NT Law Students School Me On Law School

[trappstar]

Law School is awesome. Lotta work, lotta fun, lotta good people. I love it.

 

[carlos tevez]

Originally Posted by Nako XL

Originally Posted by Carlos Tevez

Originally Posted by aepps20

Originally Posted by Thugnificence

why do they say its hell

Where do I start?

1. The workload is massive(I'm taking a break from my Corporations reading to type this

)
2. The professors are vicious when it comes to class participation. I sometimes think some of my professors enjoy humiliating students more than teaching them
3. The grading curve. An A is only an A relative to how your classmates perform. When you have a class full of people that graduated at top of their class in undergrad you have alot of pressure just to get by.
4. Jealousy- You realize really quick which people are your friends when you get a summer associate position and they don't

Which law school do you attend? How many hours a day do you have to study? How many hours a day will you have to work once you become a lawyer? What is more important in the US, GPA or LSAT? Just wondering because I live in Canada and most law schools here wont even consider you unless you have a 3.5

I go to a top school in nyc,.

I'm in class from 9-5 with a 1 hour break everyday (taking 5 classes this semester, 1 just ended) but i study about 3-4 hours a night after.

When you're first starting out you're going to have to pull 50-80 hour work weeks, typically 6 days a week. Do the math.

A really good LSAT score can cause schools to overlook a bad gpa. more so than vice versa. My lsat was stronger than my gpa, but i wasnt a bad student either way.

And yea, depending where you go to school, the grading curve can either be a blessing or a burden in disguise.

Which school do you go to? What do you mean by the last sentence? Do schools take into account that some Universities mark harder than otherschools? For example, I'm in my 4th year at school and in every single class I've taken in the last 3 years, the class average has been in the C+ to B-range. There is a tremendous amount of grade deflation at my school, at the end of the semester the Profs have to adjust the grades in order to keep"standards high" which usually means making sure that not too many people end up with As.

 

[nako xl]

Originally Posted by Carlos Tevez

Originally Posted by Nako XL

Originally Posted by Carlos Tevez

Originally Posted by aepps20

Originally Posted by Thugnificence

why do they say its hell

Where do I start?

1. The workload is massive(I'm taking a break from my Corporations reading to type this

)
2. The professors are vicious when it comes to class participation. I sometimes think some of my professors enjoy humiliating students more than teaching them
3. The grading curve. An A is only an A relative to how your classmates perform. When you have a class full of people that graduated at top of their class in undergrad you have alot of pressure just to get by.
4. Jealousy- You realize really quick which people are your friends when you get a summer associate position and they don't

Which law school do you attend? How many hours a day do you have to study? How many hours a day will you have to work once you become a lawyer? What is more important in the US, GPA or LSAT? Just wondering because I live in Canada and most law schools here wont even consider you unless you have a 3.5

I go to a top school in nyc,.

I'm in class from 9-5 with a 1 hour break everyday (taking 5 classes this semester, 1 just ended) but i study about 3-4 hours a night after.

When you're first starting out you're going to have to pull 50-80 hour work weeks, typically 6 days a week. Do the math.

A really good LSAT score can cause schools to overlook a bad gpa. more so than vice versa. My lsat was stronger than my gpa, but i wasnt a bad student either way.

And yea, depending where you go to school, the grading curve can either be a blessing or a burden in disguise.

Which school do you go to? What do you mean by the last sentence? Do schools take into account that some Universities mark harder than other schools? For example, I'm in my 4th year at school and in every single class I've taken in the last 3 years, the class average has been in the C+ to B- range. There is a tremendous amount of grade deflation at my school, at the end of the semester the Profs have to adjust the grades in order to keep "standards high" which usually means making sure that not too many people end up with As.

I've posted where I go a few times on NT, but I'm not really huge on completely putting myself out there on here anymore. I'll behappy to answer any of the more personal questions you've got over PM though.

And what I meant by that was, some school (typically the higher ranked/more competitive ones) will have a lot of students who were at the top of their class inundergrad and will ultimately be overachievers in law school. When that school curves the grades on exams/assignments if EVERYONE is pulling off an A from thejump and you're the one student struggling to get by with a C+/B then that curve doesn't really help you at all, but might encourage that professor tograde even harder to get "more realistic" separation between the students and make her particular class not look like a cakewalk.

