Questions to Ask on a Law School Tour
Questions to ask on a law school tour, whether you are still applying or deciding between offers. The list starts with what only a student guide can tell you, then moves through first year, clinics, journals and upper level courses, careers and the bar, money, and daily life in the building and the city.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Your guide
Why did you pick this school, and what else were you choosing between?
Why ask it
The schools a guide turned down show you which ones this place competes with for students. Listen to the reason too: a scholarship, a partner's job or the city tells you what tipped a real decision, which the ranking never does.
What does a normal week look like for a first year: class hours and reading hours?
Why ask it
You want two numbers, not an impression. Reading time differs between schools and between sections of the same class, so a guide who cannot estimate their own is worth pressing gently: the rest of the year is built around that figure.
Is it competitive between students here, or do people help each other out?
Why ask it
Nearly every guide will say collaborative, so follow up with a test case: what happens to someone who misses a week of class with the flu. Notes arriving from three classmates unasked is one kind of school, and having to go round asking is another.
What is the one thing you would change about this place?
Why ask it
Watch how fast the answer comes as well as what it is. A long pause followed by a small complaint is a good sign, and a list that arrives instantly is worth hearing to the end.
What do you wish someone had told you before your first semester here?
Why ask it
The answer is usually small and practical: when outlining really starts, which study aid everyone ends up buying, how flat people feel by late October. Whatever it is, you now have a summer to do something about it.
How do people get outlines and old exams here?
Why ask it
Outlines handed down freely from the year above, kept in a shared folder, or traded only between friends are three different schools. This is the competition question in concrete form, and it is one admissions cannot answer and a student can answer in a sentence.
What has been the best part of being a student here so far?
Why ask it
An easy one that still sorts schools. Notice whether the answer belongs to this law school (a professor, a clinic, a section that got close) or to the city and the weather, which any school nearby could also give you.
Have you ever gone to a professor's office hours, and what happened?
Why ask it
Every school says its faculty are approachable, so go after one instance. A guide with a story, whether it is a professor who went through a practice answer or one who was never in, is telling you more than a guide with a general impression.
What is this school known for that the website does not mention?
Why ask it
A guide's answer tends to be narrower and more useful than the official one: a particular field, a judge who hires from here, a professor everyone takes. Notice what goes unmentioned as well, because that is the list of things the school does not really do.
Who has a hard time here, and what is it usually about?
Why ask it
Every school suits some people better than others, and a guide who has watched classmates struggle can say whether it was the money, the city, the curve or being far from home. If one of those is already your worry, follow it up before the tour moves on.
Knowing what you know now, would you come here at full price?
Why ask it
This separates enthusiasm from value, because almost everyone is happy at a discount. Save it for a moment when the rest of the group is out of earshot, and let it go if the guide would rather not talk about their own money.
First year
How is the curve set, and are grades or rank published?
Why ask it
Grading policy is the culture of a law school in one paragraph. Pin down whether the curve is mandatory, where the median sits, whether rank is released, and when first year grades come out, because the first job applications will want them.
How big is the first year section, and how long do you stay together?
Why ask it
The section is your social world and your study group for the year. Find out how many people are in it, whether it stays fixed through both semesters, and whether any class is taught in a smaller group.
Who teaches the first year courses: full time faculty, adjuncts, or visitors?
Why ask it
First year teaching assignments show where a school puts its attention. Get the names for next year's sections if anyone has them, since the professor in the promotional video may be on leave or teaching only seminars.
What is the cold call culture like in most classes?
Why ask it
It ranges from a panel system with advance notice to random questioning all semester, and it decides how you prepare every night. A guide can also say what happens to someone who is not ready: a pass, a quiet move to the next person, or five uncomfortable minutes.
Is the whole grade one final exam, or is there anything graded before it?
Why ask it
A single exam in December and a course with a midterm are two different ways to spend a semester. Where everything rides on the final, the follow-up is how anyone finds out they are off track while there is still time to fix it.
How much feedback did you get on your legal writing, and who gave it?
Why ask it
Schools staff this course very differently: full time instructors in some, adjuncts or upper year fellows in others. A guide who got line by line comments and a conference on every memo took a different course from one who got a grade and a paragraph.
