In at Chicago! Forum

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Kronk

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by Kronk » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:58 pm

crackberry wrote:
Kronk wrote:
crackberry wrote:
Kronk wrote:I think that's probably the best decision.
What is? Yale > Stanford?
Yeah.
Would you do it if the GF weren't in the picture?
Definitely. In general, I really feel like Yale is just on another plane. If I just wanted to do BigLaw and strongly preferred the Bay Area I would pick Stanford. Also if I wanted to do IP. But I don't want either of those things, and I think Yale is king. I also prefer theoretical approaches to learning as opposed to more practical ones, personally.

To be honest, if the gf weren't in the picture, I would probably pick the law school in the top six that had the best clinic for the kind of law I want to do. So that would be Harvard, Chicago, or NYU (assuming I got in). The more I look into clinics, the more appealing they seem, and if I thought I had a good chance of being involved in one it would be hard to pass that up for a higher ranked school.

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crackberry

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by crackberry » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:03 pm

Kronk wrote:To be honest, if the gf weren't in the picture, I would probably pick the law school in the top six that had the best clinic for the kind of law I want to do. So that would be Harvard, Chicago, or NYU (assuming I got in). The more I look into clinics, the more appealing they seem, and if I thought I had a good chance of being involved in one it would be hard to pass that up for a higher ranked school.
Yeah, clinics sound awesome. Most schools I looked at (incl. Stanford and Yale) have environmental law clinics, so I'm all set there. The great thing for me is that, at least at Stanford, people who want to do the enviro law clinic just can. The only clinic that regularly turns people away is the SCOTUS clinic. I assume Yale (and other small schools like Chicago) is the same way.

What sort of law are you looking to do? Maybe we should move this convo to PM.

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by ranovr32 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:26 pm

crackberry wrote:
Kronk wrote:To be honest, if the gf weren't in the picture, I would probably pick the law school in the top six that had the best clinic for the kind of law I want to do. So that would be Harvard, Chicago, or NYU (assuming I got in). The more I look into clinics, the more appealing they seem, and if I thought I had a good chance of being involved in one it would be hard to pass that up for a higher ranked school.
Yeah, clinics sound awesome. Most schools I looked at (incl. Stanford and Yale) have environmental law clinics, so I'm all set there. The great thing for me is that, at least at Stanford, people who want to do the enviro law clinic just can. The only clinic that regularly turns people away is the SCOTUS clinic. I assume Yale (and other small schools like Chicago) is the same way.

What sort of law are you looking to do? Maybe we should move this convo to PM.
Yeah you should, you two over acheivers get the EFF out of here talking about Yale and Stanford in the Chicago thread.

Especially you crackberry! Berkeley kool-aid drinkin'.................

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by protokurios » Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:57 pm

Kronk wrote:Harlem is awesome. Not to mention that the area around USC has some amazing restaurants.

But South Central and the area around USC is considered far worse than Hyde Park. It just doesn't get as much attention on this site because USC isn't nearly the law school that UChicago is. I'm sure statistically there is much more crime in South Central.
If South Central is really that much worse than Hyde Park, then I have nothing to worry about. USC is really not that bad. Just mostly working-class, low-income Hispanics doing their business. The thing about USC though is that almost all the locals respect the school because of what it's done for the community. Not sure if the same can be said about UChicago. So even if it's in a "worse" neighborhood in general, you have some "protection" if you're associated with the university.

I would not mind being in this sort of neighborhood again for law school because it reminds me to be thankful for all the blessings I have.

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by JohnYuu » Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:26 pm

protokurios wrote:
Kronk wrote:Harlem is awesome. Not to mention that the area around USC has some amazing restaurants.

But South Central and the area around USC is considered far worse than Hyde Park. It just doesn't get as much attention on this site because USC isn't nearly the law school that UChicago is. I'm sure statistically there is much more crime in South Central.
If South Central is really that much worse than Hyde Park, then I have nothing to worry about. USC is really not that bad. Just mostly working-class, low-income Hispanics doing their business. The thing about USC though is that almost all the locals respect the school because of what it's done for the community. Not sure if the same can be said about UChicago. So even if it's in a "worse" neighborhood in general, you have some "protection" if you're associated with the university.

