Fight for your right to write........on a chalkboard.
Cheng cancelled Torts for today and Monday is Labor Day, hence.......
I have a 4 day weekend. This makes me happy. Very happy.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the BLS ACLU meeting. I'm excited about several of their action campaigns including Immigrant Rights, Voter Registration and LGBT. The co-chair began the meeting by telling us how active and productive the organization is, and that its reputation extends beyond our little corner on Joralemon. Apparently the first success the enjoyed was the ability to write club and organization's announcements on the chalkboards. Crazy Radicals......
Now that we've finished our first full week of Law School I have some reflections I'd like to share.
1. My professors are incredible, or seemingly so. They all seem fair, make the material as relevant and interesting as possible, and in Cohen's case rather funny. I would feel very comfortable approaching any of them if I was having difficulty with the material, or generally wanted to talk about law.....
2. The cliqueness that was apparent during intro to law and the first day of classes seems to have subsided. I think people are starting to let down their guard, Feil Hall inhabitants are branching out, and the commuters are starting to find each other.
3. In general everyone seems extremely committed to working hard and doing well. Class comments, questions and responses are usually clear, well thought out and intelligent. Having come from an undergraduate institution that had a liberal acceptance policy its refreshing to be surrounded by like minded, hard working and intelligent people.
4. While some of the orientation activities may be a bit taxing and repetitive I really appreciate the administrations efforts to make this transition as easy for the 1Ls as possible. I can't think of anything I would have asked for that hasn't already happened or is being offered.
5. The bathrooms on every other floor is definitely cause for complaint. For people who may be reading this who are not at BLS, it's not that there are floors without any bathrooms, just that a floor will have a men's room or a ladies room on alternation floors. So if you have class on the 4th as I do, and are male, as I am you either have to go to the 3rd or 5th floors to relieve yourself.
6. The wireless internet service has been sporadically shitty. We got an email today that seems to promise some resolution to whatever issues their having by the time we get back on Tuesday. In the meantime I've been carrying around an ethernet cord to plug in, which is unfortunate, as my only cord is the 20 foot bright blue monster I have leftover from my days in the dorm.
7. I have developed a healthy peeve in my first week. Fellow law students who insist on banging, literally pounding on their keyboard while trying to transcibe every word the professor utters. It is soo loud and distracting. WORSE is when they do it in the library, and you can hear them 4 tables and 3 study cubicles over. ENOUGH ALREADY! Have some mercy on your poor laptop and your fellow 1L's.
8. I have heard from veterans of the 1L experience that there is always someone in a section or class that feels they must try to answer every questions, or have a comment for every hypothetical the professor poses. I have decided who this person our section (though I've been spared as he's not in my smaller sections) and hope the professors will catch on sooner then later and ignore is wildly flapping hand. (ok, so he doesn't flap his hand, but it makes for a good picture and he might as well.......you know he wants to)
9. I have also heard that Brooklyn is extremely competitive. I can understand the inclination. You have 300 (?) relatively intelligent and driven people working hard to be in the top 30 to secure the job of their dreams..........So far it seems people are generally satisfied with doing their work to the best of their abilities, trying to get a bit of an edge here or there but still willing to help and answer questions. There are a few people I see lurking around nervously asking about how long someone read, or what they think the cutoff will be for A's or anticipating who they do and don't have to "worry about."
10. Brooklyn Law is really really white. It's a shame. Are other law schools this racially homogeneous. There are more guys wearing kippot in my section than there are African Americans.
11. There's a group of students who seem really flippant and unmotivated in my section. Now they are either all geniuses who do not need to do work, they work their ass off behind close doors and are simply lying about the drinking and smoking they're doing at Feil, or they have rich mommies and daddies and law school is merely a diversion to delay the "real world" for awhile.
12. The workload has been manageable so far. I've enjoyed reading cases thus far, and briefing is definitely time consuming and sometimes challenging but more then worth it. The greatest difficulty I've had is working out a system of reconciling my expansive and often disorganized class notes and my reading notes......perhaps I'll take some time doing that.
Any suggestions?????
ok......that's enough for now. I'd love to "hear" about other people's experiences and observations.....
I have a date tonight with a very special someone.....we're grabbing dinner somewhere in the West Village and catching a showing of El Crimen Perfecto.
