St.Louis

Anna Donovan: Welcome once again to Applying Yourself, the law school admissions podcast from Washington University School of Law Admissions in St. Louis, Missouri. My name is Anna Donovan. I am the Communications Program Manager.

Naomi Stuart: And my name is Naomi Stewart. I serve as a director in the admissions office, and we also have here, but they’re, they’re not speaking on the podcast, but they are our executive producer.

Anna Donovan: Yes, most certainly we will, our executive producer, Andrea Garay. We could not do this without you.

Naomi Stuart: One man show. We are just the puppets, essentially.

Anna Donovan: Absolutely. Andrea, you’re amazing. We appreciate you. Orchestrates week after week and keeps us on track. We are going to do a little like interloping episode today talking specifically about St. Louis. For anyone who doesn’t know, WashU Law is located in St. Louis, Missouri. That’s where we are right now, recording in this amazing podcast studio on campus, and wanted to, you know, if you want to skip over this episode, honestly, if you’re listening to this episode already, you’re probably just gonna listen to the next seven minutes of us talking about how great the city is, but wanted to hit on some highlights.

You know, any law school, if they’re doing their due diligence, they are besides selling the great academic program of their school and great, you know, outcomes, you know, postgrad and et cetera, really selling up the city and the kind of life that a student can have and how great it is to live in X location, for us, specifically, St. Louis. Today we’re going to talk about some of the things we love and things that we think you will love and hopefully will convince you that you want to apply to law school here about all that St. Louis has to offer.

Naomi Stuart: Yes, and so these podcasts are about things where these are topics, things that we get questions about often and St. Louis is something we get questions about all the time. Yes, I myself, I am originally from San Diego, California, and so I’ve moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and I’ve lived here for over 10 years now. So I have many opinions and I’m always…

Anna Donovan: Yes, absolutely. And I am a lifelong St. Louisan. I love the city so much. It hurts sometimes, and I could go on and on and on and talking about how much I love it and how every student from every corner of the earth would also love this city and love to live here for three years. You know, and we kind of broke it down into some, you know, kind of, I don’t know, topics or kind of things.

Naomi Stuart: Things that we enjoy.

Anna Donovan: Things that we really enjoy. The first one being food.

Naomi Stuart: Yes, accurate. We eat food, we eat food daily. St. Louis, you know, so many of our students, and in talking to prospective students as well, many have not been to St. Louis. They’ve not been to Missouri. They’ve not been to the Midwest. And really, you kind of get them with talking up how good the food is, the affordability of the city and how that certainly plays into the food, but all of the food options, it really pushes against kind of the preconceived notions people have about what the city is like and what the Midwest is like. And we have amazing things to offer here. There’s every kind of food and every kind of budget and every kind of fanciness level. And so we have bakeries that are very much like, you know, being in Europe or when I lived over in Shanghai for a little bit. There are just, there’s a lot of different options, and then also like food from around the world, yeah, Balkan Treat Box.

Anna Donovan: Yeah.

Naomi Stuart: Oh my goodness. James Beard Award winner. Fun fact, St. Louis has the largest population of Bosnian people outside of Bosnia. And, besides that, it is in kind of the, the Balkan-type food options. St. Louis actually is a much more diverse city. We have certainly, you know, people from all over. We have, you know, refugee relocation from like so many different countries, but that also then, you know, then, you know, kind of feeds out into all of these different food options.

Anna Donovan: Food options, one of my favorite places is an Ethiopian place called Meskerem. They’re really like, you give me a food type you like, and I can point out a really delicious, probably very, very affordable restaurant that you can go to that’s, you know, within a few minutes’ drive.

Naomi Stuart: Yes, yes. Fork and Sticks, favorite Thai food I’ve had in any city, bar none.

