Rising 2Ls at Notre Dame Taking Questions Forum

[thebookcollector]

So does Notre Dame's orientation not have any assignments/readings you have to do or mini class sessions?

Also, when do you find out your class schedule?

Thanks.

No, orientation doesn't have any mini class sessions, nor any reading assignments. Each professor will email out their syllabus soon, so just watched your ND email.

One piece of advice: buy your books in advance as soon as you figure out your professors. You'll be able to see the books on insideND. They are ridiculously expensive if you buy them at the bookstore. Also, do NOT buy the Legal Writing book... under any circumstances. Not even the super-gunners read that book... it was worthless.

You should find out your class schedule soon. I just checked, and you haven't been assigned to classes yet.

The professors have been determined for the classes, though:

Contracts - Kaveny, Kozel, Tidmarsh
Criminal - Blakey, Gurule, Smith
Torts - McKenna, Snead, Pojanowski

I've heard wonderful things about Tidmarsh and Smith. I had Pojanowski, and he was one of my favorite professors I've ever had.

Blakey is a complete ass, but he wrote the RICO statute, and he is one of the more prominent ND professors.

[cartman44]

So does Notre Dame's orientation not have any assignments/readings you have to do or mini class sessions?

Also, when do you find out your class schedule?

Thanks.

No, orientation doesn't have any mini class sessions, nor any reading assignments. Each professor will email out their syllabus soon, so just watched your ND email.

One piece of advice: buy your books in advance as soon as you figure out your professors. You'll be able to see the books on insideND. They are ridiculously expensive if you buy them at the bookstore. Also, do NOT buy the Legal Writing book... under any circumstances. Not even the super-gunners read that book... it was worthless.

You should find out your class schedule soon. I just checked, and you haven't been assigned to classes yet.

The professors have been determined for the classes, though:

Contracts - Kaveny, Kozel, Tidmarsh
Criminal - Blakey, Gurule, Smith
Torts - McKenna, Snead, Pojanowski

I've heard wonderful things about Tidmarsh and Smith. I had Pojanowski, and he was one of my favorite professors I've ever had.

Blakey is a complete ass, but he wrote the RICO statute, and he is one of the more prominent ND professors.

thanks so much for taking the time to answer this. I feel like such a dweeb because all these uncertainties make me feel so nervous.
I thought Torts was a second semester class? (according to nd admitted website)

[thebookcollector]

So does Notre Dame's orientation not have any assignments/readings you have to do or mini class sessions?

Also, when do you find out your class schedule?

Thanks.

No, orientation doesn't have any mini class sessions, nor any reading assignments. Each professor will email out their syllabus soon, so just watched your ND email.

One piece of advice: buy your books in advance as soon as you figure out your professors. You'll be able to see the books on insideND. They are ridiculously expensive if you buy them at the bookstore. Also, do NOT buy the Legal Writing book... under any circumstances. Not even the super-gunners read that book... it was worthless.

You should find out your class schedule soon. I just checked, and you haven't been assigned to classes yet.

The professors have been determined for the classes, though:

Contracts - Kaveny, Kozel, Tidmarsh
Criminal - Blakey, Gurule, Smith
Torts - McKenna, Snead, Pojanowski

I've heard wonderful things about Tidmarsh and Smith. I had Pojanowski, and he was one of my favorite professors I've ever had.

Blakey is a complete ass, but he wrote the RICO statute, and he is one of the more prominent ND professors.

thanks so much for taking the time to answer this. I feel like such a dweeb because all these uncertainties make me feel so nervous.
I thought Torts was a second semester class? (according to nd admitted website)

It turns out you all are going to have the same semesterly breakdown as us (the class of 2013)... torts first semester, civil procedure second semester... if you look on insideND, it'll show the class listings.

I'm a bit surprised... I thought the faculty had voted to change it back to civil procedure first, then torts...

[brocklanders12]

Blakey is a complete ass, but he wrote the RICO statute, and he is one of the more prominent ND professors.

Did you have Blakey? While he is a character and everyone is scared at first, I am actually glad I had his class. Gurule is awesome and I hope to take a class with him at some point. I saw him at a few club events.

[brocklanders12]

Oh and I am glad we did not have assignments at orientation, just boring speeches and a reception.

[ndirish2010]

Blakey is a complete ass, but he wrote the RICO statute, and he is one of the more prominent ND professors.

Did you have Blakey? While he is a character and everyone is scared at first, I am actually glad I had his class. Gurule is awesome and I hope to take a class with him at some point. I saw him at a few club events.

Agreed about Blakey, though he was my lowest grade so far I am glad I was in that class.

[chrisnashville]

Random thought.. Does anyone recommend getting any sort of meal plan? I'll be on campus, wondering if I should get a smaller meal plan for when I don't feel like walking back to Fischer for lunch...

[thebookcollector]

Random thought.. Does anyone recommend getting any sort of meal plan? I'll be on campus, wondering if I should get a smaller meal plan for when I don't feel like walking back to Fischer for lunch...

I know one guy that did it, and he loved it.

If money isn't a problem (i.e. if your parents are buying), go for it. If you're living on the student budget, I doubt you'd be able to afford it. The meals work out to around $11 each.

Most people do eat at Crossings (the law school restaraunt) for lunch on days when there isn't an event, and at that place, cash is as good as points. Keep in mind that there is free lunch almost every day.

[ndirish2010]

I wouldn't get a meal plan, just buy flex points and a small amount of Domer Dollars for the vending machines.

[ndirish2010]

Bump.

[flourish]

Thanks to the 2Ls for responding to our inane questions...Here's another one: What supplements/hornbooks/commercial outlines have worked for you guys? Or does it just depend on the professor?

