Boston University - School of Law

Founded in 1872, Boston University's School of Law offers a rigorous curriculum, “a broad range of course offerings,” and more than 20 clinics, externships, and semester-in-practice placements. Additionally, the school holds a “recognition for quality education and students in the legal employment market.” To that end, BU “truly allows students to create the type of experience each individual is looking for” through its variety of choices and structure, and it guarantees every interested student at least one clinical opportunity. Options for those include a variety of traditional and niche areas of the law, including the Startup Law Clinic, in which students assist MIT and BU student entrepreneurs, and the Compassionate Release Practicum, in which students represent terminally ill and permanently disabled inmates petitioning for early release. All externships are under the supervision of an attorney mentor and accompanied by a seminar, though students participating in an Independent Proposal Externship can complete a long paper and submit biweekly journals instead. Semester-in-practice placements give students the chance to study abroad, including a popular placement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva. To bring practice to the classroom, the school employs simulation courses, wherein legal tasks that are required to effectively represent a client in specific types of disputes or transactions are performed. All first-years also take part in a one-week program called Lawyering Lab, in which they “gain hands-on transactional skills that include client counseling, negotiation, and contract drafting.”

The faculty at BU Law are “world-class, but still focused on the student.” Attendees assure that “research or conferences are never put above students' needs,” and professors have “diversity in experience, area of expertise, and research.” They are “quite approachable and willing to answer questions regardless of the complexity.” Everyone also gets the “added benefit of [the professors] truly caring for their students and wanting to put in the time with students to ensure understanding.” While they have “high expectations for us …, they feel manageable.” Additionally, “the administration genuinely cares about us as students” and “is very responsive to student concerns.” Some say that BU Law “is more oriented towards Big Law, but there is a tight-knit public interest community” too, and “the school has unbelievably strong ties to the firms in Boston.” That means there are plenty of “opportunities to network with members of the Boston legal community,” and 200 employers annually interview students both onand off-campus. The library staff are “incredible resources and very willing to help students out.” Plus, there are “a lot of library resources that make accessing anything you may need or want a breeze.”

“Relations amongst students are great” at BU Law. And “although there are many differing viewpoints and ideologies within the student body,” everyone at the school does “a great job of creating an environment in which every student can be heard.” So, while the “majority of students and professors are very liberal and progressive, opinions leaning in the other direction are welcomed and appreciated.” As one student shares, “It was impressive and pleasantly surprising to discover the degree to which our upperclassmen were willing to help us out.” They also describe this as “a lively learning community in which members … consistently push each other”—in a good way. This encouragement extends beyond academics, with the “generally quite friendly” students welcoming their classmates to participate in “a wide array of social events and clubs.” And for those who like to find unstructured entertainment, “Boston is a great city with lots of fun things to do,” and students frequently “hang out together outside the classroom.” BU Law “has state-of-the-art facilities for its students,” and while the entire building is a tower, the school does “a great job of placing classrooms together to minimize the amount of distance students have to walk to get from one room to another.”