In the same situation as poe above. How would I apply for this (GSI)? I am in the category of the 1st friend you mention above. I know 1L would be no time to do this, but may be 2L?

You are right to emphasize law school during 1L (so you can maximize your opportunity for a paid 1L summer and 2L OCI).

You should just contact the appropriate department. There is a central HR department (just google it to find it) but there were no GSI openings posted there. The law school opportunities are only for upper class (obviously).

I am friends with a couple people who have done this. I also know several 2L and 3Ls(graduates now) that have worked as TA's/Tutors for 1L classes. I don't know about the pay but they said the positions were relatively easy to get if you applied within the correct timelines. (There may be grade requirements for the law school positions)

I just wanted to point out that 1L year you should focus on grades and applying to get 1L SA positions. I didn't have great grades this year but I got an SA position that pays market (30k) for the summer. The money from this summer and (hopefully) next summer will cut down my debt substantially.

Don't believe the hype on TLS. 1L SA positions are available to those who are willing to hustle to get them. Read my previous posts for more info about how I got mine.

The Cal website says, "Berkeley Law lies ... a scant couple of hours from surfing beaches and ..."
What beaches do they mean? I thought the Bay at Berkeley had a beach too.

Well, Berkeley has a shoreline along the bay, but I wouldn't exactly call it a beach. And there are no significant waves in the bay.

The closest "surfing beach" is Ocean Beach in SF, which is about 30-60 minutes away, depending on traffic. The great surfing beaches of Santa Cruz are about 90 minutes away.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I meant is there a place near Cal to take a 3-year-old kid to play a little on the beach or like a lake or something? Where we live, there nearest water-body place like this is a 3-hr drive.

You could maybe take them to the bay shore. I don't know. The water here is kinda chilly most of the time.

Are there any Cal 3Ls looking at this thread? Anyone who worked the 3L year part-time at a firm? How intense are the classes and reading the 3L year. The reason I am asking about how intense 3L classes are is to ask whether I can work part-time, say in patent prosecution in SV, and make some $$$ to reduce my loans and financial hit. And how much could I hope to make? I'm just calculating my overall financial hit to decide, "law school or not?".

I'm a GSI for an undergrad course. Law students get the option to GSI for undergrad legal studies, although there aren't a ton of openings. You check the Boalt Bulletin Board for the options in the spring.
Otherwise you just have to contact departments. The competitiveness all depends on which department it is.

you get partial fee remission, health insurance covered, and a monthly stipend. In general you really ahve to work for it though. I think it would be incredibly difficult to be GSI and have a really tough courseload or do a clinic. Your finals period can also be really stressful since as soon as you finish your own finals you grade other stuff and it's a quick deadline.

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Havent been able to get a clear answer...

Are admitted students obligated to withdraw from WLs after June 1st?

I called LSAC and spoke with a higher-up. They said Cal is allowed to do this becuase they have a June 1 date for the 2nd response form and they do not ask for a $$$ deposit. LSAC cannot do anything about it. They said I should talk to my pre-law advisor. He said I have 4 options.

"a. Accept at Cal and remove yourself from the waitlist at CCN;
b. Inform CCN that you need to hear by June 1 regarding your application;
c. Accept at Cal and not pull yourself from the waitlist (only including this in the interest of completeness, clear ethical problem
there);
d. Reject Cal and cross your fingers with all your waitlists.

I see the only option as a. I would take the bird in the hand--waitlists are too iffy.

The one thing you should absolutely not do is (c). If violates the terms of of the offer, you can lose the offer altogether and also be
subject to misconduct proceedings, in which case you risk the possibility of losing all offers."

I ended up writing to Cal admissions and asked if I could keep my other WLs. I was too scared to call. They replied and said, "No."

So I asked CCN if they will tell me early, they said No.

So I have withdrawn from CCN and sent in my 2nd response form to Cal.

Decided to withdraw from my Columbia & NYU waitlists. For me, it is better to have an admission at T10 law school than a hope to get off the waitlist with an unknown number of people on it. Still kind of upsetting:-((((

Thank you for the information.

Oh, very upsetting for me too.

Is Berkeley the only T14 that forces people to withdraw from waitlists?

Hi all - I'm in house-hunting mode and need a bit of advice. I'm taking a trip to Berkeley in June specifically to look for off-campus housing. I'm wondering what the best way is to look for 1 bedroom apartments in Berkeley or housing more generally.

Specifically, do landlords/management offices deal with prospective tenants directly? If so, are there any lists/bulletins besides Craigslist worth monitoring?

How common and useful are realtors? In some cities in which I've lived, it was almost impossible to get housing without a realtor. I get the impression that Berkeley isn't like that and that you can deal with owners directly. But I've found realtors helpful to line up visits to relevant places when time constrained. Any positive or negative experiences? Any recommendations?

What about "for rent" signs on buildings and walk up visits? Are they common practice? I might just walk around the neighborhoods I like and make calls or walk into management buildings to view openings.

Many thanks!

I would also like to know if Berkeley is the only one that requires people to withdraw from waitlists. I mean they keep a waitlist, so it doesn't make any sense.

Would having a car make it easier in Berkeley? Never lived in the bay area. Some cities are manageable without a car, but having a car makes it more fun and easier. I'll need to move a car from the East coast, hence asking.

I didn't have a car my first 2 years, then brought my car out for my third year. I enjoyed it much more with a car, but it's certainly livable without it. In certain areas of Berkeley, parking is a pain though so it will depend on your living arrangements.

Thanks, this is helpful! Also, I am looking to be reasonably close to a public library, the Harold Jones daycare, a grocery store, and the law school. What areas should I look at on Craigslist for housing or what keywords to search for? I am looking for a 2-bedroom or house for around $1800.

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^ this is great! Thanks!

From your understanding, was class of 2011 placement worst in history or just a very bad year and worse than 2010? Cal's class of 2010 had 10% more biglaw placement than 2011. I am wondering why. The recession began in 2009...confusing.

Class of 2010 was doing OCI in 2008 just as all heck was breaking loose. Many in that class likely landed jobs in preITE-sized classes. Their pain came on the back end with no-offers and deferrals, but at least there was a greater opportunity to land the job. Class of 2011 did OCI in 2009--when firms had drastically cut back class sizes or cut summer classes altogether. So, while 2010 bore quite a bit of pain on the back end (no-offers, deferrals, etc.), 2011 never got the opportunity to get the foot in the door.

It was a common occurence pretty much everywhere. See: http://abovethelaw.com/2012/02/best-law ... -job-2012/

Despite it being tough on the individuals who suffered through it, the class as a whole held its own (rank-wise if not %-wise).

Thanks, this is very helpful. I am not a troll, just someone who has been out of school for 15 years, hence the next few questions. Wouldn't Class of 2010 have done OCI in 2009 (2L year)? Does OCI happen 2-years before graduation? I thought OCI happens just before the 2L summer. I interviewed for all my summer internships in engineering school a few months before those summers.
By 'the class as a whole held its own (rank-wise if not %-wise),' do you mean the % of the class getting into biglaw may have dropped by 10%, but they held their own in relation to other schools?
I was impressed by the ATL link you sent that shows Cal is 6th in NLJ jobs. I have been choosing between CLS and Cal, there is a 20% difference in biglaw hiring between the two, which makes CLS very attractive. However, I wonder if that may be because CLS is in NYC and its students may self-select biglaw over PI. Maybe the 15% of Cal's class that is doing PI never wanted biglaw in the first place and in fact could have gotten it if they desired. That would make Cal's real biglaw placement ability stronger than the apparent figure, and safer for me than it seems.