We're now two full weeks into the new semester. Amazingly, to this point I've done all my assigned reading *before* class. I've even underlined & highlighted, which tends to fall by the wayside when one gets in a rush. It's late Saturday night, and I've even done all my reading through THIS COMING TUESDAY. I can't explain how this staying-up-to-date has happened, but I almost don't want to know the explanation for fear of somehow screwing it up/jinxing it.
[Maybe I've felt some sort of psychic pressure to do all my reading because three of my five courses now ban laptop use during class? Hard to know if that's the case. I'll leave my thoughts on no-laptop classes for another post.]
Perhaps ever more astonishing than a sudden injection of academic energy is the fact that my sudden studiousness hasn't been accompanied by a lack of out-of-class activities & social engagements. Just last night, there was a basically-the-whole-school-in-attendance Jersey Shore party, complete with themed dress-up requirements. If you don't know what that entails, perhaps it will be made clear by the following explanation of one lady's outfit, described by said lovely lady: "I Googled 'Jersey Shore slutty dresses' and just bought the first thing that came up." General reaction of the crowd to the selected dress: (J)WOW(W).
A good time was had by all.
And so, while I kind of wish I had been in DC for this weekend's Snopocalypse, things here are pretty cool, too.
***
Showing posts with label class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label class. Show all posts
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Picking Classes: Help Requested
I have a (relatively short) paper due at 4pm tomorrow/today. Instead of doing the pre-reading necessary to write the paper, I am procrastinating. By picking possible classes for next semester.
Some of my "maybe" list, generally listed in order from "most black letter law-like" to "this is not actually a law school class, right?":
* Criminal Law (the one class I still have to take)
* Evidence
* Trademarks & Unfair Competition
* Trial Practice
* Business Organizations
* Family Law
* Elements of Effective Legal Writing
* The Book of Job & Injustice
* Ethics in Literature
* Economics of Education (this is actually not a class offered at the Law School, but in the Economics department...still, I can get Law School credit for it anyway)
I have to pick two of these, basically, to fill my spring schedule. Any suggestions? Course descriptions available here.
**
Some of my "maybe" list, generally listed in order from "most black letter law-like" to "this is not actually a law school class, right?":
* Criminal Law (the one class I still have to take)
* Evidence
* Trademarks & Unfair Competition
* Trial Practice
* Business Organizations
* Family Law
* Elements of Effective Legal Writing
* The Book of Job & Injustice
* Ethics in Literature
* Economics of Education (this is actually not a class offered at the Law School, but in the Economics department...still, I can get Law School credit for it anyway)
I have to pick two of these, basically, to fill my spring schedule. Any suggestions? Course descriptions available here.
**
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Fell Off the Wagon
I had been doing really well with staying caught up on my class reading this semester. Better than I had all last year - even better than during the first few weeks of 1L fall, when I was pretty much just overwhelmed. For the past four weeks, I'd done all my federal tax reading! All my neuroscience & the law reading! Even (okay, almost) all my insurance & public policy reading!
Then something happened. I don't know what it was. Probably the nine & counting straight weekends of traveling. Maybe the change in weather. Maybe the explosion of my inbox while I was in dialup-only internet access territory this past weekend. Maybe the realization that if I didn't do all my reading last year and it turned out okay, I probably don't need to do all my reading this year. Whatever it was, I hit the proverbial wall some time on Sunday/Monday and just decided to take it easy this week. Inevitably, that means I won't probably ever get back to my studious start-of-semester self, but that's fine with me.
Sometimes - like yesterday morning at 9:05am as I sat bleary-eyed and dreadfully in need of caffeine near the back of Federal Income Tax - I see the eager to please transfer students with their perfectly organized binders of printed case briefs and think, "Wow, they are so on top of it - if they can do it, surely I can do my reading and show up to class prepared, too." Then I snap back to reality, where the transfers largely come from schools where it's expected that you brief cases ahead of time and be ready to answer grueling Socratic questions or else you won't stand out and be impressive and get the teacher recommendations that you need to do xyz... And I sort of pity them because, well, as I look around the room, nobody except the transfers (including the 3Ls who transferred last year...I guess old habits die hard?) seems to have case briefs neatly organized in a binder.
I don't really want to venture a guess as to what that says about the rest of us, who don't have 100% perfect attendance and sometimes beg off answering when called upon. We were raised by the law school equivalent of wolves? We generally feel like we have more important things to do than prepare for class? We're just not morning people? I don't really know. But it makes me feel better not to be the only one who's quickly and relatively shamelessly fallen off the wagon.
**
Then something happened. I don't know what it was. Probably the nine & counting straight weekends of traveling. Maybe the change in weather. Maybe the explosion of my inbox while I was in dialup-only internet access territory this past weekend. Maybe the realization that if I didn't do all my reading last year and it turned out okay, I probably don't need to do all my reading this year. Whatever it was, I hit the proverbial wall some time on Sunday/Monday and just decided to take it easy this week. Inevitably, that means I won't probably ever get back to my studious start-of-semester self, but that's fine with me.
Sometimes - like yesterday morning at 9:05am as I sat bleary-eyed and dreadfully in need of caffeine near the back of Federal Income Tax - I see the eager to please transfer students with their perfectly organized binders of printed case briefs and think, "Wow, they are so on top of it - if they can do it, surely I can do my reading and show up to class prepared, too." Then I snap back to reality, where the transfers largely come from schools where it's expected that you brief cases ahead of time and be ready to answer grueling Socratic questions or else you won't stand out and be impressive and get the teacher recommendations that you need to do xyz... And I sort of pity them because, well, as I look around the room, nobody except the transfers (including the 3Ls who transferred last year...I guess old habits die hard?) seems to have case briefs neatly organized in a binder.
I don't really want to venture a guess as to what that says about the rest of us, who don't have 100% perfect attendance and sometimes beg off answering when called upon. We were raised by the law school equivalent of wolves? We generally feel like we have more important things to do than prepare for class? We're just not morning people? I don't really know. But it makes me feel better not to be the only one who's quickly and relatively shamelessly fallen off the wagon.
**
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Choosing Battles
Today has been a day unlike any other. Partially because, well, every day around here is different...and partially because it was full of some great highs (the possibility of an exciting part-time job as a teaching assistant in Yale College; anticipation of an impending reunion in DC this weekend; dinner with a good friend) and some obnoxious lows (a difficult phone call with a clinic client; a piece of news uncharitably delivered via Facebook newsfeed). For some reason, the first couple weeks of a semester are a time for reconsideration and rebirth - both good and bad - and the past few days have been no exception.
One of the challenges of 2L is the realization that "1Ls do all the busywork, 2Ls are in charge, and 3Ls tune out" is often truer than one might like to believe. Most organizations are run by 2Ls, and while some of the groups I'm involved in are a huge source of positive energy, others tend to be a bit of a drain. A few times, I've found myself thinking, "Why did I sign up for this again?!? How did I let someone convince me to be in charge of this??"
It's always been hard for me to say no when asked to help out...and to acknowledge that I can't and don't want to do everything is certainly a positive change that I'm trying to make for myself. I was trying to explain to a 1L friend of mine today that 1L fall is all about trying lots of new things, but that you shouldn't feel obligated to do *everything*...and I felt like I should have been giving myself the same advice. As my calendar fills up with color-coded obligations from morning till night, it gets harder and harder to prioritize class reading (which, let's face it, is almost always my lowest priority), clinic projects, journal work (honestly, I'm scared to check my journal's email account that I've let languish for at least two months), and research & other part-time work...especially against spending time with old friends and nurturing new relationships. One of my goals is to be more purposeful this semester - thinking seriously about how I use and commit my time, both to myself and others.
**
One of the challenges of 2L is the realization that "1Ls do all the busywork, 2Ls are in charge, and 3Ls tune out" is often truer than one might like to believe. Most organizations are run by 2Ls, and while some of the groups I'm involved in are a huge source of positive energy, others tend to be a bit of a drain. A few times, I've found myself thinking, "Why did I sign up for this again?!? How did I let someone convince me to be in charge of this??"
