UC Hastings Students Taking Questions Forum

[msblaw89]

I suppose my multiple choice strategy may have backfired as well. You get 3 pts for a correct answer, 0 pts if you leave it blank, and -1 point if you get it wrong. I was confident in the material so I answered them all. Might have been the wrong approach

Oh no... SAT nightmare

[msblaw89]

Last question in regards to Martinez Income Tax class... What was his distribution like? And what was UC Hastings median?

[OneMoreLawHopeful]

Hastings posts the grade distributions by class for the past several years
http://uchastings.edu/about/admin-offic ... /index.php

Looking at last spring, Martinez looks rough. The income tax class had too few students to be subjected to the curve (the curve only applies to classes over 26, iirc, below that number profs can do pretty much whatever they want, though they are still limited to 2 A+s at most, the overwhelming majority deviate UP, not down, for smaller classes).

Even for classes the curve applies to, only 12-13% of students are supposed to get a C+ or below, but Martinez gave 40% of the class a grade in that range. That's pretty unheard of at Hastings (which you can see by looking at the distributions for other subjects).

Unfortunately, there's no meaningful "mean" at Hastings right now, because the curve just changed, so the 3Ls and 2Ls have different means. However, for both classes the mean is over 3.1, so Martinez is basically dicking over the class.

[Mick Haller]

My 1L (2009) classes had 15-20% C's and below. The most recent class was in the 7-9% range. May help self-esteem but will not help with getting a job

[ilovesf]

Bump for new admits & because someone asked me about this thread.

[kapital98]

Bump for new admits & because someone asked me about this thread.

Hastings has a surprisingly strong presence on TLS.

New admits, feel free to ask any question you want. ilovesf did excellent her first year. I did well enough to transfer. Many other people got firm jobs. Many people on this forum are currently employed and can give you a lot of Hastings specific advice in regards to that. Ask away

[hiima3L]

Bump for new admits & because someone asked me about this thread.

Hastings has a surprisingly strong presence on TLS.

New admits, feel free to ask any question you want. ilovesf did excellent her first year. I did well enough to transfer. Many other people got firm jobs. Many people on this forum are currently employed and can give you a lot of Hastings specific advice in regards to that. Ask away

Many of us have friends 2-3 years out without jobs.

Class of 2012 grad here. I fortunately got a job my 3L year but a number of my closest friends are still looking for full-time, JD/bar-required work.

Don't go to Hastings.

[a male human]

My 1L (2009) classes had 15-20% C's and below. The most recent class was in the 7-9% range. May help self-esteem but will not help with getting a job

It's worse for your self-esteem if you do get a C even after the adjustment

[Lasers]

Bump for new admits & because someone asked me about this thread.

Hastings has a surprisingly strong presence on TLS.

New admits, feel free to ask any question you want. ilovesf did excellent her first year. I did well enough to transfer. Many other people got firm jobs. Many people on this forum are currently employed and can give you a lot of Hastings specific advice in regards to that. Ask away

Many of us have friends 2-3 years out without jobs.

Class of 2012 grad here. I fortunately got a job my 3L year but a number of my closest friends are still looking for full-time, JD/bar-required work.

Don't go to Hastings.

i hate to say it, but hastings is a bit of a sinking ship. the median numbers/rank has steadily declined and the job prospects are bleak as a whole. i think the median LSAT is now 159...it has dropped at least 4-5 points from when i applied just 3 years ago.

[a male human]

Bump for new admits & because someone asked me about this thread.

Hastings has a surprisingly strong presence on TLS.

New admits, feel free to ask any question you want. ilovesf did excellent her first year. I did well enough to transfer. Many other people got firm jobs. Many people on this forum are currently employed and can give you a lot of Hastings specific advice in regards to that. Ask away

Many of us have friends 2-3 years out without jobs.

Class of 2012 grad here. I fortunately got a job my 3L year but a number of my closest friends are still looking for full-time, JD/bar-required work.

Don't go to Hastings.

i hate to say it, but hastings is a bit of a sinking ship. the median numbers/rank has steadily declined and the job prospects are bleak as a whole. i think the median LSAT is now 159...it has dropped at least 4-5 points from when i applied just 3 years ago.

Isn't that true for law schools in general?

Either way, I should have been much more careful about applying to law school...

[Mick Haller]

Yep law schools in general are sinking ships. Hastings is way too expensive. 150k debt for a 1 in 3 chance of making 70k+ as an attorney. 2 in 3 chance of misery.

I'm doing my financial forecast for the next two years and it's going to be a tough slog to make it. I am tracking every purchase on my iphone so I keep to a very strict budget. And my circumstances are better than a lot of Hastings people (decent wage, below avg debt)

[Lasers]

i hate to say it, but hastings is a bit of a sinking ship. the median numbers/rank has steadily declined and the job prospects are bleak as a whole. i think the median LSAT is now 159...it has dropped at least 4-5 points from when i applied just 3 years ago.

Isn't that true for law schools in general?

most definitely, but hastings is sinking faster than most. the median stats have declined rapidly and the employment numbers are depressing.

[kapital98]

Everything above, TCR. It summarized the entire thread in 5 posts.

[hiima3L]

i hate to say it, but hastings is a bit of a sinking ship. the median numbers/rank has steadily declined and the job prospects are bleak as a whole. i think the median LSAT is now 159...it has dropped at least 4-5 points from when i applied just 3 years ago.

Isn't that true for law schools in general?

most definitely, but hastings is sinking faster than most. the median stats have declined rapidly and the employment numbers are depressing.

This.

It still has a good reputation in the state. Shockingly, a lot of out-of-state places think it's still a great school based on my anecdotal evidence.

