UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions Forum

[beepboopbeep]

Most places have standard 10 week programs dude.

There are several places who do 12 but won't do it with us cause we get out too late. But they might not be ok with you skipping class. If they don't care then it's a good idea. Do a 9 credit quarter with a take home exam and two seminars.

Also would make working out a split a lot easier. I had to do a decent bit of negotiating to get my split to work because of minimum-week requirements on the one side and end-of-program stuff on the other. A lot of places might have standard 10 (I have no idea) but not necc. guaranteed that that'll be your situation. Anyway better just to not have stress about it either way.

[Crowing]

1) How is 1L Spring Quarter real life?

Yeah this blows. I take an exam today and I have a mountain of civ pro reading for tomorrow, is this a joke?

Ha. Just be careful with your spring quarter scheduling for 2L year, too. I dun goofed and ended up taking three exams, including two eight-hour takehomes, in a ~40 hour period. Save your seminars, kids.

Yeah I had 4 over the weekend. Then SA started very next day.

Don't do this to yourself.

[UChicago2017]

So that's why they call him the hammer

[UofCforme]

So that's why they call him the hammer

Toughest test I have ever taken.

[WheninLaw]

So that's why they call him the hammer

Toughest test I have ever taken.

That he uses the FULL grading scale makes it even more enjoyable!

[zhenders]

How's Ratner? What's the equipment like (good mix of both machines and free weights)? Does anyone find it to be too busy/too small/too ____, or has it worked out for you?

Thanks in advance.

[skers]

How's Ratner? What's the equipment like (good mix of both machines and free weights)? Does anyone find it to be too busy/too small/too ____, or has it worked out for you?

Thanks in advance.

I'm going to miss Ratner. It's pretty hard to beat a gym that is set up to fit the needs of athletes with the upside being they're d3. DBs up to 120, 4 power racks w/ platforms, 4 bench/rack combos. KBs up to 50. Good array of cardio options (including 3 concept 2s). Good array of machines if that's your thing.

Only real issues are the personal trainers can get kind of grabby on mat space if that's something you want to use and wait time on squat racks can be a little long after 4, but most people are down to let you work in.

[zhenders]

How's Ratner? What's the equipment like (good mix of both machines and free weights)? Does anyone find it to be too busy/too small/too ____, or has it worked out for you?

Thanks in advance.

I'm going to miss Ratner. It's pretty hard to beat a gym that is set up to fit the needs of athletes with the upside being they're d3. DBs up to 120, 4 power racks w/ platforms, 4 bench/rack combos. KBs up to 50. Good array of cardio options (including 3 concept 2s). Good array of machines if that's your thing.

Only real issues are the personal trainers can get kind of grabby on mat space if that's something you want to use and wait time on squat racks can be a little long after 4, but most people are down to let you work in.

Excellent; thanks so much. An athlete-focused gym is exactly what I was hoping for. And 4 power racks? Gym heaven.

[skers]

How's Ratner? What's the equipment like (good mix of both machines and free weights)? Does anyone find it to be too busy/too small/too ____, or has it worked out for you?

Thanks in advance.

I'm going to miss Ratner. It's pretty hard to beat a gym that is set up to fit the needs of athletes with the upside being they're d3. DBs up to 120, 4 power racks w/ platforms, 4 bench/rack combos. KBs up to 50. Good array of cardio options (including 3 concept 2s). Good array of machines if that's your thing.

Only real issues are the personal trainers can get kind of grabby on mat space if that's something you want to use and wait time on squat racks can be a little long after 4, but most people are down to let you work in.

Excellent; thanks so much. An athlete-focused gym is exactly what I was hoping for. And 4 power racks? Gym heaven.

Oh, and ton of bumper plates too.

[rawrsicle]

So that's why they call him the hammer

Toughest test I have ever taken.

That he uses the FULL grading scale makes it even more enjoyable!

Not that I particularly want to think about this now... but is that really true? Doesn't the distribution have to match the other class? Any graduating 3Ls around to say whether he actually used the full curve?

