UC Irvine c/o 2016 Applicants (2012-2013) Forum

[lrslayer]

Anyone know of/ sit on UCI's law review? Since the class size overall is small and the school seems to be without some of the normal competitiveness of law school, how difficult is securing a spot on the journal? Additionally, is it by write-on, grades, or a combination of both?

I will contact a friend of mine that is on law review and get back to you with this information.

Also, I talked to the career development office and they indicated that they are not comfortable giving out specifics on the jobs. But she told me they are slated to be released in March. Sorry I couldn't do any more on that question.

[lrslayer]

In reply to the law review question:

Hi LRSlayer,

Yes I'm on law review! It's a write-on process, I'm not sure what percentage of people made it, but I know a bunch of people that didn't get on.

It will likely be more selective next year, since your class is much larger than ours. They are talking about revising the write-on, but it will still be a write-on, not a grade-on.

The write-on is like a take home exam that you have five days to complete once you start it. It's a lot of blue booking and editing, plus a short essay.

Hope that helps, if you have any other questions let me know!

LRSlayer's Friend

[CAteacherguy]

I posted most of this in the URM forum, but just realized that it might be more relevant to post it here:

I'm currently considering (very seriously) UCI's full tuition + fees offer (Public Service Fellowship) vs. GW (with $20K/year and no stips). I'm also waiting to see what Emory says and what kind of package U of Md offers me.

My dream job is to work for the Dept. of Ed's Office of Civil Rights on federal education issues, so I ultimately want to end up in DC. What I'm trying to figure out is which school is going to give me the most viable possibility of making that happen.

As I see it right now, the pros of GW for me are that it's ranked, it's in DC, and it places lots of grads in gov. positions. The *huge* negatives for me are the size of the school (~500 1Ls), the school culture, and that I would walk away with ~120K in debt, even with a little help from my folks, which might actually make it financially impossible for me to take a public service job.

The UCI situation for me (as I see it): rolling the dice by going to an unranked school (negative); no real data on which to base grads' success with government positions (negative), but strong clerking numbers (big positive); small size of the school and engaged school culture (huge positive for me); the UCDC program looks exciting to me and might allow me to do an internship in my dream job; NO DEBT! (thanks to parental help with basic living expenses); location in the OC is a big negative for me; and possibly getting stuck living in SoCal post graduation is the biggest negative; focus on public service is a positive, but not a deciding factor for me. Basically, I think UCI is my dream school, but is located entirely in the wrong place for me

Opinions? Thoughts? Things I haven't considered yet? Some other things to keep in mind: I'm a non-trad/2nd career student and I *know* that BigLaw isn't for me... I also know that I don't want to spend forever paying off my loans and that I do want to have kids and own a home within a few years of graduating from law school. Starting at one school and then transferring after 1L is not a viable possibility for me -- I can't ask my partner to relocate twice in two years.

-CAteacherguy

[drr117]

I'm just joining this, but this is making me think UCI is the right choice for me! I'm still waiting to hear back from 4 other schools, though.

[CO2016YEAH]

I posted most of this in the URM forum, but just realized that it might be more relevant to post it here:

I'm currently considering (very seriously) UCI's full tuition + fees offer (Public Service Fellowship) vs. GW (with $20K/year and no stips). I'm also waiting to see what Emory says and what kind of package U of Md offers me.

My dream job is to work for the Dept. of Ed's Office of Civil Rights on federal education issues, so I ultimately want to end up in DC. What I'm trying to figure out is which school is going to give me the most viable possibility of making that happen.

As I see it right now, the pros of GW for me are that it's ranked, it's in DC, and it places lots of grads in gov. positions. The *huge* negatives for me are the size of the school (~500 1Ls), the school culture, and that I would walk away with ~120K in debt, even with a little help from my folks, which might actually make it financially impossible for me to take a public service job.

