Hastings First year thoughts... Forum

[General Tso]

IP students are doing better. If you have a master's in engineering, the big firms will interview down into the 33-40% range at Hastings. I know of at least a few people with grades around there who have gotten nice IP jobs, but they had excellent technical credentials from their pre-law school days.

[goingforgold2]

I went to a fairly small school and I am wondering what the Hastings environment would be like for someone who is used to having a good sense of community on campus. My school was also not a commuter school, and although I realize that many law students will be living away from the campus area, I am looking for a law school that won't feel like everyone just comes to class and then goes home. How likely are students to spend time together outside of class, and would you say that not having an undergraduate population greatly impacts the school in terms of social atmosphere?

[Lasers]

I went to a fairly small school and I am wondering what the Hastings environment would be like for someone who is used to having a good sense of community on campus. My school was also not a commuter school, and although I realize that many law students will be living away from the campus area, I am looking for a law school that won't feel like everyone just comes to class and then goes home. How likely are students to spend time together outside of class, and would you say that not having an undergraduate population greatly impacts the school in terms of social atmosphere?

bump?

[drdolittle]

I went to a fairly small school and I am wondering what the Hastings environment would be like for someone who is used to having a good sense of community on campus. My school was also not a commuter school, and although I realize that many law students will be living away from the campus area, I am looking for a law school that won't feel like everyone just comes to class and then goes home. How likely are students to spend time together outside of class, and would you say that not having an undergraduate population greatly impacts the school in terms of social atmosphere?

bump?

See Borhas' comment toward the bottom on pg 11 of the UC Hastings VS UC Davis thread (http://[link redacted]/Gb8AT). But nothing anyone opines on TLS or elsewhere should be determinative for your personal decision. Attend ASDs if you can to get a direct feel for this before committing.

[lucky277]

Are any current Hastings students planning on taking advantage of the PICAP after graduation? Or if not, have you heard good (or bad) things about it?

[kerflux]

in Fremont this year.

General!
Fellow Fremont resident here, just curious if you think it'd be advantageous to switch it up and live on the campus as a 1L? If I were to stay in the east bay, is BART > driving? Is there a sense of community on campus, or is it as cutthroat as it's been made out to be? Would you choose Hastings again? It's one of my top choices, seems to be pretty well-respected and places decently (I'm interested in PI, btw). Anyway, I've lurked through a few threads and think your opinions tend to be pretty spot-on, so I'd appreciate any insights you care to share!

[BackToTheOldHouse]

in Fremont this year.

General!
Fellow Fremont resident here, just curious if you think it'd be advantageous to switch it up and live on the campus as a 1L? If I were to stay in the east bay, is BART > driving? Is there a sense of community on campus, or is it as cutthroat as it's been made out to be? Would you choose Hastings again? It's one of my top choices, seems to be pretty well-respected and places decently (I'm interested in PI, btw). Anyway, I've lurked through a few threads and think your opinions tend to be pretty spot-on, so I'd appreciate any insights you care to share!

Ugh, I might be wrong, but I think the General got perm-banned a while back.

[jamielynn1981]

I'm not General, but could definitely give you some thoughts about Hastings. I'm a 1L this year and I have to say the schools has far exceeded my expectations. Regarding your questions, I've found there to be a pretty strong sense of community, if that's what you're looking for. There are definitely folks to come to school and leave as soon as class is over, but if you're looking for people to study with, hang out with, etc. you can find it. If you choose to live in the tower, you'd be around law students all the time and it seems that those students who live there seem to connect to other 1Ls pretty quickly. Living off-campus, it's taken a bit longer to find that crowd, but there are plenty of social events to assist with building a sense of community. I don't know anything about driving, so can't help ya there.

I would definitely pick Hastings again. I'm not sure if I just got lucky with my section or what, but the professors are great and the students in my section are pretty awesome too. People work hard, for sure, but I haven't found it to be the competitive/cut-throat environment everybody makes it out to be. It's actually pretty supportive and collegial, in my opinion.

Hope that was helpful--good luck in trying to decide where to go!

[johansantana21]

Delusional.

[kerflux]

Awesome, thanks for the advice!