Is there academic support or tutoring, and do people use it before they are in trouble?
Why ask it
Most schools have a program on paper. What you are listening for is whether it is open to everyone from the first week or handed out after first semester grades, when it arrives with a label attached.
Do professors allow laptops, and are exams typed or handwritten?
Why ask it
It sounds minor until a professor bans screens and you have not taken notes by hand in years. Your guide will know which first year teachers do it and what exam software the school has you install.
How many people transfer out, and how many students do not finish the first year?
Why ask it
A guide will know the stories and admissions will know the numbers, which schools normally have to publish and rarely volunteer. A lot of first years transferring out can mean people treat the place as a stepping stone, so find out where they went.
Can I sit in on a first year class today, and which one would you send me to?
Why ask it
Many schools will arrange a class visit with a few days' notice, and some will do it on the spot. Take the guide's pick over the showcase lecture, and notice how the room treats whoever is being questioned.
After first year
How many clinics are there, when can you join one, and do people get turned away?
Why ask it
Clinics are where students handle real matters under supervision, so the thing to pin down is access. A school with eight clinics and space for a fifth of the class is different from one with three that everyone can get into.
Where do people do externships for credit, and how did they land those spots?
Why ask it
An externship program is only as good as the list of places that take its students, and that list depends on the city. Listen for whether the school hands over a placement or a spreadsheet of phone numbers.
How do people get onto law review or a moot court team: grades, a writing competition, or tryouts?
Why ask it
Where membership follows first year grades, it is one more thing riding on the curve. A write-on or a tryout is a second way in, so find out when it runs, because some schools hold it within days of spring exams.
Which upper level courses are hard to get a seat in, and how is registration decided?
Why ask it
The catalog lists everything the school has ever offered. A third year can tell you which seminars run every year, which are lotteries, and whether the professor you came for is on leave half the time.
If I already know what kind of law I want, who here should I meet before I leave today?
Why ask it
Name the field and see how fast the answer comes: a real program produces a professor, a clinic and a student group in one breath, and a thin one produces a course title. Raise it at the start of the visit, when admissions still has time to find someone for ten minutes.
Is there a pro bono requirement, and where do people put in their hours?
Why ask it
Some schools require a set number of hours to graduate, some only encourage it, and bar admission rules differ from place to place, so ask how it works here. The organizations students name also show which local legal groups have a working relationship with the school.
Careers
How does recruiting work here, and when does it happen?
Why ask it
The details that matter are which employers come to campus, how many, and whether students here have to travel to job fairs elsewhere. Timing counts too, because in many places the interviews happen before you have much of a transcript.
Where do graduates end up: which cities, and what kind of employers?
Why ask it
A guide's impression is a start, but the school's published employment report is the answer, so find out where it lives. Read the line for full time, long term jobs that require bar passage, because a headline employment figure can include school funded and non-legal positions.
What does a student from the middle of the class do when recruiting comes around?
Why ask it
Tours feature the top of the class, and most people will not be in it. The useful answer describes the ordinary path: which employers, found how, and how long after graduation the offer came.
What did you or your friends do in the first summer, and was it paid?
Why ask it
The places your guide's friends spent that summer are a map of the school's local ties, and of who could afford what. Where the work came without a paycheck, find out whether the school pays a stipend and how many of the people who apply for it are turned down.
How early can a first year sit down with a career adviser, and is it one person who knows you or whoever is free?
Why ask it
Some offices hold first years back until late in the first semester, so ask what the rule is here and why. An adviser who has read your resume twice is worth more than a rotating appointment desk once summer applications begin.
Who in the career office handles public interest and government jobs, and what do they do for you?
Why ask it
Large firm hiring runs on a schedule the office could manage in its sleep. Everything else takes someone who knows the fellowship deadlines and the hiring quirks of agencies, so the test is whether you get a name or a page of links.
If I want to work in another city or state afterwards, how far does this school carry?
Why ask it
Many law schools send the bulk of their graduates to jobs in their own region, and the employment report shows the spread. What a guide adds is the story of someone who left: who helped, whether alumni there picked up the phone, and who paid for the travel to interviews.