But it is dropping dramatically, and rightly so. It's got borderline TTTT employment numbers (its reputation is still good enough for about 10-12% of the class to get big law, as opposed to <5% at poop schools). It used to be a top 25ish school based on employment numbers just a handful of years ago. (At least UCH has been relatively transparent about its employment stats.) But he employment numbers now are horrendous--statistically, it is one of the top 10 worst schools for employment. It's only marginally a better investment than GGU. There used to be absolutely no debate that UCH was by far and away a better investment than GGU even when I started in 2009.

It is just far, far too big to sustain any decent reputation. Dean Wu cut the class by 20% (after the class of 2012 was almost 20% bigger than the class of 2011...), but it needs to be cut by at least half, if not more. The CA market in general and the SF market specifically were some of the hardest hit by ITE. It's not coming back and schools need to change.

It's great that Dean Wu is doing shit like writing HuffPo op-eds and being nominated a top 5 influential law dean or something, but he and the faculty are not doing what needs to be done: cutting class sizes and class offerings dramatically to keep LSAT/GPA scores up.

[ilovesf]

Ok, that's nice guys. I don't disagree. I bumped this to take questions, not so you guys can circle jerk over all of our mistakes.

[hiima3L]

Ok, that's nice guys. I don't disagree. I bumped this to take questions, not so you guys can circle jerk over all of our mistakes.

Making sure no one else makes a financially ruinous decision is far more important than the theme of this thread.

[OneMoreLawHopeful]

Ok, that's nice guys. I don't disagree. I bumped this to take questions, not so you guys can circle jerk over all of our mistakes.

Making sure no one else makes a financially ruinous decision is far more important than the theme of this thread.

And on that note, I'll just point out that it hasn't been "financially ruinous" for all of us. Going to Hastings has worked out for me so far, and given the chance I would do it again. If there are posters out there who know the risks but think (like I did) that it's a chance worth taking, feel free to ask Qs here or to PM me.

[hiima3L]

Ok, that's nice guys. I don't disagree. I bumped this to take questions, not so you guys can circle jerk over all of our mistakes.

Making sure no one else makes a financially ruinous decision is far more important than the theme of this thread.

And on that note, I'll just point out that it hasn't been "financially ruinous" for all of us. Going to Hastings has worked out for me so far, and given the chance I would do it again. If there are posters out there who know the risks but think (like I did) that it's a chance worth taking, feel free to ask Qs here or to PM me.

It's worked out well (probably very well relative to most JDs) for me too. But we are in a small minority (I'd say 10% at best).

[kapital98]

Ok, that's nice guys. I don't disagree. I bumped this to take questions, not so you guys can circle jerk over all of our mistakes.

Making sure no one else makes a financially ruinous decision is far more important than the theme of this thread.

And on that note, I'll just point out that it hasn't been "financially ruinous" for all of us. Going to Hastings has worked out for me so far, and given the chance I would do it again. If there are posters out there who know the risks but think (like I did) that it's a chance worth taking, feel free to ask Qs here or to PM me.

It hasn't been financially ruinous for me (yet). I'm public interest if anyone is interested. That means: 1) I don't have a guaranteed offer; but, 2) I do post-graduate internship that should land me a job (that's how most PI works). PM me if you want to talk.

[GunnerBingo]

OK, moving back to actual questions. I'm looking to do private sector transactional work/firm work in general. I believe I'm roughly top 10% based on my numbers (though my class' rank has not been posted). What is reasonable in terms of a 1L gig at a firm or in-house?

Should I just stick to small-midsize firms and smaller companies? Do any non-diverse 1L's get big law/big company (e.g. Google/Yahoo) interviews?

Just wondering what my target range should be. Though I really enjoy the career office, it seems that they don't have as much info to provide about private sector summer hiring as they do for public sector.

[OneMoreLawHopeful]

OK, moving back to actual questions. I'm looking to do private sector transactional work/firm work in general. I believe I'm roughly top 10% based on my numbers (though my class' rank has not been posted). What is reasonable in terms of a 1L gig at a firm or in-house?

Should I just stick to small-midsize firms and smaller companies? Do any non-diverse 1L's get big law/big company (e.g. Google/Yahoo) interviews?

Just wondering what my target range should be. Though I really enjoy the career office, it seems that they don't have as much info to provide about private sector summer hiring as they do for public sector.

Everyone I knew who got a biglaw 1L summer gig was diverse, but that wasn't the case for people who got summer gigs with big companies. Most people who targeted small firms and were willing to work for free got something. Oddly, this didn't seem to be the case for "midlaw" mostly because many of those firms had more formal summer programs. So, while an 8-attorney firm will bring in an "intern" for free during the summer on an informal basis, a 70-attorney firm may actually have a 2L summer program that negates their interest in 1Ls.

Also, it may be too late, but everyone I knew who tried for an externship got one - some had to settle for state court instead of federal, but I don't know anyone who tried (in a timely fashion!) and struck out.

With your grades, you likely have a shot at the bigger companies, as well as the smaller firms, especially if you're willing to commute to SV. Just be sure to apply broadly ASAP. Good luck!

[DildaMan]

Everyone I knew who got a biglaw 1L summer gig was diverse, but that wasn't the case for people who got summer gigs with big companies.
With your grades, you likely have a shot at the bigger companies, as well as the smaller firms, especially if you're willing to commute to SV. Just be sure to apply broadly ASAP. Good luck!

^. 1L firm positions were either IP or diversity. A lot of people ended up working in-house: Zynga, LinkedIn, Marvel, etc . . . If you haven't already checked http://lawstudentjobs.net/ they usually have a bunch of positions not listed on Symplicity.

[GunnerBingo]

Thanks everyone! I've already got a couple big company apps out, but I'll be sure to be sending more.

[Moonlight]

Content Deleted

[kapital98]

Bumping so I can get in on the convo.

Ask away.