The Great Waiting continues. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth accompanies each visit to Cardinal Station, our school’s site for students to pay bills, register, and receive grades. 23 days since our last exam and 29 since our first, there still no grades.
The only grade I have so far is from Lawyering Skills and that class ended in April with our Appellate Brief. Dr. Bombay wondered last week whether other schools run on similar timelines. So, do you? Are you still waiting for Spring semester grades? When you were in school did you wait long? Did you even care how long it took to get grades back? Were you ever prevented from getting a job or internship by delays in receiving grades.
Continue reading ‘Where, O Where Are My %$$#(& Grades?’
One of the things I was rather surprised by during my first year of law school was the number of rules that professors had regarding behavior of students in class. Perhaps my age is getting the best of me, but I had assumed that the days when professors had to lecture students on raising their hands, not eating a meal during class, holding conversations with neighbors, surfing the internet on laptops and other disruptive behavior ended when I left undergrad. And that was ten years ago.
Of course, when I was in undergrad no one but the tools ever brought a laptop to class.
I am a big fan of limited rules in class - I would rather let my fellow students police behavior through good old-fashioned peer pressure than waste class time having the professors do it. I’m sure I can do a better job getting my neighbor to quit surfing Perez Hilton in class than the professor can.
Continue reading ‘No Drinking In Class’
Mrs. Bombay and I were at a cocktail party yesterday for a dear friend of ours who was just named to the directorship of high powered organization here in town. While there, I met his daughter, who is going to be matriculating at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rodgers College of Law to study Native American law. The entire Hypo Staff wishes her the best on her journey.
The conversation obviously swerved towards the first year experience, and some of the same consideration we’ve voiced here. Specifically, about the cost of attendance, and how law school debt can force you to make career choices that you might otherwise avoid. She said she selected Arizona not only because of its preeminence in the field of Native American and indigenous people’s law, but also because the cost was such that she didn’t have to worry about the debt affecting her career choices. Continue reading ‘Best Party Ever.’
It’s all over save for the shouting now, and I’ve been trying to come up with some overarching theme, some great lesson I’ve learned from my first year in law school. But truth be told, I can’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a tremendous amount myself, my friends, this whole process, but I can’t distill one single lesson that I think everyone should know about being an evening law student.
I think this is because far more than day students, evening students have a diverse set of experiences outside of law school that affect how the process goes. Someone have no job, so have soft jobs that let them study at their desks, and some have complete soul-crushing jobs that cause you to show up late to your exams. Problems with your spouse or your children don’t go away because you’re in school. Hell, they might get worse. People will still get sick, have babies, loved ones may pass away. In short, life does not stop just because you chose to go to law school.
And maybe that’s the lesson. Maybe the most important piece of advice I can give is that all the talk of the transformative power of law school, of teaching you to “think like a lawyer” doesn’t mean that you have to change who you are. And that is not a bad thing.
The Hypo will be on hiatus this week, and we haul our sorry carcasses through exams. We’ll be back in full force on May 7th after we’ve driven a stake through the heart of Contracts, and the hangover has worn off. A few thoughts for you to consider in our absence:
• Is there anything stranger than when Stevens is joined by Roberts and Kennedy in supporting a law requiring photo ID for voting?
• The ABA requires that evening courses be “materially similar” to those of day courses. Our Property mid-term in December was 2 hours long and our final is 4 hours long. Full time students are only subjected to a 4 hour exam for the same number of credits. Is a 50% increase in exam time “materially similar”?
• Does the purchase of Wm. J. Wrigley Co. by Mars Foods portend the arrival of M&M flavored chewing gum? If not, why?
Excelsior!
:(n) a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom.
So exams are roughly 3 weeks away, and I could not care less. Sure, I’m aware of the effect that positive (or negative) grades can have on my overall academic and career trajectory, but I’m boiled cabbage compared with the ball of fire I was last semester. What’s worse is that given the way that our year long classes work, I’ll wind up getting final grades for 15 credits worth of course work, which is the same as the full timers. Still, my thoughts seem to stray (in no particular order) to golf, my folks place at the beach, and playing Pai Gow Poker at Harrah’s. I’m comforted in knowing that I’m not alone in feeling this way. When I broached the subject with Pakistani (Kazakhstani ?) Princess and the Sherpa the other night, their collective response mirrored mine in both tone and tempo.
So other than call in Underdog, what are we supposed to do? Continue reading ‘Ennui.’
As our recent foray in poetry suggests, the 1 L rite of passage that is the Appellate Brief is now finished. Oral Arguments are next, followed by exams, and then I, for one, am going to collapse into a heap.
Other than exhaustion and caffeine addiction, one of things that I find most amazing about law school is that it gives you new insight into the way our society functions. Take for example this appellate brief. Our problem focused on a wrongful discharge case under the ADEA, and was set in the 5th Circuit. In doing the type of exhaustive research required for such an undertaking, you’re able to see the development of the interpretation of the law over time. Specifically, you are able to see how the appointment of jurists with a particular judicial philosophy can really shape public policy. Continue reading ‘Epiphany’
