http://law.duke.edu/admis/tuition/
Tuition: Full-time law students at Duke Univer$ity will be charged the insane amount of $52,620 in tuition – for the 2013-2014 school year. To put this into perspective, this is higher than the current $52,400 tuition rate at Yale Law School. Isn’t it great to see that the students’ interests are placed first?!?!
Total Cost of Attendance: This same document includes a budget for the 2013-2014 academic year. With fees and living expenses added in, the high priced toilet lists a total, estimated COA of $75,103. Keep in mind that the pigs only consider nine month living costs, when calculating these figures. Surely, they don’t do this in order to deceive lemmings, and make the overall figure lower, right?!?! It MUST be a mere oversight that every single ABA-accredited diploma mill has failed to correct.
Seeing that actual law students will require living expenses over twelve months, I have pro-rated the following four items: rent &; utilities; food; personal; and local transportation. Doing so, we reach a more accurate total COA of $80,797– for 2013-2014. That is one hell of a bargain, huh?!?!
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings
Ranking: According to US “News” & World Report, Duke Univer$ity $chool of Law is the 11th best law school in the country. Who wouldn’t want to incur a king’s ransom in NON-DISCHARGEABLE debt, for such a fancy law degree?!
https://law.duke.edu/career/employmentdata-detail/
Employment Placement Statistics: Based on this chart, there were 225 members of the Duke JD Class of 2012. Of this figure, 217 found some form of employment. Only one grad did not supply his status to the school. As such, the school reported that 96.9% of this class was employed within nine months of graduation, i.e. 217/224.
Scroll down to Employment Type, for a moment. You will notice that 126 graduates of this particular cohort ended up working in private law firms. Three of these positions were full-time, long-term and two of them were listed as part-time, short-term. To be fair to the greedy, gluttonous pigs, 21 JDs were employed by firms of 251-500 lawyers, and another 91 were hired by firm with more than 500 attorneys.
http://abovethelaw.com/2010/06/the-secret-to-100-employed-at-graduation-dukes-bridge-to-practice/
Duke Law’s Bridge to Practice Program: On June 10, 2010, Kashmir Hill posted an ATL entry labeled “The Secret to ‘100% Employed at Graduation’: Duke’s Bridge to Practice.” Look at the excerpt below:
“As Duke Law News reported, Duke worked hard to ensure its graduates had jobs. While it didn’t go the SMU route of paying employers to “test drive” its graduates, it does now provide stipends to some of its unemployed graduates to allow them to work for a couple months at no cost to employers.Using SMU’s car metaphor, the law school pays for the gas while Dukies and prospective employers take a little spin. Duke calls it “The Bridge to Practice” program.
It started in 2008 — employing the nine graduates who would have otherwise ruined that nice round 100%. The numbers of participants have increased since then, as the economy has worsened.” [Emphasis mine]
Yes, a perennial top 12 law school had to resort to this gimmick - in order to bolster its employment placement rate. In fact, this project is still in operation at Duke Law. It is now referred to as a fellowship program.
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/grad-debt-rankings/page+2
Average Law Student Indebtedness:“US News” lists the average law student indebtedness - for those members of the Duke Law Class of 2012 who incurred debt for law school - as $131,092. Hell, 88 percent of this school’s 2012 class took on such foul debt. Remember that this figure does not include undergraduate debt – and it also does not take accrued interest into account, while the student is enrolled.
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2012/560/532/2012-560532129-097adbbf-9.pdf
Outrageous University Salaries: Surprisingly, no member of the law school faculty or administration made the list of highest paid employees. Scroll down to page 90 of this ridiculously lengthy Form 990. You will notice that the head basketball coach, Michael Kryzewski, made $9,682,032 in TOTAL COMPENSATION - for the tax year ending June 30, 2012.
In case you were wondering, the rat’s salary far exceeds that of any NBA head coach - as of August 12, 2013. The highest listed salary is $7 million, even though the season is much longer, the stress is constant and the stakes are significantly higher. Who says that “higher education” doesn’t pay off handsomely?!?!
Conclusion: Duke University School of Law is a place for rich kids. If you don’t belong to “the club,” then you will be out of place at this school. Connections, wealth and having the right family name trump “hard work” – when it comes to securing the best jobs. After all, YOU will be expected to take on an additional $145K-$185K in NON-DISCHARGEABLE debt, for a chance to enter the door. Plus,Biglaw positions are not exactly secure. If you don’t bring in a ton of business or are not on a path to becoming a partner within 3-5 years, you can look forward to being unceremoniously tossed out on your ass.