newly admitted students: a boalt 1L tells you how it is

[abony holmes]

I have spent the last week participating in Boalt’s admitted students weekend.  I’ve tried my best to convince students to come to Boalt by telling them all the wonderful things about us.  I've also let them in on some things I don't like so much.

In the process, I’ve come up with a list of good questions to ask alumni and current students if you are an admitted student trying to decide what law school to attend:

1. Do/did you like it here? It’s an incredibly simple question, but you can get a lot of valuable information from the content and the manner in which it is answered. I was always wary of students who needed to put down other schools to explain why they loved their school.
2. What are you doing this summer/what is your current career? It’s no secret, law school is a professional school, and even with the current economic situation, it's meant to provide you with career opportunities better than those you would get with just an undergraduate degree. As a follow-up question, ask how their degree from <school name> helped or hindered their job search.
3. Do the students get along? It may be hard to get a straight answer, but there are schools with reputations for competitiveness over cooperation. If you hear students complain about gunners or show a tendency to obsess about their grades or the grades of their colleagues, (especially if they obsess about the grades of their colleagues) it is probably a more competitive environment.
4. What has been your experience with the faculty/administration? Bad teachers and unhelpful administration can make a law student’s life miserable. Just imagine what those poor kids at Chicago are suffering through, with no internet in their classrooms.
5. What other schools did you consider? Find a student who considered schools similar to your own, and then grill them about everything you can think of. They probably did their fair share of research, and you can use their research to supplement your own.

For those of you considering Boalt, my answers to those questions are after the jump. 
For further commentary on new admit weekends, click here and here.

1. Do you like it at Boalt? I love being a 1L at Boalt. My classes are almost always stimulating, and when they aren’t I rely on my involvement in extracurriculars to keep me excited about my legal career.
2. What are you doing this summer/what is your current career? This summer I will be working at the East Bay Community Law Center.  I had a lot of places to choose from, and I believe that my offers were in part a result of me being a student at Boalt, and in part my work experience and commitment to social justice prior to law school.  Anecdotally, all of my 1L friends are currently employed, and those who wanted firm jobs got them.
3. Do the students at Boalt get along? I love the people here at Boalt. My super-mod in particular is incredibly supportive and cooperative. There is the usual note-sharing and study groups, but I’ve been helped by and given help to fellow students in the midst of a full on stress breakdown. The only grades I know about are my own, and those are the only grades I care to know. I’ve never been asked about my grades by anyone.
4. What has been your experience with the faculty/administration?  My professors have been, in general, very good. There is the occasional unorganized professor, the occasional professor who is so smart that they spend half a class period on an incredibly complex and arcane topic (that      subsequently never showed up on the test). But all of my professors have been incredibly smart, and very accessible. In my experience, the administration is likewise accessible and amendable to student concerns. I have a friend who emailed the Dean and Dean of Students about a concern,      and received (that day) a response from both.

I considered the following schools: Cornell, Howard, Georgetown, UCLA, USC, UVA, Vanderbilt, Wash U at St. Louis, and William and Mary.

Comments

[Joshua]

This, is, AMAZING. Imma ask this to everybody and they mama!

[Abony Holmes]

Josh, if you think it's so amazing, then why haven't you sent in your deposit at Boalt yet?

[Jack Bauer]

Boalt doesn't use a deposit.

[Abony Holmes]

I forgot about that. Even more reason to love us, we take your word at face value and demand money later:)