[Wedge Antilles]

I know a graduated student who got a 170 from the Hammer, or something along those lines.

[beepboopbeep]

Not that I particularly want to think about this now... but is that really true? Doesn't the distribution have to match the other class? Any graduating 3Ls around to say whether he actually used the full curve?

AFAIK only the median has to match, but someone correct me if I'm wrong. I would be surprised if it were actually the whole range. The UofC grading scale goes down a lot lower than you'd think given the general range of plausible grades in most classes.

I know a graduated student who got a 170 from the Hammer, or something along those lines.

Have heard worse, & not just from the hammer

[Wedge Antilles]

That being said even if you feel like you did bad you still have no idea how the rest of your class did. The curve giveth and the curve taketh away.

[2014]

The worst grade I've heard of anecdotally in my class is a 172 or 173 I believe. This is obviously not to say that worse is impossible, but it is extremely rare to my knowledge.

[PariSiamo]

Did anyone buy a university meal plan? Would you recommend it?

[UofCforme]

Did anyone buy a university meal plan? Would you recommend it?

Don't do that. There is a lot of free food around the law school around lunch time. I don't know of anyone that purchased a meal plan.

[WheninLaw]

So that's why they call him the hammer

Toughest test I have ever taken.

That he uses the FULL grading scale makes it even more enjoyable!

Not that I particularly want to think about this now... but is that really true? Doesn't the distribution have to match the other class? Any graduating 3Ls around to say whether he actually used the full curve?

I know of at least two people (one my year, one the year before) that got a 172 from Hammer. He's by no means giving everyone 170's, but his curve is much wider than your normal Prof.

[Florence Night]

The worst grade I've heard of anecdotally in my class is a 172 or 173 I believe. This is obviously not to say that worse is impossible, but it is extremely rare to my knowledge.

Also anecdotally, I knew of a single 170, but this was from a non-Hammer professor and received by a 2L who was 2LOLing hard. And beyond that I actually never heard of anything below a 173 in all of my three years (though I didn't talk much about grades with people).

[CorporateLab]

Longtime lurker here finally making an account for the sole purpose of telling the rising 2Ls and 3Ls about what a great experience the Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab can be! First, however, let me preface this post by stating that the Corporate Lab might not be for everyone. There are certain personality types that will probably enjoy the Corporate Lab more than others; here is a non-exhaustive list of such types:

(1) If you are in the FedSoc.

(2) If you are interested in doing work for companies that have enough money to hire actual lawyers to help them with their real issues, but are nice enough to let a bunch of law students work on random memos or other assignments that they probably don't care about.

(3) If you like having your grade tied not to the quantity or quality of the work you do, but rather to a combination of how much the faculty likes you and how much work your teammates do (because you're learning how to work on a team and what it's like to be evaluated for more than just the work you do!)

(4) If you enjoy lunch talks without food, or with food such as inexpensive bread, cheese, and wine (because you will be expected to attend all of the "speaker series" events regardless of which day of class you sign up for because you're a professional now!)

(5) If you enjoy wearing suits and (preferably bow) ties to school for no reason (because the faculty likes people who look professional!)

If you satisfy one or more of the above criteria, there is a good chance that you will enjoy your time in the Corporate Lab! However, even if you don't fall under one of the aforementioned categories, you should still sign up for the Corporate Lab anyway because you are guaranteed a good grade in there (unless you're one of the people who received a grade in the low 170s over the past academic year for no apparent reason)!

[zhenders]

As is undoubtedly true for so many of us, over the years I've made it an important life policy of mine to build bread quality into all decisions I make; tyvmft.

[bearsfan23]

Longtime lurker here finally making an account for the sole purpose of telling the rising 2Ls and 3Ls about what a great experience the Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab can be! First, however, let me preface this post by stating that the Corporate Lab might not be for everyone. There are certain personality types that will probably enjoy the Corporate Lab more than others; here is a non-exhaustive list of such types:

(1) If you are in the FedSoc.

