Posts Tagged ‘classmates’

So I think, somewhere in the annals of this blog site, I noted some things that I thought were unique to the University of Chicago. But, guess what? I’m gonna do it again. And probably focus on a few different things than I did before since I now have a largely different perspective on the school …. which might be a good or bad thing.

First, is the faculty. I think last time I mentioned something about their accessibility and such, which is generally true. But another interesting aspect of the faculty is how young they are. It’s actually kind of ridiculous. I think if you were to find the average age of law professors at most schools, it might be upwards of say 55 or 60. It is true that we’ve got our fair share of faculty who are more dead than alive, but it seems we’ve also got a last plurality of quite literally brilliant minds just starting out in their careers, not least of which are the Legal Writing instructors (Bigelows) who I find to be particularly engaging (hopefully they’re reading … Hey you! Give me a better grade next time! I’m posting awesome things about you!). I think there’s a link on our school’s website up right now displaying some of the young talent at UChicago. I’ve had class with a few (maybe more than that) of these folks and it’s incredible the grasp they’ve been able to attain on the law in such a short time … and their credentials are ridiculous … something I will never attain. That much is for sure. Anyway, it seems the last administration of our law school (the dean and such) put a real emphasis on recruiting young talent to help supplement the already illustrious older generation of law professors, which is an interesting a fairly unique dynamic to this school, I think.

One sort of point which is not necessarily negative about the faculty here, but something that is not in line with my tastes/preferences as a student: the faculty is not diverse ….. at all. I think this was one of the complaints of the LSA I heard at some point earlier this year. The faculty is largely composed of white males, which is somewhat disappointing from my point of view, but you might get that in most other schools as well. I’m not sure.

Another unique aspect of UChicago, which I also might have mentioned in my last post, just in a different sense, is: the size. This does add a different (and I think beneficial) social appeal: Chicago is certainly not the place where fun comes to die, at least not for me and the group that I’ve chosen to socialize with. But in addition to that, it helps (maybe, keeping fingers crossed) in finding jobs in economically troubling times. Granted, this might just be the Career Services office trying to allay all 1L fears of failure, but according to those that have heard direct from them, UChicago does better in constrained legal markets simply because there’s less of us. Firms might look to diversify their incoming classes and with a limited selection coming from UChicago as it is, they are less inclined to scale back on the already small numbers that come from our school … and perhaps even less inclined to eliminate incoming UChicago students all together. The result: less people coming back empty-handed.

Anyway, that’s the job perspective I’d like to think about going into OCI, even if it is just a complete falsehood. But as for now, it’s time for Admitted Students Weekend. I’ve been trying to get all my work for Monday done (except the brief, which I am choosing to neglect) so I can just not worry about work and focus on having a good time with the lil baby Admits running around. So yeah, back to work so I can enjoy this weekend. Should be a good time.

So in preparing for exams, I’ve realized that there are generally a few type of people in the law school world — at least when it comes to exams.

The first group are those that are searching for pity. For some reason, these people think they are either the center of the universe or that their life is somehow so much worse than everybody else’s. They then think that everybody else in the world should hear about how much their life sucks. These are the people who frequently post facebook statuses similar to “Been in the library for 12 hours. Wah!” or “Man, outlining for 2 days straight sucks.” Or the people who continually talk about the things they’d rather be doing besides studying (e.g. moving to Panama, finding a young rich man/woman to run away with, opening their own hotdog stand, etc.). These people bug me. We all get it: law school takes lots of time. But please stop announcing to the world how much you hate it or the myriad of things you’d do if not “forced” to be here. Because the fact is, if you were serious, you’d leave without making such a big fuss about it. The only point to all the objection you constantly bring up is so you can get attention — either from your peers, which won’t happen because we’re all in the same boat, or from your friends, who I am sure are just as sick and tired of hearing about your whining as the rest of us.

Another group of people are those who somehow manage to stay above all the stress and competition. If you were to ask these people what they thought about exams, they would say something like: “Hey bro, que sera sera. Can you dig?” or “I’ll try my best and whatever happens happens.” These people bug me too, but for different reasons. Instead of just being annoyed with these people for who they are or what they do, I am more annoyed at myself for not being able to be them. I clearly do not belong to this group, but sometimes wish I could because they just seem so relaxed and worry-free most days. But maybe there’s something to be said for feeling the pressure and having it push you to perform, not that these more-relaxed individuals aren’t pushed to perform.

Anyway, the point is: exams are coming up again, which is different from most other schools out there who only have two rounds of exams (lucky us, right?). This time around we have exams in contracts and criminal — so I’ve been reading the Restatement (2d, of course), the UCC, the MPC, and relevant case law like crazy for the past few days — two more weeks of this slog left to go. Yippee.

On a final note, like Soleil, I have finally secured some summer employment, which is great because I was starting to get a little worried thinking I might end up waiting tables or something. Incidentally, I would have made infinity times more money waiting tables instead of what I’m actually doing: a judicial internship, which is unpaid …. and does not qualify for a public service grant from the Law School. Soooooo, basically, finding money to live on this summer is going to be …. interesting.