Anna Donovan: Yes. There are so many Thai options, and I think it’s one of those things where you talk to someone, and they might have a favorite one that’s different than you, but it’s because we have so many options here in so many different neighborhoods all over the place. It’s not just concentrated in one area. Food all over the place. And, you know, I know Naomi mentioned kind of like fancy level, but we have some just incredible chefs here in St. Louis who are deeply invested in this city and have returned to this city from other kind of larger cities and opened some really, really incredible places. And the thing about it that is so nice is that you can go to those places. It is not so far out of your price range, certainly like if you’re, you know, like I need to save up a little bit or this is a special occasion, occasion. But those places, you can get a reservation. You could go to those places. It is accessible. You don’t have to get dressed up so, so fancy, Midwest fancy. That’s a, that’s a whole thing. And it’s nice to be able to try those things, you know, the mix of the high and the low.

Naomi Stuart: Absolutely. And next on our list, so we have, I don’t, it’s kind of an extensive list. We just started listing things and, of course, what came up for me on the list was animals. And so St. Louis, of course, people think, like, oh, San Diego Zoo is so wonderful. It is. The St. Louis Zoo is amazing. They have really, really like incredible, like animal care. I just, all kinds of things going on there. And animals are there from all over, I mean, obviously all over the world. In like special breeding programs, and it just is a really, really incredible zoo, and it’s also free for anyone to go there. So just that access, and it’s, it’s a really amazing institution.

Anna Donovan: Yeah, and, you know, where the Zoo is located, uh, is in Forest Park. It’s this giant urban park that borders campus. WashU’s campus is, is located in such an incredible part of St. Louis, and really the front yard of our institution is Forest Park. Inside that, besides the Zoo, are, you know, so many cultural institutions. We have a ton of art museums, and cultural things in St. Louis. Again, many of which are free. You’re gonna be hearing this a lot from us today about how many free things there are to do, which is amazing to be able to go and experience all of these things.

Naomi Stuart: Yes, the St. Louis Art Museum is free. The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, so that is free. That’s in a little, that’s in a different neighborhood. It’s not in Forest Park, but that is an amazing, amazing museum. They have a very large Richard Serra sculpture there, which is definitely worth seeing. It’s one of the most amazing ones I’ve ever seen. And I definitely wanna take it back to animals.

Anna Donovan: Yeah, please do.

Naomi Stuart: I was not, I was not done with animals.

Anna Donovan: OK, I’m very sorry to cut you off.

Naomi Stuart: It’s OK. The Endangered Wolf Center, and this is just another of many, many examples, but the Endangered Wolf Center, it’s one of the primary in the entire world. They have wolves from all over the world there. And for preserving these populations that are either extinct in the wild or very much diminished in the wild. And the Center is actually run by Washington University, and it is out in the countryside. It’s actually out by where I live in St. Louis, but it’s very much out in a forested area, and you have to have an appointment to go see the wolves. It’s pretty amazing.

Anna Donovan: I will add on to that, uh, Lone Elk Park, um, where you’ve been. You can also drive through and see um all of our beautiful bison. Um, there’s also hiking trails. Um, you know, I think of all of the kind of cultural and kind of sort of more city center things, um, there is such quick and easy access to a lot of a lot of kind of outdoorsy things, hiking trails, camping. There are places where you can go climbing and kayaking. You can do open water swim. You’re training for a triathlon. I’m certainly not training for a triathlon, but there are access to different lakes. Obviously, we have the Mississippi River. I would not suggest a swimming in that one. The Missouri River is OK for, like, water activities, not swimming.

Naomi Stuart: Yes, we do a lot of floating, canoeing, really, like, anything that you’re outdoorsy, you know, itch needs to be scratched, you can find it, you know, in the city or just right outside. And then the wolves are contained in the wolf center. They’re not just, like, out in the outdoorsiness. No worries there.

Anna Donovan: Yes, so, you know. outdoorsy things, we talked about cultural institutions, but really the proximity to all of these things and how many great neighborhoods there are in St. Louis, certainly surrounding campus, but also just across both the St. Louis city and county regions that all have different cafes and certainly restaurants and kind of feel to them. St. Louis is a historical city and has some really beautiful architecture. You can just take a drive around the city. You don’t even have to go do anything or have a destination and really check out kind of the history of the city and how beautiful some of these brick and stone buildings are.

Naomi Stuart: Yes, I actually, this weekend, have you ever been to Maeystown over in Illinois?