(2) If you are interested in doing work for companies that have enough money to hire actual lawyers to help them with their real issues, but are nice enough to let a bunch of law students work on random memos or other assignments that they probably don't care about.

(3) If you like having your grade tied not to the quantity or quality of the work you do, but rather to a combination of how much the faculty likes you and how much work your teammates do (because you're learning how to work on a team and what it's like to be evaluated for more than just the work you do!)

(4) If you enjoy lunch talks without food, or with food such as inexpensive bread, cheese, and wine (because you will be expected to attend all of the "speaker series" events regardless of which day of class you sign up for because you're a professional now!)

(5) If you enjoy wearing suits and (preferably bow) ties to school for no reason (because the faculty likes people who look professional!)

If you satisfy one or more of the above criteria, there is a good chance that you will enjoy your time in the Corporate Lab! However, even if you don't fall under one of the aforementioned categories, you should still sign up for the Corporate Lab anyway because you are guaranteed a good grade in there (unless you're one of the people who received a grade in the low 170s over the past academic year for no apparent reason)!

This is great. I also enjoy the fact that almost our entire law school is now sponsored by Kirkland & Ellis, like they can't make a gift without requiring something to be named after them

[Rahviveh]

Longtime lurker here finally making an account for the sole purpose of telling the rising 2Ls and 3Ls about what a great experience the Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab can be! First, however, let me preface this post by stating that the Corporate Lab might not be for everyone. There are certain personality types that will probably enjoy the Corporate Lab more than others; here is a non-exhaustive list of such types:

(1) If you are in the FedSoc.

(2) If you are interested in doing work for companies that have enough money to hire actual lawyers to help them with their real issues, but are nice enough to let a bunch of law students work on random memos or other assignments that they probably don't care about.

(3) If you like having your grade tied not to the quantity or quality of the work you do, but rather to a combination of how much the faculty likes you and how much work your teammates do (because you're learning how to work on a team and what it's like to be evaluated for more than just the work you do!)

(4) If you enjoy lunch talks without food, or with food such as inexpensive bread, cheese, and wine (because you will be expected to attend all of the "speaker series" events regardless of which day of class you sign up for because you're a professional now!)

(5) If you enjoy wearing suits and (preferably bow) ties to school for no reason (because the faculty likes people who look professional!)

If you satisfy one or more of the above criteria, there is a good chance that you will enjoy your time in the Corporate Lab! However, even if you don't fall under one of the aforementioned categories, you should still sign up for the Corporate Lab anyway because you are guaranteed a good grade in there (unless you're one of the people who received a grade in the low 170s over the past academic year for no apparent reason)!

I agree with everything here. fyi the faculty probably still doesn't know who I am after three quarters and I still got a good grade. So you don't need to be one of those people who put themselves out there. On the other hand if you're one of those people aiming for the cutoffs and need 180s then it might not be for you because its hard to predict that. I know a couple people who dropped out for that reason.

How do you think the change in policy re: Credits will affect things? I think that makes it less attractive

[WheninLaw]

Words about Corporate Lab

I disagree, though not surprised since bad grades in non-exam classes often provoke a visceral response.

Anyway, I had a great experience in the Lab, and am happy to discuss via PM. Seems pointless to argue about this here.

edit: being less of a jerk

[Wedge Antilles]

Corporate lab is probably the biggest sham at the law school. This can either disproportionately benefit you, or it can disproportionately screw you as seen from the post above-I know of plenty of other people who received low grades undeservedly. I hated almost every minute of my time in corporate lab and didn't receive bad grades. Hopefully something changes in the future because the program could be awesome but the professors are terrible and student directors are almost universally the worst, both because they have been chosen by the professors and because they grow to enjoy exerting power over others.

[elterrible78]

Words about Corporate Lab

I disagree, though not surprised since bad grades in non-exam classes often provoke a visceral response.

Anyway, I had a great experience in the Lab, and am happy to discuss via PM. Seems pointless to argue about this here.

edit: being less of a jerk

I got a good grade, and I think the post was pretty on point. Also happy to discuss with anyone at all via PM.