University of Minnesota applicants 2011-12 cycle (c/o 2015) Forum

[ThreeRivers]

Soooo, I just returned home from UMN ASW and wow I was pretty blown away

Some of my thoughts:
The faculty / professors / students I either listened to or had the opportunity to speak with all were pretty impressive / for the most part also very easy to talk to

I was particularly impressed with the gentleman in charge of the career services. He was completely 100% honest about many questions (which I found refreshing) that we peppered him with when he sat down at our table during lunch (my only concern was we probably over-asked him / drilled him for too long lol)

I know many were worried about the "dungeon" of the law school from some posts on here, that couldn't be farther from the truth imo.

Just the "vibe" of the school felt right to me on so many levels. I think UMN is definitely now my number 1 choice (still going to visit BU on 3/23 though).

Only minor thing was I wish I got to see more of the city, it seemed like a cool city from the limited exposure I had to but I wish I would have gotten in earlier on Thursday and been able to just explore it more. I was excited about the tour of the city but tbh I didn't find it that helpful (we spent about half of the tour in 1 theater building).

Still, for anyone who became concerned with some of the negative postings I'd definitely recommend they visit

[minnbills]

Glad to hear it went well! Did you end up going to the hockey game? Gophers are WCHA champs!!

[Jaeger]

Glad to hear it went well! Did you end up going to the hockey game? Gophers are WCHA champs!!

Still will lose to UMD.

Three Rivers,
What kind of questions did you pepper the guy with/what was he honest about?

[ThreeRivers]

Glad to hear it went well! Did you end up going to the hockey game? Gophers are WCHA champs!!

No, I decided to just follow the schedule and went to the TORTS performance, which tbh normally isn't my type of thing at all but it was actually done really well / pretty funny

[ThreeRivers]

Glad to hear it went well! Did you end up going to the hockey game? Gophers are WCHA champs!!

Still will lose to UMD.

Three Rivers,
What kind of questions did you pepper the guy with/what was he honest about?

Not really myself on the honest about portion... I've been pretty obsessive at researching employee statistics so most of my questions were about how to make yourself more attractive for potential employers (although at one point he did tell me something about myself could potentially make me less attractive to employers)

The questions of others that he answered honestly were basically common sense on here, but I appreciated him answering them honestly / gave his thoughts / opinions on other subjects a lot weight imo. People inquired about such fields such as "animal rights / entertainment law" and he said that it would be a lot harder for them to find employment and not really many jobs available at all, he also spoke of placement in different areas (his main emphasis here was if you don't have a SO its best to be flexible to move anywhere), etc... Nothing ground-breaking but a lot of schools would answer these questions more along the line of "well of course are animal rights program is number 4 in the country!"

One item that he did make a stance against was the subject of how many report their employment results / stated the lengths he goes to to attempt to reach out to everyone to reply, but he can't force them to do so.

[MidwestJosh]

Only minor thing was I wish I got to see more of the city, it seemed like a cool city from the limited exposure I had to but I wish I would have gotten in earlier on Thursday and been able to just explore it more. I was excited about the tour of the city but tbh I didn't find it that helpful (we spent about half of the tour in 1 theater building).

Should've hung out with my group Fri. night!

[fbg26]

When are the remaining admitted student days? I'm still waiting for a decision (think I've got a good shot) and am trying to figure out my schedule for the next month or so.

[Jaeger]

Josh, is your picture from the lighthouse in Duluth?

And the next ASW is April 13-14, I believe. The one I'll be at.

[MidwestJosh]

Josh, is your picture from the lighthouse in Duluth?

It is. Very impressive!

[Jaeger]

Josh, is your picture from the lighthouse in Duluth?

It is. Very impressive!

I knew I recognized that number from somewhere.

[minnbills]

I'm guessing it won't change much from last year, but any word on when the specs for the laptop will come out?

[Moultdog]

Soooo, I just returned home from UMN ASW and wow I was pretty blown away

Some of my thoughts:
The faculty / professors / students I either listened to or had the opportunity to speak with all were pretty impressive / for the most part also very easy to talk to

I was particularly impressed with the gentleman in charge of the career services. He was completely 100% honest about many questions (which I found refreshing) that we peppered him with when he sat down at our table during lunch (my only concern was we probably over-asked him / drilled him for too long lol)

I know many were worried about the "dungeon" of the law school from some posts on here, that couldn't be farther from the truth imo.

Just the "vibe" of the school felt right to me on so many levels. I think UMN is definitely now my number 1 choice (still going to visit BU on 3/23 though).

Only minor thing was I wish I got to see more of the city, it seemed like a cool city from the limited exposure I had to but I wish I would have gotten in earlier on Thursday and been able to just explore it more. I was excited about the tour of the city but tbh I didn't find it that helpful (we spent about half of the tour in 1 theater building).

