Here is my all too infrequent law school round-up:
The 1L Job Hunt
Law school itself hasn’t stressed me out nearly as much as the prospect of having to find a job. I mean, I haven’t applied for a job since fall of 2006, and back then it was a breeze. There was plenty of hand-holding, and the entire situation required almost no creativity (ah, the good old days of undergrad). Now, well, the only hand-holding we have is a giant purple binder (world’s scariest binder, might I add) and the name of the game is creativity.
And while I applaud the ABA rule of forcing 1Ls to wait to apply for jobs until first semester is almost over (presumably to allow us to focus on schoolwork), I really wonder why they don’t make that date December 15 or sometime reasonably after finals, rather than the most stress-inducing date of all time: December 1. I mean, great, I don’t have to worry about applying for jobs all semester…until SIX DAYS BEFORE FINALS. Because really, that’s the ideal time to start stressing about finding a job.
The Right to Choose
One of the great things about NYU is it’s elective option for spring semester. Unlike most schools, NYU allows Property and Constitutional Law to be taken 2L year so that students can pick from a list of electives that include those two courses, International Law, Corporations, and Income Tax.
This is really awesome. Or at least it sounds awesome. Until we realize that it’s an all out war to see who gets to take the 2-3 desirable classes out of the bunch. Because with publicized course and professor evaluations and the fact that most sane people prefer not to take Income Tax 1L year/ever, everyone ultimately ends up electing to take the same classes.
NYU’s new bidding system engenders competitiveness and confusion (kind of like law school itself), forcing us to strategically pick classes which will ultimately result in approximately half of us being happy and the other half being a mix of mildly disappointed to frustrated at life.
Not to mention the instructions for the system are about as confusing if not moreso than Pennoyer and the entire theory of state-federal choice of law combined.
But alas, rumor has it that it gets better next year, when instead of rush-bidding for a single elective, we actually get to choose our entire schedule. Let’s hope. Because I did not pay $45,000 for a year’s tuition to take classes that neither interest me nor have anything to do with my future goals.
Yes, I did got to Fall Ball
And I have no comments therein.