It's always been hard for me to say no when asked to help out...and to acknowledge that I can't and don't want to do everything is certainly a positive change that I'm trying to make for myself. I was trying to explain to a 1L friend of mine today that 1L fall is all about trying lots of new things, but that you shouldn't feel obligated to do *everything*...and I felt like I should have been giving myself the same advice. As my calendar fills up with color-coded obligations from morning till night, it gets harder and harder to prioritize class reading (which, let's face it, is almost always my lowest priority), clinic projects, journal work (honestly, I'm scared to check my journal's email account that I've let languish for at least two months), and research & other part-time work...especially against spending time with old friends and nurturing new relationships. One of my goals is to be more purposeful this semester - thinking seriously about how I use and commit my time, both to myself and others.
**
Monday, September 7, 2009
Too Much to Do in 2L
Classes have been going for just under a week around here, and things are already moving quickly. Of course, we had FIP way back in what feels like a past life (really only two weeks ago...really?!), and now everyone is scattered to the wind trying to do callbacks as quickly and efficiently as possible [unlike at HLS, here at YLS we don't have a dedicated "fly-out week" so everyone has to make their own callback schedule]. On any given weekend, a good number of people have been out of town.
I myself just got back from visiting Cambridge (with a brief foray into Boston on Saturday) for a few days...though this trip was strictly for fun. It was great to see Cat - and her new bike - and a handful of other good friends, especially since the New England weather cooperated with us so nicely as we walked around Cambridge and played badminton in a parking lot. I was so exhausted from all the weekend's fun that I slept the entire train ride back to New Haven, even though some Yale undergrad thought it smart to watch a movie without headphones right behind me.
The weekend was great to rest up before what promises to be a busy week full of classes (I'm taking one black letter class, my clinic, a couple fun-sounding courses, and probably a reading group), clinic meetings, club meetings, and an interview trip later in the week. I'm also really looking forward to catching up with a few new 1Ls that I haven't had a chance to meet up with yet this semester. All in all, if this semester keeps moving as quickly as it has, interviews will be done and finals will be here before we have a chance to enjoy the autumn colors.
**
I myself just got back from visiting Cambridge (with a brief foray into Boston on Saturday) for a few days...though this trip was strictly for fun. It was great to see Cat - and her new bike - and a handful of other good friends, especially since the New England weather cooperated with us so nicely as we walked around Cambridge and played badminton in a parking lot. I was so exhausted from all the weekend's fun that I slept the entire train ride back to New Haven, even though some Yale undergrad thought it smart to watch a movie without headphones right behind me.
The weekend was great to rest up before what promises to be a busy week full of classes (I'm taking one black letter class, my clinic, a couple fun-sounding courses, and probably a reading group), clinic meetings, club meetings, and an interview trip later in the week. I'm also really looking forward to catching up with a few new 1Ls that I haven't had a chance to meet up with yet this semester. All in all, if this semester keeps moving as quickly as it has, interviews will be done and finals will be here before we have a chance to enjoy the autumn colors.
**
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Slightly Less than 14 Hours to Go...
...or at least, until I *really* need to start my Property exam. Most of our exams are self-scheduled, meaning we can take them any time during the two-week exam period. Almost everyone I know has left at least one of their exams until precariously late in that period, which ends tomorrow at 5pm. I am one of those people. Property makes me want to die.
But not actually, you know? Sure, it's not the *most* thrilling topic (Cat, I know you agree with me on that!), but it could be worse. Still, I kind of blew off Property this semester for a host of reasons, and now I've let it go on too long - kind of like a relationship that you know you have to break off, but you kind of hope it'll get better if you just wait and see? [I'm pretty sure "wait and see" is a doctrine relevant somehow to property law...in the Rule Against Perpetuities?]
So here I am, the night before I absolutely need to take Property, and I'm wasting time falling in love with this blog: http://tinyartdirector.blogspot.com/ [Premise: Awesome artist father gets instructions from young daughter about what to draw. Father draws. Daughter critiques, and either accepts or rejects, often while saying something outlandish and/or funny.]
***
But not actually, you know? Sure, it's not the *most* thrilling topic (Cat, I know you agree with me on that!), but it could be worse. Still, I kind of blew off Property this semester for a host of reasons, and now I've let it go on too long - kind of like a relationship that you know you have to break off, but you kind of hope it'll get better if you just wait and see? [I'm pretty sure "wait and see" is a doctrine relevant somehow to property law...in the Rule Against Perpetuities?]
So here I am, the night before I absolutely need to take Property, and I'm wasting time falling in love with this blog: http://tinyartdirector.blogspot.com/ [Premise: Awesome artist father gets instructions from young daughter about what to draw. Father draws. Daughter critiques, and either accepts or rejects, often while saying something outlandish and/or funny.]
***
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Comp-You-Serve?
Someone asked me this week whether lots of people use computers in class, and how that affects the class environment. A few observations:
* Yes, most people use computers to "take notes" during class. [Assuming, of course, that the professor allows computers...at least here, professors have the option to forbid use of computers in class. Most don't care.] I'd say maybe 90% of students use computers...maybe 95%? A few holdouts take notes in old-school notebooks. One aspiring academic writes with fountain pens in leather-bound journals, which is just adorable and very Yale.
* As you might expect, "taking notes" with a computer can mean a lot more than just writing down what's being said in class. The best multitaskers among us usually have their notes, a handful of internet tabs, and at least two or three gchat conversations going on at the same time. Sometimes I throw a spreadsheet or a reading for another class into the mix (in one class in particular each semester so far, distractions have been sorely needed).
Of course, it might be the case that people don't concentrate as much/tune out the conversation more often when they're focused on their screen rather than what's going on in class and sometimes that puts you at risk of an embarrassingly out-of-the-blue cold calling. Honestly, it's usually a risk I'm willing to face head-on. If I didn't do *something* else during class, I'd probably go insane, even in my most engaging courses that I love. Contracts last semester was WAY more fun when 50% of our class was simultaneously in a gchatroom, commenting on what was being said in class - very meta.
There are obviously trade-offs, and certainly some things can go wrong (as is always the case with technology). So, a few things to be mindful of - for some reason, they all have to do with gchat:
* It's generally not a good idea to video chat (even silently) w/ your significant other during class, especially if you're not sitting in the back row. Even if you're just taking/sending static pictures of yourselves with your build in iCam, it's a little (or a lot?) weird.
* Don't forget to turn off the sound for your IMs. You don't want to be the one to make it obvious to the professor that nobody's paying full attention.
* When the (online) conversation gets really good/funny, be mindful of the conversation that's going on in person...you don't want to crack a smile when the discussion has turned to abortion, rape, civil rights abuses, or dying horrible deaths.
* Be careful about leaving your gchat convos up on your screen during break, or when a particularly leery neighbor is perched nearby. I had a terribly awkward incident last week (the content of which I won't reveal here, because it's just so ridiculous) that really drove home this lesson. [In other words, do as I say, not as I do...]
***
* Yes, most people use computers to "take notes" during class. [Assuming, of course, that the professor allows computers...at least here, professors have the option to forbid use of computers in class. Most don't care.] I'd say maybe 90% of students use computers...maybe 95%? A few holdouts take notes in old-school notebooks. One aspiring academic writes with fountain pens in leather-bound journals, which is just adorable and very Yale.
* As you might expect, "taking notes" with a computer can mean a lot more than just writing down what's being said in class. The best multitaskers among us usually have their notes, a handful of internet tabs, and at least two or three gchat conversations going on at the same time. Sometimes I throw a spreadsheet or a reading for another class into the mix (in one class in particular each semester so far, distractions have been sorely needed).
Of course, it might be the case that people don't concentrate as much/tune out the conversation more often when they're focused on their screen rather than what's going on in class and sometimes that puts you at risk of an embarrassingly out-of-the-blue cold calling. Honestly, it's usually a risk I'm willing to face head-on. If I didn't do *something* else during class, I'd probably go insane, even in my most engaging courses that I love. Contracts last semester was WAY more fun when 50% of our class was simultaneously in a gchatroom, commenting on what was being said in class - very meta.
