Stanford Students Taking Qs (2011-12 Edition) Forum

[simpletimes]

Quick question, sorry if its silly: are there power outlets for most seats in classrooms? My laptop has a shortish battery span and I'm wondering if I need to invest in a new one.

Yeah, all of them have outlets.

[simpletimes]

It's already on the Admitted Students site. Under the "Go to SLS" heading, click on "Apply for Loans." It has all the steps we need to take to get Perkins, Direct Unsubsidized, and Grad PLUS set up.

I only discovered it today. They haven't been great about announcing when we need to get that sort of stuff done. It looks like they need all the documentation by August 24th.

Also, if anyone can find the "comparison table" for Grad PLUS v. "Private Alternative" loans that's supposed to be up in July, I'd be grateful. Alternatively, if any current students want to chime in on whether most students get Grad PLUS or private loans, that'd be great.

I had no idea there is a comparison table. Most people take GradPLUS as far as I can tell. If you take a private loan, you'll probably want (need?) a co-signer, which depending on your credit and theirs can change how much you pay in interest by quite a bit. Some private loans are around 2.5-3% currently, but keep in mind that they are almost all variable rates tied to either the prime rate or LIBOR. GradPLUS is a fixed 7.9%.

[in_reverie]

Thanks for the advice so far! Are there any professors that each of you have particularly enjoyed and would recommend?

Edit: Also, how many of you guys check out the football games? What's the process like acquiring tickets?

[simpletimes]

Thanks for the advice so far! Are there any professors that each of you have particularly enjoyed and would recommend?

Edit: Also, how many of you guys check out the football games? What's the process like acquiring tickets?

You don't get to pick your profs the first quarter so...don't worry about it til you get on campus. We are not sure who is teaching the 1L classes, but it's kind of a style thing. People liked Fried, Kelman, Karlan, Sykes (he's leaving), Sklansky (maybe coming from Cal), Spaulding, Cole, etc. It really depends on your personality and whether you like their styles, though.

Football games were free, but you had to sign up the Thursday before or something to get a ticket and you could only get one. Now that Luck is gone and the team presumably will not be as good (they lost a bunch of other folks as well), it may be easier to get tickets...but it wasn't really a problem last year if you just signed up early. You just click some buttons on your computer and you get a ticket automatically added to your student ID card, it's pretty simple.

[in_reverie]

Thanks for the advice so far! Are there any professors that each of you have particularly enjoyed and would recommend?

Edit: Also, how many of you guys check out the football games? What's the process like acquiring tickets?

You don't get to pick your profs the first quarter so...don't worry about it til you get on campus. We are not sure who is teaching the 1L classes, but it's kind of a style thing. People liked Fried, Kelman, Karlan, Sykes (he's leaving), Sklansky (maybe coming from Cal), Spaulding, Cole, etc. It really depends on your personality and whether you like their style.

My bad on that one - I'm actually a 2L transfer. So I guess this question would be directed to anyone who's taken upper-level courses. Aside from the typical bar courses, I'm hoping to focus on foundational business law stuff. Statutory Interpretation and Federal Courts also caught my eye.

[Trustbuster]

Take a class with Schacter. And since you're interested in statutory interpretation, boom, do it.

[simpletimes]

My bad on that one - I'm actually a 2L transfer. So I guess this question would be directed to anyone who's taken upper-level courses. Aside from the typical bar courses, I'm hoping to focus on foundational business law stuff. Statutory Interpretation and Federal Courts also caught my eye.

Daines is supposed to be cool. I was a fan of Klausner, but he's got a very relaxed style and is cynical. Grundfest is well regarded, too.

[BearState]

Thanks for advice so far.

How would you guys recommend buying textbooks for 1L year? Do you go to the bookstore, or use Amazon, or something else?

[Trustbuster]

If you're the gambling type, you can wait for people like me to offer books at lower prices once the quarter begins. Otherwise, the bookstore (expensive, though you can rent textbooks) and online shopping seem the way to go.

Also, the APILSA book closet has treated me well.

