UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

[California Babe]

I'm looking into Thanksgiving flights to/from home right now, but I was wondering... what do most UChi students do during the break? Do most people leave on Tuesday/Wednesday and come back on Sunday?

Also, exams will be from 12/7-13, I believe, but will the library be open during break? Do a lot of people use Thanksgiving break to get some extra studying done?

Sorry about all the questions

People at other schools do. We only have two classes though. If you keep up with outlining you don't need to waste Thanksgiving burning yourself out-- elements is really indeterminate and really shouldn't be studied for hard-- I didn't and got a great grade. Civ Pro I may be a type test, depending on your faculty member, so you might want to brush up on your typing speed over Thanksgiving break.

Thanks! Then I guess I'll book my flights based on cheapest/least insanely crowded dates instead of planning to camp out in the library during the break.

I'll jump in here to support this one as well. I would say most of the class left town for Thanksgiving break last year, and the people I know who stayed in town did so because they're from Chicago—not so that they can study.

I left town. I think I studied Civ Pro for about 2-3 hours Saturday morning after Thanksgiving and that was it. When I got back I didn't feel behind at all. You're going to be shocked at how much time you have to study for your first two exams. Way too much time. So definitely enjoy every bit of Thanksgiving you can! (Because Winter and Spring quarter will not be as nice...)

[Dany]

At what point will I stop being excited and start freaking out about law school? September? Orientation? When classes start?

[Xifeng]

Oooh good question, soup. I need to look for Thanksgiving flights, too. I'd like to leave on Tuesday but I don't know if that's a good idea/we don't get our sections for forever so arghhh

But definitely good to know that people don't die studying over Thanksgiving break

[JollyGreenGiant]

At what point will I stop being excited and start freaking out about law school? September? Orientation? When classes start?

Enjoy September/October as much as possible, IMO. Get to know your classmates. Do all the events. See the city. Have fun. All you need to do for the first 5 weeks (imo) is keep up with the reading.

You're going to get 800 different people telling you this at orientation, but it's true. After fall quarter, things kinda fall apart. Winter quarter isn't too bad and you can still go out, but Spring quarter is turrrrrible. I barely ever left my apartment. The #1 goal of Fall quarter should be to establish your study habits and meet your classmates.

[TaipeiMort]

At what point will I stop being excited and start freaking out about law school? September? Orientation? When classes start?

Enjoy September/October as much as possible, IMO. Get to know your classmates. Do all the events. See the city. Have fun. All you need to do for the first 5 weeks (imo) is keep up with the reading.

You're going to get 800 different people telling you this at orientation, but it's true. After fall quarter, things kinda fall apart. Winter quarter isn't too bad and you can still go out, but Spring quarter is turrrrrible. I barely ever left my apartment. The #1 goal of Fall quarter should be to establish your study habits and meet your classmates.

Exactly. After Spring quarter, I wish I had spent more time doing really fun stuff and hanging out with people in Fall.

[Transferthrowaway]

Anyone going to be around Hyde Park next Tuesday and wouldn't mind helping me move a few things into regents? Beer/Coke/Water and lunch is on me and it should only be about 30 minutes since I'm moving with so little. PM me is you might be able to help out!

[TaipeiMort]

Anyone going to be around Hyde Park next Tuesday and wouldn't mind helping me move a few things into regents? Beer/Coke/Water and lunch is on me and it should only be about 30 minutes since I'm moving with so little. PM me is you might be able to help out!

I might be around, PM the details.

[California Babe]

At what point will I stop being excited and start freaking out about law school? September? Orientation? When classes start?

Enjoy September/October as much as possible, IMO. Get to know your classmates. Do all the events. See the city. Have fun. All you need to do for the first 5 weeks (imo) is keep up with the reading.

You're going to get 800 different people telling you this at orientation, but it's true. After fall quarter, things kinda fall apart. Winter quarter isn't too bad and you can still go out, but Spring quarter is turrrrrible. I barely ever left my apartment. The #1 goal of Fall quarter should be to establish your study habits and meet your classmates.