There are obviously trade-offs, and certainly some things can go wrong (as is always the case with technology). So, a few things to be mindful of - for some reason, they all have to do with gchat:
* It's generally not a good idea to video chat (even silently) w/ your significant other during class, especially if you're not sitting in the back row. Even if you're just taking/sending static pictures of yourselves with your build in iCam, it's a little (or a lot?) weird.
* Don't forget to turn off the sound for your IMs. You don't want to be the one to make it obvious to the professor that nobody's paying full attention.
* When the (online) conversation gets really good/funny, be mindful of the conversation that's going on in person...you don't want to crack a smile when the discussion has turned to abortion, rape, civil rights abuses, or dying horrible deaths.
* Be careful about leaving your gchat convos up on your screen during break, or when a particularly leery neighbor is perched nearby. I had a terribly awkward incident last week (the content of which I won't reveal here, because it's just so ridiculous) that really drove home this lesson. [In other words, do as I say, not as I do...]
***
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Germ Overload
Ugh. The past few days have been horrible. Somehow (I might blame a loooong night out on Saturday, but that might be just a tad unfair) I ended up really sick - I literally have about 5-15% of my voice at any given moment. I have a terrible cough. My throat hurts. My head hurts. I'm tired all the time.
Mom and grandma say: "Go to the doctor!"
I say: "I don't have TIME to go to the doctor!"
Like in college, of course it's okay to miss class every so often - I skipped class (and one in particular) a LOT in fall semester; now, though, since I have three uber-small (under 15 people) classes, I feel pretty bad about missing class - even for a totally legit reason. And, I already took a few days off for job interviews, etc. So I was hoping to get to the magicalness that is spring break without any more interruptions. Bah.
So, I've been dragging myself to class, meetings, and appointments the past couple days, despite being in an obvious state of malhealth. Part of the bad thing about being at a small school is that students have to (or get guilted to) take on responsibility in student groups really early: today I had a client meeting I couldn't reschedule for clinic (thank goodness my 3L partner could take the lead!), and I still had to tend to journal and extracurricular obligations. Not to mention my part-time job.
I had promised myself that I'd be careful & not get overcommitted like I did in undergrad, but it's just SO HARD to say no sometimes, especially to things that sound really fun! So this week, my non-class tasks got prioritized above reading for class (I figured if I have no voice, I can't really be asked to participate in discussion - right?!?). And I'm sleeping a lot. And hopefully I'll be fully recovered in time to enjoy my warm-weather getaway come next weekend.
***
Mom and grandma say: "Go to the doctor!"
I say: "I don't have TIME to go to the doctor!"
Like in college, of course it's okay to miss class every so often - I skipped class (and one in particular) a LOT in fall semester; now, though, since I have three uber-small (under 15 people) classes, I feel pretty bad about missing class - even for a totally legit reason. And, I already took a few days off for job interviews, etc. So I was hoping to get to the magicalness that is spring break without any more interruptions. Bah.
So, I've been dragging myself to class, meetings, and appointments the past couple days, despite being in an obvious state of malhealth. Part of the bad thing about being at a small school is that students have to (or get guilted to) take on responsibility in student groups really early: today I had a client meeting I couldn't reschedule for clinic (thank goodness my 3L partner could take the lead!), and I still had to tend to journal and extracurricular obligations. Not to mention my part-time job.
I had promised myself that I'd be careful & not get overcommitted like I did in undergrad, but it's just SO HARD to say no sometimes, especially to things that sound really fun! So this week, my non-class tasks got prioritized above reading for class (I figured if I have no voice, I can't really be asked to participate in discussion - right?!?). And I'm sleeping a lot. And hopefully I'll be fully recovered in time to enjoy my warm-weather getaway come next weekend.
***
Monday, February 9, 2009
Gunning with an AK-47
Every prospective law student has heard lore about "gunners " - even Wikipedia has an entertaining description. I kind of assumed that we'd have a good share of them here, since there are SO many uber-smart people - surely, *somebody* would want everyone else to know how smart he/she is, too.
In a way, though, there's an assumption that everyone here is pretty intelligent. So most people don't feel the need to show off. Some of the smartest people I know here don't talk in class. Ever. Last semester, with the exception of one or two people in two of my three larger (about 50-60 student) classes, everyone was pretty calm and reserved - saying things when they were important, but generally letting the professor guide the discussion. [The few exceptions, of course, were pretty blatantly obvious...and led everyone else to kind of snicker about those particular individuals' desire to hear themselves talk.] In general, I felt pretty lucky, though...nobody was a gunner to the point of driving me insane, and the professors managed class discussion well enough so that the same people didn't talk all the time.
This semester, things have changed for the worse. In one of my classes, there are 2 or 3 individuals that make probably 65-75% of the comments in class. And they're not particularly brilliant comments, either. They're often what everyone else is thinking, but everyone else doesn't feel the need to share with 80 other people. If they're not saying what everyone else is thinking, the likelihood of anyone else caring is (generously) slightly greater than zero, and the content of their comments ranges from delirious philosophical babbling to wacky hypotheticals.
As a result, I've pretty much stopped paying attention in this particular class. I sit waaaaay on the left side of the room, and since the professor doesn't cold call, there's no worry of needing to participate if I don't want to. I've admittedly already stopped doing all the reading (b/c, really, something's gotta give with my clinic work taking over my life)...and since it's a "black letter law" class, I can probably just relatively blow it off and study some hornbooks at the end of the semester and be fine. Obviously, this is where the "no grades" system here is a good thing - I'll take my "P" and move right along, thankyouverymuch.
***
In a way, though, there's an assumption that everyone here is pretty intelligent. So most people don't feel the need to show off. Some of the smartest people I know here don't talk in class. Ever. Last semester, with the exception of one or two people in two of my three larger (about 50-60 student) classes, everyone was pretty calm and reserved - saying things when they were important, but generally letting the professor guide the discussion. [The few exceptions, of course, were pretty blatantly obvious...and led everyone else to kind of snicker about those particular individuals' desire to hear themselves talk.] In general, I felt pretty lucky, though...nobody was a gunner to the point of driving me insane, and the professors managed class discussion well enough so that the same people didn't talk all the time.
This semester, things have changed for the worse. In one of my classes, there are 2 or 3 individuals that make probably 65-75% of the comments in class. And they're not particularly brilliant comments, either. They're often what everyone else is thinking, but everyone else doesn't feel the need to share with 80 other people. If they're not saying what everyone else is thinking, the likelihood of anyone else caring is (generously) slightly greater than zero, and the content of their comments ranges from delirious philosophical babbling to wacky hypotheticals.
As a result, I've pretty much stopped paying attention in this particular class. I sit waaaaay on the left side of the room, and since the professor doesn't cold call, there's no worry of needing to participate if I don't want to. I've admittedly already stopped doing all the reading (b/c, really, something's gotta give with my clinic work taking over my life)...and since it's a "black letter law" class, I can probably just relatively blow it off and study some hornbooks at the end of the semester and be fine. Obviously, this is where the "no grades" system here is a good thing - I'll take my "P" and move right along, thankyouverymuch.
***
Monday, February 2, 2009
And so it begins, all over again
A new semester, a new computer, and a frustrating inability to find a job. This is the trifecta of a second semester law school student (well, I guess not everyone poured a full cup of water on their old computer...)
Is becoming a 1.5L better than just being a plain old 1L? I don't know. It's hard to tell, but classes do seem a lot less stressful. Being cold-called is less intimidating, you know the other kids, and even the reading seems shorter. Of course, the real work hasn't really begun yet, so check in with me in about a month.
In other news, Boston continues cold and snow-covered. I've started having dreams at night about falling asleep somewhere very sunny and warm. Recently, I watched someone with knee-high rain boots step into a sleet-filled puddle that was just a little to deep (really, we do have puddles that big in Boston.) On the other hand, my plants have started blooming. My biology PHD friend explained that they had to get cold and deal with shorter sunlight, a.k.a. being vernalized (I'm definitely not spelling that right) before they could bloom. So, I guess that's my silver lining of the Boston winter and my high note to end on.
Is becoming a 1.5L better than just being a plain old 1L? I don't know. It's hard to tell, but classes do seem a lot less stressful. Being cold-called is less intimidating, you know the other kids, and even the reading seems shorter. Of course, the real work hasn't really begun yet, so check in with me in about a month.
