The Georgia State University College of Law has more than just a degree to offer.
Not only are they giving students one of the highest paying degrees in America, according to USNews.com, but more importantly, they are also providing them with what today’s economy is lacking – a job.
The growing law school giant said that, in the last year, 90 percent of its graduating seniors were hired to work within nine months of stepping foot off campus.
Ray English, associate director of the Georgia State College of Law said the university has been focusing on getting law students prepared earlier rather than later.
“We have been refocusing our efforts,” English said. “Preparation, encouragement and development early in the first years have been crucial.”
He attributes much of the success to the Short Term Assisted Research Program, or SHARP, one of the many programs helping students get into their aspiring fields.
Through SHARP, qualified and pre-approved third year students at the Georgia State College of Law have access to independent lawyers and small firms that will pay them by project and cases they help with.
“They can join for free, attend meetings and increase their chances,” said English.
In The U.S. News and World Report Georgia State’s College of Law ranked no. 3 in healthcare and no. 16 in part-time law and amongst the top three law colleges in the state, third only to Emory and the University of Georgia.
At UGA, law school costs about $72,232 for four years, $3,000 more per year and $11,616 more over four years than at Georgia State, where the employment rate is highest.
The average employment rate at Georgia State is 64.5 percent, higher than that of UGA and Emory by more than seven percent.
Sam Shapiro, a rising third year graduate law student said that although he is proud of his college’s accomplishments, he realizes that employment numbers may not reflect how well the job market is doing.
“The 90 percent of students who find jobs doesn’t reflect salaries,” he said. “Employment numbers may not reflect how healthy the job market is.”
A new law building, which began construction this past semester, will be set to open in the fall of 2015 just north of Woodruff Park and will add the needed edge to a law program that seems to be quietly making its mark on the national scale.
“The new building will add more visibility and more connectivity,” English said. “Especially within the larger and smaller communities.”
It will also use 200,000 gross square feet of space and contain 21 classrooms, including a 230-seat formal courtroom/auditorium. Overall, the building will cost the school about $58.8 million.
The College of Law has also promised this to be “an architecturally distinctive and environmentally sustainable building” while still honoring the “historic context of the buildings around it.”
“I am really excited,” Shapiro said. “This will surely increase the value of my degree.”
