Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions Forum

[sk7415]

JOLT hosts 1-2 subcite weekends a semester, only expect you to sign up for 1. When there are 2 weekends, that's to allow for scheduling flexibility. You'll be assigned to a 4-hour time slot on one of the weekends. There will be food, and you can ask questions. You finish up on your own time in the few days following. Most ppl end up taking around 6 hours total (incuding the 4 hour in person), though this may be better or worse. We did surveys each semester asking how long people spent, and most answers clustered around 6, with usually one or two outliers.

The editing track is as follows:
Subciter -- Line Editor --- Article Editor, with each managing those below them and in charge of more of the article.

JOLT has an internal review system where you review those above and below you, and these reviews are used to make appointments.

You start as a subciter, and then can apply to be a LE the next semester. The technical editor (an elected position) appoints LEs based on reviews. AEs are appointed by the EICs and Executive Editor (elected positions) and are part of the Executibe Board.

Submissions is something you generally get involved with as a rising 2L, as a submissions manager appointed by the Submissioms Editor(s) (elected position). Both are part of the executive board.

Finally, as a 1L you can participate in Digest, where you can write things that get posted there. The time commitment there is basically your choosing.

Most other executive board positions are elected, including Outreach Editor (party planning), Speakers Editor (bringing speakers to campus to give lunch talks), Managing Editor (the money & sponsorship managers), Communications Editor (manages newsletter and social media) and more.

Elections are held in the Spring in several rounds (more 3L oriented positions first) and anyone who has participated during either semester can vote.

During my time there were around 50-60 slots for the executive board with a wide range of tasks and responsibilities. If you're interested, then subciting as a 1L is a useful first step. Line editing is an option for 2nd semester 1Ls who subcited first semester.

Thanks a ton for the info!

[Indifference]

I know there is a lot of info available online, but I'm assuming 1Ls will get some sort of opportunity to get a better feel for the different journals at a fair or journal specific meetings, right?

[lawlorbust]

I know there is a lot of info available online, but I'm assuming 1Ls will get some sort of opportunity to get a better feel for the different journals at a fair or journal specific meetings, right?

Yes, there'll be an activities fair that all the journals will attend.

[Indifference]

Thanks for the response
If anyone has any experience working on JOL, would you care to share? It's the journal that has most piqued my interest.

[radio1nowhere]

Is it uncommon or difficult for HLS students to be part of a club sports team?

[robotrick]

Thanks for the response
If anyone has any experience working on JOL, would you care to share? It's the journal that has most piqued my interest.

What do you want to know about it? I did it last year as a 1L and I can try to give unbiased information despite finding journal work utterly stupid overall.

[Indifference]

Thanks for the response
If anyone has any experience working on JOL, would you care to share? It's the journal that has most piqued my interest.

What do you want to know about it? I did it last year as a 1L and I can try to give unbiased information despite finding journal work utterly stupid overall.

I was wondering if anyone thought there was a benefit to it. I'm far less interested in biglaw outcomes than I am in PI, so if journal work can help in terms of RA -> Clerking in any way it would be something to know. Also, does the area of the journal being of interest make the work any less crappy, or is it just something you deal with no matter what you choose?

[lawlorbust]

Thanks for the response
If anyone has any experience working on JOL, would you care to share? It's the journal that has most piqued my interest.

What do you want to know about it? I did it last year as a 1L and I can try to give unbiased information despite finding journal work utterly stupid overall.

I was wondering if anyone thought there was a benefit to it. I'm far less interested in biglaw outcomes than I am in PI, so if journal work can help in terms of RA -> Clerking in any way it would be something to know. Also, does the area of the journal being of interest make the work any less crappy, or is it just something you deal with no matter what you choose?

I can't speak specifically to clerking, but conventional wisdom is that judges like seeing some journal/LR. Yes, i'm sure being interested in the journal's work does make a difference, but subciting really is so dry and technical that the difference is quite marginal. It's usually framed this way: are you so interested in doing substantive work for the journal that you're willing to put up with subciting?

This Record piece was published this year and it'll be helpful for those looking for a journal that has higher impact (and is thus imperfectly correlated to "prestige"), http://hlrecord.org/?p=19739.

[robotrick]

Thanks for the response
If anyone has any experience working on JOL, would you care to share? It's the journal that has most piqued my interest.

What do you want to know about it? I did it last year as a 1L and I can try to give unbiased information despite finding journal work utterly stupid overall.

I was wondering if anyone thought there was a benefit to it. I'm far less interested in biglaw outcomes than I am in PI, so if journal work can help in terms of RA -> Clerking in any way it would be something to know. Also, does the area of the journal being of interest make the work any less crappy, or is it just something you deal with no matter what you choose?

I'll start by saying some people seem to actually enjoy journal work. From my friend group this seems to be more common in smaller, targeted journals (like JOLT or the environmental one or Unbound) where people are into the subject matter. I did JOL and found the articles I worked on to be uninteresting and poorly written. Others probably had better experiences. I also thought the subcite workload was higher in JOL than for many other journals - I got more than 50 footnotes to go through each time while my friends on other journals often had fewer than 20. But again that's just my experience.

Subciting as a 1L has few benefits imo. You can put it on your resume, it gets you more familiar with the Bluebook (I hated this aspect), and if people don't know anything about standard 1L involvement in journals you can pretend that it exposed you to legal writing and you learned a lot, etc. I would say any true benefit from journals would come 2L year and beyond, unless you join a journal (a few of which were mentioned above) that lets 1Ls edit. Then you actually can talk about honing your writing skills, having a management position, bolstering your commitment to a field of law, and all that.