What this ends up doing is it'll inspire some students to work harder and their grades wont really falter at all or not noticeably, the kids in the middlewill typically stay there or get helped by the curve more now that others are getting grades closer to theirsbut it may do in the other students who werestruggling causing a larger separation and making them stand out from the crowd in a way they don't want to.

or at least that's how i see it. I know some will disagree with me.

 

[impalaballa187]

I'm thinking about doing a joint JD/MBA program after I graduate. Preferably at Harvard or Columbia. Gonna be rough roads ahead.

 

[air bonilla 23]

*Paging HOVKid

 

[b smooth 202]

Make sure you take classes that are intellectually challenging and classes where you get to write.
Hence history major.

Thinking about minoring in philosophy or psychology.

 

[heartofthacity]

How's Hofstra for an undergrad/grad school (considering they offer law) If you major/minor in law related programs as an undergrad-can you still"enjoy" your first 4 years, and then put up with the extensive workload in lawschool?

 

[ravagebx]

I'm in my first year and it's pretty tough, as advertised. Time management is a must. I'm still trying to nail that down. What I hate the most sofar is the apprehension. Everything you do, you will question if it is enough. You no longer have free time and that's what a lot of people don'tunderstand. Say for instance you have 50 hours a week of "free" time. In undergrad you could apportion a dozen of those hours to study and be good.In law school that's not gonna fly. In law school all your free time is actually study time. Out of that study time you need to apportion a few hours aweek to have some semblance of a life. You might go to the gym, watch some tv, whatever. But every hour you don't spend studying you will second guess ifyou should be studying.

And as was mentioned already the curve is really a crazy thing to have to deal with. Some places you can score a 85 and get a C or D in the class becauseeveryone else scored 90 and up. Just think about that. Crazy.

But there are some cool things. I've met a lot of good people and my class is pretty tight knit. We're all in it together for the most part, but weunderstand and respect that everyone is out to be the best. All you can do is try your hardest and hope for the best.

 

[norcalballgirl23]

^^nice to see a 1L in here. bet we could swap stories lol

i'm a 1L too. and WOW i spend waaaayyyy too much time at school. law school is kicking my #** lol soooo much reading and preparation. i'm an analyticalthinker so i enjoy it conceptually but damn! lol

basically it's super demanding, fun at times, kind of a weird community to join but being apart of a legal community is and will be awesome. you and yourfriends will become odd and make dumb law jokes ("learned hand" "tortfeasor" "RPP" "promissory estoppel" "maliceaforethought" etc) BUT they will be hilarious to you at the time so it's worth your non-law school friends being weirded out/thinking you'vebecome square. ummm what else? oh yeah like ravage said, the curve is a monster lol and so is the socratic method. you dunno anything about being on the spotuntil you get cold called in front of 200 people about 1 of the 20 cases you briefed last night and you're still not entirely sure what the rule of law isand how the court changed it from the prior case. IT'S AWESOME lmao

but anyway, the economy is bad, education is always good. so i saw go for it! oh yeah and i almost forgot, bountiful food and alcohol at pretty much everyevent. =)

 

[nycknicks105]

Hovkid could chime in and give you first hand advice.

 

[ravagebx]

Originally Posted by norcalballgirl23

^^nice to see a 1L in here. bet we could swap stories lol

i'm a 1L too. and WOW i spend waaaayyyy too much time at school. law school is kicking my #** lol soooo much reading and preparation. i'm an analytical thinker so i enjoy it conceptually but damn! lol

basically it's super demanding, fun at times, kind of a weird community to join but being apart of a legal community is and will be awesome. you and your friends will become odd and make dumb law jokes ("learned hand" "tortfeasor" "RPP" "promissory estoppel" "malice aforethought" etc) BUT they will be hilarious to you at the time so it's worth your non-law school friends being weirded out/thinking you've become square. ummm what else? oh yeah like ravage said, the curve is a monster lol and so is the socratic method. you dunno anything about being on the spot until you get cold called in front of 200 people about 1 of the 20 cases you briefed last night and you're still not entirely sure what the rule of law is and how the court changed it from the prior case. IT'S AWESOME lmao

but anyway, the economy is bad, education is always good. so i saw go for it! oh yeah and i almost forgot, bountiful food and alcohol at pretty much every event. =)

I bet we could lol. I have this one professor who has a penchant for saying "expound". It's like the running joke amongst myclassmates lol. I can't even hear that word anymore without laughing. And how could I forget the good ol' Socratic method!

at the ungodly longsilences when someone doesn't know the answer.