I would not mind being in this sort of neighborhood again for law school because it reminds me to be thankful for all the blessings I have.
Yeah, I don't think anyone is really talking about the area immediately surrounding USC. I think they mean South Central in general. Even the worst parts of South Central are a totally different kind of ghetto though (suburban, gang-infested). Chicago seems to be a more urban-ghetto. LA seems like the place to get killed unintentionally by a stray bullet, whereas Chicago seems like the place to get killed in a robbery (I heard this happened to a PHD student at UofC couple years ago).

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Core

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by Core » Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:26 pm

Does anyone have any experience negotiating money from Chi?
Right now, my best bet for doing this is 30k at Mich (I also have 90k at UCLA but I doubt that'll be of use here). I'd be more than happy with 15k, 21k - whatever Chi's smallest scholarship is. If anyone has any advice or experience with this, please let me know.

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by Kronk » Sat Feb 27, 2010 2:28 pm

Core wrote:Does anyone have any experience negotiating money from Chi?
Right now, my best bet for doing this is 30k at Mich (I also have 90k at UCLA but I doubt that'll be of use here). I'd be more than happy with 15k, 21k - whatever Chi's smallest scholarship is. If anyone has any advice or experience with this, please let me know.
I just sent in something to negotiate mine. She said I'll hear back early next week after she forwarded the letter to the committee. In the last chat I asked her A.) if it was appropriate yet, and she said yes, and B.) whether or not I should send in a "Why Chicago?" essay to sway opinion, and she said it was unnecessary but if I felt like I had something to say that needed to be said, to send it.

I decided against the essay and just wrote an email that talked briefly about why I wanted to go to UChicago and why I was asking for a reconsideration of scholarship money. I mentioned another scholarship I had and why money was an issue for my cycle. I will tell you if it turns out successful.

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by kittenmittons » Sat Feb 27, 2010 2:31 pm

Kronk wrote:
Core wrote:Does anyone have any experience negotiating money from Chi?
Right now, my best bet for doing this is 30k at Mich (I also have 90k at UCLA but I doubt that'll be of use here). I'd be more than happy with 15k, 21k - whatever Chi's smallest scholarship is. If anyone has any advice or experience with this, please let me know.
I just sent in something to negotiate mine. She said I'll hear back early next week after she forwarded the letter to the committee. In the last chat I asked her A.) if it was appropriate yet, and she said yes, and B.) whether or not I should send in a "Why Chicago?" essay to sway opinion, and she said it was unnecessary but if I felt like I had something to say that needed to be said, to send it.

I decided against the essay and just wrote an email that talked briefly about why I wanted to go to UChicago and why I was asking for a reconsideration of scholarship money. I mentioned another scholarship I had and why money was an issue for my cycle. I will tell you if it turns out successful.
gl broskie

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tintin

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by tintin » Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:42 pm

hey, im visiting in late march, anyone know what the weather might be like?

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nixxers

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by nixxers » Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:47 pm

tintin wrote:hey, im visiting in late march, anyone know what the weather might be like?
cold/windy

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Kronk

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by Kronk » Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:48 pm

tintin wrote:hey, im visiting in late march, anyone know what the weather might be like?
Me too! I'll be there the 26th-ish, you?

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by AngryAvocado » Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:50 pm

tintin wrote:hey, im visiting in late march, anyone know what the weather might be like?
Your tar sums it up pretty nicely.

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by tintin » Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:27 am

AngryAvocado wrote:
tintin wrote:hey, im visiting in late march, anyone know what the weather might be like?
Your tar sums it up pretty nicely.
that's not good :lol:

ill be there march 29th-31st

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ontologyfail

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by ontologyfail » Sun Feb 28, 2010 3:03 pm

Just got back from vacation to my lovely 100%* aid offer. *100 loans clearly counts as aid

Not terribly relevant, but more amusing than dwelling on the financial massacre:
agentzer0 wrote:..buuut everyone knows you can't trust people on the internet! What if they suck in real life? Who knows how long they spent crafting that witty, down to earth, but seemingly unforced response(s)...?
agentzer0 wrote: ahh but I've touched a girl's boobs... so who's really the winner here?

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tintin

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by tintin » Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:36 pm

i was speaking with my dads friend earlier who is a COA judge in CA. he said that he doesn't like chicago much because they are "a bunch of eggheads" and he didn't like the whole econ bent they have going. my mom, who is a court reporter and thus ends up talking to lawyers a lot, says that she has noticed a lot of them seem prejudiced against chicago too.

anyone else notice this attitude amongst the legal profession? or is it just the people i keep running into....

