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This is my last post. I am finished with finals and I am now a rising 2L. Upon reflection I kind of let my dork flag fly a bit but I think overall the blog is probably a pretty fair representation of what it is like to attend California Western as a 1L.
Here is a run down of spring semester finals and a reflection on the 1L experience.
TORTS:
Torts is a hard class. I had professor Lynch. It's a very subjective course and the multiple choice probably set the curve on the final. I downloaded law in a flash on my iphone and did all the practice problems. I can still remember the essay hypo. Closed Note.
CIVIL PROCEDURE II:
Professor Stiglitz is a difficult professor and he gives away no free points on his exams. Do practice multiple choice problems and make sure you know all the material. Our short answer essay problems had nothing to do with his questions from past exams. I'm not sure how I did on this exam. I think most people walked out feeling tricked by the professor. Closed note with a handout FRCP booklet.
CONTRACTS II:
Professor Barton wants you to word vomit everything you learned from the semester into the essay. The multiple choice is hard. I used law in a flash to study for this class. I lost track of the time a little bit and dwelled on the first question a little too long determined not to miss easy points like I did last semester. This caused me to feel rushed through the last two essays which were worth 10% each. Closed Note.
PROPERTY II:
Professor Smythe is probably the best professor I've had from undergrad to present. He is very easy going and never hides the ball in class or on exams. Open Note.
LEGAL SKILLS II:
I have mixed feelings about this class. I really liked the oral advocacy exercise. The final assignment is an appellate brief. It takes a lot of time and is only worth 2 credit hours. It also does not count against you if you're on the brink of failing out of California Western. The course material isn't exactly helpful to learning legal writing and the best resource is the professor. I think ultimately I learned the most from the student honors instructor who helps out.
For all the substantive classes I prepared all my own outlines and I went to all the tutoring sessions offered. The tutoring sessions are run by upper division students who did well in the class. I can't stress enough how valuable it is to go to these tutoring sessions even if you feel like you don't need it. You'll feel much better when you are outlining or reviewing for a topic and you have the tutor's handout and they respond to your 3:00 a.m. questions about non-mutual offensive issue preclusion or whatever.
Life as a California Western 1L:
1L is a weird experience. You have a lot of work and there is no escaping it. You're surrounded by high stress and highly competitive peers. I'll start with the bad and finish off with the great parts of the school and random personal advice.
The Bad:
California Western really pours the pressure on to do well and escape the attrition rate. The first semester the attrition rate seems like a foreign thing. Everyone is confident in their own abilities. The gravity of the attrition rate doesn't really sink in until you're in class a few weeks into the second semester. People will be asked to leave and some will leave on their own.
Certain social aspects feel like a sequel to high school life. Students form little cliques together. There are a lot of spoiled kids who came straight out of undergrad and haven't worked a day in their lives. They seemed to have had the most trouble keeping up with work though. I think this is probably a trait universal to just about every law school. My friends at Emory, Davis and UCLA have said pretty much the same thing about their 1L experience.
A few people have emailed me saying they got the 'if you can keep an 80 we'll pay for your school' scholarship and wondering how hard it is to keep an 80. An 80 is above the median and grading is on a 95 scale so it's difficult to keep an 80. I don't know what the average grade is because the school doesn't report it which means it is probably below 80. You're gambling with a lot of money.
The Good:
If you're in California Western it means you're living in San Diego. The quality of life here is incredible. The weather is great and you can run, bike, swim, surf, hike, camp, party throughout north park, south park, hillcrest, PB, OB, gaslamp. Produce here is really cheap.
There are a lot of fun student groups and ample opportunities to get involved with the campus. I didn't use the career services to find my summer internship. My friends who did said the career services are almost overzealous in finding you summer work. There are a lot of on campus interview opportunities and community service work to get involved with.
