Something there is about Columbia that loves to suck Forum

[TTTLS]

This thread kind of proves ju's point that law school makes you an objectively worse human being.

[hung jury]

ITT three CLS students make CLS sound like a miserable experience--one intentionally and two unintentionally.

[Sapientia]

not

[timbs4339]

Having just graduated yesterday, I feel like the criticism of the adminsitration is well-deserved. Graduation was the cherry on top of three years of dealing with incompetence and ambivalence on the part of the administration (with the exception of Housing, who were always pretty receptive to requests).

However, I've found the student body as a whole to be not unlike my college and high school experience, that is there are about 90% of the class that I see only occasionally and don't really have much in common with, about 10% who I see regularly and are pretty cool people, and 4-5 really good friendships and 4-5 people who just really piss me off. I feel like that's the best you can reasonably hope for in any large organization.

[piccolittle]

Okay, if this is the dump on CLS thread, I do kind of want to play. I love everything about this school except the way they have taken away literally every course I really wanted to take here, right in the semester I wanted it. First the IP elective this semester, then pretty much all the intensive August courses next semester when I actually cared. Sofa king annoying.

[BrightLine]

This is odd, because my experience has been totally different from OP's. I'm also a year below him/her, so maybe it's just about a difference in the members of each class? I have found the people to be much more interesting, welcoming, and kind than the professors are "beacons of light" or whatever OP called them. It just smells fishy to like your professors so much, I guess.

OP, are you active in any societies/journals etc? Do you have many close friends at school? Perhaps you are judging people based on their in-class personas without opening up to them socially. At least in my class everybody seems pretty intense in school but they're all really fun outside of class. I'm pretty shy but even I like basically everyone at CLS.

I guess I get that everyone has a different experience, it just makes me wonder why yours is so very different from mine.

I agree with all this. I really enjoyed 1L there.

[83947368]

.

[dresden doll]

Having just graduated yesterday, I feel like the criticism of the adminsitration is well-deserved. Graduation was the cherry on top of three years of dealing with incompetence and ambivalence on the part of the administration (with the exception of Housing, who were always pretty receptive to requests).

However, I've found the student body as a whole to be not unlike my college and high school experience, that is there are about 90% of the class that I see only occasionally and don't really have much in common with, about 10% who I see regularly and are pretty cool people, and 4-5 really good friendships and 4-5 people who just really piss me off. I feel like that's the best you can reasonably hope for in any large organization.

Agreed with all this. Julianna Utley (?) is great; people who handled graduation not so much.

[Renzo]

Guess who suck at poasting



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oh, and him too
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[Renzo]

Apart from the spelling correction, you got everything else wrong.
1. word choice -- i used "someone" because I am universalizing the statement: i am saying it's not about me -- this guy just likes to put people down.
2. redundant is redundant -- funny that you put it this way because i used "unlettered and ignorant" for the same reason that you used repetition here: emphasis, son.
3. em dashes -- haha, why do you suppose i used two dashes and not one? i couldn't agree more!
4. syntax -- gee, give me a break. i used that weired construction to draw attention. i didn't even give it that much thought when i wrote it, but come to think of it, i probably drew inspiration from Mending Walls: "SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall,/ That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,/ And spills the upper boulders in the sun;/ And makes gaps even two can pass abreast."

In any case, thanks for editing my TLS post; it's good to know that someone cares so much. (I really don't care about the integrity of my prose on these forums, but I know you do. So how about another round of editing?) I gotta say, though: something there is about you, Vronsky!

Enjoyed; would read this thread again.

[Series70]

. . .an indifferent administration. . .

That's been one of my main gripes. Incompetence and poor attitude abounds, right down to the people working at the "help" desks. I don't share your view of the professors, though--I've found many to be condescending, disrespectful, indifferent, and incapable of teaching. Can't say I've actually learned much, but, then again, we all know that law school is just about making money for universities, and not about education. Three years of my life and $150k in debt, all for a piece of paper.

[Borhas]

I have had a miserable time in the two years that I have been here. I can't quite tell what exactly it is about Columbia that sucks so much. Perhaps there isn't a thing that sucks per se, perhaps it's an amalgam of things -- perhaps it's the combination of an undifferentiated mass of gunners and an indifferent administration. But that's just perhaps. For the record, I take no issue with our professors here -- they are broad-minded intellectuals, emissaries of light all, in whose presence one's mind expands compulsively and exponentially. My issue is with those whose minds are so affected. Or rather those who affect to be so affected. So, yeah, it's not that I hate law school. I just hate my school!

Don't let the douche bug bring you down bro, just find new ways to humble the dbags.

[DontGetIt]

Nevermind.

[kwais]

Lol at cls transfers showing off their grammar skillz itt. It's cool, bros, CLS already accepted you.

P.S. The z in 'skillz' was intentional.

