Cornell 1L taking questions Forum

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aaaaaah

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by aaaaaah » Fri Jul 29, 2011 9:48 am

Can anyone comment on the resources available to students interested in PI? I know the vast majority of students go for firm life-- and I understand why-- but does Cornell have an active PI community?

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by Trequartista » Fri Jul 29, 2011 9:50 am

I'm guessing with Cornell being one of the most expensive law schools around, as well as not giving out nearly as much in aid as peer schools, not many people can afford to do PI.

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vexion

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by vexion » Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:49 pm

aaaaaah wrote:Can anyone comment on the resources available to students interested in PI? I know the vast majority of students go for firm life-- and I understand why-- but does Cornell have an active PI community?
Trequartista wrote:I'm guessing with Cornell being one of the most expensive law schools around, as well as not giving out nearly as much in aid as peer schools, not many people can afford to do PI.
Cornell has a very active PI-oriented group of students and faculty. The Public Interest Law Union (PILU, pronounced pee'-loo) holds a public interest fair in the fall where you can talk to 2Ls and 3Ls who worked public interest over the summer and are planning to continue in PI. If you work an unpaid, non-judicial intern job over the summer, you can qualify for the PIF (public interest fund) grant, where Cornell will pay you to work for the summer. It's not firm-level money, but it's better than $0. Several fundraisers, mostly in the spring, go towards the PIF, most notably Cabaret, the annual variety show.

That said, we are much more firm-oriented than some other schools, but that's just the nature of the student body. Cornell was #2 last year in the NLJ 250's "Go-To Schools": we sent 58% of our graduates to NLJ 250 law firms. The rest would be a mixture of public interest, clerkships, unemployed students, and the rare in-house or small firm job.

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mths

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by mths » Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:41 pm

Ooooh it sucks being back in Ithaca. Even just for a weekend. In other news, if rising 1Ls are around, bunch of 2Ls are going out tonight. Feel free to join.

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holybartender

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by holybartender » Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:54 pm

I shudder to imagine the Palms during the summer.

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mths

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by mths » Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:00 pm

holybartender wrote:I shudder to imagine the Palms during the summer.
you're not invited

CyLaw

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by CyLaw » Fri Jul 29, 2011 5:59 pm

Trequartista wrote:I'm guessing with Cornell being one of the most expensive law schools around, as well as not giving out nearly as much in aid as peer schools, not many people can afford to do PI.
Will discuss more when not my phone, but this is not true. Cornell's lrap called pilipp is awesome. The low pi rate is student bias, not funding issues

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by chatterbox43 » Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:04 pm

vexion wrote:
aaaaaah wrote:Can anyone comment on the resources available to students interested in PI? I know the vast majority of students go for firm life-- and I understand why-- but does Cornell have an active PI community?
Trequartista wrote:I'm guessing with Cornell being one of the most expensive law schools around, as well as not giving out nearly as much in aid as peer schools, not many people can afford to do PI.
Cornell has a very active PI-oriented group of students and faculty. The Public Interest Law Union (PILU, pronounced pee'-loo) holds a public interest fair in the fall where you can talk to 2Ls and 3Ls who worked public interest over the summer and are planning to continue in PI. If you work an unpaid, non-judicial intern job over the summer, you can qualify for the PIF (public interest fund) grant, where Cornell will pay you to work for the summer. It's not firm-level money, but it's better than $0. Several fundraisers, mostly in the spring, go towards the PIF, most notably Cabaret, the annual variety show.

That said, we are much more firm-oriented than some other schools, but that's just the nature of the student body. Cornell was #2 last year in the NLJ 250's "Go-To Schools": we sent 58% of our graduates to NLJ 250 law firms. The rest would be a mixture of public interest, clerkships, unemployed students, and the rare in-house or small firm job.
I've seen some numbers on this, although obviously things have changed a lot in the last few years. But yea, essentially the low PI rate is a self-selection thing -- most people would prefer to have a firm job. I suspect a lot of that is, yes, money (LRAP is pretty good, but not particularly well publicized, and you do have to carry the debt for like 10 years). But I think some of it is also the fact that law firms hire so much earlier, and on such a more regular schedule than either government or PI. As someone who is barely participating in OCI, because I'm hoping to do PI or Gov't, it's kind of terrifying to know that 90% of my classmates will have jobs by October -- and I almost certainly won't.

That said, the public service office staff are pretty good, and certainly try to give you as much help as they can. PILU is trying to build up their networking capabilities, as well. And while it does seem like everyone wants to go to firms, they all seem to give the people who don't a lot of credit -- the attitude is "that's awesome, I couldn't do it, but I'm glad someone is." But there does seem to be a lot of pressure from the career service office to go to firms, sometimes. maybe it's just all the emails we've gotten this summer.

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koalatriste

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by koalatriste » Sat Jul 30, 2011 6:12 pm

Hey 1Ls/2Ls/3Ls,

If anyone is still looking for housing, PM me ASAP - I"m looking for a roommate in my 2BR in the building above Starbucks. It's literally a two minute walk to the law school and it's definitely the nicest building in collegetown (granite countertops, etc.). The total rent is 2600. Let me know if you're interested!

