CALI's Pre-Law Blog

The Blog Back From Hiatus...

AustinGroothuis — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:12:11 -0400

...to make its second to last post.

Let me explain. I think this blog has run its course now that I am no longer in law school and the Illinois bar is successfully behind me. I’m just not sure there is much I can add to a conversation about being a pre-law or law student at this point (and I’d rather not share my upcoming job search experiences on the internet for obvious reasons).

So I’ll make one final post summing up this blog soon. And I’ll leave this blog up for whomever happens to find it in the future until CALI decides to take it down.

Thanks to those who were paying attention.

Last Piece of Bar Study Advice + Hiatus

AustinGroothuis — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:36:36 -0500

The pre-law blog will be going on hiatus until at least after the 2008 February Bar Exam.

The last piece of advice I have is to those thinking about working and studying for the bar (below):

It's a grueling process, working a job through the lecture portion of the bar review course (which ends tomorrow). I'm pretty exhausted right now, even though CALI is a great employer that is very flexible about my work schedule.

So exhausted, in fact, that I'm looking forward to studying 10-12 hours a day for the next 2 weeks before the bar.

Why? Because I am taking time off of work the rest of the way to concentrate on studying for the bar.

No more days of where work + lecture + study = 15 or 16 hours of my day almost everyday.

I would highly suggest anyone else who is looking back at this and thinking about working while studying for the bar to take this advice: take at least a couple of weeks off leading up to the bar. Even if you have to take a leave.

I think I have an idea about where I am in terms of performance on the bar. And if the bar was today, it would be up in the air as to whether I would pass or not. So I'll need to improve and make this time off count, and likely you will need that time too.

Law School Admissions: Willing to Make a Deal?

AustinGroothuis — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:23:49 -0500

I've always been an advocate of telling future law students never to assume or count on the ability to transfer up to a higher reputation law school.

It takes top grades/high class rank to transfer up to a higher ranked school most of the time, so you never where you'll end up in the class rankings among your peers with basically everyone gunning for the top of the class. Assume you will graduate from the school at which you start.

But Prelaw Advisor writes about a deal between a waitlisted applicant and a law school that created a creative way to almost assure a transfer up: if the student got better than a 3.0 at another law school, the highly ranked law school would accept that student as a transfer going into 2L.

Pretty nice deal for the student! Although it's too bad that schools aren't able to take chances on an applicant like this out of the gate because of the strict focus on LSAT numbers.

I don't know how prevalent offers like this are, but if you can work a deal like this with a law school at which you have been waitlisted, especially if one of your top choices, you should take it. At which point the prospects of transferring would become a much more likely.

5 Things Law Students Should Know About Prof. Evaluations...

AustinGroothuis — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:28:30 -0500

Legal bloggers are talking about a recent state university that punished a student for an extremely inflammatory teacher evaluation.

Problem is, of course, most schools promise anonymity with regard to student evaluations of teachers.

So what should this tell you, as a student, about student evalutions?

See the list below...

1) Don't use hateful bigoted language like the student involved in the controversy.

2) If you cannot follow number one, keep that language to yourself or to a group whom of people whom you know are also hateful.

Ok, so those are more life rules that happen to apply to evaluations. I'll be more specific about this...

3) Don't assume your evaluation is anonymous. And this is a shame. It never crossed my mind as a student that some of my evaluation comments might not be anonymous. I wrote them as such, often critiquing harshly and honestly those professors whom I felt deserved it for what I believed was poor classroom teaching style, performance, conduct, policies, etc.

After seeing this incident, I would think twice about giving honest feedback to a professor whom I felt wasn't doing a good job.

4) When critiquing, don't make it personal. Give feedback on teaching style, technique, etc.

This goes for personal information about you too, don't use any identifying information about yourself on the evaluation. Especially if you're going to give a bad evaluation, write with your left hand...or foot...in block letters. Or...

5) If nothing else, don't participate. The old rule: "if you can't say something nice...." If you feel too strongly or emotional in a negative way about a professor, fill in the scantron or "multiple choice" part of the evaluation as all ones and don't leave any comments.

MORE THOUGHTS...

The comments by the student in the story were inexcusable. But assuming this wasn't a legitimate threat of violence upon this professor, the school shouldn't have pursued it.

The student evaluation process is an important one, in my opinion as a recent student, for encouraging feedback to professors (or creating the illusion of feedback...or at least giving students a chance to vent or praise a teacher).

With some of those slightly paranoid items on the list above in mind, I certainly know that almost all professors would not pursue negative comments to seek revenge, either by reducing grades or by other means of punishment as in this case.

But with any chance of breached anonymity, there is very little incentive for me as a student to give honest feedback.

Here's more on this recent controversy.

First Semester Grade Disappointment (RQ)

AustinGroothuis — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:03:42 -0500

As first semester grades roll in a month after finals, students are FINALLY receiving, for the most part, their first real feedback of law school. Congratulations to those of you who met or exceeded your expectations!

But unfortunately for a lot of students, with grades comes a bit of a (or a big) disappointment.

One reader sent this:

I just received my 1st semester grades at Boston College Law...I cannot believe I got a 2.55 gpa. I thought I knew my"stuff" I wasn't lost in class... What happens to the students that graduate in the bottom of the class? Everyone told me that where you place in the beginning is pretty much where you stay. I would love to hear from any BC graduates that weren't in the top of the class Where are they now and how did they get there?

Click below to see the response...

A lot of questions in this reader comment, understandably as I can imagine the confusion and slight panic that comes with not meeting personal expectations in law school.

Let's address the questions and comments one at a time.

I cannot believe I got a 2.55 gpa.

