[Mentalist]

work is simple--it's 2 4 hour shifts a week, as minimum.

what will probably kill me will be my Pro Bono work, once I finally get a damn assignment
the other thing (helping to edit articles for a journal our faculty's gonna publish) will only be a temp thing, and it'll happen next semester, when I'm gonna get one full day off every week, b/c of judge shadowing.

[HoosierDaddy]

Like I said, completely different school styles.

Can't work your first year of law school at any ABA recognized law school here, be it privately at a non-legal place of employment or for free in the pro-bono clinics. Law Review is only available to 2 and 3L's. Externships are only available to 2 and 3L's as well.

Basically first year is school. That is it. I'm glad that was all I could do. If I'd have had a job I would have had trouble passing. I needed every extra hour that I wasn't studying to not psychologically breakdown.

[Mentalist]

well, I would imagine there'd be some drastic differences in the system--we have about 15 law schools (common law), you guys have about 400.

The way our dean told us in our first week "it's VERY tough to get into law school, but you have to try really hard to fail it, afterwards".

Which makes sense, if you think about it. each student over here is a much bigger investment. so they want us to do good.

I have 7 course in my first year. 2 are pass/fail--Legal methods and Legal systems. the other 5 deal with core areas of law--Property, Crim, Torts, Contracts and constitutional.
I"m not sure if they've just been taking it easy on us in the first month, but average case load in 3-4 cases per lecture. which translates in anywhere between 2-4 hours of work every day to stay on top of things.

due to the fact that law community is much smaller, they're also trying to get us involved in as many things as they can--hence pro bono, editorials, etc.

[Mentalist]

Incidentally, i've been reading the last case I have for today for the last 2 hours, because i'm procrastinating.
Today has been a messed up day though, so i'm indulging myself,

[Slum]

Mentalist, on 13 October 2010 - 05:03 AM, said:

well, I would imagine there'd be some drastic differences in the system--we have about 15 law schools (common law), you guys have about 400.

The way our dean told us in our first week "it's VERY tough to get into law school, but you have to try really hard to fail it, afterwards".

Which makes sense, if you think about it. each student over here is a much bigger investment. so they want us to do good.

I have 7 course in my first year. 2 are pass/fail--Legal methods and Legal systems. the other 5 deal with core areas of law--Property, Crim, Torts, Contracts and constitutional.
I"m not sure if they've just been taking it easy on us in the first month, but average case load in 3-4 cases per lecture. which translates in anywhere between 2-4 hours of work every day to stay on top of things.

due to the fact that law community is much smaller, they're also trying to get us involved in as many things as they can--hence pro bono, editorials, etc.

7 courses, 5 day week, around 15 hours of studying per week. Something's very wrong here.

[Mentalist]

I DID mention that i've been loving my life lately, haven't I?

i've got a total of 16 hours a week of classes. which is less than I had in undergrad (I would usually end up with 18-22 hours a week)

to be fair, a bunch of people are saying it's taking them longer to get readings and such done. I'm just actually used to the case method of analysis, because in my undergrad i've spent 4 years analyzing and summarizing psychological studies, drawing relationships that would support scientific theories from them, so I feel at ease with the idea of reading cases and extracting ratios.

[HoosierDaddy]

We had mandatory curves that mandated failing people our first semester. Failing first semester gets you expelled in some cases, put on probation in every other case.

Completely different atmospheres.

[Mentalist]

well, yeah, once again--400 schools, 100+ first years in each, v. about 2000-2500 first years nationwide.

our competition may be fairly fierce, since we only got over 30 million people as potential clients, but it's nowhere near as bad as you guys.

which I suppose reflect on the application process--you guys use the LSAT as the major thing. here it's like 40-45% of what's considered for acceptance. it's hard to get in. each school's "applicants:acceptances" ratio goes from 10:1 to 30:1, and once they DO make their choice, they have much more at stake in your success, because they have turned away 9-20 people who might have been just as good if not better.

Henc the faculty would naturally feel more inclined to support its students to ensure that they are not wasting their time.

[HoosierDaddy]

I don't want to get into a pissing contest. The atmospheres are totally different. I hope you do well. I was worried about you burning yourself out there. If you tried all those activities here, you would do so. However, that's not the case there. So good luck.

Also, there are 200 ABA approved law schools here. Just, FYI.

This post has been edited by H.D.: 13 October 2010 - 05:41 AM

[Mentalist]

lol, that def wasn't my intention

i'm not trying to criticize your system, or say why one's better than the other. --God forbid, lol


i won't say anymore, just as long as we're clear on that.

and thanks, I appreciate that.