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mths

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by mths » Sat Jul 30, 2011 6:18 pm

koalatriste wrote:Hey 1Ls/2Ls/3Ls,

If anyone is still looking for housing, PM me ASAP - I"m looking for a roommate in my 2BR in the building above Starbucks. It's literally a two minute walk to the law school and it's definitely the nicest building in collegetown (granite countertops, etc.). The total rent is 2600. Let me know if you're interested!
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLIN

remember to call me tonight

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by PinkCow » Sat Jul 30, 2011 7:04 pm

koalatriste wrote:Hey 1Ls/2Ls/3Ls,

If anyone is still looking for housing, PM me ASAP - I"m looking for a roommate in my 2BR in the building above Starbucks. It's literally a two minute walk to the law school and it's definitely the nicest building in collegetown (granite countertops, etc.). The total rent is 2600. Let me know if you're interested!

Waaiiiittttt. Koala is staying in Ithaca?

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mths

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by mths » Sat Jul 30, 2011 7:05 pm

PinkCow wrote:
koalatriste wrote:Hey 1Ls/2Ls/3Ls,

If anyone is still looking for housing, PM me ASAP - I"m looking for a roommate in my 2BR in the building above Starbucks. It's literally a two minute walk to the law school and it's definitely the nicest building in collegetown (granite countertops, etc.). The total rent is 2600. Let me know if you're interested!

Waaiiiittttt. Koala is staying in Ithaca?
Yes, and you could be the one lucky 1L to live with him.

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theturkeyisfat

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by theturkeyisfat » Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:01 am

Do we get lockers? And if so, how big are they?

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koalatriste

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by koalatriste » Sun Jul 31, 2011 7:52 am

theturkeyisfat wrote:Do we get lockers? And if so, how big are they?
Size queen.

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vexion

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by vexion » Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:29 pm

theturkeyisfat wrote:Do we get lockers? And if so, how big are they?
Yes, you get one book locker to yourself and you share one coat locker with another 1L. The book locker is small, a weird shape, wider than it is tall. It has a built-in combination lock and will easily hold a semester's worth of books. The coat locker is full-size, six feet tall or so, and doesn't come with a lock. You or your locker buddy can supply your own.

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Post by shotsfired12 » Wed Aug 03, 2011 3:34 pm

redacted.
Last edited by shotsfired12 on Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Big Tuna

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by Big Tuna » Wed Aug 03, 2011 3:49 pm

SHANbangs wrote:Okay, four veeeeeeeeeeeery important questions:

1) I know there are summer abroad programs, but are there semester abroad programs? I'm looking to do one 3L in Asia.

2) Do we get study carrels?

3) Any good places to get a haircut in Ithaca?

4) Any nutritional/supplements shops in Ithaca?
1) This is on the school website but to save you the effort, there are almost 20 semester programs, most are in Europe but there are programs in Cape Town, Sydney, Cairo, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tel Aviv.

2) There are plenty of carrels, as a 1L you will NOT have a reserved carrel though. This isn't to say you can't have a de facto reserved carrel by leaving your stuff there and intimidating anyone who tries to use it.

3) There are plenty of places to get a haircut in Ithaca, I can't comment on whether any are good though.

4) There is a vitamin store (forget what franchise) near the commercial area that you need to drive to.

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mths

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by mths » Wed Aug 03, 2011 3:51 pm

SHANbangs wrote:Okay, four veeeeeeeeeeeery important questions:

1) I know there are summer abroad programs, but are there semester abroad programs? I'm looking to do one 3L in Asia.

2) Do we get study carrels?

3) Any good places to get a haircut in Ithaca?

4) Any nutritional/supplements shops in Ithaca?
1) There are semester abroad programs available for your 3L year. See: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/intern ... /index.cfm

2) There are study carrels available all over the law school but they are not assigned to 1Ls. Some 2 and 3Ls have carrels assigned to them and you cannot (theoretically) use those but the rest of them are game.

3) I've never risked it

4) let me google that for you

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by CyLaw » Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:45 pm

SHANbangs wrote:Okay, four veeeeeeeeeeeery important questions:


3) Any good places to get a haircut in Ithaca?
Other questions already answered by the previous posters. For the haircut, I really recommend Ivy League Barber. I love that place.

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by FlanAl » Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:25 pm

when does it start getting super cold? My plan is to buy snow boots and a coat there since finding something suitable in California will probably be difficult. Is that probably the best idea? Thanks!

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mths

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by mths » Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:35 pm

FlanAl wrote:when does it start getting super cold? My plan is to buy snow boots and a coat there since finding something suitable in California will probably be difficult. Is that probably the best idea? Thanks!
Round October

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theturkeyisfat

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by theturkeyisfat » Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:22 pm

FlanAl, do you want to eventually work in California?

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FlanAl

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by FlanAl » Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:26 pm

yessir

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FlanAl

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by FlanAl » Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:41 pm

mths wrote:
FlanAl wrote:when does it start getting super cold? My plan is to buy snow boots and a coat there since finding something suitable in California will probably be difficult. Is that probably the best idea? Thanks!
Round October
is it pretty easy to buy winter stuff in ithaca?

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holybartender

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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Post by holybartender » Wed Aug 03, 2011 8:10 pm

Well, if you get it in California, you can go to the North Face outlet in Camarillo. (assuming you're in LA area).

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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