For those of you in the position of just seeing a number that you think should be higher, please understand that law school grading is relative with the curve. A GPA is just a number unless you have other numbers with which to compare it. Your class rank will likely matter more.

Now, obviously, a 2.55 is not going to put you at the top of the class at any law school. But, it might be ranked higher than you think. And, not meant for our question's author, but many of the stereotypical law school overachievers freaking out after receiving the first B of their lives along with 2 or 3 A's, might want to relax.

So try to find your school's archives of class rank cutoffs based on GPA (like this from my school). Though you probably won't find that for 1L's after just one semester, you may be able to find cutoffs for past 1L's after a year, which could give you an idea of how much you need to turnaround your GPA to get it to where you want to be.

I thought I knew my"stuff" I wasn't lost in class...

There are three potential problems here: 1) You knew your stuff but most of your classmates simply knew more (ie, victim of the curve), 2) you thought you knew your stuff but you didn't, 3) you knew your stuff but you didn't effectively communicate the stuff you knew to your professor on the exam.

Numbers 1 and especially 2 are the most troubling, but less easy to turnaround with anything other than harder work and more studying.

You're in a better position if your performance is mostly because of number 3...which amounts to poor test-taking or test-writing ability.

My advice (and I know you may not want to, but if you can), schedule time with your first semester professors to talk about your exams. Ask them where and why you were missing points. You should get a better idea where your weaknesses were after speaking to all of them.

Then you have to adjust. There is a whole bunch of advice out there about taking law school essay exams. There are some in this list, to get you started.

What happens to the students that graduate in the bottom of the class?

Generally, students in this position, and it's not just those in the bottom, but often those in the middle at schools that aren't elite, often have a much harder time getting interviews with large firms and scoring the highest paying jobs you always hear about.

This does not mean you will not find a job.

Prof. Bowman's Reflects on Fall Semester Tests

AustinGroothuis — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:25:31 -0500

Professor Bowman of Law Career blog has some more good advice for law school exam takers after reflecting on last semester's batch of exams.

Latest Blogger Commentary on Non-Elite Law School Grads Woes

AustinGroothuis — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:32:28 -0500

It's been done several times in the past year...a legitimate news source does a write-up on law school, citing the high tuition, high student loan debt, high expectations law students have to make a lot of money (many feeling misled by law school marketing material touting high average salaries), and the disappointment of so many law students in discovering the two-tiered nature of starting salaries.

Professor Caron posts a useful roundup of the latest reactions to another one of those articles.

I hate to keep posting this sort of stuff, but it is important for law school applicants to fully comprehend the risks before deciding to go to certain law schools. So it is good we are seeing this sort of discussion.

But I, like Carol Elefant at Legal Blog Watch, wish there was more discussion among academic insiders.

Surprisingly, I haven't seen much discussion about this topic in the academic blogosphere. Surely, most law professors (who generally have top credentials that would qualify them for jobs at large firms) must realize that the job prospects for lower performing students are dim. Yet, I've not seen any law professors offer advice on whether to attend law school.

10 days in: Illinois Bar Review

AustinGroothuis — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:16:44 -0500

Well, it's 10 days into Bar/Bri. The strains of working while taking a comprehensive bar review course are about what I expected. At this point I'm making flashcards like crazy and keeping some pretty strange hours.

Last time I checked in, I was trying to follow the course exactly as instructed.

That went on for about two days. On the advice of friends who took and passed the Illinois bar, it occurred to me that any return brought about by reading the extensive outlines of an entire subject before lectures is probably outweighed by the large chunk of time it takes to wade through such an outline.

It was nice to hear that from people who have passed the bar because reading the extensive outlines before lectures is nearly impossible for someone who is working full-time. I definitely don't want lecture preparation time to cut into the practice or reviewing that definitely needs to be done.

A lot of studying for the bar while working full-time is about being efficient with time, so I basically cut the large outlines out of the plan. Most of my time is spent condensing the short outlines and lecture notes into flashcards right after the lecture, and then doing the assigned practice problems and essays. Hopefully this works!

Second Semester Tips for 2L's

AustinGroothuis — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:01:52 -0500

If you're a 1L you will soon, if you haven't already, get your first semester grades. As the blog Out of the Jungle points out...

[M]any got a shock. For the first time in your life, as a 1-L, you are running with a whole pack of the folks who were at the tops of their class. And, law school is different from any other school you may have had before. Even MDs, engineers and PhD holders can get a shock at their first law school exam and grades.

Yes, the first time with a strict grading curve which is derived from a single final exam, meaning no feedback throughout the semester, can result in a big disappointment for many first year law students.

See their list of tips for law students entering their second semester in this post.

I will add that you have to take first semester grades in context, as well. While your GPA may be lower first semester 1L than you had become accustomed to in undergrad, you still might have a great GPA for your law school class, depending on how your school curves.

This is especially true for all of you former straight A students in undergrad. All A's is nearly impossible in law school. It is your standing (class rank) amongst your peers in the class that is important. And without knowing that, your GPA is really meaningless.

New Pre-Law Magazine digital available

AustinGroothuis — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:04:40 -0500

This winter's Pre-Law Magazine is now available for free online in digital format. Here is a sampling of the content:

The National Jurist (it's sister magazine aimed at law students) is worth a look too:

How Much Will You Earn: Large law firms are now paying $160,000.00 to new associates. See how your school compares.
Experience Studying Abroad: Check out our annual guide to programs and hear as law students recount their experiences.
Off The Bench: A law student's final revenge.
For The Record: Find out who's been arrested, who's caught up in controversy and who's been recognized.
Trends & Profiles: Most political law schools.