Choosing A Law School (cont.)

4. Does the law school have a collegial atmosphere? Law school will be difficult enough without adding cut-throat competition and abrasive administrators to the mix. A good dose of healthy competition among the students is normal and is a great motivator. Where competition is overly aggressive, however, the school's atmosphere may not be conducive to learning. As for administrators, you will be dealing with them regularly throughout your tenure as a law student on issues concerning scheduling, parking, bar applications, graduation applications, etc. How accessible is the student services administrator? How responsive is the administration to students' needs?

For example, through an oversight on the part of a bar prep course, our parking passes expired on the day of the final lecture. A few of us, who had set up camp in classrooms and moot courtrooms in the law school, wanted to continue studying at the law school during the weeks leading up to the bar exam. Upon learning of the problem, the dean's office immediately arranged to extend our parking passes without additional expense to us. While an expired parking pass may seem insignificant, it was one less problem to deal with during a very stressful time.