It’s hard to argue the Georgia State College of Law isn’t giving students what they came for with the highest bar passage rate of all law schools in Georgia in February of this year and 91% of 2018 graduates finding employment within 10 months post-graduation.
Passing the bar exam and finding employment are two of the biggest hurdles law students face post-graduation. But, since its establishment in 1982, the College of Law has earned spots in rankings beyond those two key qualifiers.
In the past few years, the law school has ranked among the top 100 best law schools in the nation.
Getting the best education for the best price is a strong motivator when selecting graduate schools. The College of Law has ranked in the top 10 and top 20 law schools on the “Best Value” list in PreLaw Magazine for the past 12 years. To make this ranking, total debt after graduation, bar passage rates and cost of living are all factored in, according to the College of Law’s website.
Students at Georgia State not only gain an education but also the experience and knowledge that comes with attending a law school with a unique and diverse student body.
The law school is consistently one of the most diverse in the nation, according to The National Jurist magazine.
In 2017 it ranked No. 17 for best law schools in the country for black students, according to Lawyers of Color’s Black Student’s Guide to Law Schools and Firms. It is the only school in the state of Georgia to make the top 25 schools on this list, according to the school’s website.
According to U.S. News and World Report rankings, the College of Law has been ranked No. 21 for their trial advocacy program and No. 26 for their clinical training program for 2020.
Furthermore, employment outcomes and success rates for the graduates of the College of Law speak for themselves.
Of all law schools in Georgia, Georgia State College of Law graduates showed the highest bar passage rate in February 2019.
PreLaw Magazine’s dataset from 2018 law school graduates showed that 91% of the College of Law’s students were employed within 10 months of graduation, earning the College of Law a spot on its “Employment Honor Roll.”
“As word spreads about what a great school Georgia State Law is, we are seeing an increase in applicants from outside the state,” Amy McCarthy, director of the Center for Professional Development and Career Strategies, said.
She explained that this then leads to more students who are interested in going outside of the state to work after graduation. There are College of Law alumni in 49 states, according to McCarthy.
The Center for Professional Development and Career Strategies is offered to students in order to set them on the same successful path that previous graduates have gone down.
The center is designed to connect students to the jobs and goals they wish to obtain and offer students networking opportunities.
“Employers throughout the Atlanta legal community know Georgia State Law’s reputation as producing hard-working, mature graduates who are ready to practice,” McCarthy said. “Therefore, we have a lot of demand for our students.”
McCarthy said that because of this, they invite employers from all legal sectors to come onto campus to hire their students for both summer positions and post-graduate jobs.
“[The College of Law] participates each year in more than 20 national, regional and local job fairs and recruitment programs,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said they go the extra mile to ensure that their students not only land a job, but they land a job they are passionate about.
“The majority of our graduates go into private law firms each year and practice in a variety of specialty areas, including civil litigation, health law, intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, criminal law and more,” McCarthy said.
The College of Law is also feeding their graduates into newer fields of law and government positions.
“We even had a couple of 2019 graduates enter into cyber security and data analytics practices — both new and growing fields of expertise,” McCarthy said. “In addition, a number of our graduates each year go to work for corporations, judges, state and federal government agencies and non-profit organizations.”
With its unique approach and their efforts toward student success, it’s no surprise that they have earned top rankings.
In addition, there are 10 dual-degree programs and a number of clinics geared toward a variety of law concentrations in order to best cater to their students’ career interests, allowing them to specialize in and learn more about what they hope to do in the future.