[thebookcollector]

Thanks to the 2Ls for responding to our inane questions...Here's another one: What supplements/hornbooks/commercial outlines have worked for you guys? Or does it just depend on the professor?

I hated all of the commercial outlines and canned briefs.

Here's the list for the substantive classes:

Torts - Glannon E&E and the Restatements
Contracts - Blum E&E and the Restatements
Criminal Law - Dressler (I also tried the E&E, and it wasn't bad.)
CivPro - Glannon E&E (for the examples) and Freer (for policy and history)
Property - Sprankling (I tried the E&E. It was worthless.)
ConLaw - Chemerinsky (I tried the E&E. It was worthless.)

I know most people don't think of the restatements as supplements, but if you use them right, they are. They have concise statements of the rules that you should certainly put in your outline, and the commentary provides excellent policy considerations, examples, and explanations.

[ndirish2010]

Honestly, the only supplement I used was Glannon Civ Pro. Found it incredibly useful, but I think this would vary by class. And of course don't read the whole thing, only the parts the professor cares about (for example, Bauer talked about Erie for a good 20 minutes all semester, so I wasn't going to read 200 pages in Glannon about Erie).

[brocklanders12]

I would definitely second Sprankling for Property and Chemerinksy for Con Law.

[thebookcollector]

I would definitely second Sprankling for Property and Chemerinksy for Con Law.

Wow, between these two, I feel super-gunnerish for all of the supplements I read...

Nonetheless, pretty much everybody that uses supplements uses the same ones. I saw enough copies of Chemerinsky to fill a bookshelf at the ConLaw exam.

Protip: You don't necessarily have to buy them. They have them on two-hour reserve at the library.

[brocklanders12]

I would definitely second Sprankling for Property and Chemerinksy for Con Law.

Wow, between these two, I feel super-gunnerish for all of the supplements I read...

Nonetheless, pretty much everybody that uses supplements uses the same ones. I saw enough copies of Chemerinsky to fill a bookshelf at the ConLaw exam.

Protip: You don't necessarily have to buy them. They have them on two-hour reserve at the library.

I was really not well prepared for law school so I got a time crunch for contracts, I think it was a shorter E&E. I did not use anything else in the fall. And civ pro I had a class-specific study guide from year's past.

[ndlawrevue]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz1w9Ii5amY

New Law Revue video.

[YourCaptain]

here, taking qs

[desiballa21]

Hey, thanks for taking Qs..

1) Cost of living? Is a car necessary?

2) obligatory question about employment prospects.

Thanks!

[YourCaptain]

1) CoL is super low. Car is nice but not necessary; supermarkets are walking-distance (barely) and absolutely biking distance. Bars are within walking distance. There isn't anything else you need, right?

2) Comparable to BU I'd say; definitely beat C/O 2012. A lot of it came down to bidding strategy - if you're from Utah and you bid on Ohio, well, putting ties out there will be hard. But if you're reaching back to home markets, it's relatively easy. We placed mainly in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Chicago, but we placed all over in general.

[xsoulx]

Thanks for taking questions!!

1. When do book lists for 1Ls become available?

2. When did you get your NetID/email info? I didn't get info about that with my acceptance package.

3. Have you heard good things about the on-campus graduate housing options? Should I be looking off-campus?

[YourCaptain]

booklists are available once you have your assigned courses. dont know about netid.

dont do ohara; fischer is fine if youre ok with a roommate. otherwise go offcampus. nice thing about on-campus is that you walk every morning (like 10-15 min) and youre done. the drive can take 5-10 and then you have to walk another 5-8.

[emptyflare]

Thanks for your time in answering questions!

Spin-on-employment question here: in your application cycles, did higher NLJ numbers from peer T20 schools (e.g., BU, BC) present a cause for concern before matriculating to ND or not? If so, do you have any advice on that front/learned experience for those in the current cycle?

[YourCaptain]

first off, to directly answer your question, no.

what you have to remember is that when A places 23% and B places 26% that doesnt translate into that many students (if youre at ND at least). at the time i had roughly equal (think proportionately, not in sheer amounts) of scholarship to ND/BU/BC/W&M, a bit less for GW, and the numbers in placement were similar. i believe that when youre looking at it that way, youre basically balancing feel versus cost of living.

i liked nd's small class (it's what, 2-300 something at bu, 4-500 something at gw, and 170-ish at nd?) and it seemed like a better community for me. come oci time, theyre cycling through dozens of candidates, so in my mind, the fewer candidates, the less "fungible" we all were, the more individual. of course, im probably delusionally optimistic about that, but that was a consideration for me. im not from the midwest, but when it came time for oci, i had cbs in my home market (coastal) and cbs in the midwest. could i have done the reverse from bu? e.g., were i from the midwest, could i have had as many cbs in chicago as i did in bu's home market? im not sure.

the nlj placement is def better this year, but like i said earlier, it's all by a couple of percentage points. in terms of nlj placement, i genuinely feel that theyre (bu/bc/nd/gw) kind of fungible. i can think of a couple of posters thatll disagree (theres a bu student in particular that dislikes nd but w/e) but you really need to look at cost versus feel. theyre all great schools, it just comes down to what youre comfortable with and what you liked.

my decision was personally between a t14 at full cost versus nd/bc/bu/gw at $$$. if you had me decide between those 4 right now, it'd come down to where i wanted to practice, honestly.

[AllieF]

What would you suggest in terms of housing? I have heard that the on-campus apartments have some crazy rules (only having guests 10 nights a year, for example) and that you might get stuck with a weird roommate. I am sort of inclined to get a one-bedroom off campus, but I am worried that it might be isolating. What did most of the 1Ls in your class do for housing? Did you meet most of your friends in your apartment building/etc., or mainly in class/clubs?