In other news, Boston continues cold and snow-covered. I've started having dreams at night about falling asleep somewhere very sunny and warm. Recently, I watched someone with knee-high rain boots step into a sleet-filled puddle that was just a little to deep (really, we do have puddles that big in Boston.) On the other hand, my plants have started blooming. My biology PHD friend explained that they had to get cold and deal with shorter sunlight, a.k.a. being vernalized (I'm definitely not spelling that right) before they could bloom. So, I guess that's my silver lining of the Boston winter and my high note to end on.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
All Good Things Must Come to an End
Sorry for a period of relative (posting) inactivity. Luckily, the last week or so was spent in a state of relative intellectual inactivity (for both Cat & me, as both our schools had vacation until classes resumed yesterday).
Quick update: I spent "vacation" in Massachusetts. My last final (con law - which we could take anywhere in the world, thanks to the magic of the internet) was, somewhat ironically, on the morning of January 20th. After relatively blowing off that exam (reason explained more below) and watching the inaugural events while baking cookies, I had a few unencumbered days in Boston, give or take a few meetings and some summer job search nonsense. Got to see some people I love: my long-lost college roommate whose boyfriend just transferred to HLS; my former classmate who worked with me in DC last year and moved to Boston in August; Cat(!!) and her boyfriend; another friend who is doing his PhD at MIT [and who I know reads this - See, you're famous now!]. After a few more days of seeing friends and some volunteering, I had to come back Sunday evening, totally unprepared for the onslaught of beginning-of-semester craziness.
Buying books. Choosing classes. Starting clinic. Figuring out how to get paid for my TAing job. Figuring out how to get my student loan money refunded so I can pay rent. Lots of fun stuff.
In short: my new classes (two small 20ish person courses - one of which has VERY little to do with law, one large "black letter" class, and clinic) are awesome so far. Since I've only been to each one once, not too much to say yet...but I think it'll make a huge difference that we get to pick all our classes this semester - so I can't blame anyone but myself if I don't like the material/don't do the reading.
On the flip side, this semester will require some marginal amount of work beyond what was expected of us last semester (which was all "pass/fail"), since we now get graded with either "honors" or "pass." So I should redouble my efforts to stay caught up with reading, and to go to class regularly. I'll keep you updated as to how long that lasts...I have a feeling clinic might become a big time commitment that pushes some other things out, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing as my clinic involves doing stuff that I'm truly interested in.
A bunch of people have asked about how finals wrapped up. In sum: they're done, and not getting a grade makes it super-easy not to ever think about them again. In more detail:
Torts: First law school exam ever. More details here.
Contracts: Since contracts & procedure were both self-scheduled (we could take them any time we wanted between January 7th and January 21st), some people took this pretty early on to get it over with...our professor suggested that she'd do no more than take a cursory glance at our exams, so there wasn't much worry about knocking it out of the park. After reading over a couple of other people's/Lexis's outlines, I took this at 1am-3am one day. The fact pattern was truly interesting...I'd be interested to see the model answer, as I think there were a number of ways to go with it.
Procedure: It would not be an overstatement to call this the relative bane of my existence as far as exams went. We had to do a take-home essay before starting the timed portion, and I had kind of blissfully forgotten about that during the holidays. I ended up writing something relatively cogent (maybe?) examining the Guantanamo habeas proceedings from a feminist perspective. The actual timed portion of the exam (3.5 hours) had a rather extensive issue spotting question, and a relatively painless (read: we'd harped on the issue for DAYS in class) policy question. In the end, I kind of psyched myself out for this exam (the only one for which a professor is giving personalized feedback to everyone in the class, without students asking specifically)...but hopefully the extra two days of "studying" resulted in me not embarassing myself (meaning, after I actually read an outline, I knew that a state's attachment rule had nothing to do with the stapling/binding of filings).
Con Law: By the time the 20th rolled around, I was SUPER-glad that my professor had told us that he wasn't going to read our exams. He told us we didn't need to write anything, in fact. It was "for [us], not [him]," and if we wanted feedback, he'd give us comments...but there was no need to prove we knew con law on an exam, as he knew from our small group seminar that we all knew con law. Sweet. As a result, a few people just wrote "Thanks for a great semester!" or something similar...and the rest of us sort of halfway wrote something relating to the questions.
So yeah. That's the end of first semester 1L. Now we're in the big leagues, taking all our classes with 2Ls and 3Ls and getting more involved in activities and clinics. If the last two days are any indication, that's going to mean 10-12 hour days at school...no easy welcome to spring semester, I guess.
***
Quick update: I spent "vacation" in Massachusetts. My last final (con law - which we could take anywhere in the world, thanks to the magic of the internet) was, somewhat ironically, on the morning of January 20th. After relatively blowing off that exam (reason explained more below) and watching the inaugural events while baking cookies, I had a few unencumbered days in Boston, give or take a few meetings and some summer job search nonsense. Got to see some people I love: my long-lost college roommate whose boyfriend just transferred to HLS; my former classmate who worked with me in DC last year and moved to Boston in August; Cat(!!) and her boyfriend; another friend who is doing his PhD at MIT [and who I know reads this - See, you're famous now!]. After a few more days of seeing friends and some volunteering, I had to come back Sunday evening, totally unprepared for the onslaught of beginning-of-semester craziness.
Buying books. Choosing classes. Starting clinic. Figuring out how to get paid for my TAing job. Figuring out how to get my student loan money refunded so I can pay rent. Lots of fun stuff.
In short: my new classes (two small 20ish person courses - one of which has VERY little to do with law, one large "black letter" class, and clinic) are awesome so far. Since I've only been to each one once, not too much to say yet...but I think it'll make a huge difference that we get to pick all our classes this semester - so I can't blame anyone but myself if I don't like the material/don't do the reading.
On the flip side, this semester will require some marginal amount of work beyond what was expected of us last semester (which was all "pass/fail"), since we now get graded with either "honors" or "pass." So I should redouble my efforts to stay caught up with reading, and to go to class regularly. I'll keep you updated as to how long that lasts...I have a feeling clinic might become a big time commitment that pushes some other things out, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing as my clinic involves doing stuff that I'm truly interested in.
A bunch of people have asked about how finals wrapped up. In sum: they're done, and not getting a grade makes it super-easy not to ever think about them again. In more detail:
Torts: First law school exam ever. More details here.
Contracts: Since contracts & procedure were both self-scheduled (we could take them any time we wanted between January 7th and January 21st), some people took this pretty early on to get it over with...our professor suggested that she'd do no more than take a cursory glance at our exams, so there wasn't much worry about knocking it out of the park. After reading over a couple of other people's/Lexis's outlines, I took this at 1am-3am one day. The fact pattern was truly interesting...I'd be interested to see the model answer, as I think there were a number of ways to go with it.
Procedure: It would not be an overstatement to call this the relative bane of my existence as far as exams went. We had to do a take-home essay before starting the timed portion, and I had kind of blissfully forgotten about that during the holidays. I ended up writing something relatively cogent (maybe?) examining the Guantanamo habeas proceedings from a feminist perspective. The actual timed portion of the exam (3.5 hours) had a rather extensive issue spotting question, and a relatively painless (read: we'd harped on the issue for DAYS in class) policy question. In the end, I kind of psyched myself out for this exam (the only one for which a professor is giving personalized feedback to everyone in the class, without students asking specifically)...but hopefully the extra two days of "studying" resulted in me not embarassing myself (meaning, after I actually read an outline, I knew that a state's attachment rule had nothing to do with the stapling/binding of filings).
Con Law: By the time the 20th rolled around, I was SUPER-glad that my professor had told us that he wasn't going to read our exams. He told us we didn't need to write anything, in fact. It was "for [us], not [him]," and if we wanted feedback, he'd give us comments...but there was no need to prove we knew con law on an exam, as he knew from our small group seminar that we all knew con law. Sweet. As a result, a few people just wrote "Thanks for a great semester!" or something similar...and the rest of us sort of halfway wrote something relating to the questions.
