Questions for UNC Law Students Forum

[FunkyJD]

Depending on whether I am awarded enough scholarship money to make it economical, I am very close to sending in a seat deposit to UNC. However, I want to ask some Carolina Law students a few questions:

1) Unless I am misinterpreting this 1L schedule, it appears that the 1L class is broken into three sections: Aycock, Coates, and Bradis, each section having a max of 92 students. It also appears that while most 1L classes & professors are assigned to you, there may be some flexibility to choose which section of RRWA you will take. Do you get to request which section of RRWA you want, or is that assigned to you as well?

2) When do you find out about your section assignment? Before or during orientation?

3) Is there a way to "grade on" to the main law review, as some schools do, or are all journals chosen 100 percent by writing competition?

4) Curious to know about favorite classes and professors, and why you enjoyed them.

5) How would you describe the student body? Is there a sense of community amidst the understandable level of competition, or is it more like "every man and woman for themselves, law of the academic jungle."

6) Can you do your final exams on a Mac, or only on a PC?

7) Decent neighborhoods in and around Chapel Hill? What's a 1BR apartment in these areas go for?

Thanks.

* Question 7 edited for Sunday morning caffeine fail

[lawhawk]

7) there are no neighborhoods in the law school haha, but there are nice neighborhoods in the area. 1 bedrooms go from $450/mo up to 1200/mo + utilities.

[FunkyJD]

7) there are no neighborhoods in the law school haha, but there are nice neighborhoods in the area. 1 bedrooms go from $450/mo up to 1200/mo + utilities.

Aye, not fully awake when I wrote these questions.

[Alyosha]

I'm a 1L at UNC, and I am procrastinating on some of my work this evening, so I thought I'd post my answers. I'm happy to answer any other questions as well.

1. This is exactly right. You do get to choose your legal research (RRWA) professor your spring semester. They send out a list toward the end of fall semester.

2. I found out about my section assignment during orientation.

3. 13 people grade on to law review, 13 people get on through a combination of writing competition/grades, and 13 people write on (at least this is how it was last year). The journal competition is the week after spring semester exams end (so plan for a difficult May)

4. I really enjoyed all my professors fall semester, though I've heard mixed reviews from other students. Spring semester they have been ok, not great. Your teachers are assigned for the entire first year, so you are kind of stuck with them. You will have all first year to talk to upperclassmen and deans fellows (upper class people who are assigned to your small section) about which teachers to take 2nd and 3rd year. Definitely take advantage of talking with 2Ls and 3Ls about the teachers they liked.

5. Not competitive at all. Though I admittedly don't spend a lot of time outside of law school with my classmates, so I may not know for sure. Everyone that I have gotten to know have been supportive, and super friendly. I've never felt any "every man or woman for themselves vibe"

6. You can do final exams on a Mac or PC. Actually, the mac users had less trouble than the PC users did, b/c the exam software was changed recently to accommodate macs and they wanted to make sure it would work on them. The only problems I saw though were during the practice exams. No one I know of had any problems during actual exams.

7. All I know in terms of neighborhoods are Glen Lennox and Finley Forest. I don't know if they have 1BR's. 2brs are from 850 (glen lennox) to 950 (finley forest).

Let me know if there are other questions.

[jle]

I am also a 1L and completely agree.

Also, for the spring RRWA, the process is through a lottery system. There are five sections of 16-17 within each section. Fall RRWA is pass/fail and split into two smaller sections of 40-45.

As far as professors, ask 2L/3L's. My professors seem to have been better this semester in contrast to Alyosha's experience.

[jss1100]

What cities in NC do most UNC law grads work in? I am in Wilmington and it looks like most lawyers here are from Campbell by far. Are their particular firms that UNC grads tend to go to?

Are there any records of this sort of info?

[bludvl_prelaw]

What cities in NC do most UNC law grads work in? I am in Wilmington and it looks like most lawyers here are from Campbell by far. Are their particular firms that UNC grads tend to go to?

Are there any records of this sort of info?

I'm not going to UNC law, but I've lived in NC all my life...UNC is the most well-respected law school in the state (other than Duke), and their grads tend to work in larger cities like Charlotte or Raleigh. You can probably find work anywhere in the state, though.

[FunkyJD]

What cities in NC do most UNC law grads work in? I am in Wilmington and it looks like most lawyers here are from Campbell by far. Are their particular firms that UNC grads tend to go to?

Are there any records of this sort of info?

I'm not going to UNC law, but I've lived in NC all my life...UNC is the most well-respected law school in the state (other than Duke), and their grads tend to work in larger cities like Charlotte or Raleigh. You can probably find work anywhere in the state, though.

[Matteliszt]

I'm not going to UNC law, but I've lived in NC all my life...UNC is the most well-respected law school in the state (other than Duke)

I heard a lot of Duke grads leave the state, which is great for UNC. Truth?

[Alyosha]

What cities in NC do most UNC law grads work in? I am in Wilmington and it looks like most lawyers here are from Campbell by far. Are their particular firms that UNC grads tend to go to?

Are there any records of this sort of info?

On the UNC career services website, I think there is a link to a page which shows the employers UNC grads have gone to over the past several years. Beyond that, you can always go to the websites of the larger NC firms (Parker Poe, Womble, Brooks Pierce, etc) and search for lawyers by school. The conventional wisdom was that UNC would get you anywhere in the state, but that was before the crash. It's anybody's guess about placement in this economy.

I will say the NC legal market is hurting. Most of these larger firms don't take that large of a summer class to start with, so even small cutbacks reduces the number of aggregate associate positions significantly. There are rumors that some top 10% people struck out this year at OCI at UNC, which I assume is unheard of in a normal economy. All the 2Ls I know have summer associate positions, but I only know a few.

I know in a normal economy most Duke grads go out of state. Not sure about now. There is an element of "good old boy" culture down here, suggesting some firms prefer their state school graduates. Duke students could be considered flight risks I guess, so it helps if they have ties.

Hope this helps, let me know if there are any more questions. (sorry this is almost all anecdotal/opinion, I don't have any hard numbers for any of these questions)

[Matteliszt]

Hope this helps, let me know if there are any more questions. (sorry this is almost all anecdotal/opinion, I don't have any hard numbers for any of these questions)

Anything helps. Its so hard to find any information at all about UNC job placement in the area.

[tarheel87]

I've heard of people in the top 10% of both UNC and Wake (equal schools in NC) that didn't have positions last year.