Still, for anyone who became concerned with some of the negative postings I'd definitely recommend they visit

I pretty much agree with everything here. The school seemed like a very genuine place, and the administration seemed very open and honest about their role in helping us move forward in our careers. I especially appreciated the open heart of the career services guy. There didn't seem to be any shade of dishonesty in him, and he seems to feel genuinely called to help students find jobs.

I loved the vibe of the school as well. The neighborhood tour was a joke though. That yellow box is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen, and that was like half the tour. The women didn't really answer any of the questions we might have and seems more concerned with how great the lakes and Target are than anything having to do with housing. She was delightfully Minnesotan, but the whole thing felt tacky.

At any rate though, MN is definitely my number one choice now.

[ThreeRivers]

Soooo, I just returned home from UMN ASW and wow I was pretty blown away

Some of my thoughts:
The faculty / professors / students I either listened to or had the opportunity to speak with all were pretty impressive / for the most part also very easy to talk to

I was particularly impressed with the gentleman in charge of the career services. He was completely 100% honest about many questions (which I found refreshing) that we peppered him with when he sat down at our table during lunch (my only concern was we probably over-asked him / drilled him for too long lol)

I know many were worried about the "dungeon" of the law school from some posts on here, that couldn't be farther from the truth imo.

Just the "vibe" of the school felt right to me on so many levels. I think UMN is definitely now my number 1 choice (still going to visit BU on 3/23 though).

Only minor thing was I wish I got to see more of the city, it seemed like a cool city from the limited exposure I had to but I wish I would have gotten in earlier on Thursday and been able to just explore it more. I was excited about the tour of the city but tbh I didn't find it that helpful (we spent about half of the tour in 1 theater building).

Still, for anyone who became concerned with some of the negative postings I'd definitely recommend they visit

I pretty much agree with everything here. The school seemed like a very genuine place, and the administration seemed very open and honest about their role in helping us move forward in our careers. I especially appreciated the open heart of the career services guy. There didn't seem to be any shade of dishonesty in him, and he seems to feel genuinely called to help students find jobs.

I loved the vibe of the school as well. The neighborhood tour was a joke though. That yellow box is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen, and that was like half the tour. The women didn't really answer any of the questions we might have and seems more concerned with how great the lakes and Target are than anything having to do with housing. She was delightfully Minnesotan, but the whole thing felt tacky.

At any rate though, MN is definitely my number one choice now.

Haha, yea.. idk I don't really blame the school for the tour though it probably seemed like a good idea to get a company to show the students the city. I think most of us were expecting to leave with some idea on the city / potential living places, while the lady was more equipped for tourist trips to the Mall of America and such.

It seems like the school even gave her some direction to do what we wanted but she just wasn't that good at it (I sat close to the front and overheard some of her talking with bus driver), things like "ummm I guess we should go show them this area because Dan wanted us to. She'd end up doing that but then give some tourist spill about interesting facts of Minnesota lol. She did try to start mentioning housing stuff after a couple of questions about it though

[MidwestJosh]

Soooo, I just returned home from UMN ASW and wow I was pretty blown away

Some of my thoughts:
The faculty / professors / students I either listened to or had the opportunity to speak with all were pretty impressive / for the most part also very easy to talk to

I was particularly impressed with the gentleman in charge of the career services. He was completely 100% honest about many questions (which I found refreshing) that we peppered him with when he sat down at our table during lunch (my only concern was we probably over-asked him / drilled him for too long lol)

I know many were worried about the "dungeon" of the law school from some posts on here, that couldn't be farther from the truth imo.

Just the "vibe" of the school felt right to me on so many levels. I think UMN is definitely now my number 1 choice (still going to visit BU on 3/23 though).

Only minor thing was I wish I got to see more of the city, it seemed like a cool city from the limited exposure I had to but I wish I would have gotten in earlier on Thursday and been able to just explore it more. I was excited about the tour of the city but tbh I didn't find it that helpful (we spent about half of the tour in 1 theater building).

Still, for anyone who became concerned with some of the negative postings I'd definitely recommend they visit

I pretty much agree with everything here. The school seemed like a very genuine place, and the administration seemed very open and honest about their role in helping us move forward in our careers. I especially appreciated the open heart of the career services guy. There didn't seem to be any shade of dishonesty in him, and he seems to feel genuinely called to help students find jobs.

I loved the vibe of the school as well. The neighborhood tour was a joke though. That yellow box is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen, and that was like half the tour. The women didn't really answer any of the questions we might have and seems more concerned with how great the lakes and Target are than anything having to do with housing. She was delightfully Minnesotan, but the whole thing felt tacky.

