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Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:08 pm
by GreenEggs
BrainsyK wrote:
Kummel wrote:
dabigchina wrote:
Kummel wrote:
BrainsyK wrote:I got B+, B+, A- for a 3.43 GPA. Is it safe to mark myself down as top 1/3 on 1L SA applications since that's above the Stone cutoff (if it were at the end of 1L)?
lol no. You cannot estimate your GPA or rank. Firms know this and would be a big red flag to get a 1L SA application that has something about rank on it
Most firms know what a Stone Scholar is anyway. There's no need to put class rank.
Right. But this is for a 1L SA app so there's no Stone Scholar to put on the resume
I'm not putting it on my resume. There are just some jobs that make you select some sort of class ranking with a red * next to the slot to be filled out. I'm just looking for the best thing to put in those slots. When possible, I mentioned nothing about rank since I expect most firms to know about it.
There's no way to write in "school does not rank" ?

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:22 pm
by BrainsyK
Kummel wrote:
BrainsyK wrote:
Kummel wrote:
dabigchina wrote:
Kummel wrote:
BrainsyK wrote:I got B+, B+, A- for a 3.43 GPA. Is it safe to mark myself down as top 1/3 on 1L SA applications since that's above the Stone cutoff (if it were at the end of 1L)?
lol no. You cannot estimate your GPA or rank. Firms know this and would be a big red flag to get a 1L SA application that has something about rank on it
Most firms know what a Stone Scholar is anyway. There's no need to put class rank.
Right. But this is for a 1L SA app so there's no Stone Scholar to put on the resume
I'm not putting it on my resume. There are just some jobs that make you select some sort of class ranking with a red * next to the slot to be filled out. I'm just looking for the best thing to put in those slots. When possible, I mentioned nothing about rank since I expect most firms to know about it.
There's no way to write in "school does not rank" ?
Well, I guess that would've been the optimal resolution to that problem. I'll go back and correct it on the app. Thank you.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:01 am
by d39524s
Anyone who's taken any of the following and has any advice on the following profs, please PM me :) thanks!
- Fed Tax [Rasko]
- Property [Liebman]
- ConLaw [Barenburg] or
- Crim [Scott]!

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:48 am
by dabigchina
d39524s wrote:Anyone who's taken any of the following and has any advice on the following profs, please PM me :) thanks!
- Fed Tax [Rasko]
- Property [Liebman]
- ConLaw [Barenburg] or
- Crim [Scott]!
For Raskolnikov - Go to class and pay attention. Write everything down - EVERYTHING. Basically anything he says in class is fair game on the exam.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:18 am
by d39524s
dabigchina wrote:
d39524s wrote:Anyone who's taken any of the following and has any advice on the following profs, please PM me :) thanks!
- Fed Tax [Rasko]
- Property [Liebman]
- ConLaw [Barenburg] or
- Crim [Scott]!
For Raskolnikov - Go to class and pay attention. Write everything down - EVERYTHING. Basically anything he says in class is fair game on the exam.
Thanks so much!

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:39 am
by tinycatfriend
Hey! Just got admitted (woo) - and now looking down the barrel of the debt. How does Columbia finaid work/when should we expect to get information?

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:33 pm
by Anon-e-miss
I know that Columbia allows a large portion (30/83 credits) to be from clinics/externships/journals/etc.

How many clinics/externships could a student realistically take at CLS while still meeting the requirements for graduation? (2? 3? 4?)
Would appreciate both theoretical and anecdotal replies. Thank you!

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 6:45 pm
by Nebby
Anon-e-miss wrote:I know that Columbia allows a large portion (30/83 credits) to be from clinics/externships/journals/etc.

How many clinics/externships could a student realistically take at CLS while still meeting the requirements for graduation? (2? 3? 4?)
Would appreciate both theoretical and anecdotal replies. Thank you!
Fall 2L: I earned 2 credits under Supervised Research as part of my Note.
Spring 2L: I did the fieldwork component of L8667 S. Advocacy in Theory and Practice where I spent 15/hrs a week at an impact lit org and earned 3 credits.
Fall 3L: I did the DC Externship program and earned 12 credits.
Fall/Spring 3L: I was on executive board of my journal and earned 2 credits.
Spring 3L: My Note was published and earned 1 credit.