California Western is currently in talks with UCSD about merging. From what I can gather it seems like the only impediments are external political factors and maybe internal UC politics. It's looking more likely than not to happen in the next few years from the sound of the townhall meeting I posted about in January. I hope this happens and Cal Western goes public with UCSD. I wouldn't go here based just on that possibility until there is something more concrete but it's a really exciting time to be a part of California Western/ UCSD. The two schools already share a lot of resources which is another great part about Cal Western if you're interested in exploring it.
Random Advice:
I went into 1L engaged. I'm 25 years old. I love my fiance and she is a pillar in my life. I'm lucky because I get to go home to my best friend each night and she supported everything I did. Most of my friends who went in engaged or with a significant other are now single. Their grades almost certainly suffered as much as they did emotionally. I don't really feel comfortable giving relationship advice but having a life partner is a team effort so pick carefully.
Make sure practicing law is something you really want to do and not just something you think is awesome from watching too many episodes of Law and Order. Law requires really close attention to detail and uses a system including some weird, archaic and poorly written rules. Law school isn't one big Law and Order exercise where you're in trial at light speed making dramatic oral arguments and slinging back scotch on the rocks with big cigars like Wiliam Shattner in Boston Legal. You're doing really tedious legal research, reading cases, briefing, attending classes, practicing hypotheticals, and reading E&Es until the cows come home. It doesn't stop or slow down and the amount of information you're given can feel like trying to drink from a fire-hose until you get a better grip fitting the legal framework together.
If you're uncertain about law school I'd recommend taking the summer enrichment program California Western offers. It's a pretty good insight to how California Western/ any law school education works and you'll be better prepared for the first 6 weeks of classes than your peers who didn't take it. I think it's 1,000 dollars which is a small price to pay if you decide you hate law school (much better than piling on 1L debt and deciding you'd rather watch paint dry). If you know you already want to practice law and you're passionate about it I'd recommend reading "Getting to Maybe", "The Insiders Guide to Your First Year of Law School", and if you really want to let your dork flag fly you can learn the minimum contacts analysis from the civil procedure E&E (MC analysis is basically the same regardless of professor or what school you go to).
Exam preparation is key. The people who did well figured out how to take a law school exam. In undergrad you can get away with 'passive learning' which is basically just reading the material and showing up for class. To some degree you do this in law school by reading and briefing cases and outlining the course. The 'active learning' aspect is crucial to doing well where you take the concepts you've picked out as important and you begin to drill them. You must take practice exams, use Bar Bri or Cali exercises, answer the questions in the E&Es and I personally really liked the Law in a Flash cards app for the iPhone.
A good strategy for closed note exams is to build an attack outline in addition to your normal outline. The attack outline should just have a checklist of things you run through to make sure you covered everything you needed during your issue spotting. To some degree you should have common answers memorized and ready to write down as soon as you spot the issue (like an introduction and basic framework of your minimum contacts analysis for civil procedure I).
Stay healthy. Get adequate rest and exercise. A few of my friends put on about 20 pounds or so over the year. 20-30 minutes of taking a break to walk around each day isn't going to destroy your GPA. If you make yourself sick/ catch a cold during finals you haven't really done yourself any favors by abusing yourself to study more. At a certain point in the semester you should probably stop going out and partying on weekends. You're just burning the candle at both ends and if you're just wasted during the day Saturday and Sunday you've fallen behind on your work. I got H1N1 fall semester. My advice is to avoid that like the plague that it is (if thats even possible). You can go back and read my posts about it if you want.
Use California Western's student tutors. They're really good. They know the material and they'll help you out.
California Western is a tough but good school. The merger with UCSD makes it exciting to be a part of the student body right now. The attrition rate is bad but if you want to practice law in San Diego it's not a bad option. They offer discounted bar prep. classes and have a pretty nice career services administration. The faculty is knowledgeable and helpful. The upper division 1L tutors are excellent. The library even comes with an ocean view. You can walk to the waterfront (NOT the bar) for coffee and studying and you can even pitch your umbrella and hammock for studying at the beach on the weekends. Just remember to hit the ground running and you'll be alright.
Goodbye readers. Goodbye blog. Goodbye 1L.
Post Script:
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