I have a 4 day weekend. This makes me happy. Very happy.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the BLS ACLU meeting. I'm excited about several of their action campaigns including Immigrant Rights, Voter Registration and LGBT. The co-chair began the meeting by telling us how active and productive the organization is, and that its reputation extends beyond our little corner on Joralemon. Apparently the first success the enjoyed was the ability to write club and organization's announcements on the chalkboards. Crazy Radicals......
Now that we've finished our first full week of Law School I have some reflections I'd like to share.
1. My professors are incredible, or seemingly so. They all seem fair, make the material as relevant and interesting as possible, and in Cohen's case rather funny. I would feel very comfortable approaching any of them if I was having difficulty with the material, or generally wanted to talk about law.....
2. The cliqueness that was apparent during intro to law and the first day of classes seems to have subsided. I think people are starting to let down their guard, Feil Hall inhabitants are branching out, and the commuters are starting to find each other.
3. In general everyone seems extremely committed to working hard and doing well. Class comments, questions and responses are usually clear, well thought out and intelligent. Having come from an undergraduate institution that had a liberal acceptance policy its refreshing to be surrounded by like minded, hard working and intelligent people.
4. While some of the orientation activities may be a bit taxing and repetitive I really appreciate the administrations efforts to make this transition as easy for the 1Ls as possible. I can't think of anything I would have asked for that hasn't already happened or is being offered.
5. The bathrooms on every other floor is definitely cause for complaint. For people who may be reading this who are not at BLS, it's not that there are floors without any bathrooms, just that a floor will have a men's room or a ladies room on alternation floors. So if you have class on the 4th as I do, and are male, as I am you either have to go to the 3rd or 5th floors to relieve yourself.
6. The wireless internet service has been sporadically shitty. We got an email today that seems to promise some resolution to whatever issues their having by the time we get back on Tuesday. In the meantime I've been carrying around an ethernet cord to plug in, which is unfortunate, as my only cord is the 20 foot bright blue monster I have leftover from my days in the dorm.
7. I have developed a healthy peeve in my first week. Fellow law students who insist on banging, literally pounding on their keyboard while trying to transcibe every word the professor utters. It is soo loud and distracting. WORSE is when they do it in the library, and you can hear them 4 tables and 3 study cubicles over. ENOUGH ALREADY! Have some mercy on your poor laptop and your fellow 1L's.
8. I have heard from veterans of the 1L experience that there is always someone in a section or class that feels they must try to answer every questions, or have a comment for every hypothetical the professor poses. I have decided who this person our section (though I've been spared as he's not in my smaller sections) and hope the professors will catch on sooner then later and ignore is wildly flapping hand. (ok, so he doesn't flap his hand, but it makes for a good picture and he might as well.......you know he wants to)
9. I have also heard that Brooklyn is extremely competitive. I can understand the inclination. You have 300 (?) relatively intelligent and driven people working hard to be in the top 30 to secure the job of their dreams..........So far it seems people are generally satisfied with doing their work to the best of their abilities, trying to get a bit of an edge here or there but still willing to help and answer questions. There are a few people I see lurking around nervously asking about how long someone read, or what they think the cutoff will be for A's or anticipating who they do and don't have to "worry about."
10. Brooklyn Law is really really white. It's a shame. Are other law schools this racially homogeneous. There are more guys wearing kippot in my section than there are African Americans.
11. There's a group of students who seem really flippant and unmotivated in my section. Now they are either all geniuses who do not need to do work, they work their ass off behind close doors and are simply lying about the drinking and smoking they're doing at Feil, or they have rich mommies and daddies and law school is merely a diversion to delay the "real world" for awhile.
12. The workload has been manageable so far. I've enjoyed reading cases thus far, and briefing is definitely time consuming and sometimes challenging but more then worth it. The greatest difficulty I've had is working out a system of reconciling my expansive and often disorganized class notes and my reading notes......perhaps I'll take some time doing that.
Any suggestions?????
ok......that's enough for now. I'd love to "hear" about other people's experiences and observations.....
I have a date tonight with a very special someone.....we're grabbing dinner somewhere in the West Village and catching a showing of El Crimen Perfecto.
posted by Gryphen at 11:24 AM
1 Comments:
Great post.
I don't even go to the bathroom here because I just don't feel like figuring out what floors they are on.
I can't spot the gunner just yet. I have a few ideas like you but since they aren't grating on my last nerve yet, I haven't pegged them as being "the one".
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