Have one more final on Friday, but I'm pretty tired tonight and unlikely to do work.

Shoot.

Is first semester the hell people make it out to be? How's the competition?

lol i guess ill jump in on this too if GP is okay w/ it oh and viewtopic.php?f=28&t=140824 bottom of pg. 1 i answered a few already as well

Is there a sense of community outside one's own section? Or is it more likely that people find their community through affinity groups? And what about 1L's interactions with upperclassmen?

First semester is just fine, other than a few points of absolute hell. The few days before your open and closed memos are due, and the 2 weeks between the end of classes and the end of finals, are brutal. My section has really been awesome going through it though. I've witnessed no prissy fights, no confrontations, and no outward gunning, although I would say that the average person in my section has put in more work than most.

First semester 1L is extremely insular if you don't involve yourself in activities outside of your section. Most of your friends will likely be from your section. Second semester begins to branch a bit, and by 2L sections totally dissolve. However, since you're going to be the closest with people in your section, that's going to dictate a lot of your persisting interactions with others.

There are good things to do to get yourself outside of the section, though. I highly recommend flag football to anyone who thinks that could be any fun, even if you're not athletic. Most of the people who opted out of it seem to regret doing so. Plus, there are like a billion clubs and organizations here, more than you could ever find time for (especially during 1L).

I'm not sure if you're a 1L, but I will assume you are:

What does your daily schedule look like (i.e. how many hours of class, how many hours of studying)?

How much does this change during the "points of absolute hell?"

If you could change on thing about HLS, what would it be?


Thanks for answering ?s

mm everyone works hard, but imo, it hasnt been a hell semester. ive quite enjoyed it. it is def more work than undergrad lol, but def less than i had thought it would be (in my head i had imagined something much, much worse). buuuut how much work is required may be closely related to how well you do on the final exams...so ill let you know in about a month

and as GP said, most of my classmates REALLY hated writing the memos and/or thought the days before it were really bad. i kinda liked LRW and writing memos haha, or at least did not dislike it, and just dedicated most of the weekend before it was due to it..but im in the minority i think.

definitely a good sense of community within one's section...outside? for me, not really...i mean, i do interact w/ other sections on a limited basis, and prob interact w/ some 2Ls/3Ls even more, but it is completely through journal/clubs for me.

btw, upperclassmen are great and super helpful. most ppl generally are in my experience tbh.

Do you (or anyone else for that matter) have any notion if you are going to H or P? Ill leave out LP and hope professors will as well

I am a 1L, to clear that up for further questions.

So, my first semester schedule was like this:

Monday -- Torts, Property (1-4:40)
Tuesday -- Same.
Wednesday -- Contracts 8:20-9:40, Civil Procedure 1:20-2:40, Property 3:20-4:40
Thursday -- Contracts (same time), Civ Pro (same time), LRW 3:15-5:15 (This class meets only 1/2 the time first semester, and about 4-5 times second semester)
Friday -- Contracts (same time), Civ Pro (same time).

That's 18 credit hours of classes. Then, early in the semester I usually worked from 9-1 on Monday and Tuesday trying to get a head for a bit for the week, and Wednesday/Thursday/Friday I worked mostly in the evenings, and a bit between classes. During off-times I usually put in about 4 hours outside of class per day. The real strain on your schedule, though, will be all of the other random events and meetings that 1L's have to/should attend throughout the semester in the evenings. The hour or 2, three nights a week, really eat up your time fast. In the beginning of the semester, I didn't work much on the weekends unless I had memo work to do. This was the biggest change when I started ramping up to finals, because starting Nov. 1 Saturdays and Sundays became great days to do tons and tons of work outside of the minimally required stuff to keep up to date for class. Plus, practice exams on some weekdays took some time as well.

If there were 1 thing I could change about HLS, it would probably be to increase the amount of cross-section interaction during 1L. Having a section is great, and I love my section, but there are 480 other people at HLS, most of which I'm sure are also pretty interesting. I've been able to meet some of them, but I would appreciate meeting more.

If there's one thing that I would change about my own 1L, it would be that I never made it to bar review once during first semester. I kind of hate myself for that, and think that it might mean that I'm a gunner.

i mean, i can feel like i did x work or whatever, and i definitely think all my exams so far...or at least 2/3 of them...have been HP worthy haha. but it is on a curve, so if everyone feels that way...could be in for a rude awakening. ill let you know how feelings/studying methods correlate w/ grades when i get them haha

I'll clarify that I really appreciated learning how to write the memos. However, there comes a point during the 5 weeks that you have to do the damn thing that you realize you've written what would be a perfectly acceptable memorandum for your employer, and then you sink 10 more hours into editing. That gets frustrating.

the hard part of writing the memo, for me at least, was writing something the climenko fellow wanted. not necessarily what you thought was good or the best, but what was asked for. it makes sense on a practical level, but it takes some getting used to...and w/ only 2 memos, lol...usually you learn after the first one

That's a good question. I have no idea -- the only thing I know so far is that I didn't do LP work on any of the tests, but that's not what you asked.