[in_reverie]

Thanks again for the feedback. One more question: am I correct that Autumn classes for 2/3Ls don't start until September 24? What do students normally do between OCI and then? My summer job ends August 3, and I'm starting to think I made a big mistake by planning my move for the following weekend.

[Trustbuster]

We'll be doing callbacks and (hopefully) a little relaxing. But mostly callbacks.

[BioEBear2010]

3Ls will be maxing and relaxing, and/or interviewing for clerkship positions.

[elysian]

hi! this might be a silly question, but i'm curious. are there any noteworthy differences between the different munger buildings (other than 4&5 being available for only the academic year and having the market)? for example, is one building typically more social than the others or known to have a tighter community? if you had a choice, which building would you prefer? i heard building 3 is the closest to the law school, and 1 seems to be the biggest (and thus perhaps the most social?). thanks for your thoughts!

[simpletimes]

It has probably no impact year to year...just depends on who is in your building by lotto. As for which is nicer, it depends enitrely on which apartment you get.

[1212]

How much did your fellowship decrease after your 1L big law clerkship?

[TheGreatWait]

Can any current Stanford students talk about living in EV? My spouse and I will be moving into a one bedroom in two weeks and we're trying to figure out how much space we'll really have, what kinds of things we should bring, what the furniture is like, etc. does anyone have any good pictures of a one bedroom in one of the midrises? We will be living in Hulme but haven't been able to find much online. Thanks for any help you can provide!!

[ahmrdd]

How big are the closets in Munger? Trying to figure out how many of my clothes to bring!

[Kretzy]

How much did your fellowship decrease after your 1L big law clerkship?

Mine dropped by about 14,000; I ended up coming out narrowly ahead. If you aren't pressed for cash, I would highly recommend doing something public interest-y that you've always wanted to do. I kind of regret not running off to a job in Geneva or London or DC. I actually did like my biglaw SA that summer, but you're going to get that experience 2L summer, so I wouldn't rush it.

[1212]

How much did your fellowship decrease after your 1L big law clerkship?

Mine dropped by about 14,000; I ended up coming out narrowly ahead. If you aren't pressed for cash, I would highly recommend doing something public interest-y that you've always wanted to do. I kind of regret not running off to a job in Geneva or London or DC. I actually did like my biglaw SA that summer, but you're going to get that experience 2L summer, so I wouldn't rush it.

Thanks, Kretzy! I'm definitely planning on taking that advice.

[PriOSky]

Older thread (Sept 09 originally) here: Stanford 1L taking questions

How was your finals experience?

Really weird. SLS has 4 doctrinal classes (Torts, Contracts, Crim, Civ Pro) and legal research and writing. 18 credits total, where the normal max is 14 (with 9 being minimum). SLS has an ABA waiver to make us take so many classes. From what I understand, other law schools have 3 doctrinal classes + research/writing. The upperclassmen and administration essentially tell you that you can't do 100 percent in all the classes. Almost everyone believes this, but there are a handful of people who tried. Not sure if this paid off for them or not.

This means you really need to strategize in how you prepare for exams. Because top 1/3 get Hs and everyone else gets Ps, you could potentially split your time equally and only get a P in every class (and perhaps you are the top P in every class). You'd have the same grade as someone who prepared very very little (or not at all), but the same grade. So the idea is that you "punt" one or two classes, and max out in other classes, giving yourself the best chance at an H in those, knowing that you'll be at the bottom of the Ps in the punted class.

Everyone has done the reading for all their classes and has attended class, since we are 1Ls and work like crazy anyway. So even if you punt a class (Crim for me), you can still barely study at all, and be able to write a 15 page exam paper. It might not be pretty, and it won't be H-worthy, but it should get you a P. 

As I mentioned, I planned on punting crim, and trying legitimately for Torts/Contracts/CivPro. I made my own outline for Torts (first exam) and Contracts (third), but by the time I got to CivPro I really was wiped out and only had 36 hours to prepare. So I effectively punted CivPro as well. The CivPro exam actually felt great, but we will see to what that actually translates.

