 100%. About 500 firms come down to Duke every year to interview 200 students (per class) for positions, and many of them apparently come in intending to hire at least 2-3 Duke students. At most law schools you have to be in the top of the class to be highly recruited, but, as the story goes, at Duke that applies to pretty much everyone. Finally, and I didn't know this, apparently they include food/rent/expenses/miscellaneous in the overall cost, so I presumably wouldn't have to pay any more than what they charge me. There are more exciting things I've heard about the Duke employment situation; just ask!

Well, that's pretty much it. It feels like a good fit. Next up is UVa next Thursday and Friday, and then NYU the Friday after that.