In all, I earned 20 credits outside of class and they all proved to be useful.

Theoretically, you could earn more than I did if you did two years worth of clinics, plus the journal stuff and supervised research stuff I did.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:19 pm
by Anon-e-miss
Nebby wrote:
Anon-e-miss wrote:I know that Columbia allows a large portion (30/83 credits) to be from clinics/externships/journals/etc.

How many clinics/externships could a student realistically take at CLS while still meeting the requirements for graduation? (2? 3? 4?)
Would appreciate both theoretical and anecdotal replies. Thank you!
Fall 2L: I earned 2 credits under Supervised Research as part of my Note.
Spring 2L: I did the fieldwork component of L8667 S. Advocacy in Theory and Practice where I spent 15/hrs a week at an impact lit org and earned 3 credits.
Fall 3L: I did the DC Externship program and earned 12 credits.
Fall/Spring 3L: I was on executive board of my journal and earned 2 credits.
Spring 3L: My Note was published and earned 1 credit.

In all, I earned 20 credits outside of class and they all proved to be useful.

Theoretically, you could earn more than I did if you did two years worth of clinics, plus the journal stuff and supervised research stuff I did.
Thanks so much for sharing this!

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:28 pm
by White Dwarf
You'd have to go pretty far out of your way to hit the 30 credit limit. I don't know anyone who it's been an issue for.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:39 pm
by Anon-e-miss
White Dwarf wrote:You'd have to go pretty far out of your way to hit the 30 credit limit. I don't know anyone who it's been an issue for.
Yeah I was more curious if it's possible to even get 20+ or 25+ credits out of the 30. I figured it would be near impossible to reach the 30 limit and still have enough time to earn the necessary in-class credits. So I'm glad to hear that 20+ experimental is realistic while meeting all other degree requirements

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:52 pm
by GreenEggs
Anon-e-miss wrote:
They've changed the rules. There's no longer a 30 credit aggregate cap.

You can end up doing quite a bit more beyond 30 credits if you're aggressive about it. There's a 19 credit limit as to certain types of non-classroom credits (non-classroom credits from externships, research for profs, TA, etc., but clinics do NOT count towards it, neither do classroom portions of externships). The 19 credit thing is an ABA rule that applies to every law school.

Then there's a separate 30 credit calculation towards experiential/clinics that is a CLS rule but it doesn't include any of those non-experiential things (TA'ing, research for profs, etc. do not count towards the 30). So you can end up doing WAY more clinics/ externships than you could before since a lot of non-classroom things no longer count towards the 30 (though some do).

Also, the rules only govern what's considered "countable" credits towards graduation. You're allowed to exceed, but any credit over won't count towards graduation (you'll have to take an actual class too). In theory another option would be you could exceed the CLS-30 and just petition for them to make an exception for you and count above that since it's just a CLS rule (not the 19 rule since that's ABA).

Under the system now, it's nearly impossible to exceed any of the caps -- especially the 30 credit experiential one.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 8:22 pm
by Anon-e-miss
Kummel wrote:
Anon-e-miss wrote:
They've changed the rules. There's no longer a 30 credit aggregate cap.

You can end up doing quite a bit more beyond 30 credits if you're aggressive about it. There's a 19 credit limit as to certain types of non-classroom credits (non-classroom credits from externships, research for profs, TA, etc., but clinics do NOT count towards it, neither do classroom portions of externships). The 19 credit thing is an ABA rule that applies to every law school.

Then there's a separate 30 credit calculation towards experiential/clinics that is a CLS rule but it doesn't include any of those non-experiential things (TA'ing, research for profs, etc. do not count towards the 30). So you can end up doing WAY more clinics/ externships than you could before since a lot of non-classroom things no longer count towards the 30 (though some do).

Also, the rules only govern what's considered "countable" credits towards graduation. You're allowed to exceed, but any credit over won't count towards graduation (you'll have to take an actual class too). In theory another option would be you could exceed the CLS-30 and just petition for them to make an exception for you and count above that since it's just a CLS rule (not the 19 rule since that's ABA).