Do judges around here take students as interns or hire graduates as clerks?
Why ask it
The route to a judge is often a professor who knows one, which is why this is a question about the faculty as much as the courts. Listen for named courts and for a person or committee that runs the process, since timing and rules differ between court systems.
What does the school do about bar preparation, and what did last year's pass rate look like?
Why ask it
The figure to get is the first time pass rate for the state most graduates sit in, set beside that state's overall rate. Then find out whether bar preparation is built into the final year, paid for, or left to you and a commercial course.
Do alumni show up for students: mentoring, mock interviews, taking a call?
Why ask it
Every school claims a loyal network, so find out when the guide last spoke to a graduate and how it came about. A mentor assigned in first year or a mock interview program is something you can check, and a line about alumni being everywhere is not.
Money
What is the total cost of attendance here, including everything?
Why ask it
Get the figure the financial aid office uses, not the tuition line, along with what it assumes about rent, health insurance, books and bar preparation. It usually sets the ceiling on what you can borrow for the year, so ask how that works at this school.
How many people keep their scholarship after first year?
Why ask it
If an award depends on a grade point average or class rank, the curve decides how many people can keep it, however hard they all work. Financial aid can give you the condition and the number of students who lost theirs last year, and you want both in writing before you pay a deposit.
Can a strong first year earn you more scholarship money, or is the entering offer final?
Why ask it
At some schools the offer you accept is the best you will ever see, and at others there are awards for second and third years. The answer changes how hard to negotiate before the deposit, so get the policy from financial aid and not from a guide's memory.
Is there loan repayment help for graduates who go into public service, and do you know anyone using it?
Why ask it
A school that runs its own repayment program sets the terms: income ceilings, qualifying employers, how long the help lasts. Those terms, and any government scheme alongside them, differ by school and by country, so ask financial aid for the written policy and treat everything else as hearsay.
While I am here, can I sit down with financial aid and go through the numbers on my offer?
Why ask it
A visit is the one day you are in the same building as the person who can read your award letter back to you line by line. Bring it, and ask what the total borrowed would mean as a monthly payment under the loans you would actually hold.
Do people work during the year, and is it allowed in first year?
Why ask it
Schools set their own limits on outside work for full time students, and plenty discourage it in first year, so ask what the rule is here. Then find out who does it anyway: research assistants and library desk shifts are the usual quiet answers.
What did you spend on casebooks this year, and do people buy used or rent?
Why ask it
The budget line for books is an estimate, and the guide has a receipt. You may also hear that the library keeps copies on reserve or that older students pass theirs down, which says something about how people here look after each other.
Where do people live, what is rent like, and how do they get to school?
Why ask it
Three years of rent can move the final debt figure as much as a tuition gap between similar schools. Get neighborhood names and a real monthly number from the guide, plus whether people drive and what parking costs, then check listings yourself that evening.
Daily life
Where do people study, and can you find a seat during finals?
Why ask it
Look at the library while you are standing in it: outlets, daylight, quiet floors, rooms you can book. A building that empties at five means people study at home, which suits you if you do too and is lonely if you do not.
What hours is the building open, and can students get in at night and on weekends?
Why ask it
Card access around the clock and a library that locks at ten make for very different exam seasons. This matters most if you will share a small apartment or live with family and need the school to be your desk.
Do first years get a locker, and where do people eat when they are here all day?
Why ask it
Casebooks are heavy and first year days are long. A locker, a fridge and a microwave without a noon queue are dull details you will feel every day for three years, and the guide can show you all three in a minute.
Is the law school part of the main campus, and what do law students get to use: gym, health center, transit pass?
Why ask it
Some law schools sit in the middle of a university and some are one building downtown, miles from the rest. Neither is better, but student fees usually pay for those services, so find out whether you could reach them between classes.
How do people get home after a late night here, and does it feel safe?
Why ask it
Put this to the guide as a question about their own routine, not about what the school provides. A shuttle that stops at nine or a parking garage three blocks away tells you more than a safety leaflet does.
What do people do on a Friday night or a free Sunday?