I'd be better equipped to answer this question when I have my grades and I can compare how I felt with what I got. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen until the 3rd-4th week of January.

whats horrible about this is, we turned in our last memo like a month ago, yet we dont get the grades back until 3-4 week of Jan either. i would like to know the grade on my open memo before i choose to edit it and use it as a writing sample...lol.

Thanks! Whats the best part of being a Harvard student? I still cant wrap my mind around my JR2, and just want to know does it sink in once reality bites? Do you frequently tell or avoid telling people where you go? and oh... how much do you get to see Boston? Alright I'll take a breath and let you all catch up.

Thanks again for doing this!

best part besides learning the law? well, definitely not the IT or law school campus architecture...but the quality of professors and students is high. ive really enjoyed all my classes, instructors, and peers. genuinely helpful. oh and the harvard brand never ceases to amaze me. in one of my classes this semester, Chief Justice John Roberts came in and fielded a Q&A session for 30min :O starstruck lol. and i would not say that that is super rare (per se); you'll prob meet some person who is the #1 leading scholar/professional on x during your stay at harvard...prob meet a bunch of such ppl. thats always a neat feeling.

so at first i would avoid saying i got into harvard law or just say im going to cambridge (England? lol) as a 0L to not sound douchey. over time, i realized i actually sounded douchier by not saying it (as it makes them ask and pry for it...before they make some 'original' response like "oh Harvard? Never heard of it!"), so now i just respond to their questions just like how id respond to any other question.

in the beginning, they have some events to show you around boston and stuff, but really the school itself doesnt showcase boston that much. however, the T is cheap, and boston is always just a few stops away. so you can see as much of boston as you want...prob a lot of it imo cuz the place is SMALL lol, but im from TX, so i might be biased

Honestly, there are a ton of benefits to being a Harvard student. The first is that you have a pretty proud and dedicated alumni base that is pretty much everywhere, and willing to come out of the woodwork to help you out. The second thing, my torts professor (Jonathan Zittrain, the faculty is another perk) said better than I ever could on our last day of class, "So you've been here for a semester now, and you realize that there is nothing magic about a Harvard Law School degree. Fortunately, the rest of the world is still largely under that impression."

I think that pretty much sums it up. The student body is a lot more "normal" than you'd expect in a lot of ways, and the community is great in and of itself, but a lot of what is great about Harvard is what everyone else thinks about Harvard.

Unfortunately, not all that often, and I regret that. Boston is a great city, but there's enough around Cambridge itself that heading into Boston proper isn't generally the most prudent decision. I usually try to use people visiting as an excuse to get out and see the city, but it's hard to do so otherwise.

I'll bump this since there are likely a lot more people home now, as opposed to the middle of the afternoon.

What do you recommend in terms of housing options? I really don't want to have to live in a dorm again as I'd like my own kitchen/bathroom, but Gropius seems so convenient and cheap.

Depends what you value.

If you want convenience and value, Gropius is the best you're going to get. My friends that live in Gropius love that they are right there for 8:20 classes, and are in the neighborhood of the school to meet other people when they need to do so.

If you want the nicest stuff possible, HRES studios and 1 BRs are some of the nicest housing you can find, but at a premium. Also, if you can nab a spot in Terry Terrace or one of the other very close buildings, it's right across from the law school. That's nice.

If you want some combination of value and luxury, then you can find some very good deals on your own. This is a bit of a hit or miss process, and only really starts in about May since there won't be any apartments for Sept. 1 until about that time (classes start ~9/12 this year, so you won't have the 8/1 or 9/1 debacle that we had last year). However, if you're willing to put in some legwork, these deals can be quite nice, and occasionally even cheaper than Gropius if you're willing to find a roommate.

However, there are some tradeoffs to bargain-hunting:
- You may have to resign yourself to living a bit farther away. There are some great deals in the neighborhood of Porter and Inman Squares up in Somerville, but they're a 10-15 minute walk.

- You won't be able to find a place for less than $1000 unless you're willing to live below ground level, or are willing to take up a roommate.

- Some of the places with the best deals sell through brokers, which is generally the equivalent of adding $75-100/person/month.


That said, I still found that the best choice for me was to live off-campus. Even though you probably won't get to cook quite as much as you think (there is a good amount of free food at HLS, and many nights you'll be busy enough that there won't be enough time to go home and cook), it's still quite nice to have a good kitchen for a homecooked meal once in a while.

Just stopping in to say, HEY GEEPEE!!!!!
How are you? Last one was today, no?
Still can't quite believe that we just finished our first semester...
really feels like yesterday that we were waiting on LSAT scores.
Have a great holiday!

Thanks for this great insight! I assume that deposits for HRES and on-campus housing are due well before the off-campus search even begins? I can't imagine the school would allow its housing to be a backup plan in case of off-campus failure. And I suppose I could get over the no kitchen thing but a single bed will be a tough sell...