Under the system now, it's nearly impossible to exceed any of the caps -- especially the 30 credit experiential one.
Wow, that's fantastic. The abundancy of experiential offerings at CLS and the school's perceived emphasis on experiential learning is a huge plus as a future applicant (along with employment numbers, etc.)

In your (or others') experience, how hard is it to get into the clinics/externships as a 2L? (particularly those related to PD work and incarceration)
I have heard on this site that NYU students, despite having some amazing clinical opportunities, have to fight tooth-and-nail to get spots in some of the more popular clinics, which often leads to them being nearly 3L-exclusive

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:00 pm
by GreenEggs
Anon-e-miss wrote:
Kummel wrote:
Anon-e-miss wrote:
They've changed the rules. There's no longer a 30 credit aggregate cap.

You can end up doing quite a bit more beyond 30 credits if you're aggressive about it. There's a 19 credit limit as to certain types of non-classroom credits (non-classroom credits from externships, research for profs, TA, etc., but clinics do NOT count towards it, neither do classroom portions of externships). The 19 credit thing is an ABA rule that applies to every law school.

Then there's a separate 30 credit calculation towards experiential/clinics that is a CLS rule but it doesn't include any of those non-experiential things (TA'ing, research for profs, etc. do not count towards the 30). So you can end up doing WAY more clinics/ externships than you could before since a lot of non-classroom things no longer count towards the 30 (though some do).

Also, the rules only govern what's considered "countable" credits towards graduation. You're allowed to exceed, but any credit over won't count towards graduation (you'll have to take an actual class too). In theory another option would be you could exceed the CLS-30 and just petition for them to make an exception for you and count above that since it's just a CLS rule (not the 19 rule since that's ABA).

Under the system now, it's nearly impossible to exceed any of the caps -- especially the 30 credit experiential one.
Wow, that's fantastic. The abundancy of experiential offerings at CLS and the school's perceived emphasis on experiential learning is a huge plus as a future applicant (along with employment numbers, etc.)

In your (or others') experience, how hard is it to get into the clinics/externships as a 2L? (particularly those related to PD work and incarceration)
I have heard on this site that NYU students, despite having some amazing clinical opportunities, have to fight tooth-and-nail to get spots in some of the more popular clinics, which often leads to them being nearly 3L-exclusive
pretty easy for the most part. I'm sure RTKs at NYU don't have a hard time, but I feel confident saying that the average CLS student doesn't encounter the same difficulties with limited space compared to the average student at NYU. If you've been accepted to CLS and are thinking of matriculating for the fall PM if you want to discuss more concretely.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 11:12 pm
by Anon-e-miss
Kummel wrote:
Anon-e-miss wrote:
Kummel wrote:
Anon-e-miss wrote:
They've changed the rules. There's no longer a 30 credit aggregate cap.

You can end up doing quite a bit more beyond 30 credits if you're aggressive about it. There's a 19 credit limit as to certain types of non-classroom credits (non-classroom credits from externships, research for profs, TA, etc., but clinics do NOT count towards it, neither do classroom portions of externships). The 19 credit thing is an ABA rule that applies to every law school.

Then there's a separate 30 credit calculation towards experiential/clinics that is a CLS rule but it doesn't include any of those non-experiential things (TA'ing, research for profs, etc. do not count towards the 30). So you can end up doing WAY more clinics/ externships than you could before since a lot of non-classroom things no longer count towards the 30 (though some do).

Also, the rules only govern what's considered "countable" credits towards graduation. You're allowed to exceed, but any credit over won't count towards graduation (you'll have to take an actual class too). In theory another option would be you could exceed the CLS-30 and just petition for them to make an exception for you and count above that since it's just a CLS rule (not the 19 rule since that's ABA).

Under the system now, it's nearly impossible to exceed any of the caps -- especially the 30 credit experiential one.
Wow, that's fantastic. The abundancy of experiential offerings at CLS and the school's perceived emphasis on experiential learning is a huge plus as a future applicant (along with employment numbers, etc.)

