<p>i was just wondering if any of these are misleading…</p>
<li><p>on princeton review’s “best 117 law schools,” it lists the average hours of study per day by the students at each law school. for most of the top law schools, these hours hover around 4 hours a day. that sounds like too less for me… i’ve always heard that there’s really no life outside of studying while you’re at law school. </p></li>
<li><p>on the same book, it gives descriptions of how competitive each law school is. i’m under the impression that a lot of the law schools aren’t competitive. it seems like every top law school “has a few gunners but most people share notes etc.” is law school and are law students really that friendly? </p></li>
<li><p>finally, US News lists the % of students practicing in each region. i would like to practice in the pacific region (specifically california). but some top law schools like columbia, penn, cornell, nyu, georgetown, virginia, and duke have really low placement rates to the pacific region (all under 10%). i’m just wondering if they are bad at placing students to the pacific region, or is it that the students choose to practice elsewhere. basically, if one wanted to practice in california, would it be better to go to say USC/UCLA OVER columbia or NYU (assuming one got accepted to all)? especially since USC has a strong alumni network, would the USC law graduate be more favored/respected by employers than say duke or cornell?</p></li>
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<li><p>What does “study” entail? This is not a Bill Clinton question, I swear. Generally, law students have about 15 hours of class per week. Reading takes about two to three hours per hour of class - but outlining takes about an hour or two every day, and legal writing eats up a bunch of time. That also doesn’t include weekends - I usually spent about 10-12 hours on Sunday doing work.</p></li>
<li><p>Not sure - my law school is known for not being competitive, but I’ve heard that some are horribly cutthroat. Most of the goodies (law review, moot court, best jobs) go to only a few people. </p></li>
<li><p>Can’t answer that specific question, but I can say a few things about law school placement generally. Unless you go to Harvard or Yale, there is a very strong regional bias. The back section of USNews will show that even Columbia grads congregate in NY, Georgetown grads are in DC, and Penn grads disperse along Rt 95 from DC to Boston.</p></li>
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<p>That part is pretty well known. The debatable issue is WHY. IMO, there are several reasons:
*most law students choose schools near where they want to practice. If you hate the East Coast and winters, why would you go to Cornell?
*recruitment. It’s easier for a DC firm to do OCI at Georgetown than at Cornell. Some firms may simply decide to do resume drops instead, and students may tend to apply more to firms that do OCI instead of ones that don’t. This isn’t an issue for the big firms so much as medium-sized and smaller firms.
*this leads to… alum networks - can be a good source for jobs, and if the alums are more concentrated in certain areas, then the students will be, too.
*The QUESTION - legal employers want someone who isn’t going to run off in three years once they realize that the Boston winters are not fit for human habitation. If you go to school in that area, you’re a lot more convincing when you say that you’re going to stick around. If you survive Ithaca winters, you can survive Boston winters. Again, hiring skewed based on geography.
*Lawyers are risk-adverse. If a firm has never hired someone from your school, they might not want to take a chance on you.</p>
<p>So… would you be better off at USC than an Ivy? Can’t say. What you can do is go onto nalp.com and search for legal employers. Run a search for CA employers who interview at each school. That will give you a good idea of what you should do.</p>
<p>I don’t think you would go wrong with either one. The decision may end up making itself (which would not be a bad thing - again, you’re not going to go wrong with either choice), simply because you might not get into the Ivys or USC might offer you enough merit aid.</p>
<p>Is Scott Turow’s account of 20 hour work-days accurate? As in, will a competent student ever find him or herself in this situation and how often? I am thinking this is ubiquitous in exam-periods, but I am curious about other periods where this may occur.</p>
<p>There are people who work 20 hours a day at times; there are also people who work far less than that. </p>
<p>When I was a 2L, I heard overheard somebody discussing his “24 hours rule”: 24 hours of actual effort, he said, was enough to pass any class at Boalt.</p>
<p>I’ll confess to having put that to the test on more than one occasion.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind taking advice from someone who, had his law school ranked its graduates, would have been ranked in the half of the class that makes the top half possible, managing your anxiety level has a lot to do with a successful law school experience. In most all of my classes, the grade was determined exclusively by the grade in an open-book final examination. To me, that was an excuse to procrastinate. I’ve concluded that this approach was not worth the stress it engendered. More than twenty years on, I still have recurring anxiety dreams where I realize that I’m enrolled in law school classes, but don’t know who my professors are, don’t have a copies of the syllabi, don’t have the books, haven’t attended any classes, and haven’t done any of the reading.</p>
