Ask Noah About First Year of Law School, Getting inTop 10%, Law Review

[burkoboy]

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Burkobow:

Law schools will see your entire undergraduate GPA, from both schools. The good news is that many schools claim to notice improvement. That is, if you get a 4.0 during your next two years, your 3.55 avg GPA will look "better" than someone who got a 3.55 every year.

As for GPA weighing, engineering students generally get a bump but I haven't heard of a bump for business. I wouldn't count on one.

If you hope to go to law school right after you graduate I highly recommend taking the June 2008 LSAT. If you're happy with your results you can apply to schools as early as September. If you aren't happy you can always retake in September and still get your applications in fairly early. In law school admissions, there is a significant advantage to applying early in the admissions cycle (sept-oct).

Finally, I recommend you take a look at www.lawschooldiscussion.org. There's lots of good advice to be had there.

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the ONLY problem I forsee with taking the June LSAT, is because my school is on [censored] quarter system. I don't finish school until the first week of June.

plus, like said, I want my GPA to be as high as is possibly can, I don't know if 2 1/2 quarters is enough to bring is up significantly even if I do get a 4.0 each quarter, and I don't want studying for the LSAT to get into the way of actual school and vice versa.

[XXXNoahXXX]

If you're that worried about it, take it September of the year before you want to start law school (senior yr. of college). That way, you can study over the summer and still have plenty of time to apply. only downside is that if you botch it, you might have to wait a year to take it again and apply.

[sixfour]

Interesting read, cheers for doing this. Don't really have anything to ask as the whole law system over there seems so much different to what it is here, can't think of anything sensible. Not likely to go into the profession now after the last three years, lol @ a combination of booze, donkaments and a crap school (probably in that order) ****ing things up if I wanted to anyway

[nickg1532]

Noah,

is your 2L experience as crappy as mine?

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ QUOTE ]
Noah,

is your 2L experience as crappy as mine?

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I have not read a single page in preparation for class this semester.

I did the math yesterday, and so far I have been to <20% of my classes.

I have a 20 page assignment for law review due next week.

I spent 4 hours yesterday proofreading an article.

I have been back and forth to NYC like 6 times interviewing.

I am waiting on firms to reimburse me for >$2k travel expenses.


OTOH:

I get to visit my friends in NYC and have firms pay for the flight and hotel and meals.

I get to have nice meals a few times a week, going on interviews.


Most importantly:

I have offers for jobs from firms that I like.




So it's been a mixed bag.

[nickg1532]

i should be like you and not even try to read for class.

law review is kind of a pain. i don't know what your hours requirements are like, but ours suck.

i'm working as a research assistant, so that takes a 10 hours chunk out of each week.

the job search stuff is kind of a pain too. i mean, i enjoy being put up in nice hotels and being treated to good meals, but i'm not productive at all when i'm on a callback.

anyways, this year has been super busy. can't wait til i'm a 3L

[Hey_Porter]

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anyways, this year has been super busy. can't wait til i'm a 3L

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My 2L was actually ok, but 3L was excellent. All I did was play golf two times a week off of student loans and go to the race track every monday. Did that all of May and June before the bar too. That led to a little more anxiety after the exam (as I thought to myself, "damn, I shouldn't have played as much golf"), but I passed, so in hindsight I wouldn't change a thing!

[remi983]

Noah, care to comment on my 1L study strategy:

I'm in a four person study group and each member is assigned 1 course to become an expert on. For instance, I'm the group's expert for contracts. I'm responsible for the group's outline, finding and summarizing the professor's law review articles on contracts, gathering old tets, and consulting nutshells, etc. The other 3 members are responsible for torts, criminal & civ pro.

We'll start exchanging our materials in early October and practice taking exams soon after that. We'll talk out the answers and consult model answers. If we have any questins after that, the designated expert has to ask the professor to explain.

Thoughts?

ps Thank for telling me about High Court Case Summaries. My life is so much easier with them.

[XXXNoahXXX]

remi,

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finding and summarizing the professor's law review articles on contracts

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Dear God. Are you seriously doing this? This goes so far beyond what is necessary that I don't even know what to say. I think if you took a nap during the hours it would take to do this, your time would be better spent and prepare you more for the exam.

In case you don't know yet, law review articles are mostly mental masturbation and ego stroking for professors and academics. 1L contracts exams will deal with offer/acceptance/consideration/mailbox rule. law review articles will deal with UCC section 1.2.4 (a)(3) and how they say "all" instead of "every". basically, don't do this. and if you insist on being psychotic and doing it, each of you should prick your fingers with a pin and take a blood oath to secrecy, because if that got out, you'd look like the biggest tools in the world.

I'm not sure if I like this strategy at all to be perfectly honest. The end result is going to be someone handing over an outline to you. Congrats, you could have done the say thing talking to a 2L or going on your school's website.

I had a study group that I met with 4-5 times for each exam, in the week before the exam, and although none of us were "experts", there was never really any questions that one of us didn't know the answer to.

I guess it could be cool, what you're doing, but don't over-rely on the other people. Subtle differences in the way your brain works and what outline/note style works for you are going to be magnified if you don't have hand in personalizing the outline.


Delegating tasks such as collecting old tests and hornbook photocopying is definitely a good ideas. The rest, I don't know.

My recommendation would be to study for all your classes as if you're on your own. Then view what these people give you as a bonus. You know who is going to be get better grades than someone who is in a group of "experts"? The person who is an expert in all the classes by himself.

[FlyWf]

Noah,
Is your view the conventional wisdom or something that you think because you're smart(because your strategy is what I'm using, right down to considering people toolboxes who are trying to start exam-related nonsense in September)? That was poorly worded, but I think you might be able to figure out what I mean. I need to not [censored] up law school like I [censored] up undergrad, but it seems like all the older students I talk too are already tired of the whole law school thing and are blase about everything("You actually read the casebook? Haha, kids.") and I'm not sure if that's a cynical affectation or reasonable time management. I spent all of undergrad thinking that I was too cool for piddly little [censored] like class so I understand how seductive that mindset can be.

Also, I have a visiting professor for one of my classes. Do you have any hints or ideas as to how we could track down an outline for his class? According to some of the 2 and 3Ls I've talked to there are rumors that previous people in my situation have had success, but nobody has any concrete idea of the actual process.