EDIT: @ number of schools: fair enough. stupid of me me to assume each tier had 100 schools

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 13 October 2010 - 05:44 AM

[Slum]

Mentalist, on 13 October 2010 - 05:33 AM, said:

well, yeah, once again--400 schools, 100+ first years in each, v. about 2000-2500 first years nationwide.

our competition may be fairly fierce, since we only got over 30 million people as potential clients, but it's nowhere near as bad as you guys.

which I suppose reflect on the application process--you guys use the LSAT as the major thing. here it's like 40-45% of what's considered for acceptance. it's hard to get in. each school's "applicants:acceptances" ratio goes from 10:1 to 30:1, and once they DO make their choice, they have much more at stake in your success, because they have turned away 9-20 people who might have been just as good if not better.

Henc the faculty would naturally feel more inclined to support its students to ensure that they are not wasting their time.

What exactly is a uni's "stake" in a potential student? As I understand it there's no local/govt aid for school in Canada. They get your tuition, whether you pass or fail...no? If it's competitive, and there are thousands of students on the bubble, then why coddle a sub-par student?

This post has been edited by Slum: 13 October 2010 - 05:48 AM

[Mentalist]

Slum, on 13 October 2010 - 05:43 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 13 October 2010 - 05:33 AM, said:

well, yeah, once again--400 schools, 100+ first years in each, v. about 2000-2500 first years nationwide.

our competition may be fairly fierce, since we only got over 30 million people as potential clients, but it's nowhere near as bad as you guys.

which I suppose reflect on the application process--you guys use the LSAT as the major thing. here it's like 40-45% of what's considered for acceptance. it's hard to get in. each school's "applicants:acceptances" ratio goes from 10:1 to 30:1, and once they DO make their choice, they have much more at stake in your success, because they have turned away 9-20 people who might have been just as good if not better.

Henc the faculty would naturally feel more inclined to support its students to ensure that they are not wasting their time.

What exactly is a uni's "stake" in a potential student? As I understand it there's no local/govt aid for school in Canada. They get your tuition, whether you pass or fail...no? If it's competitive, and there are thousands of students on the bubble, then why coddle a sub-par student?

Universities are partially government funded
edit: as for why they "coddle" us: dunno. I suppose their approach is just different.
whetehr it's better or worse is not for me to judge.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 13 October 2010 - 05:48 AM

[Mentalist]

oh,my head.


DW, what do you prescribe against mild hangovers and drama?

[Darkwatch]

Mentalist, on 16 October 2010 - 08:21 PM, said:

oh,my head.


DW, what do you prescribe against mild hangovers

"Mornin' after"

-3 parts tonic water
-2 alka-seltzers
-1 drop of peptobismol
-2 drops of mint essence

Serve in a tall clear glass.

Quote

and drama?

"The Smooth End"

-1/2 to 3/4 cup of whipped cream
-1/2 cup hot water
-1/3 dark rum
-1 generous spoonful of spiced butter

While you wait for the water to boil, whip the cream and add the required amount to the mug.
When the water has boiled mix it into the cream. Immediately add the spoonful and stir till dissolved.
Add the rum.
Consume.
Bask in delicious harmony.


What exactly happened Ment, sounds like a rough evening?

[Mentalist]

nah, evening was fine, if somewhat chaotic (no one in our group is particularly good at organizing things)

Had people over at my rez, with improvised dinner and pre-drinking, then went out to town. the hangover came from the mixture of various shots people were buying me all night (we were belatedly celebrating my birthday)

the drama part is slightly complicated (as these things usually are). I met a girl who is in my section, and we've become rather good friends. And now our entire group of friends decided we'd make a great couple and keeps encouraging us to get together. At the same time, we both come from backgrounds that are very restrained and take things like relationships extremely serious. As such, we get along easily without any pretenses of anything actually going on, especially since both of us are of the opinion that relationships in academic environment cause too many complications.

unfortunately, our other friends don't seem to get that, which makes things awkward. While we can simply chill and talk till the wee hours of the morning, everyone else expects something more. Stupid Westerners with their different outlook, lol

[Darkwatch]

Ah, yes I'm familiar with that kind of situation.
It does get annoying. Usually the best you can do is record yourself telling them the situation and putting a speaker in their pillows at night. Does wonders.

[Mentalist]

hehe, that's certainly something to look into.

[hmqb]

theirs always blackmail....

[Darkwatch]

Meh, that'll just make more drama in the long run.
Collar bombs ala Battle Royal are a safer bet.

[Mentalist]

not to mention all the effort involved in digging up dirt on others...
Both of us decided that the best course of action for now would be to simply ignore their insinuations, lol