As I noted in the previous post, we just turned in our open memo assignment last week. The completion of that assignment, while joyous with mimosas and pancakes, also signals that the end is near — the end of the quarter, and with that comes exams. So last week was my last fun week for a while. And it certainly was a fun week. After completing each 1L writing assignment, the law school hosts a party for all students: $20 for an open bar night somewhere. Last quarter it was the Party of the First Part and this quarter it was called The Over the Hump Party. I think last quarter’s party was probably more enjoyable, maybe partly because the venue for this quarter’s party was like an Indie Rock bar — sorry hipsters, but your music is lame. It was especially lame since all most people wanted to do was throw back some drinks, have a good time, and maybe head out onto the dance floor for some good old-fashioned bump and grind. And Indie Rock is most certainly NOT conducive to bumping and grinding, thats’ for sure.

Anyway, the day after the Hump Party was Friday, which means Wine Mess Day. But this was an extra special wine mess. Almost immediately after “the mess” (held an hour later this week) was the Law School Musical, which was hilarious. For those who are unfamiliar with what a Law School Musical consists of, basically, its a chance when students get to make fun of, and other students get to laugh at, all the things we deal with on a daily basis. The jokes this year included putting a giant Chinese dragon-like elephant on stage when discussing OCI and the economy …. the economy thereby being likened to “the elephant in the room.” So clever. Other jokes were just unabashed attacks on the idiosyncrasies and quirks of most of our professors, equally clever and hilarious. And literally nothing was sacred — attacks on the way they dress, their national origin, their senses of humor (or lack thereof), their age, and weight were all fair game. One might think that professors get pretty upset with all this laughter at their expense (indeed, I have since learned that many professors forego attending for this very reason), but given the level of humiliation they put all of us through 5 days a week, I really don’t care that much. Plus, one of the cardinal rules of having a decent sense of humor, I think, is being able to laugh at yourself.

Anyway, after those fun events, and after recovering from a splitting hangover headache, it was time to focus back on school. Yes, exams are coming, and this quarter they cover twice as much material as last quarter. So I’m back to being the library on a consistent (and perhaps constant) basis — outlining, reviewing notes, reading supplements, etc. in an effort to try to make this quarter’s grades just a bit better than the last. So goodbye for now, fun. Hope to see you again possibly in March?

I’d like to post a non-aggressive response to one of my commenters from last week. I’m sorry if my posts seem to be ongoing and endless rants, especially if those rants are particularly depressing or “fatalistic.” The fact of the matter is this: I dislike law school so far. I don’t think this is in any way a remarkable or groundbreaking insight. In fact, I think perhaps the majority of people who attend law school hate 1L year, which does not reflect on their success or quality of life later on down the road as lawyers. Maybe I take it a little far sometimes. My only excuse: poetic (or narrative) license. It’s easy to insert a little drama here and there, especially once the ball gets rolling in writing these posts and one steps back and thinks about how ridiculous and upsetting the whole law school regime is. In fact, if you do enjoy law school as a 1L, we have a term for you: gunner. Or, if not a gunner, just one of those people who enjoys talking about the law so much you find time to talk about it at lunch, during breaks between classes, while watching sports or drinking on the weekends, before my morning coffee, etc.

In short, these are the people who enjoy the law so much that they often ruin my day by trying to talk about it all the time. We have a name for these people here in the University of Chicago’s class of 2012: “The Intellectual Table.” There is literally a table of students that gather in our lounge area every day to discuss and read the law while most others are chatting about their weekends or just generally hanging out. On the opposite side of the cerebral spectrum within our class, there is another group. This group enjoys thinking about pretty much everything else other than the law — things such as the most recent episode of “Jersey Shore” (also ruining my day), late-night outings in Chicago, etc. We also have a name for these people in our class: “The Frat.”

I know, it is kind of sad that our class has formed this silly cliques and, as a side note, I am a proud abstainer from the quiet and yet ever-present “rivalry.” But, I feel it’s just bound to happen in a class so small where everyone knows everyone else. Certainly, there are probably more cliques out there that I am neglecting (it’s actually very sad), but, to me, these are the most prominent … or perhaps the groups who are each other’s most exact opposites. I imagine them like the Jets and Sharks in “West Side Story.” Not hardened street thugs. But, rather, singing and dancing law students — prancing around one another in some kind of faux-knife fight, except instead of knives, the only weapons we have are … well, nothing. I guess “The Intellectual Table” has their books and “The Frat” has maybe their gym weights or something. Furthermore, I can’t think of any star-crossed lovers or anything within each of these groups (a Maria and Tony) … I might be able to, but I’d rather spend my morning working on this awful memo or reading for tomorrow’s classes.

In any case, the point is: nobody enjoys 1L year, unless you’re part of “The Intellectual Table” (let’s call them the Sharks … for no particular reason). If you are, please don’t ruin my day and talk about law school unless it is absolutely necessary … even then, watch out. Point #2: law school is like “West Side Story”??? I dunno, I’m still working on that hypothesis.