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echoi

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by echoi » Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:42 pm

AngryAvocado wrote:Not to derail the financial aid stuff, but I was perusing the website and decided to read a transcript of a Professor's address to 2Ls at the Midway Dinner. I thought this excerpt was pretty interesting:
The Midway Dinner is peculiar of course in part because it's the celebration of a midway point, rather than a beginning or an end, which are what we usually pause to recognize. This is a moment of transition for you, as you enter the final half of your time at the law school. And of course it is a time of transition for the law school itself, as well. The law school's moment of transition coincides almost perfectly with your own. You are thus the lucky class that will have the chance to experience half of your time here under the old regime, and half under the new. It's always tempting to look back at an old regime with a sense of nostalgia. But I don't think that's appropriate. To be very honest with you, many people thought that the old regime was overly rigid, excessively difficult, and not fully responsive to the realities of the modern legal education. Many students think that the new regime will be a major improvement. And they might very well be right. The new regime I'm speaking of is, of course, our new, two-tiered substantial writing requirement.
Anyone know more about this "transition" or the "substantial writing requirement"? Maybe this would be better served in a 1L thread, but I figured someone here might be able to shed some light on these remarks. At the very least, I thought some of you might find it interesting as well.
Got an answer from the facebook group

"Prior to the Class of 2011, fulfilling the writing requirement meant writing two papers of slightly longer length than a typical seminar paper (30-35 pages instead of 20-25). The new requirement sets up two tiers of papers, and you have to do one of each to fulfill the requirement. The easier tier is the Writing Project, which is 20-... See More25 pages in length, but is otherwise very similar to the previous writing requirements. The other tier, the Substantial Research Project, has to be done under the guidance of a full-time faculty member (many seminars that might have qualified for writing credit under the old system are taught by Lecturers in Law, so under the new system are only eligible for the Writing Project level.)

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/students/handbook has the Student Handbook, if you want to read the actual requirement, in Section 1.11 of the main handbook."

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ontologyfail

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by ontologyfail » Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:50 pm

tintin wrote:i was speaking with my dads friend earlier who is a COA judge in CA. he said that he doesn't like chicago much because they are "a bunch of eggheads" and he didn't like the whole econ bent they have going. my mom, who is a court reporter and thus ends up talking to lawyers a lot, says that she has noticed a lot of them seem prejudiced against chicago too.

anyone else notice this attitude amongst the legal profession? or is it just the people i keep running into....
Where does your mom work? Maybe it's a west coast thing. I hope it's just the people you keep running into :(

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AngryAvocado

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by AngryAvocado » Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:55 pm

echoi wrote:
AngryAvocado wrote:Not to derail the financial aid stuff, but I was perusing the website and decided to read a transcript of a Professor's address to 2Ls at the Midway Dinner. I thought this excerpt was pretty interesting:
The Midway Dinner is peculiar of course in part because it's the celebration of a midway point, rather than a beginning or an end, which are what we usually pause to recognize. This is a moment of transition for you, as you enter the final half of your time at the law school. And of course it is a time of transition for the law school itself, as well. The law school's moment of transition coincides almost perfectly with your own. You are thus the lucky class that will have the chance to experience half of your time here under the old regime, and half under the new. It's always tempting to look back at an old regime with a sense of nostalgia. But I don't think that's appropriate. To be very honest with you, many people thought that the old regime was overly rigid, excessively difficult, and not fully responsive to the realities of the modern legal education. Many students think that the new regime will be a major improvement. And they might very well be right. The new regime I'm speaking of is, of course, our new, two-tiered substantial writing requirement.
Anyone know more about this "transition" or the "substantial writing requirement"? Maybe this would be better served in a 1L thread, but I figured someone here might be able to shed some light on these remarks. At the very least, I thought some of you might find it interesting as well.
Got an answer from the facebook group

"Prior to the Class of 2011, fulfilling the writing requirement meant writing two papers of slightly longer length than a typical seminar paper (30-35 pages instead of 20-25). The new requirement sets up two tiers of papers, and you have to do one of each to fulfill the requirement. The easier tier is the Writing Project, which is 20-... See More25 pages in length, but is otherwise very similar to the previous writing requirements. The other tier, the Substantial Research Project, has to be done under the guidance of a full-time faculty member (many seminars that might have qualified for writing credit under the old system are taught by Lecturers in Law, so under the new system are only eligible for the Writing Project level.)