Why ask it
You are choosing somewhere to live for three years as well as a school. If everyone drives home at the weekend, or the social life is one bar and the same sixty faces, better to hear it on the tour than to find out in November.
Which student groups are active, and can a first year join straight away?
Why ask it
A website lists every group that ever registered. The ones worth knowing held something in the last month, and the noticeboards you are walking past will confirm it. They are also where first years meet the upper years who hand down advice.
Who is in the class: how many came straight from college, and how many are older, working or raising children?
Why ask it
The mix decides when study groups meet and what counts as a social event. Whether you are coming back after a decade of work or arriving straight from college, you want to know you will not be the only one.
Would someone with my background find people like them here, among the students and on the faculty?
Why ask it
Published figures count heads, and a guide can tell you how it feels to be one of four in a section. If your guide cannot speak to it, ask admissions for an introduction to a student who can, and treat a slow or awkward reply as information.
What is the counseling service like for law students, and how long is the wait to see someone?
Why ask it
That a service exists is a given, so go for the practical side: how many days until someone can see you, and whether the counselor sits in the law building or a bus ride away. A guide who knows without checking has probably watched a friend use it.
When students complain about something here, does anything change?
Why ask it
You are after one example: an exam timetable that got moved, a heating problem that got fixed, a grading delay somebody apologized for. The dean of students coming up by name, without a pause, suggests an office people use, and a shrug suggests complaints go into a form.
What are we not seeing on this tour that I should go and look at myself?
Why ask it
Tour routes are chosen to flatter. A good guide will point you to the basement classrooms, the overflow floor of the library or the neighborhood two stops away where students rent, and will often say why it was left off.
Getting past the official version
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Who to ask what
Student guides
Ask about the curve, cold calls, outlines, rent, and what they would change. They are the only people on the tour who can answer from experience, and they tend to say more when the admissions staff are not standing next to them.
Admissions
Ask for documents rather than opinions: the employment report, the scholarship conditions in writing, the cost of attendance, section sizes, and attrition figures. Anything they will not put in writing is worth noting.
Career services
Ask how many students they see individually, when that starts, and which employers hired here last year. Ask whether they support students aiming at other cities, which is often the weak point at a school whose employers are mostly local.
Financial aid
If you hold an offer, bring the award letter. Ask them to go through the cost of attendance, the terms of any scholarship and the repayment program for public service work, then ask for each policy by email so you can compare schools at home.
Current second and third years
Before you leave, ask your guide whether you can write with follow-up questions, and email one or two other students as well, ideally people the school did not pick. Second and third years have been through grades and recruiting, which a first year guide has not.
Fitting a long list into a one hour tour
- Pick eight or ten questions before you arrive and star the two that could change your decision. Nobody gets through the whole list, and a guide can tell when they are being read to.
- Use the walking time for the Your guide and Daily life questions. They are conversational, and the building you are standing in prompts half of them.
- Save anything with a number in it, such as cost, scholarship retention, employment and bar passage, for the office that publishes the number.
- Ask the same handful of questions at every school you visit. The answers only mean something side by side.
- Write your notes within the hour, on the train or in the car. By the third campus the libraries and the curves have blurred together.
Get these in writing
- The scholarship condition, the grade point average required, and the number of students who kept theirs last year.
- The full cost of attendance for the coming year, and what it assumes about housing and insurance.
- The employment report broken down by job type, employer size, and location.
- Bar passage rates for the jurisdiction most graduates sit in, first time takers.
- The written terms of the loan repayment program, if public service work is part of your plan.
- Anything a person told you verbally that would change your decision. Ask them to confirm it by email afterwards.
What a tour cannot tell you
- Ask to sit in on a class, ideally a first year one, and watch how many people are engaged rather than how good the professor is.
- Walk through the library at nine on a weeknight evening, if the building lets visitors in. How full it is and how people look is something no presentation covers.
- Eat where students eat and listen. What people grumble about over lunch is the unedited version of the tour.
- Look at the noticeboards for student groups, events, and job postings, which show what the place does week to week.
- See the city as well as the campus. Walk a neighborhood students rent in, time the trip to the building and find the grocery store, because you would be living there for three years.