The UCI situation for me (as I see it): rolling the dice by going to an unranked school (negative); no real data on which to base grads' success with government positions (negative), but strong clerking numbers (big positive); small size of the school and engaged school culture (huge positive for me); the UCDC program looks exciting to me and might allow me to do an internship in my dream job; NO DEBT! (thanks to parental help with basic living expenses); location in the OC is a big negative for me; and possibly getting stuck living in SoCal post graduation is the biggest negative; focus on public service is a positive, but not a deciding factor for me. Basically, I think UCI is my dream school, but is located entirely in the wrong place for me

Opinions? Thoughts? Things I haven't considered yet? Some other things to keep in mind: I'm a non-trad/2nd career student and I *know* that BigLaw isn't for me... I also know that I don't want to spend forever paying off my loans and that I do want to have kids and own a home within a few years of graduating from law school. Starting at one school and then transferring after 1L is not a viable possibility for me -- I can't ask my partner to relocate twice in two years.

-CAteacherguy

The high debt, large class sizes in D.C. (at many schools), and the very saturated market were a deterrent for me from the outset of this ordeal. Having said that, there is the government element there, and despite the saturation it is still one of the larger legal markets in the country. To be fair, too many grads in a saturated legal market can also be said of California.

Having said that, for me there would be no question. I believe UCI has the makings of a school not far off the ranks of GW. The ambition was stated at the outset to make UCI Law a leading institution, and there is evidence that considerable effort has been placed in implementing outstanding faculty, selecting high caliber students, and pursuing solid job placements in order to make this a reality. From what I have seen of employment stats (though this is always questionable data, for several reasons) UCI appears to be faring comparable to other high top tier institutions. And while UCI is geographically a long ways from D.C., you have mentioned the UCDC program, of which I know little about law-school wise but I know is strongly pushed and well-structured for undergrads; I would imagine the law program is good also.

UCI is highly (in my opinion, which I believe the evidence supports) unlikely to in any way be a TTT. I'd go with no debt at UCI over $150k at GW in a split-second.

As far as OC and Southern California, you and I are in fundamental disagreement there. But I recognize that this is a matter of opinion. SoCal has plenty of traffic, congestion, and its share of sketchy areas; but D.C. has the same combined with relatively crappy weather. I grew up in the north and was in the D.C. area a few winters ago; I'll take beaches and sunshine as quickly as I'll take a free ride at what is shaping up to be a top 30 school.

If you do wind up "stuck" in Orange County or SoCal, I think there are plenty of fine areas to raise a family. I'm not too plugged into public service opportunities, but while I'm sure they're not plentiful I have known a few people with interesting PI law jobs. An added plus is (from what I'm told) PI in California pays well when compared to most of the nation; however, I would imagine most urban centers (including D.C.) are comparable.

Good luck!

P.S. My prediction is you'll also get good offers from Emory and UMD; I would guess somewhere around 50% and 100%, respectively. I'd still choose UCI hands down.

[CAteacherguy]

The high debt, large class sizes in D.C. (at many schools), and the very saturated market were a deterrent for me from the outset of this ordeal. Having said that, there is the government element there, and despite the saturation it is still one of the larger legal markets in the country. To be fair, too many grads in a saturated legal market can also be said of California.

Having said that, for me there would be no question. I believe UCI has the makings of a school not far off the ranks of GW. The ambition was stated at the outset to make UCI Law a leading institution, and there is evidence that considerable effort has been placed in implementing outstanding faculty, selecting high caliber students, and pursuing solid job placements in order to make this a reality. From what I have seen of employment stats (though this is always questionable data, for several reasons) UCI appears to be faring comparable to other high top tier institutions. And while UCI is geographically a long ways from D.C., you have mentioned the UCDC program, of which I know little about law-school wise but I know is strongly pushed and well-structured for undergrads; I would imagine the law program is good also.

UCI is highly (in my opinion, which I believe the evidence supports) unlikely to in any way be a TTT. I'd go with no debt at UCI over $150k at GW in a split-second.

As far as OC and Southern California, you and I are in fundamental disagreement there. But I recognize that this is a matter of opinion. SoCal has plenty of traffic, congestion, and its share of sketchy areas; but D.C. has the same combined with relatively crappy weather. I grew up in the north and was in the D.C. area a few winters ago; I'll take beaches and sunshine as quickly as I'll take a free ride at what is shaping up to be a top 30 school.