So yeah. That's the end of first semester 1L. Now we're in the big leagues, taking all our classes with 2Ls and 3Ls and getting more involved in activities and clinics. If the last two days are any indication, that's going to mean 10-12 hour days at school...no easy welcome to spring semester, I guess.
***
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Things I Did Not Know About Contracts (Until Now)
After two days of doing literally nothing productive other than grocery shopping and going to the gym, I am making myself study for contracts. It turns out (not exactly unpredictably) that I didn't learn all that much in contracts class. Here are some interesting things I have learned about contracts so far in my exam preparation:
Louisiana is the only state that has not signed onto the Uniform Commercial Code.
Generally, courts hold that in telephonic or face-to-face communications in which an offer is made, the offer lapses when the conversation terminates in the absence of a clear indication that the offer remains open beyond the conversation.
A party that was intoxicated when the contract was made may avoid the contract only if the other party had reason to know that, by reason of intoxication, the party was unable to understand the nature and consequences of the transaction or was unable to act in a reasonable manner in relation to the transaction.
Where a party's duty is conditioned on his own approval of the other party's performance, courts generally enforce such condition – even if the other party will suffer forfeiture – where approval concerns a matter of aesthetics or taste, and the disapproval is based on honest dissatisfaction.
Cool, eh?
***
p.s. It turns out, I didn't need to know any of those things for my contracts exam. Oh well.
Louisiana is the only state that has not signed onto the Uniform Commercial Code.
Generally, courts hold that in telephonic or face-to-face communications in which an offer is made, the offer lapses when the conversation terminates in the absence of a clear indication that the offer remains open beyond the conversation.
A party that was intoxicated when the contract was made may avoid the contract only if the other party had reason to know that, by reason of intoxication, the party was unable to understand the nature and consequences of the transaction or was unable to act in a reasonable manner in relation to the transaction.
Where a party's duty is conditioned on his own approval of the other party's performance, courts generally enforce such condition – even if the other party will suffer forfeiture – where approval concerns a matter of aesthetics or taste, and the disapproval is based on honest dissatisfaction.
Cool, eh?
***
p.s. It turns out, I didn't need to know any of those things for my contracts exam. Oh well.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Today is D-Day
Not as in "divorce day," which apparently describes what happens in the first week(s) of January every year in the UK (and maybe in the US?)...instead, the first exam of my law school career. [Cat's already had hers, I believe, but since I haven't seen her online/talked to her since, I'm assuming it killed her, until notified otherwise. I am very sad. Perhaps too sad to take my own exam??]
Let's just say that I haven't done much studying. Weeks spent at my parents' house and my former house, respectively, proved less-than-productive in the best way (got to sleep, see lots of friends, do lots of shopping, eat lots of good food, etc.). However, I may have heeded upperclassmen's "Don't Study! It's pass/pass!" advice a *bit* too much...so today is crunch time. I'll let you know if I am in fact the first person in 50 years to fail Guido Calabresi's torts class [but since we don't get our "grades" back till March/April, pardon the delay in passing along word of my demise].
Wish me luck.
Let's just say that I haven't done much studying. Weeks spent at my parents' house and my former house, respectively, proved less-than-productive in the best way (got to sleep, see lots of friends, do lots of shopping, eat lots of good food, etc.). However, I may have heeded upperclassmen's "Don't Study! It's pass/pass!" advice a *bit* too much...so today is crunch time. I'll let you know if I am in fact the first person in 50 years to fail Guido Calabresi's torts class [but since we don't get our "grades" back till March/April, pardon the delay in passing along word of my demise].
Wish me luck.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Semester's End: Reading
[This is the 2nd in a series of "First semester 1L wrap-up" posts...]
Last year, when the idea of law school was still kind of foreign (I'd taken the LSAT in October, and I applied in early-mid November), everyone that I talked to about law school generally reacted in one of three ways: "Wow, that's great," (generally, random people who found the idea of law school to be somehow prestigious or mythical) - "Of course," (generally, people who already were in law school, or knew me through a particularly law-oriented extra-curricular activity) - or, "Good luck. I hear it's a lot of reading."
Here's the truth: law school IS a lot of reading. That is, it WOULD BE a lot of reading, if I did it all. Which I don't. Thank goodness.
I found in college (if not earlier) that one of my greatest skills is to somehow understand what a teacher's expectations are, insofar as reading or class participation or test answers go...and then, to perform at that level, or slightly above, but not to over-exert myself unnecessarily. As a doctrine I've since religiously adopted, it tends to get me what I want (a good grade, a pretty deep level of understanding) without the burden of stressing over school work all the time.
I thought maybe I'd turn over a new leaf in law school. You know - read everything. Underline. Or highlight in various colors, for different parts of case law (facts = blue, holding = pink, etc.). Take notes in the margins. [I did NONE of these things systematically in college.] This new system worked, for all of three days. Maybe. [NB: I might have had more motivation to keep it up had we actually been graded on our work this semester. But, uh...no.]
Since then, I found that by the end of the semester I was really only comprehensively reading regularly for (maybe) two classes. [It is no coincidence that those were the two classes where it was at least marginally possible that I'd get called on during any given class session.] I had, in the mean time, become well-acquainted with three of a law student's best friends: Lexis Nexis headnotes (short summaries of the major points in a given case, available online in seconds), Wikipedia (mostly for constitutional law cases - I mean, c'mon...do I *really* need to read that Scalia dissent?), and a good ole Google search. In a pinch, those tools and a few minutes before class (or, a few seconds in class) can pretty much get you what you need to know in order to survive a 2-hour class session. I'm not ashamed that a quick, strategic search plus CTRL+F saved my classmates and I from literally "seventeen minutes of silence" in small group a few weeks back.
So go ahead, call me a slacker. But selectively NOT doing my reading has made law school a ton more enjoyable. I've been able to spend a lot of time getting to know my classmates, and getting involved in extra-curricular activities that I otherwise wouldn't have, had I decided to dedicate myself completely to my studies. Sure, I've got a bit of catching up to do before exams (but I am certainly NOT the worst among my classmates, some of whom haven't been to a certain early-morning class in two months)...but (hopefully) it's nothing a few hardcore days of studying and a few outlines won't be able to solve.
Happy Holidays!
***
Last year, when the idea of law school was still kind of foreign (I'd taken the LSAT in October, and I applied in early-mid November), everyone that I talked to about law school generally reacted in one of three ways: "Wow, that's great," (generally, random people who found the idea of law school to be somehow prestigious or mythical) - "Of course," (generally, people who already were in law school, or knew me through a particularly law-oriented extra-curricular activity) - or, "Good luck. I hear it's a lot of reading."
Here's the truth: law school IS a lot of reading. That is, it WOULD BE a lot of reading, if I did it all. Which I don't. Thank goodness.
I found in college (if not earlier) that one of my greatest skills is to somehow understand what a teacher's expectations are, insofar as reading or class participation or test answers go...and then, to perform at that level, or slightly above, but not to over-exert myself unnecessarily. As a doctrine I've since religiously adopted, it tends to get me what I want (a good grade, a pretty deep level of understanding) without the burden of stressing over school work all the time.
I thought maybe I'd turn over a new leaf in law school. You know - read everything. Underline. Or highlight in various colors, for different parts of case law (facts = blue, holding = pink, etc.). Take notes in the margins. [I did NONE of these things systematically in college.] This new system worked, for all of three days. Maybe. [NB: I might have had more motivation to keep it up had we actually been graded on our work this semester. But, uh...no.]
Since then, I found that by the end of the semester I was really only comprehensively reading regularly for (maybe) two classes. [It is no coincidence that those were the two classes where it was at least marginally possible that I'd get called on during any given class session.] I had, in the mean time, become well-acquainted with three of a law student's best friends: Lexis Nexis headnotes (short summaries of the major points in a given case, available online in seconds), Wikipedia (mostly for constitutional law cases - I mean, c'mon...do I *really* need to read that Scalia dissent?), and a good ole Google search. In a pinch, those tools and a few minutes before class (or, a few seconds in class) can pretty much get you what you need to know in order to survive a 2-hour class session. I'm not ashamed that a quick, strategic search plus CTRL+F saved my classmates and I from literally "seventeen minutes of silence" in small group a few weeks back.