Anna Donovan: No.

Naomi Stuart: So, it was a city built in 1852 by German settlers and it’s like all still there. Original, amazing. It was so, so cool and it was like a 30-minute drive.

Anna Donovan: Nice. Yeah, it was amazing. Being in St. Louis, kind of located right on the very, very edge of the state of Missouri, you can just really hop over the river downtown and you’re in Illinois and also have access to a lot of things over in that state as well.

Naomi Stuart: Absolutely. And we’ve highlighted that the city and the county, so in St. Louis, those are two sort of distinct entities. And what law school podcast would be complete without discussing the courts? And so, St. Louis has every level of court with the exception of a state Supreme Court.

Anna Donovan: At some point, we probably needed to tie this back to law school.

Naomi Stuart: Yes, yes. And so, yeah, we have every level. We have federal courts, just every level of court here. So, students are involved in so, so many ways through clinics, through judicial externships. And so our students go all over the country for those, but there’s also abundant opportunity in St. Louis.

Anna Donovan: Absolutely. You know, the thing, when we’re talking to candidates about the law school selection and choosing the school that’s going to be right fit for them. So many of them want to know how they can get involved, you know, besides having their, you know, their nice life and being able to do their hobbies outside of, you know, classes and that sort of thing. They want to make sure that the opportunities to give back to this community, you know, to participate in clinics, but how they are helping underserved communities, how they can start making these networking connections. You mentioned to judges, to alums. There are so many ways to get involved in St. Louis and certainly get both, you know, kind of the legal experience, practical legal experience, but also, you know, have things just really be at your fingertips here in St. Louis. Not many cities can have, you know, a U.S. court of appeals. We have the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals here in St. Louis, which makes us extra, extra special. People come from all over the country and all different law schools to clerk, you know, and want to clerk at the Missouri Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. And it’s, you know, kind of right down the road from us here in St. Louis. But those, you know, opportunities as a student to get involved are just abundant, whether or not students even want to stay here, you know, over summer for internships or post-grad. As Naomi mentioned, kind of our national, international reach. St. Louis is just a really amazing combination of, you know, the life. We would be remiss to say how kind of the cost of living here is low.

Naomi Stuart: How have we not mentioned that yet?

Anna Donovan: Yeah. We talk about that all the time, especially, you know, as our students are finding apartments and moving here and really seeing the difference between that and some bigger cities. And, you know, the bang for your buck, you know, for these at least next three years.

Naomi Stuart: Absolutely. And, you know, also highlighting that our St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office is, um, it’s, it’s a progressive prosecution office, so students can really learn a lot about that process and about progressive prosecution and sort of the proximity or maybe working or interning for the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office. And there are abundant opportunities in the city and the county.

Anna Donovan: Yeah, and for students that fall in love with Saint Louis, I hope they do, and maybe whether or not they’re from here originally, want to stay in Saint Louis. There are public interest opportunities post-grad. We have all different sizes of law firms and large law firms that have offices in Saint Louis, and so those opportunities to really, if you want to kind of settle down and put your roots in Saint Louis, you can do that.

Naomi Stuart: Absolutely. That cost of living makes it so appealing for sure.

Anna Donovan: So appealing. It is very, very nice. Seeing that kind of light bulb go off in students’ eyes when they see what an apartment costs and it’s a fraction of some other cities. Or a home or anything. Buying a home, buying a condo, gas, all of the things really. Like it all ties into, you know, your life and your experience. You know, and when you’re balancing the stress of law school and having kind of that outside life be a very easy, manageable, affordable one full of exciting free, you know, we’re just going to keep saying free over and over, things to do really, we hope, makes the choice very easy for people to choose WashU Law.

Naomi Stuart: Absolutely. Well, if you have any questions about St. Louis, about WashU Law, or the law school application process, please do find us online. law.wustl.edu is our website or you can Google WashU Law and you’ll find us. Please do shoot us an email. Let us know any way we can be of help to you. And we hope you enjoyed our St. Louis podcast today. Thanks so much.

Anna Donovan: Thank you. Goodbye.