Overall, it was really weird not working for a class (or two). In undergrad I gave pretty much everything 100%, but here it more of a "work smarter" mentality. Looking back, it was a really liberating feeling. I was less stressed during exam week than I had been during the first week of school. I think pretty much every other SLS 1L will say that it sucked, but was not as bad as expected. One night we had a wine party in the library to take a break. Fun stuff. I can't imagine being at a school with real grades, I'm confident that I would have been freaking the heck out. I’m looking forward to getting my exams back not for the grades but for the comments, so I can start to figure out what I was actually doing right or wrong during this last quarter.

(There technically are low passes, but they say you have to write less than a page or show active contempt for the professor to not pass a class.)

Thanks for helping soon to be 1Ls! Do you mind sharing how you exam-prioritizing strategy worked out?

[Stig]

How much did your fellowship decrease after your 1L big law clerkship?

Mine dropped by about 14,000; I ended up coming out narrowly ahead. If you aren't pressed for cash, I would highly recommend doing something public interest-y that you've always wanted to do. I kind of regret not running off to a job in Geneva or London or DC. I actually did like my biglaw SA that summer, but you're going to get that experience 2L summer, so I wouldn't rush it.

I echo these thoughts. Very happy that I worked where I worked, but I will not deny that the fellowship reduction pissed me off/made me wish I just went to Europe and travelled on weekends...

[Stig]

Thanks for helping soon to be 1Ls! Do you mind sharing how you exam-prioritizing strategy worked out?

Things have worked out just fine OCI treated me well; I would guess that if my grades were not good enough, I would not have gotten callbacks to the firms I targeted.

A illustrative anecdote on grades: (not from first quarter) In one class I came to every lecture and took detailed notes. I then spent 3 weeks (which may not be that much compared to other classmates) focusing solely on that exam. Ended up with a P. I subsequently got an H on my other exam where my prep consisted of reading over an outline from 2003 a couple times a day before the exam. I also spent most of my time in that class searching for apartments. When you get those kind of grades, you're just like
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Some people work like wild and can get all Hs, which is helpful for working at a handful of firms and the top clerkships. OCI seems to have gone well for everyone. A mix of Hs and Ps is standard, but it seems like everyone is getting callbacks.

[simpletimes]

Grades are a smaller part of the game for OCI than you might otherwise think. They matter to a degree, and without a certain baseline there are a handful of firms that you probably won't get, but there are a number of other things that can push people over the top with regard to callbacks. They may still be important for clerkships, and certainly good grades are preferable to bad grades. Just saying, it's only part of the picture.

[bernaldiaz]

Hi! Hoping to revive this thread if there are Stanford students here. I have a few questions.

1) how accurate is the 77k per year cost of attendance? Is it easy to come in under that, or is Palo Alto just that expensive?

2) did anyone have any success negotiating aid, even if their parents income precluded them from normally qualifying?

3) can you have a car on campus and if you can, is it something that would be useful?

Thanks!

[BioEBear2010]

Can't speak to (2), but to address the other two:

1) Reasonably accurate, particularly if you live in Munger. But there are certainly ways to save substantial sums of money. If one prefers cheaper on-campus housing (I highly recommend living on campus as a 1L), Escondido Village and Rains are solid alternatives to Munger. There are, of course, a number of cheaper off-campus options, with Palo Alto being slightly more expensive than the neighboring cities (Mountain View, Menlo Park, etc.). I live in San Francisco, and it costs an arm and a leg.

2) Yes to both questions. You usually need a permit to park on campus, and the best option is an EA sticker, which runs ~$250/yr. Having a car is useful for grocery/miscellaneous shopping (Town & Country, which has a CVS and Trader Joe's, is about a mile from the law school, and taking public transit to/from there is annoying), exploring the surrounding area (SF, East Bay, beaches, woodlands, Tahoe, San Jose [some people like it, apparently]), and getting to restaurant and bars (the cab drivers in PA are terrible).