University of Michigan Law School

Amazing education with students and faculty that are both welcoming and engaging.

3L

Be prepared to both compete and socialize with a group of highly intelligent individuals.

3L

Great mix of high quality education in a college setting that can let you relive undergrad if you so desire. Its not every top 10 law school that lets you also go to the biggest football stadium in the country.

2L

I absolutely love Michigan Law. Our career services office appears to still be scrambling to get its shit together following the Great Collapse. I have the sense that they sat around connecting students with firms, and now they actually have to figure out how to help students who aren’t shoe-ins at firms. Other than that, this is an incredible place. The members of the faculty are brilliant, approachable, and very accessible. There is also a sense of pride and tradition at Michigan that I really enjoy. It’s more subtle than some of the bigger name schools like Harvard or Yale, and that’s what I like about it.

1L

Interesting work experience definitely helps, although there are a lot of people who come here straight from college. I think the essays are very important. My work experience and ability to write about it in an interesting manner probably made up for a middling GPA from an Ivy, and an LSAT at the median. Also, I have a lot of fun here when I choose to, and have pretty good prospects after graduation, which I’m not sure I can say for other law schools.

2L

Michigan is fantastic. Three of my six professors clerked for Supreme Ct. justices. The other three are tremendously well-regarded in their fields. Two of my six classes used casebooks written by professors at Michigan. All this to say that the professors here have intense intellectual horsepower. / / But more than that, (nearly) all of them are tremendous instructors. Cold calling hasn’t been terrifying experiences so much as truly effective and instructive ones. / / I have a rosy picture, perhaps, because I haven’t gone through the OCI process and I’m brand new. But I had high expectations coming in, and they have been surpassed.

1L

Michigan’s a great place for going to school with smart, supportive, fun people. It’s a great place to make friends, but not a great place to date. Maybe blame it on so many people living in the Lawyers’ Club (though that’ll be closed for a year or two for renovations) and Ann Arbor being pretty uninspiring as far as night life goes. Hey, I love Ricks as much as the next girl but most of us are not 21 anymore! One sweaty night on the dance floor now is much like any other during college–except I’ve gotten quicker at my end-of-the-night math and process that a WASPY name+Columbia+Goldman+MBA student=97% asshole before I get walked too far away from my friends. / / On the upside, firms are straight up loving Michigan. By anecdotal information shared between the 2 and 3Ls, lots of firms have doubled or tripled their number of Wolverine summer associates in the last year or two. My west coast firm jumped from 1 for 2011 to 6 for 2012. Woot!

2L

The people here are real human beings. It’s not super competitive, and if you’re an asshole Dean Z can and will probably spot you from a mile away, and prevent you from coming (even if you’re a 180/4.3 type).

2L

The school is generally responsive to student requests for additional courses in underserved areas of the curriculum. / / Career services is not particularly helpful if you have a career plan that is not one of the normal large firm, clerkship, or public interest paths. That doesn’t mean they’re not a resource, but if you know where you want to wind up, you’ll need to take ownership over the jobs and courses that get you there.

2L