I hardly know anything about clerking, so I don't have much to offer in that regard. The prof I RA'd for didn't care about journal involvement at all, it was all about interest in the material of what s/he was working on.

[Indifference]

Thank you both for your input

[nothingtosee]

Irresponsible student here - I know today's the last day to waive the Harvard health insurance plan. I'm too old to be on my parents. Should I get it?

Can I still sign up for Obamacare?

[TripTrip]

Irresponsible student here - I know today's the last day to waive the Harvard health insurance plan. I'm too old to be on my parents. Should I get it?

Can I still sign up for Obamacare?

Late on the response, but as between those two just stick with Harvard's. You'll save yourself a lot of headache, and I'm not sure whether the federal plan even meets the minimum requirements for students.

[tomwatts]

Is it uncommon or difficult for HLS students to be part of a club sports team?

Neither uncommon nor difficult. I didn't do this, but a bunch of my friends did.

[S.Lee2018]

Thank you both for your input

[yy169]

Apologies if this has already been asked but I couldn't find it in the past few pages, when do students typically became an RA for a professor? What is the time commitment?

[TripTrip]

Apologies if this has already been asked but I couldn't find it in the past few pages, when do students typically became an RA for a professor? What is the time commitment?

You can RA whenever, but it's probably easiest/most useful to do as a 2L. During 1L you will be short on time and during 3L the benefits start to dissipate because you probably have all your post-law-school things lined up. (Unless you really just like the $11.50/hr.)

Time commitment is whatever you and the professor want. I did like two hours a week whenever I had time, but was allotted up to 20 if I could come up with an excuse to use it.

[malleus discentium]

Is anyone else in the Introduction to Finance Concepts 3-Day Section? I'm realizing that callbacks might make that course a little iffy, since it's only three days and attendance might be mandatory. It's C/NC, but a NC would be bad. I already have quite a few days in August I am trying to avoid scheduling callbacks on, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to swing adding those three days to the list.

[TripTrip]

Is anyone else in the Introduction to Finance Concepts 3-Day Section? I'm realizing that callbacks might make that course a little iffy, since it's only three days and attendance might be mandatory. It's C/NC, but a NC would be bad. I already have quite a few days in August I am trying to avoid scheduling callbacks on, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to swing adding those three days to the list.

What days is it scheduled for? I did the 3 day last year at the beginning of fall and don't remember the idea of it conflicting with callbacks even crossing my mind.

No one gets an NC though.

[malleus discentium]

Is anyone else in the Introduction to Finance Concepts 3-Day Section? I'm realizing that callbacks might make that course a little iffy, since it's only three days and attendance might be mandatory. It's C/NC, but a NC would be bad. I already have quite a few days in August I am trying to avoid scheduling callbacks on, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to swing adding those three days to the list.

What days is it scheduled for? I did the 3 day last year at the beginning of fall and don't remember the idea of it conflicting with callbacks even crossing my mind.

No one gets an NC though.

The three days before classes start: WRF 9/2-9/4.
Was there an exam, or assignments?

ETA: I just realized we can drop it until Thursday during the course, so it's nbd. Still curious about the exam/assignments q, though.

[TripTrip]

Is anyone else in the Introduction to Finance Concepts 3-Day Section? I'm realizing that callbacks might make that course a little iffy, since it's only three days and attendance might be mandatory. It's C/NC, but a NC would be bad. I already have quite a few days in August I am trying to avoid scheduling callbacks on, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to swing adding those three days to the list.

What days is it scheduled for? I did the 3 day last year at the beginning of fall and don't remember the idea of it conflicting with callbacks even crossing my mind.

No one gets an NC though.

The three days before classes start: WRF 9/2-9/4.
Was there an exam, or assignments?

ETA: I just realized we can drop it until Thursday during the course, so it's nbd. Still curious about the exam/assignments q, though.

Just an exam. The exam is painful and you will lose your mind studying for it and still have no idea wtf was on there. That's why there's no grade.

I learned a ton about Excel though, and about calculating my student loans. It was way more than I was expecting to have to handle in a three day course, but it's the single most useful credit I've taken in all of law school.

[Annihilist]

Anyone familiar with Clinics:

During the week following Fall Break (Oct 14-16) my 2 credit seminar, the one that pairs with the clinic, is my only class. I'm thinking of skipping the class so I can take a 9 day break for a friend's wedding.

Does anyone know if these seminars are missable? Think emailing the clinical-professor ahead of time would be out of line?

[andrewdiaz]

spam

[morimoto1991]

For those who have lived in dorms and had your packages shipped before move in:
on the move-in website, it says that packages should be received at least one week prior to move in for them to be delivered into the dorm rooms - does anyone know how strict this is? I'm currently traveling abroad and won't be able to have my packages delivered until a few days before move in

[TripTrip]

Seminar missability is dependent on the professor. In my experience, most are fine with it. But you will want to email them since they will definitely know you are gone.

For those who have lived in dorms and had your packages shipped before move in:
on the move-in website, it says that packages should be received at least one week prior to move in for them to be delivered into the dorm rooms - does anyone know how strict this is? I'm currently traveling abroad and won't be able to have my packages delivered until a few days before move in

It's not strict, but (as mentioned elsewhere in this thread) that delivery service is more to keep the mailroom empty than anything. They pose the one-week deadline so that everyone doesn't try to ship their stuff during the last week and overwhelm them. Most likely they will still move it to your room, but even if they don't the mailroom is only a few hundred feet from the dorms and they will probably let you borrow a dolly if you have a big package.

In other words: don't worry about it.

[pylon]

When do we get "HLS Me" credentials?