 

[heartofthacity]

Could an average kid in hs (87ish average) make it in law? Increased studying, dedication, etc. Seems like only the kids that got high 90 gpa's can make itthrough law school..

 

[enlightened thought]

i have a 3.42 gpa right now. hoping for 3.5 by the time i'm done with my undergrad (june)...is that a good nuff gpa or no?

 

[freshhh]

so my counselor said i should consider becoming an economic or political science major?

im taking one of each class next semester and im most likely going to choose econ as my major..

am i going down the wrong path?

id also like to attend Cal-Berkeley for law school. or Hastings in SF. How are those(mainly Hastings) and are there any other good law schools in CA?

 

[wj4]

My friend is a graduate of Loyola Law School here in SoCal and he said the LSAT was no joke..he studied non stop for months in advance. He said that whensomeone would miss a class and ask for notes, some classmates even gave them false notes because at the end of the day...it's all about competition.

 

[nako xl]

Originally Posted by freshhh

so my counselor said i should consider becoming an economic or political science major?

im taking one of each class next semester and im most likely going to choose econ as my major..

am i going down the wrong path?

id also like to attend Cal-Berkeley for law school. or Hastings in SF. How are those(mainly Hastings) and are there any other good law schools in CA?

There's no such thing as a wrong path to law school. The thing is the more you blend into a crowd, i.e. look like every other applicant theyget, the tougher ur chances are going to be. I mean if they get 300 other apps that look just like yours, what about you compels them to choose you? How doyou stand out from the crowd? You feel me? All this "major in this/major in that" talk really means nothing at the end of the day. You could be achem major, as long as your gpa/LSATs are good and your essay and recommendations really paint a picture of you as an individual and unique and interestingperson you're good money. Hell if you CAN major in chem and find a way to tie that into why you're interested in law that's exactly the kind ofuniqueness im talking about. I was an English and Child Development/Psychology double major in college. Hardly the poli-sci/history/econ kid you heareveryone talking about. You just have to find ways to stand out from the crowd and make the schools want to recruit YOU. I have an ex pro hockey player,professional ballet dancer, and a physics phd who taught at michigan st. for 7 years in my section of my class alone. That's cool.

And yeah, Cal has several amazing law schools. They're competitive as hell to get into though (especially Berkley which I believe is the best public lawschool in the country?) so you gotta be on top of your @#!%. No joking around. When you take the LSAT dedicate at least 3 months to nothing but that. It's stupid of me but I'm dying to get out of NYC, so i'm actually putting in transfer aps to USC, Hastings, UCLA, and Berkley right now ...

(i passed up full rides to Southwestern and U. San Fran for this fall)

Originally Posted by norcalballgirl23

^^nice to see a 1L in here. bet we could swap stories lol

i'm a 1L too. and WOW i spend waaaayyyy too much time at school. law school is kicking my #** lol soooo much reading and preparation. i'm an analytical thinker so i enjoy it conceptually but damn! lol

basically it's super demanding, fun at times, kind of a weird community to join but being apart of a legal community is and will be awesome. you and your friends will become odd and make dumb law jokes ("learned hand" "tortfeasor" "RPP" "promissory estoppel" "malice aforethought" etc) BUT they will be hilarious to you at the time so it's worth your non-law school friends being weirded out/thinking you've become square. ummm what else? oh yeah like ravage said, the curve is a monster lol and so is the socratic method. you dunno anything about being on the spot until you get cold called in front of 200 people about 1 of the 20 cases you briefed last night and you're still not entirely sure what the rule of law is and how the court changed it from the prior case. IT'S AWESOME lmao

but anyway, the economy is bad, education is always good. so i saw go for it! oh yeah and i almost forgot, bountiful food and alcohol at pretty much every event. =)

amen, to that!

 

[eight2one]

big ups to anybody that can do this.

 

[b smooth 202]

time to get my GPA up

how is the LSAT btw?

 

[truthmain]

The LSAT seemed harder than the Bar imo, and I'm practicing in California, which is notorious for being one of the most difficult Bars in the country. Take a prep course if you can.

 

[nako xl]

Originally Posted by truthmain

The LSAT seemed harder than the Bar imo, and I'm practicing in California, which is notorious for being one of the most difficult Bars in the country. Take a prep course if you can.

ive heard that's partially (mostly?) a result of maturity and better psychological preparation

 

[jcapo33]

I heard people steal other people's notes and stuff or whole notebooks, copy them and throw them out or do stuff to there laptop..
I also heard people go to the class mad early just to get a seat in the first row.