This, I agree with this.

Something there is about having gone to a POS law school that *actually* sucks makes it seem, well, less sucky to me than OP.

Wow. Obliviousness at it's finest. I am sorry that you attended (what you, not I) call a POS law school. But if OP got into Columbia, he could have also gone to Duke, UVA, Michigan, or even a little lower to have gotten a slightly lower chance at career success but a much higher quality of life.

I can't tell you how many people I've met at UT who got into Columbia but couldn't stand it when they visited.

lulz

[timbs4339]

How is this is all just accepted? Maybe this might just be law schools in general. How someone can tell you that you'll only be tested on what was covered in class, but then test you on what wasn't covered in class?

I think this is just due to CLS's good job placement, which leads to apathy among the student body. Nobody really wants to question the system because hey, the vast majority of us are getting good jobs. What's the point of rocking the boat? Most everyone I've talked understands the system is broken, the teaching methods are largely ineffective, and what effectiveness they do have certainly isn't worth 50K/year. With the exception of people trying to clerk, you see a lot more people withdraw- they spend time on other hobbies or pursuits and show up just enough to not see a huge grade drop during 2L year. I have friends who spent 2L and 3L writing code, working on books, day-trading, traveling, or just drinking and smoking pot. CLS conveniently provides ways to do much less work as a 2L and still get same or better grades, like seminars, a nicer course curve, and grading LLMs on the JD curve.

It's a miserable experience made more miserable by the fact that the administration refused to switch to a non-graded system like peer schools did because as one professor said, "We wouldn't do work."

I wonder how much professors realize that their students are motivated to learn the material by fear, not by an actual genuine interest in the material or the professor's teaching style. 1L year- get good grades so you won't strike out at OCI, 2L year- get good grades or you will get no offered, 3L year- get good grades so they won't have an excuse to fire you or you can find another job if they do. I'm not saying everyone thinks this way, there are certainly a lot of students who are very interested in particular classes, and there are still students who are very diligent and interested in getting everything out of class they can. But it seemed like those students were in the minority.

[DontGetIt]

Sorry about that rant, after talking with other friends. That's not a Columbia problem, it's a law school problem. I didn't even do poorly or anything, but I would probably be pretty bitter if I did.

[Stanford4Me]

Sorry about that rant, after talking with other friends. That's not a Columbia problem, it's a law school problem. I didn't even do poorly or anything, but I would probably be pretty bitter if I did.

It's exacerbated at Columbia.

[somewhatwayward]

I can't tell you how many people I've met at UT who got into Columbia but couldn't stand it when they visited.

lulz

double lulz (at the very least, even if someone hated CLS, there are a lot of schools between CLS and UT s/he could attend)...reminds me of a guy who insisted that there were masses of people at UC schools who had been admitted to HYP for undergrad but turned it down

ETA: the administration is not great, but i am very happy at CLS and generally like the people

[Magnificent]

It sounds like most of the people crying about Columbia are those that lost the law school game.

[IAFG]

It sounds like most of the people crying about Columbia are those that lost the law school game.

Yup. If you hate your school, it's because you're below median. Anyone who dares complain, beware: you're outting yourself as a failure.

[TTTLS]

It sounds like most of the people crying about Columbia are those that lost the law school game.

Yup. If you hate your school, it's because you're below median. Anyone who dares complain, beware: you're outting yourself as a failure.

[Series70]

It sounds like most of the people crying about Columbia are those that lost the law school game.

"So I found that life is just a game. But you know there's never been a winner. Try your hardest, you'll still be a loser. The world will still be turning when you're gone."

[dresden doll]

It sounds like most of the people crying about Columbia are those that lost the law school game.

Yup. If you hate your school, it's because you're below median. Anyone who dares complain, beware: you're outting yourself as a failure.

Sarcasm, bro. Sarcasm.

[Bronte]

Yup. If you hate your school, it's because you're below median. Anyone who dares complain, beware: you're outting yourself as a failure.

Sarcasm, bro. Sarcasm.

I really could not figure out what was confusing about her post.

[EdHoover]

It sounds like most of the people crying about Columbia are those that lost the law school game.

Oh, Magnifencent. You could not be more wrong. There is no way I could lose at this game: no one ever loses. But no one ever wins either, not entirely at any rate. We all ultimately end up in some indeterminate state between success and failure, as winners in some respects and failures in others. So do not think less of me if I do not measure up to your metrics of success: "If I'm not so large as you,/You are not so small as I,/And not half so spry. . . Talents differ; [but] all is well and wisely put."

Now, after reading this you are probably thinking, "Yeah, whatever. Law school didn't work out for this dude and he's now trying to rationalize his defeat." Again, you could not be more wrong. I didn't say that I don't measure up to your standards; all I said was that, were it the case that I didn't measure up, you still wouldn't have sufficient reason to mock me.