In your (or others') experience, how hard is it to get into the clinics/externships as a 2L? (particularly those related to PD work and incarceration)
I have heard on this site that NYU students, despite having some amazing clinical opportunities, have to fight tooth-and-nail to get spots in some of the more popular clinics, which often leads to them being nearly 3L-exclusive
pretty easy for the most part. I'm sure RTKs at NYU don't have a hard time, but I feel confident saying that the average CLS student doesn't encounter the same difficulties with limited space compared to the average student at NYU. If you've been accepted to CLS and are thinking of matriculating for the fall PM if you want to discuss more concretely.
I'm applying next cycle so won't be (potentially) accepted for a year, but I really appreciate the personal insight and information

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:10 am
by Prudence
How do CLS students cut costs for living expenses? Any creative ideas on how you saved? I am worried about living in nyc with such a higher cost of living compared to say duke for instance. Obviously CLS is amazing but I also want to take as little loans as possible especially for living expenses since that’s sort of in my control. Also...What CLS housing is the cheapest but still gives the option of a single room/ apartment maybe?

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:13 am
by Nebby
You can cut costs by living off campus with roommates. My apartment in Harlem was $1300 per roommate (2BR, 2 roommates). You could save more if you live with two or three roommates.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:21 am
by Prudence
Nebby wrote:You can cut costs by living off campus with roommates. My apartment in Harlem was $1300 per roommate (2BR, 2 roommates). You could save more if you live with two or three roommates.
Was it pretty tough finding a place before classes started and finding roommates?

Also loans cant pay for rent correct? So I would need first, last, and security before the loans were disbursed?

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:39 am
by Nebby
Prudence wrote:
Nebby wrote:You can cut costs by living off campus with roommates. My apartment in Harlem was $1300 per roommate (2BR, 2 roommates). You could save more if you live with two or three roommates.
Was it pretty tough finding a place before classes started and finding roommates?

Also loans cant pay for rent correct? So I would need first, last, and security before the loans were disbursed?
I found people looking for a roommate who already had a place. I only had to pay security and first months. Both were month to month leases with the other roommate, commonly called a roommate agreement.

You'll use loans to pay your rent but yes you'll need to pay security and first months before first loans are disbursed.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 1:22 am
by 41262
Nebby wrote:You can cut costs by living off campus with roommates. My apartment in Harlem was $1300 per roommate (2BR, 2 roommates). You could save more if you live with two or three roommates.
FWIW, I currently pay substantially less than $1,300/mo, utilities included, for UAH housing within a few blocks of JG with the same roommate setup. If you want to be in MH, it's hard to beat grad housing on price. (It's very easy to beat on nearly every other dimension, but it's perfectly livable - I've had way worse apartments in the past.) Not saying my experience is necessarily typical - I have no idea - but if price is your main concern, as it was for me, it's probably worth at least exploring Columbia housing.

Also anecdotally, I know several classmates living in Harlem and optimizing for price have done way better than $1300.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:32 am
by Nebby
Yeah you can get a lot lower. I was paying for the flexibility of month to month

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:34 pm
by SpikeSeagull
Anybody who's ever TAed for a prof--what was the process of securing a TA position like? Did you apply, or just shoot them an email after you got an A?

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:57 pm
by FascinatedWanderer
SpikeSeagull wrote:Anybody who's ever TAed for a prof--what was the process of securing a TA position like? Did you apply, or just shoot them an email after you got an A?
I was asked by the professors for my RA and TA gigs.

Eta: they usually emailed me shortly before grades came out.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:09 pm
by stoopkid13
FascinatedWanderer wrote:
SpikeSeagull wrote:Anybody who's ever TAed for a prof--what was the process of securing a TA position like? Did you apply, or just shoot them an email after you got an A?
I was asked by the professors for my RA and TA gigs.

Eta: they usually emailed me shortly before grades came out.
Same here, but I think students frequently reach out to professors for RA work.

Re: Columbia students taking questions

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:26 pm
by bayareabruin
SpikeSeagull wrote:Anybody who's ever TAed for a prof--what was the process of securing a TA position like? Did you apply, or just shoot them an email after you got an A?
I just shot the prof an email after grades came out--I didn't do anything particularly memorable in class so I thought the odds of the prof reaching out were pretty small