This cannot be said enough times. People don't listen.

[Emma.]

Winter quarter isn't too bad and you can still go out,

Seriously for me winter quarter fell apart about a week after we got the memo assignment, and never really got better. I remember riding the bus to school with a 2L the first week of winter quarter, she was like "enjoy these next 2-3 weeks, because it is all going to go downhill fast." She was so right. The first couple weeks were awesome/just like fall quarter, then LRW destroyed my spirit.

You're going to get 800 different people telling you this at orientation, but it's true.

This cannot be said enough times. People don't listen.

+1

[Whatisthis]

then LRW destroyed my spirit.

And here I thought I was the only one! But really, I think the uncertainty of it all is the worse part. During winter I was so stressed about the fact that the upcoming finals were going to cover twice the material as the fall, and then in spring it was the fact that we were going to have twice as many finals as in winter. This was my major complaint about our system. But I think if you could get past the uncertainty built into this progression, it's sort of a nice way to ease into the misery of it all.

[Emma.]

then LRW destroyed my spirit.

And here I thought I was the only one! But really, I think the uncertainty of it all is the worse part. During winter I was so stressed about the fact that the upcoming finals were going to cover twice the material as the fall, and then in spring it was the fact that we were going to have twice as many finals as in winter. This was my major complaint about our system. But I think if you could get past the uncertainty built into this progression, it's sort of a nice way to ease into the misery of it all.

I think the system is rough, but I'd still take it over the uncertainty of heading into your first ever set of law school finals knowing that half your year's grade is on the line.

[Whatisthis]

then LRW destroyed my spirit.

And here I thought I was the only one! But really, I think the uncertainty of it all is the worse part. During winter I was so stressed about the fact that the upcoming finals were going to cover twice the material as the fall, and then in spring it was the fact that we were going to have twice as many finals as in winter. This was my major complaint about our system. But I think if you could get past the uncertainty built into this progression, it's sort of a nice way to ease into the misery of it all.

I think the system is rough, but I'd still take it over the uncertainty of heading into your first ever set of law school finals knowing that half your year's grade is on the line.

Having so much at stake first semester would certainly be stressful, but at least you would know what to expect second semester. Even during our third-round of exams, I still didn't really know what to expect because of how the year progresses. I am not saying I'd prefer the semester system, I am just saying that I believe uncertainty (at least for me) seemed to be more of an issue.

[cranberry]

I agree with Emma, the back-weighted exam schedule helped me a lot. I was doing so much better by the end of the year. That first exam period is overwhelming and learning how to take a law school exam well is tough. It can't be done in a few weeks of practice tests.

Also, the general consensus on LRW assignments was for everyone to kill themselves the weekend before they were due and bang them out on no sleep. I don't know how so many people arrived at this approach... do them early! Starting all that awful pointless research as soon as you get the assignment will make your life a lot easier.

[jitsrenzo]

Very good advice ITT.

[Transferthrowaway]

Paul Hastings' NALP entry for Chicago says "TBD" for # of 2L hires. Anyone know the financial health of this firm?

[TaipeiMort]

Paul Hastings' NALP entry for Chicago says "TBD" for # of 2L hires. Anyone know the financial health of this firm?

Hard to tell. Some firms are just making a shift towards more lateral hires, less of us. This may mean that they are restructuring their program and aren't sure how many they will hire. Why don't you write them and ask them?

[Xifeng]

For those of you who got mattresses in Chicago, where did you go? I've heard shitty things about IKEA's, and I wasn't sure if there was somewhere decent closer to Hyde Park.

[duckmoney]

For those of you who got mattresses in Chicago, where did you go? I've heard shitty things about IKEA's, and I wasn't sure if there was somewhere decent closer to Hyde Park.

Depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. Costco has great mattresses at good prices, but they won't deliver. Rooms to Go is pricey, but has top quality stuff and will deliver to you. Plenty of mattress retailers will deliver anywhere in the city. You usually find them in the suburbs. Plug "mattresses near 60615" into google maps and I'm sure plenty of close places will pop up.