So go ahead, call me a slacker. But selectively NOT doing my reading has made law school a ton more enjoyable. I've been able to spend a lot of time getting to know my classmates, and getting involved in extra-curricular activities that I otherwise wouldn't have, had I decided to dedicate myself completely to my studies. Sure, I've got a bit of catching up to do before exams (but I am certainly NOT the worst among my classmates, some of whom haven't been to a certain early-morning class in two months)...but (hopefully) it's nothing a few hardcore days of studying and a few outlines won't be able to solve.
Happy Holidays!
***
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Semester's End: Small Group & Social Stuff
[Note: I'm going to try to do a series of semester-end reflection posts...we'll see how that goes...]
We've come to the end of classes for the semester [like Cat, we also have exams in January, which at this point seems pretty distant - it's next YEAR], and I don't think I could be any happier. I am always really into the holidays, and although New Haven hasn't yet (but might tonight?) been blanketed in sparkly snow that sticks, there's a lot of cheer to go around.
On Monday, my small group (the 15 1Ls with whom I take all my classes, plus our two 3L TAs, and our professor) assembled at our professor's house to mark the end of the semester and our time together...after today, there likely won't be any case when all 15 of us are in the same class again. (Tear!) We had dinner & drinks and had many versions of the following conversation/question stream:
"When are you going home?"
"Where are you going for break?"
"What classes are you going to take next semester?"
"What're we gonna do the rest of the week [now that we can blow off the last few days of class]? Who's having a party?"
"What're we gonna do without each other?!?"
It's really amazing how close we've become in the past 3 1/2 months, so it was nice to see everyone in a relaxed social environment one last time before break. As our professor snapped candid photographs of everyone, a couple people surprised the rest of the group by announcing special "awards" - "Best use of Latin in class," "Best in-class 'save' when nobody knew what the professor was asking," "Best future governor," etc. There were lots of inside jokes, a couple cheap shots, and tons of laughter. We gave our TAs and our professor some "thanks for being awesome" booze, and they closed with some loving/awww-inspring warm & fuzzy thoughts.
We left our professor's house and went to one of our small group member's apartment for the after-party. There was lots of good wine, free-flowing conversation, and (as the wine began to flow freely) some bad jokes. We were also lucky enough to have our friend break out his guitar and serenade us for a while, after which it became a sing-along. All-in-all, a totally awesome night with some of my favorite people at YLS.
Last night, after most everyone was done with classes, there was a big joint birthday party for three of our classmates at the VIP room inside Toad's (generally, Toad's is kind of townie/sketchy, but the VIP room - Lilly's Pad - was surprisingly nice). [Earlier in the night, I'd gone to a smaller dinner party hosted in one of the birthday girls' honor...the food was fantastic, and the company was even better.] At the big party, people had baked cakes/cupcakes, and someone else played iPod DJ. While the atmosphere was really different than my small group's party on Monday, it was totally awesome - it was great to see a bunch of people before they left town, and people were generally in a fairly nostalgic "I love law school! I love you!" mood. We'll see if that holds up once exams roll around....
***
We've come to the end of classes for the semester [like Cat, we also have exams in January, which at this point seems pretty distant - it's next YEAR], and I don't think I could be any happier. I am always really into the holidays, and although New Haven hasn't yet (but might tonight?) been blanketed in sparkly snow that sticks, there's a lot of cheer to go around.
On Monday, my small group (the 15 1Ls with whom I take all my classes, plus our two 3L TAs, and our professor) assembled at our professor's house to mark the end of the semester and our time together...after today, there likely won't be any case when all 15 of us are in the same class again. (Tear!) We had dinner & drinks and had many versions of the following conversation/question stream:
"When are you going home?"
"Where are you going for break?"
"What classes are you going to take next semester?"
"What're we gonna do the rest of the week [now that we can blow off the last few days of class]? Who's having a party?"
"What're we gonna do without each other?!?"
It's really amazing how close we've become in the past 3 1/2 months, so it was nice to see everyone in a relaxed social environment one last time before break. As our professor snapped candid photographs of everyone, a couple people surprised the rest of the group by announcing special "awards" - "Best use of Latin in class," "Best in-class 'save' when nobody knew what the professor was asking," "Best future governor," etc. There were lots of inside jokes, a couple cheap shots, and tons of laughter. We gave our TAs and our professor some "thanks for being awesome" booze, and they closed with some loving/awww-inspring warm & fuzzy thoughts.
We left our professor's house and went to one of our small group member's apartment for the after-party. There was lots of good wine, free-flowing conversation, and (as the wine began to flow freely) some bad jokes. We were also lucky enough to have our friend break out his guitar and serenade us for a while, after which it became a sing-along. All-in-all, a totally awesome night with some of my favorite people at YLS.
Last night, after most everyone was done with classes, there was a big joint birthday party for three of our classmates at the VIP room inside Toad's (generally, Toad's is kind of townie/sketchy, but the VIP room - Lilly's Pad - was surprisingly nice). [Earlier in the night, I'd gone to a smaller dinner party hosted in one of the birthday girls' honor...the food was fantastic, and the company was even better.] At the big party, people had baked cakes/cupcakes, and someone else played iPod DJ. While the atmosphere was really different than my small group's party on Monday, it was totally awesome - it was great to see a bunch of people before they left town, and people were generally in a fairly nostalgic "I love law school! I love you!" mood. We'll see if that holds up once exams roll around....
***
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Procrastination Playlist
My revised "final" brief is due in 16 hours, 'flexibly.' [One weird thing about YLS is that deadlines/rules seem not to exist. Students freely hand in papers hours, days, weeks, semesters, even years late (I know one 3L who has a paper outstanding from two years ago, and he's in no rush to finish it)...and professors don't bat an eye. Deadlines, in other words, seem pretty false. Especially this semester (pass/fail grading in all classes): if we hand in a brief "late," what are they going to do - fail us??] Let's just say that I'm far from finished with my revisions. I may have just spent a few hours shopping online/cleaning my room/hanging out pre-Bar Review with some fellow 1Ls. And I took a gloriously long nap this afternoon. As I mentioned to someone at dinner earlier tonight, basically any incentive structure I may have had coming into this semester is kaput.
After ushering my friends out the door under the guise of "briefing," I sat down to do some edits. And failed. In the interest of further procrastination, I thought: "Well, I guess I could write a blog post..." but I had really no idea what to write about. So I present to you the playlist that's been on loop for me the past few days. A great sorta-hipster friend of mine sent me (via snail mail! it still exists!) a mix CD of some of her newest favorites...and I, trusting her hipster taste, have been bopping along ever since [NB: I'm not a huge fan of ALL of the songs below, but making a playlist is an art, I'm told, so I'm presenting it here in full...].
1. My Dick - Mickey Avalon
2. Way Too Much - Chromeo
3. Many Moons - Janelle Monae
4. Something/Blue Jay Way - The Beatles
5. Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
6. If You Fall - Azure Ray
7. If She Wants Me - Belle & Sebastian
8. It's Not You It's Me - Coconut Records
9. The Wildfire - Mando Diao
10. Before I Fall to Pieces - Razorlight
11. Tired of Being Sorry - Ringside
12. You Were Always the One - The Cribs
13. Dropkick Queen of the Weekend - The Dudes
14. Skull and Bones - The Ordinary Boys
15. Old Enough - The Raconteurs
16. Either Way - Wilco
17. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
18. Ayo Technology - Milew
19. Tenderoni - Chromeo
20. Forever Lost - The Magic Numbers
21. All 'Cause of You - The 88
And now, back to "edits"...
**
After ushering my friends out the door under the guise of "briefing," I sat down to do some edits. And failed. In the interest of further procrastination, I thought: "Well, I guess I could write a blog post..." but I had really no idea what to write about. So I present to you the playlist that's been on loop for me the past few days. A great sorta-hipster friend of mine sent me (via snail mail! it still exists!) a mix CD of some of her newest favorites...and I, trusting her hipster taste, have been bopping along ever since [NB: I'm not a huge fan of ALL of the songs below, but making a playlist is an art, I'm told, so I'm presenting it here in full...].