At any rate though, MN is definitely my number one choice now.

Haha, yea.. idk I don't really blame the school for the tour though it probably seemed like a good idea to get a company to show the students the city. I think most of us were expecting to leave with some idea on the city / potential living places, while the lady was more equipped for tourist trips to the Mall of America and such.

It seems like the school even gave her some direction to do what we wanted but she just wasn't that good at it (I sat close to the front and overheard some of her talking with bus driver), things like "ummm I guess we should go show them this area because Dan wanted us to. She'd end up doing that but then give some tourist spill about interesting facts of Minnesota lol. She did try to start mentioning housing stuff after a couple of questions about it though

I want you all to know that this feedback is absolutely taken seriously and we'll be strongly reconsidering how this tour is done in the future. In the mean time, you are more than welcome to call me with any additional questions about housing, the Twin Cities, etc. You can email me through the Admitted Students website or private message me on this forum. I truly hope you enjoyed the weekend and found Minnesota Law to be as great as I find it.

Best,

--Josh (3L)

[gabewatch]

Yeah I was at this weekends ASW and I thought it was put together pretty well.
- sitting in on 2 classes was really good, even if one of the classes was advanced corporate law, it gave me a better feel for what law school classes could be like in general
- i was most impressed with the professors, they all seemed very qualified, and as if they genuinely cared about the students
- the building, although its not brand new, is not an issue (to me)
- the student ambassadors were very informative, my only question is how the student ambassadors are selected. i only ask this because they all seemed to have jobs lined up (either for the summer, or upon graduation depending on if they were 2L/3L) so i was wondering if they are all above median, but i didnt really feel comfortable asking students where they were in those regards
- the career office seems pretty legit about focusing on each student starting in their 1L year to help them get to where they want to be, they did mention their connections to San Fran, NYC, DC and i would be curious to know if this is really limited to the top students (like top 10-20%)
- the only presentations that i found useless were
A. the hour we had to listen to a outside guy talk about the financial cost of law school, and i only say it was useless because it was very basic information that i already knew, but some people may have found it helpful
B. the alumni speaker bc the presentation seemed unorganized, all over the place, and to be honest, the speaker just wasnt a great public speaker (IMO)

all in all I wasnt really sure I was seriously considering UMN, but now I am going to give it a solid look. i think the bigger issue for me is not the school, but just being sure that i am ok with minneapolis, the winter, and being ready to stay in MN after graduation if that is necessary

[billharford]

Does anyone know any details regarding the wait list? Has U of M pulled much from the wait list in recent years? And if so when abouts does this happen?

[ricsllscir]

Yeah I was at this weekends ASW and I thought it was put together pretty well.
- sitting in on 2 classes was really good, even if one of the classes was advanced corporate law, it gave me a better feel for what law school classes could be like in general
- i was most impressed with the professors, they all seemed very qualified, and as if they genuinely cared about the students
- the building, although its not brand new, is not an issue (to me)
- the student ambassadors were very informative, my only question is how the student ambassadors are selected. i only ask this because they all seemed to have jobs lined up (either for the summer, or upon graduation depending on if they were 2L/3L) so i was wondering if they are all above median, but i didnt really feel comfortable asking students where they were in those regards
- the career office seems pretty legit about focusing on each student starting in their 1L year to help them get to where they want to be, they did mention their connections to San Fran, NYC, DC and i would be curious to know if this is really limited to the top students (like top 10-20%)
- the only presentations that i found useless were
A. the hour we had to listen to a outside guy talk about the financial cost of law school, and i only say it was useless because it was very basic information that i already knew, but some people may have found it helpful
B. the alumni speaker bc the presentation seemed unorganized, all over the place, and to be honest, the speaker just wasnt a great public speaker (IMO)

all in all I wasnt really sure I was seriously considering UMN, but now I am going to give it a solid look. i think the bigger issue for me is not the school, but just being sure that i am ok with minneapolis, the winter, and being ready to stay in MN after graduation if that is necessary

Aww, I actually really enjoyed the alumni speaker. Sure, she didn't have her laser pointer and power suit on, but she gave a few good points (a few times each, haha) and is clearly very successful. All in all, she seemed good at what she did and not pretentious about it, which I think was the theme I got from Minnesota in general. The weekend launched Minnesota into the top spot for me, so now to start shopping for parkas...

[MidwestJosh]

The weekend launched Minnesota into the top spot for me, so now to start shopping for parkas...

Hey now - it was 60 degrees here yesterday.