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/students/handbook has the Student Handbook, if you want to read the actual requirement, in Section 1.11 of the main handbook."
Great stuff. Thanks for the update.

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tintin

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by tintin » Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:59 pm

ontologyfail wrote:
tintin wrote:i was speaking with my dads friend earlier who is a COA judge in CA. he said that he doesn't like chicago much because they are "a bunch of eggheads" and he didn't like the whole econ bent they have going. my mom, who is a court reporter and thus ends up talking to lawyers a lot, says that she has noticed a lot of them seem prejudiced against chicago too.

anyone else notice this attitude amongst the legal profession? or is it just the people i keep running into....
Where does your mom work? Maybe it's a west coast thing. I hope it's just the people you keep running into :(
she is a court reporter so she works freelance and does things for all kinds of law offices- big, small, all kinds of work. it might be a CA snobbery kinda thing.

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Fancy Pants

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by Fancy Pants » Sun Feb 28, 2010 6:04 pm

tintin wrote:he said that he doesn't like chicago much because they are "a bunch of eggheads"
Yeah. I would hate having people work for me who are excessively smart.

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by TXDeac » Sun Feb 28, 2010 6:13 pm

Since we've gotten onto the topic of financial aid negotiations, I'd like to hear what people think about the best ways to negotiate. In my mind, the only significant thing the school could care about is the presentation of a better offer from another school.

However, I'm not yet in the enviable position of having a better offer from a comparable school. As things stand, I'm feeling incredibly fortunate to be accepted at Chicago at all, and my numbers (just slightly above their 25th) aren't exactly earth shattering. Still, I'm a Texas resident and the UT-Austin in-state tuition is awfully appealing.

If I can get any sort of grant aid from Chicago, that will all but seal my decision. What does everyone think the best negotiation tactics are?

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AngryAvocado

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by AngryAvocado » Sun Feb 28, 2010 6:25 pm

TXDeac wrote:Since we've gotten onto the topic of financial aid negotiations, I'd like to hear what people think about the best ways to negotiate. In my mind, the only significant thing the school could care about is the presentation of a better offer from another school.

However, I'm not yet in the enviable position of having a better offer from a comparable school. As things stand, I'm feeling incredibly fortunate to be accepted at Chicago at all, and my numbers (just slightly above their 25th) aren't exactly earth shattering. Still, I'm a Texas resident and the UT-Austin in-state tuition is awfully appealing.

If I can get any sort of grant aid from Chicago, that will all but seal my decision. What does everyone think the best negotiation tactics are?
I can't really speak to negotiating tactics, but unless you're 100% positive you want to stay in Texas after you graduate (and even then...), I think you'd be nuts choose Texas over Chicago even with in-state @ Texas. An extra 50k or so in debt is almost certainly worth it when you talk about the difference in career prospects from both these schools.

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Kronk

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by Kronk » Sun Feb 28, 2010 6:35 pm

Chicago doesn't specifically match. In my email, I mentioned my offer from UVA (30k/yr) and said that I was going into PI work and thus finances were a pretty important consideration. I wrote something like "While I'm not asking for UofC to match my other offer, I would appreciate a reconsideration of my scholarship amount."

I would mention your offer from Texas, why saving money is important to you (if you're doing BigLaw, 50k really isn't anything at all), and why you'd rather attend UofC than other schools if money weren't a problem.

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by choco39 » Sun Feb 28, 2010 8:00 pm

TXDeac wrote:Since we've gotten onto the topic of financial aid negotiations, I'd like to hear what people think about the best ways to negotiate. In my mind, the only significant thing the school could care about is the presentation of a better offer from another school.

However, I'm not yet in the enviable position of having a better offer from a comparable school. As things stand, I'm feeling incredibly fortunate to be accepted at Chicago at all, and my numbers (just slightly above their 25th) aren't exactly earth shattering. Still, I'm a Texas resident and the UT-Austin in-state tuition is awfully appealing.

If I can get any sort of grant aid from Chicago, that will all but seal my decision. What does everyone think the best negotiation tactics are?
Check this out: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 22&t=79373

Good luck!

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Re: In at Chicago!

Post by TXDeac » Mon Mar 01, 2010 1:26 am

Wow, clutch. Thanks for that choco.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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