If you do wind up "stuck" in Orange County or SoCal, I think there are plenty of fine areas to raise a family. I'm not too plugged into public service opportunities, but while I'm sure they're not plentiful I have known a few people with interesting PI law jobs. An added plus is (from what I'm told) PI in California pays well when compared to most of the nation; however, I would imagine most urban centers (including D.C.) are comparable.

Good luck!

P.S. My prediction is you'll also get good offers from Emory and UMD; I would guess somewhere around 50% and 100%, respectively. I'd still choose UCI hands down.

Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Re: being "stuck" in Orange County or SoCal... I'm sure it is a fine place to live and I wasn't trying to generally hate on the area (despite most northern Californians' general animosity towards SoCal), it just won't work for me for a whole bunch of personal reasons that have much more to do with my family context than with OC itself. And crappy weather notwithstanding, DC *is* where we want to raise our family. I'm from the DC area and my entire extended family is there as well as several of our close friends. It's also a nice added bonus that we could actually secure some legal rights for our family (i.e., get married) if we lived in Maryland, which is where we would settle if I ended up at GW or UMd.

Thanks again.

-CAtg

[bettercallsaul91]

Aww the public interest fellowship offers were already sent out?

[CAteacherguy]

Aww the public interest fellowship offers were already sent out?

Bettercallsaul91, I'm not sure whether UCI selects/notifies the public service fellows all at once, but yes, they have selected/notified at least two of us on TLS. I would assume, given UCI's ostensible focus on equal access/opportunity, that they would save some of the fellowship slots for later in the cycle, but that's just a theory of mine (based on absolutely nothing but speculation and observations about UCI's admissions culture).

Relatedly, be sure to read both pages of your acceptance packet if you haven't done so already - I almost missed the handwritten note [on the second page of the letter; the first page told me that I had not been awarded any merit funding] that said I had been selected as a public service fellow w/ full tuition + fees. In fact, to be honest, when I read that I hadn't received any merit funding, I stopped reading the letter and was already planning to withdraw since I have no intention of paying full sticker price at any law school... luckily for me, UCI followed up almost a week later with a phone call about the fellowship before I got my act together to turn down the offer of admission. That was an amazing surprise.

-CAtg

[bettercallsaul91]

Aww the public interest fellowship offers were already sent out?

Bettercallsaul91, I'm not sure whether UCI selects/notifies the public service fellows all at once, but yes, they have selected/notified at least two of us on TLS. I would assume, given UCI's ostensible focus on equal access/opportunity, that they would save some of the fellowship slots for later in the cycle, but that's just a theory of mine (based on absolutely nothing but speculation and observations about UCI's admissions culture).

Relatedly, be sure to read both pages of your acceptance packet if you haven't done so already - I almost missed the handwritten note [on the second page of the letter; the first page told me that I had not been awarded any merit funding] that said I had been selected as a public service fellow w/ full tuition + fees. In fact, to be honest, when I read that I hadn't received any merit funding, I stopped reading the letter and was already planning to withdraw since I have no intention of paying full sticker price at any law school... luckily for me, UCI followed up almost a week later with a phone call about the fellowship before I got my act together to turn down the offer of admission. That was an amazing surprise.

-CAtg

Thanks, CAtg. I appreciate your posts Sigh, it would be fantastic if some law school believed in me enough that I was public service-or-die and offered such an investment. But I understand there are plenty of applicants with softs far more outstanding than mine. Huge congratulations to you and the other(s) who have been offered fellowships! I'm counting on you to do great things for equality in education!

[lazarusl]

I posted most of this in the URM forum, but just realized that it might be more relevant to post it here:

I'm currently considering (very seriously) UCI's full tuition + fees offer (Public Service Fellowship) vs. GW (with $20K/year and no stips). I'm also waiting to see what Emory says and what kind of package U of Md offers me.