[soupisgood]

I don't know how comfortable you are with online shopping, but I'm doing pretty much all my furniture shopping on Overstock, Amazon, and Target... if you read reviews carefully, you can find some good deals on very decent products. Not to mention that Amazon Prime (which you can get a free 1-year trial of, if you sign up with a .edu e-mail)= free 2-day shipping. I'm planning on getting this mattress: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CT37L0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_10?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[ellewoods110]

I don't know how comfortable you are with online shopping, but I'm doing pretty much all my furniture shopping on Overstock, Amazon, and Target... if you read reviews carefully, you can find some good deals on very decent products. Not to mention that Amazon Prime (which you can get a free 1-year trial of, if you sign up with a .edu e-mail)= free 2-day shipping. I'm planning on getting this mattress: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CT37L0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_10?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

If you are shipping to Regents, make sure you are there when everything is arriving, because the woman who collects packages for everyone will not usually sign for big items.

[duckmoney]

I don't know how comfortable you are with online shopping, but I'm doing pretty much all my furniture shopping on Overstock, Amazon, and Target... if you read reviews carefully, you can find some good deals on very decent products. Not to mention that Amazon Prime (which you can get a free 1-year trial of, if you sign up with a .edu e-mail)= free 2-day shipping. I'm planning on getting this mattress: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CT37L0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_10?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

If you are shipping to Regents, make sure you are there when everything is arriving, because the woman who collects packages for everyone will not usually sign for big items.

Also they make you pay a $75 fee if you receive more than 10 packages in a year. Regents is nice, but they find all sorts of clever ways to extort money from you.

[TaipeiMort]

I don't know how comfortable you are with online shopping, but I'm doing pretty much all my furniture shopping on Overstock, Amazon, and Target... if you read reviews carefully, you can find some good deals on very decent products. Not to mention that Amazon Prime (which you can get a free 1-year trial of, if you sign up with a .edu e-mail)= free 2-day shipping. I'm planning on getting this mattress: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CT37L0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_10?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

If you are shipping to Regents, make sure you are there when everything is arriving, because the woman who collects packages for everyone will not usually sign for big items.

Also they make you pay a $75 fee if you receive more than 10 packages in a year. Regents is nice, but they find all sorts of clever ways to extort money from you.

I was made about that one, then I figured out that it was actually the package family that was charging it (I think). I would rather give them extra money than Regents.

[soupisgood]

I remember reading a Yelp review of Regents in which someone said that because the $75 fee is/was not in the leasing contract, people could technically not pay it, and that the fee was "optional."

Then again, I am such an online shopping fiend (seriously, it's amazing how much stuff can be delivered via Amazon Prime) that I don't even mind the $75 fee... though I do wish the package lady wasn't a stickler about the bigger items.

[duckmoney]

I remember reading a Yelp review of Regents in which someone said that because the $75 fee is/was not in the leasing contract, people could technically not pay it, and that the fee was "optional."

Then again, I am such an online shopping fiend (seriously, it's amazing how much stuff can be delivered via Amazon Prime) that I don't even mind the $75 fee... though I do wish the package lady wasn't a stickler about the bigger items.

I doubt this is true for 2 reasons:

1) The valet (which receives packages) is owned separately from Regents
2) They make you sign a form acknowledging the fee before you can move in

However, if anyone can verify that it is in fact "optional", please let us know and give a statute / ordinance / something we cite so we don't have to put up with that BS

[ellewoods110]

I have not paid the $75 fee, and I put my amazon prime account to good use. I put up a good fight about it, even though I had signed the sheet. She doesn't hassle you about it if you are a "good" dry cleaning/alterations client. I try to drop off dry cleaning whenever I know I am going to get packages, and I have her hem all my pants, which keeps her happy. That being said, she is already prepared for the newbies arrival, and has announcements about it all over the room.

My friends got around it last year by having one person pay (and everyone chipping in) and then shipping everything to that person. At least do this, especially for roommates.