[MidwestJosh]

- the student ambassadors were very informative, my only question is how the student ambassadors are selected. i only ask this because they all seemed to have jobs lined up (either for the summer, or upon graduation depending on if they were 2L/3L) so i was wondering if they are all above median, but i didnt really feel comfortable asking students where they were in those regards

I can assure you that had absolutely no consideration into the selection. In fact, almost every one of us were selected during our 1L year, before anyone had post-law school jobs lined up. With that said, it probably isn't much of a surprise that students who are proud about where they are at and what they are doing end up doing well.

[HeadToWall]

Soooo, I just returned home from UMN ASW and wow I was pretty blown away

Some of my thoughts:
The faculty / professors / students I either listened to or had the opportunity to speak with all were pretty impressive / for the most part also very easy to talk to

I was particularly impressed with the gentleman in charge of the career services. He was completely 100% honest about many questions (which I found refreshing) that we peppered him with when he sat down at our table during lunch (my only concern was we probably over-asked him / drilled him for too long lol)

I know many were worried about the "dungeon" of the law school from some posts on here, that couldn't be farther from the truth imo.

Just the "vibe" of the school felt right to me on so many levels. I think UMN is definitely now my number 1 choice (still going to visit BU on 3/23 though).

Only minor thing was I wish I got to see more of the city, it seemed like a cool city from the limited exposure I had to but I wish I would have gotten in earlier on Thursday and been able to just explore it more. I was excited about the tour of the city but tbh I didn't find it that helpful (we spent about half of the tour in 1 theater building).

Still, for anyone who became concerned with some of the negative postings I'd definitely recommend they visit

I pretty much agree with everything here. The school seemed like a very genuine place, and the administration seemed very open and honest about their role in helping us move forward in our careers. I especially appreciated the open heart of the career services guy. There didn't seem to be any shade of dishonesty in him, and he seems to feel genuinely called to help students find jobs.

I loved the vibe of the school as well. The neighborhood tour was a joke though. That yellow box is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen, and that was like half the tour. The women didn't really answer any of the questions we might have and seems more concerned with how great the lakes and Target are than anything having to do with housing. She was delightfully Minnesotan, but the whole thing felt tacky.

At any rate though, MN is definitely my number one choice now.

Haha, yea.. idk I don't really blame the school for the tour though it probably seemed like a good idea to get a company to show the students the city. I think most of us were expecting to leave with some idea on the city / potential living places, while the lady was more equipped for tourist trips to the Mall of America and such.

It seems like the school even gave her some direction to do what we wanted but she just wasn't that good at it (I sat close to the front and overheard some of her talking with bus driver), things like "ummm I guess we should go show them this area because Dan wanted us to. She'd end up doing that but then give some tourist spill about interesting facts of Minnesota lol. She did try to start mentioning housing stuff after a couple of questions about it though

I want you all to know that this feedback is absolutely taken seriously and we'll be strongly reconsidering how this tour is done in the future. In the mean time, you are more than welcome to call me with any additional questions about housing, the Twin Cities, etc. You can email me through the Admitted Students website or private message me on this forum. I truly hope you enjoyed the weekend and found Minnesota Law to be as great as I find it.

Best,

--Josh (3L)

I would like to recommend that you do a crappier job on the ASW so that less people will want to attend and more of us on the waitlist will be admitted. Food for thought...

[Jaeger]

Hey, I just realized that I may have a schedule conflict with the April ASW. If I can't make it, but am able to schedule a tour on another week(end?), would I miss out tremendously?

[MidwestJosh]

Hey, I just realized that I may have a schedule conflict with the April ASW. If I can't make it, but am able to schedule a tour on another week(end?), would I miss out tremendously?

I think so, but maybe this question is better answered by those who attended March.

[billharford]

Any word on waitlist movement?

[minnbills]

For any current students:

so I sat in on a class recently and was really impressed with the professor and atmosphere- I was surprised how much the students and prof were joking around with each other and it seemed like a great environment.

I was surprised though that no one in the class was using a laptop. I'm guessing that professor doesn't allow them. How common is that at UMN?

Also, how typical is that kind of camaraderie? I usually hear lots of horror stories about law students but this group seemed awesome.

[MidwestJosh]

For any current students:

so I sat in on a class recently and was really impressed with the professor and atmosphere- I was surprised how much the students and prof were joking around with each other and it seemed like a great environment.

I was surprised though that no one in the class was using a laptop. I'm guessing that professor doesn't allow them. How common is that at UMN?

Also, how typical is that kind of camaraderie? I usually hear lots of horror stories about law students but this group seemed awesome.

You sat in on Prof. Cribari's class. He's the only prof in the law school that doesn't allow laptops.

And that camaraderie is pretty darn common here. There's a bit of passive aggressiveness at times (this IS Minnesota...) but the atmosphere is certainly anything but hostile.