My dream job is to work for the Dept. of Ed's Office of Civil Rights on federal education issues, so I ultimately want to end up in DC. What I'm trying to figure out is which school is going to give me the most viable possibility of making that happen.

As I see it right now, the pros of GW for me are that it's ranked, it's in DC, and it places lots of grads in gov. positions. The *huge* negatives for me are the size of the school (~500 1Ls), the school culture, and that I would walk away with ~120K in debt, even with a little help from my folks, which might actually make it financially impossible for me to take a public service job.

The UCI situation for me (as I see it): rolling the dice by going to an unranked school (negative); no real data on which to base grads' success with government positions (negative), but strong clerking numbers (big positive); small size of the school and engaged school culture (huge positive for me); the UCDC program looks exciting to me and might allow me to do an internship in my dream job; NO DEBT! (thanks to parental help with basic living expenses); location in the OC is a big negative for me; and possibly getting stuck living in SoCal post graduation is the biggest negative; focus on public service is a positive, but not a deciding factor for me. Basically, I think UCI is my dream school, but is located entirely in the wrong place for me

Opinions? Thoughts? Things I haven't considered yet? Some other things to keep in mind: I'm a non-trad/2nd career student and I *know* that BigLaw isn't for me... I also know that I don't want to spend forever paying off my loans and that I do want to have kids and own a home within a few years of graduating from law school. Starting at one school and then transferring after 1L is not a viable possibility for me -- I can't ask my partner to relocate twice in two years.

-CAteacherguy

Congrats on the Fellowship!

I REALLY wanted to do UCDC, so I investigated the program carefully but decided not to participate due to personal reasons. Also, I had less incentive since I already had a job nailed down & I didn't have a concrete plan as to what I would do in DC. From your brief description, I think it would be a great fit for you.

As I understand it, the UCDC participants are highly favored and get tremendous experience because they're able to work full-time for an entire semester, as opposed to a part-time externship or a shorter summer placement. This also gives the UCDC coordinator a lot of pull among the various agencies & if you have a particular job in mind, you have a great chance of landing it. GW and/or the other DC area schools may offer similar programs; we were told and I suspect it's true that since UCDC is a joint effort of Boalt, UCLA & UCI, the program has considerable clout.

Good luck on your choice!

[sportsaholic763]

Has anyone negotiated merit aid with UCI yet this cycle or in the past?

I feel like it could go either way - they are a dreaded UC school, so money is not exactly growing on trees, but similarly UCI was so generous with its first three classes that I wonder if it is an exception.

[lazarusl]

Has anyone negotiated merit aid with UCI yet this cycle or in the past?

I feel like it could go either way - they are a dreaded UC school, so money is not exactly growing on trees, but similarly UCI was so generous with its first three classes that I wonder if it is an exception.

I don't know how much, if any, of the scholarship funding comes from the UC system -- I think my class' scholarships were all privately funded.

The School of Law has done a great job of tapping into the legal community for support, which has been evident since before our first semester and is a big part of why I felt confident about attending UCI.

[Dmini7]

I got my acceptance packet in the mail today. Unfortunately I was not offered any scholarship money. This will make it a very very tough decision to end up going to the school. I am unsure if I should send other scholarship offers now or wait until all my schools are in. What are others thoughts?

[countmein]

Do any 1Ls recommend living at Verano Place?

[zot1]

I got my acceptance packet in the mail today. Unfortunately I was not offered any scholarship money. This will make it a very very tough decision to end up going to the school. I am unsure if I should send other scholarship offers now or wait until all my schools are in. What are others thoughts?

Scholarship offers, if any, come in the mail one to two weeks after your acceptance package. Hang in there.

[Dmini7]

I got my acceptance packet in the mail today. Unfortunately I was not offered any scholarship money. This will make it a very very tough decision to end up going to the school. I am unsure if I should send other scholarship offers now or wait until all my schools are in. What are others thoughts?

Scholarship offers, if any, come in the mail one to two weeks after your acceptance package. Hang in there.

The letter stated I would not be considered for merit-based aid.