1. My Dick - Mickey Avalon
2. Way Too Much - Chromeo
3. Many Moons - Janelle Monae
4. Something/Blue Jay Way - The Beatles
5. Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
6. If You Fall - Azure Ray
7. If She Wants Me - Belle & Sebastian
8. It's Not You It's Me - Coconut Records
9. The Wildfire - Mando Diao
10. Before I Fall to Pieces - Razorlight
11. Tired of Being Sorry - Ringside
12. You Were Always the One - The Cribs
13. Dropkick Queen of the Weekend - The Dudes
14. Skull and Bones - The Ordinary Boys
15. Old Enough - The Raconteurs
16. Either Way - Wilco
17. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
18. Ayo Technology - Milew
19. Tenderoni - Chromeo
20. Forever Lost - The Magic Numbers
21. All 'Cause of You - The 88
And now, back to "edits"...
**
Friday, November 21, 2008
Groupies
When I was trying to decide where to go to school, one of the things that was most attractive to me about Yale is the "small group" system of instruction for 1Ls. During the first few days of orientation were were kept in suspense about "whose group" we were in...but then when we got our class assignments, people had an instant identity as part of one of the 12-13 (I'm not actually sure how many there are) small groups of 15ish people.
Each small group has all of their classes together, and one class that is ONLY those 15 people plus a professor and two or three TAs (3L students who are primarily there to serve as mentors/buddies and legal writing helpers - ours like to take us bowling and out drinking, and occasionally they give us tips about how to write memos, or what classes to take, or how to get our dream summer job). The professors really make an effort to get to know the people in their small groups, and they tend to serve as a good first letter of recommendation writer...plus, the seminar style of the small group class is awesome (especially for con law, which is my small group class, where discussion really helps you work through complicated issues).
By default, the people in your small group are the people you see most often. Literally, every single day. Sometimes for 6 hours of class! So you have to like, or at least be able to tolerate, the people in your SG.
I really really love my small group! It took us a while to get bonded at the beginning of the semester, in part because we all also had friends in other small groups and through activities...we were pretty independent, as a bunch. But as we began to get tougher assignments and as we spent more time together, we found out that we all get along really well...luckily, nobody in our small group is a "gunner" in our larger classes, so we have begun to make snarky comments to each other on gchat during class making fun of said people who seem to want to just listen to themselves talk. You'd be amazed how much bonding can go on in a group gchat window!
We've also started hanging out a lot more outside of class...this week, we went out for drinks three nights in a row! It helped, of course, that we just turned in our big project for the semester - our "open universe" mock appellate court brief. So it's time to - finally! - relax, breathe, sleep, and socialize again. This weekend is the annual Harvard-Yale football game (and the annual HLS/YLS basketball game!), so a bunch of people are making the trek up to Cambridge, myself included. Go Bulldogs!
Each small group has all of their classes together, and one class that is ONLY those 15 people plus a professor and two or three TAs (3L students who are primarily there to serve as mentors/buddies and legal writing helpers - ours like to take us bowling and out drinking, and occasionally they give us tips about how to write memos, or what classes to take, or how to get our dream summer job). The professors really make an effort to get to know the people in their small groups, and they tend to serve as a good first letter of recommendation writer...plus, the seminar style of the small group class is awesome (especially for con law, which is my small group class, where discussion really helps you work through complicated issues).
By default, the people in your small group are the people you see most often. Literally, every single day. Sometimes for 6 hours of class! So you have to like, or at least be able to tolerate, the people in your SG.
I really really love my small group! It took us a while to get bonded at the beginning of the semester, in part because we all also had friends in other small groups and through activities...we were pretty independent, as a bunch. But as we began to get tougher assignments and as we spent more time together, we found out that we all get along really well...luckily, nobody in our small group is a "gunner" in our larger classes, so we have begun to make snarky comments to each other on gchat during class making fun of said people who seem to want to just listen to themselves talk. You'd be amazed how much bonding can go on in a group gchat window!
We've also started hanging out a lot more outside of class...this week, we went out for drinks three nights in a row! It helped, of course, that we just turned in our big project for the semester - our "open universe" mock appellate court brief. So it's time to - finally! - relax, breathe, sleep, and socialize again. This weekend is the annual Harvard-Yale football game (and the annual HLS/YLS basketball game!), so a bunch of people are making the trek up to Cambridge, myself included. Go Bulldogs!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Decisions, Decisions
Spring registration has rolled around already. It's a little surreal, because I definitely still feel like I'm in my first weeks of law school. Nevertheless, we've already got to pick classes for next semester. When we arrived in October our classes were all picked out for us, but now we've got a bit more choice. Every 1L here has to take Torts, Contracts, Property, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, and Legislation & Regulation with their section. We took four of them our first semester, and will take two in the spring. We also have a year long course called Legal Writing and Research, which is simultaneously the most boring and most useful class we'll ever take (or so we've been told). SB tells me that this type of course is called "HLS classes" by Yalies, on account of how boring they are. On the bright side, I hear passing the bar exam is a lot less stressful when you've taken the basics. **
So, even given all those requirements, we still have a little bit of choice our spring semester! We can pick among 7 international/comparative law courses. I'm taking one on international business law, which is super exciting. Other options include International Public Law, The Constitutional Order & International Law, Intro to Chinese Law, and European Legal Theories.
Then, we have one straight elective. Here, I have basically no idea what to pick. The choices are overwhelming. We can pick between larger or smaller classes, and I think I'd like to take a smaller class. So far, every class has been with a group of the same 80 folks. There, though, all decisiveness on my part vanishes. How to pick between Family Law and Disability Law? Poverty Law and Local Government Law? Everyone I've talked to is in the same spot, and we all admit to being pretty excited to find out what class we get into to. (And thrilled to be paging through the course guide.) Daily, my pre-law school worries of "Harvard Law Student: Master of the Universe" is replaced by the reality of "Harvard Law Student: Gentle Geek."
** There are other snarky comments I could add in here concerning YLS's supposed inability to prepare students for an acutal lawyering job, but they're probably not true, and anyway, we still go to school in Boston and not New Haven.
So, even given all those requirements, we still have a little bit of choice our spring semester! We can pick among 7 international/comparative law courses. I'm taking one on international business law, which is super exciting. Other options include International Public Law, The Constitutional Order & International Law, Intro to Chinese Law, and European Legal Theories.
Then, we have one straight elective. Here, I have basically no idea what to pick. The choices are overwhelming. We can pick between larger or smaller classes, and I think I'd like to take a smaller class. So far, every class has been with a group of the same 80 folks. There, though, all decisiveness on my part vanishes. How to pick between Family Law and Disability Law? Poverty Law and Local Government Law? Everyone I've talked to is in the same spot, and we all admit to being pretty excited to find out what class we get into to. (And thrilled to be paging through the course guide.) Daily, my pre-law school worries of "Harvard Law Student: Master of the Universe" is replaced by the reality of "Harvard Law Student: Gentle Geek."
** There are other snarky comments I could add in here concerning YLS's supposed inability to prepare students for an acutal lawyering job, but they're probably not true, and anyway, we still go to school in Boston and not New Haven.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Too Hot for Cold Calls
One of the things that most, if not all, incoming law students are afraid of at the beginning of first semester is being “cold called” in class. Some people saw the movie “The Paper Chase” or read “1L” [personally, I refused to do either] and determined that professors want students to look stupid or screw up in front of the entire class. Luckily, at my school, that is most certainly not the case – although each professor has a different way of cold calling (or not), they’re generally a good-natured bunch, and the modified Socratic method actually does force you to learn quite a bit (which is good, in a semester where we’re graded pass/fail - or, as the Dean says, "pass/pass").
Each of my four professors has a different method for the use of cold calling. My torts professor, Guido (who S.G. wrote about here), likes to assign a section of the class to be “on call” for each section of cases. Supposedly, people sitting in that section are supposed to be extra-vigilant in their reading so that they’re ready to answer questions…but usually, so many people volunteer that everyone forgets who’s on call in the first place.