<p>OMG Greybeard, my DH has the same recurrent dream (nightmare) 25 years later! His includes discovering that he has a final exam in a class that he never attended. Actually, he did quite well in school and has a successful career. Wonder what this dream means???</p>
<p>I’ve heard that this dream is a common manifestation of “imposter’s syndrome,” a feeling that the dreamer somehow doesn’t deserve the success that he or she has experienced in life.</p>
<p>Greybeard,
That would be sort of sad. My DH worked his butt off all of his life since he was 15 years old, sometimes working two night jobs to get through college. (He pumped gas, was a bouncer in a bar, was a waiter, and mopped floors after a business closed at 2 am.) He has treaded shark infested waters in his career. I’m sorry if he feels undeserving. I never remember any dreams when I wake up.</p>
<p>Hmm, here at last this poster has some expertise to offer…Although there are “dream dictionaries” and hacks who will give you a formulaic interpretation of a dream, these approaches are generally not the most fruitful. In order to understand a dream it’s more helpful to hear the dreamer’s own response to the various symbols and events, and to place them in the context of the dreamer’s temperament and experiences. That is why psychoanalysis is different from astrology. ;)</p>
<p>A dream like the one described suggests something about feeling unprepared, but one could only know what that meant to the dreamer by knowing much more about him or her. A dream about feeling unprepared might be the fruit of genuinely having been unprepared in some way in life. But it could just as easily be the dream of someone who is very much on top of things but who nonetheless suffers from a fear of being unprepared. Or it could be the repetition of a particular, upsetting event. And to some dreamers, the events could indicate a feeling of disconnection from important people and tasks, or other feelings. One can only know by taking the time to explore.</p>
<p>I’ll admit to having given a facile response, and confess to knowing better. (I actually read all of the way through the collected works of Carl Jung, once upon a time.)</p>
<p>In my case, the dream was likely prompted by the actual experience of taking final exams in classes I had attended only a handful of times. The point I was trying to make in discussing the dream is that studying twenty hours a day, week after week, is an inappropriate response to the stress of law school, but that my own approach, which involved a lot of avoidance, unnecessarily engendered a great deal of stress as well.</p>
<p>The bottom line: get to know yourself. If it makes you happy to study twelve hours a day, you’re free to do so. Don’t think there’s anything wrong with you if you can’t. It may be a sign that happiness for you lies in a different path than working in a large law firm. You may also find some day, as I did, that working long hours to solve an actual problem for an actual client is far more emotionally rewarding than putting in the same hours for a better grade.</p>
<p>A lot of this reminds me of the Outline Debate - the question of whether or not to start your outlines immediately, to do them during the last month of classes, or to do them during reading period as a way of studying for the exam. There are very strong arguments for all methods, but, ultimately, the answer is to do whatever makes you most comfortable. I had a lot of people tell me that I should outline immediately, even if I didn’t know what I was doing; likewise, a lot of people told me to wait until November and the “light bulb” goes on. I chose the first route because putting all of that work off would make me anxious and less motivated to do it - I like doing work when I know that I’m on top of it - absolutely hate playing catch-up. </p>
<p>Re: the dreams themselves. Some of it might be how the person perceives his own preparation - people’s definitions vary widely. LFK’s H might consider “unprepared” to be the same thing as “very prepared” for others… nevertheless, the psyche responds the same way. (Attempt at Diplomacy 101)</p>
<p>Oh, gee, I didn’t think we were arguing. “A dream about feeling unprepared might be the fruit of genuinely having been unprepared in some way in life,” I wrote. “But it could just as easily be the dream of someone who is very much on top of things but who nonetheless suffers from a fear of being unprepared.” Same thing you said, I think… </p>
<p>Speaking of dreams, I’m glad to hear law school doesn’t have to be a nightmare. ;)</p>
<p>Nspeds, it depends on the degree of worry and on how it is affecting your daily life. If you are a student and think you need help, pay a visit to your college’s counseling department.</p>
<p>Actually, I think DH actually DID miss a final while he was in college. Maybe he never got over the panic feeling and is afraid he will have a similar experience if he lets his guard down.</p>
I never remember any dreams when I wake up.</p>
“A dream about feeling unprepared might be the fruit of genuinely having been unprepared in some way in life,” I wrote. “But it could just as easily be the dream of someone who is very much on top of things but who nonetheless suffers from a fear of being unprepared.” Same thing you said, I think… </p>