[superhopefulwoo]

I got my acceptance packet in the mail today. Unfortunately I was not offered any scholarship money. This will make it a very very tough decision to end up going to the school. I am unsure if I should send other scholarship offers now or wait until all my schools are in. What are others thoughts?

Scholarship offers, if any, come in the mail one to two weeks after your acceptance package. Hang in there.

I think that actually varies, btw, mine came with the acceptance package.

[teiswei]

The letter stated I would not be considered for merit-based aid.

Make sure you read the entire thing... Here's from earlier in the thread:

Relatedly, be sure to read both pages of your acceptance packet if you haven't done so already - I almost missed the handwritten note [on the second page of the letter; the first page told me that I had not been awarded any merit funding] that said I had been selected as a public service fellow w/ full tuition + fees.

[Dmini7]

The letter stated I would not be considered for merit-based aid.

Make sure you read the entire thing... Here's from earlier in the thread:

Relatedly, be sure to read both pages of your acceptance packet if you haven't done so already - I almost missed the handwritten note [on the second page of the letter; the first page told me that I had not been awarded any merit funding] that said I had been selected as a public service fellow w/ full tuition + fees.

Yeah I read the whole thing multiple times. My personal note just said "Dmini7, we hope you choose to attend UCI" or something along those lines, so it seemed fairly generic. I will still try to negotiate scholarship with them since it is really one of my top choices

[nolongermissing]

UCI is definitely a WildCard for me. I am well below both medians and I don't have that great of softs. I am really surprised I got in to be honest. I didn't receive any scholly obviously. My parents said they are willing to pay a substantial amount, but I would feel a lot better if I was paying in-state (I am out of state). My parents are originally from the OC so I would have some connections.

UCI is so weird. Lack of alumni is scary. But the location and the professors' high rep makes it appealing. I'm going to try and contact an attorney in Los Angeles and see what he is hearing about the school.

[zot1]

I got my acceptance packet in the mail today. Unfortunately I was not offered any scholarship money. This will make it a very very tough decision to end up going to the school. I am unsure if I should send other scholarship offers now or wait until all my schools are in. What are others thoughts?

Scholarship offers, if any, come in the mail one to two weeks after your acceptance package. Hang in there.

The letter stated I would not be considered for merit-based aid.

I see. Sorry to hear that. It was a separate process last year. I guess they changed it which is good so you know right away. If you're really set on UCI, then maybe try to schedule a visit not just to see the campus and meet professors, but also to talk to financial aid? I know this is not necessarily what you want to hear but it might help.

[teiswei]

Love me, Irvine... Please...

[Dmini7]

I got my acceptance packet in the mail today. Unfortunately I was not offered any scholarship money. This will make it a very very tough decision to end up going to the school. I am unsure if I should send other scholarship offers now or wait until all my schools are in. What are others thoughts?

Scholarship offers, if any, come in the mail one to two weeks after your acceptance package. Hang in there.

The letter stated I would not be considered for merit-based aid.

I see. Sorry to hear that. It was a separate process last year. I guess they changed it which is good so you know right away. If you're really set on UCI, then maybe try to schedule a visit not just to see the campus and meet professors, but also to talk to financial aid? I know this is not necessarily what you want to hear but it might help.

I actually emailed them right after explaining my excitement for the acceptance, mentioned how important it is for me to be able to financially afford school(also mentioned other schools in the area that offered substantial scholarship) and asked if they would reconsider me for scholarship. They said they would have a better understanding of the available money at the end of the month and would try to get back to me then.

[gitguy]

My strategy for negotiating is always to call. Emails are so easy to turn down/avoid. A well thought-out appeal over the phone is the only way to go in my book. IMHO.

[Dmini7]

My strategy for negotiating is always to call. Emails are so easy to turn down/avoid. A well thought-out appeal over the phone is the only way to go in my book. IMHO.

I figure I can call if this does not work out. I still have most of the more competitive schools in my cycle to hear back from. If I get a solid offer from one a T20, then I think I would take the initiative to either call or discuss the matter during a campus visit.