My procedure professor expects everyone to be prepared to talk about the reading, but he usually hints as to whom he’s planning to call on during the next class so that those people can be ready. In procedure, we’re often asked to take on the persona of a Supreme Court justice and give our opinion about how we’d have ruled on a particular case – to be put on the spot like that is sometimes scary, but it helps you really understand the underlying legal principles (and it can be fun to pretend to be Scalia or O’Connor...especially when it results in the professor doing impressions of the esteemed justices).
My small group class (with only 15 1L students) is constitutional law. For each day of class, only one person is on call. I’m on call tomorrow: I’m supposed to be the expert on the various affirmative action decisions of the Court. I’m a little worried I’ll get some of the dissenting opinions mixed up, but our professor isn't too aggressive, and the seminar style of the class means that everyone pitches in to help you out if you’re not sure of an answer – small group love.
In contracts, my professor calls on just one or two people a day, out of the blue – no warning. Today I ended up being on call for AN HOUR AND A HALF, and it went just fine since I’d done the reading. Talking with the professor about the arguments in the case definitely made me focus on the most important points, even if it meant that I was too busy participating in class that I didn’t get to take notes. [And, a friend of mine, who heard that I'd been put on call, decided it'd be funny to frantically gchat me for the entire time...hilarious.] Luckily, my small group members (with whom I have all my classes) sent me notes before I even left class...as the work piles on, we're realizing that it's a good idea to stick together to get stuff done. Speaking of work...back to my brief (due Monday! eek!)...
Each of my four professors has a different method for the use of cold calling. My torts professor, Guido (who S.G. wrote about here), likes to assign a section of the class to be “on call” for each section of cases. Supposedly, people sitting in that section are supposed to be extra-vigilant in their reading so that they’re ready to answer questions…but usually, so many people volunteer that everyone forgets who’s on call in the first place.
My procedure professor expects everyone to be prepared to talk about the reading, but he usually hints as to whom he’s planning to call on during the next class so that those people can be ready. In procedure, we’re often asked to take on the persona of a Supreme Court justice and give our opinion about how we’d have ruled on a particular case – to be put on the spot like that is sometimes scary, but it helps you really understand the underlying legal principles (and it can be fun to pretend to be Scalia or O’Connor...especially when it results in the professor doing impressions of the esteemed justices).
My small group class (with only 15 1L students) is constitutional law. For each day of class, only one person is on call. I’m on call tomorrow: I’m supposed to be the expert on the various affirmative action decisions of the Court. I’m a little worried I’ll get some of the dissenting opinions mixed up, but our professor isn't too aggressive, and the seminar style of the class means that everyone pitches in to help you out if you’re not sure of an answer – small group love.
In contracts, my professor calls on just one or two people a day, out of the blue – no warning. Today I ended up being on call for AN HOUR AND A HALF, and it went just fine since I’d done the reading. Talking with the professor about the arguments in the case definitely made me focus on the most important points, even if it meant that I was too busy participating in class that I didn’t get to take notes. [And, a friend of mine, who heard that I'd been put on call, decided it'd be funny to frantically gchat me for the entire time...hilarious.] Luckily, my small group members (with whom I have all my classes) sent me notes before I even left class...as the work piles on, we're realizing that it's a good idea to stick together to get stuff done. Speaking of work...back to my brief (due Monday! eek!)...
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Election Day Post-Mortem
Now, 24 hours later, the gravity of last night still hasn't really sunken in for me. Of course, it was the topic of conversation all day today - most classes spent a significant portion of the class period, if not all of it, discussing the presidential election, the in-limbo Senate races, and the various ballot initiatives (Arkansas, really?!?). Still, inauguration day is a couple months away...and my heart ached to be back home in DC last night as the returns were coming in, as much as I loved watching the historic event with my classmates.
While lots of people went to smaller viewing parties at friends' homes, a bunch of people also watched the night's events at school. We had fruit, cookies, lemon bars, and abundant bottled water to get us through...I added a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, since it had already been a pretty long day (full disclosure: I didn't have class till 1, but woke up at 8:30 naturally...still, I made myself stay in bed till 11:30 because I knew I'd be a wreck otherwise). Most people were constantly refreshing CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and fivethirtyeight on their laptops - one girl's dad apparently works at CBS News, so he gave us the "insider" word that they were going to call it for Obama a couple minutes before 11. (Of course, we fivethirtyeight addicts already knew that PA/VA/OH - or any combination of two of the above, or maybe even just one - was going to be enough).
Celebration ensued. Interestingly, a TON of the LLM students were in attendance, and they seemed near the most excited! The African-American crew was also elated, as expected...but honestly I think the general population at school didn't see this as a "race thing" as much as a "human/national progress" thing [there are, of course, conservatives at school - a vocal minority, to be sure - but by this point in the night, most of them had realized what McCain's camp knew weeks ago: the man is old, Palin's a wacko, and Grant Park wasn't set up to be the location of a concession speech; moreover, nobody can deny the historic nature of the win].
There was champagne! Corks were popping! One bottle was apparently brought back after a failed attempt to celebrate in 2004.
We watched the speeches. I was misty-eyed the whole time, but I was crying unabashedly by the end. Oh, to be in that park...but the energy was still electric.
We walked home, my roommates and I, only to find along the way that a ton of the university's students had assembled on Old Campus to celebrate. They didn't get the same treatment as some kids in Baltimore did (Don't tase me!), but they were jubillant nonetheless - the enthusiasm was undeniable as people ran to greet one another and be a part of the hysteria.
Today, our professors were tired (they stayed up, too!), we were tired, and we uniformly hadn't done our reading as assigned...but it didn't seem to matter. There were lots of Obama t-shirts and stickers and buttons on display - some worn by those just now returning from their posts doing voter protection in key battleground states. We speculated about possible SCOTUS nominations...we debated the dress...and we were shocked that Ms. Palin apparently knows less about Africa than I know about moose hunting...but in the end, we still have writing assignments to attend to, resumes to revise for the impending summer job search, and sourcecites to do...
***
While lots of people went to smaller viewing parties at friends' homes, a bunch of people also watched the night's events at school. We had fruit, cookies, lemon bars, and abundant bottled water to get us through...I added a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, since it had already been a pretty long day (full disclosure: I didn't have class till 1, but woke up at 8:30 naturally...still, I made myself stay in bed till 11:30 because I knew I'd be a wreck otherwise). Most people were constantly refreshing CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and fivethirtyeight on their laptops - one girl's dad apparently works at CBS News, so he gave us the "insider" word that they were going to call it for Obama a couple minutes before 11. (Of course, we fivethirtyeight addicts already knew that PA/VA/OH - or any combination of two of the above, or maybe even just one - was going to be enough).
Celebration ensued. Interestingly, a TON of the LLM students were in attendance, and they seemed near the most excited! The African-American crew was also elated, as expected...but honestly I think the general population at school didn't see this as a "race thing" as much as a "human/national progress" thing [there are, of course, conservatives at school - a vocal minority, to be sure - but by this point in the night, most of them had realized what McCain's camp knew weeks ago: the man is old, Palin's a wacko, and Grant Park wasn't set up to be the location of a concession speech; moreover, nobody can deny the historic nature of the win].
There was champagne! Corks were popping! One bottle was apparently brought back after a failed attempt to celebrate in 2004.
We watched the speeches. I was misty-eyed the whole time, but I was crying unabashedly by the end. Oh, to be in that park...but the energy was still electric.
We walked home, my roommates and I, only to find along the way that a ton of the university's students had assembled on Old Campus to celebrate. They didn't get the same treatment as some kids in Baltimore did (Don't tase me!), but they were jubillant nonetheless - the enthusiasm was undeniable as people ran to greet one another and be a part of the hysteria.
Today, our professors were tired (they stayed up, too!), we were tired, and we uniformly hadn't done our reading as assigned...but it didn't seem to matter. There were lots of Obama t-shirts and stickers and buttons on display - some worn by those just now returning from their posts doing voter protection in key battleground states. We speculated about possible SCOTUS nominations...we debated the dress...and we were shocked that Ms. Palin apparently knows less about Africa than I know about moose hunting...but in the end, we still have writing assignments to attend to, resumes to revise for the impending summer job search, and sourcecites to do...
***
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