Top Law Schools

How competitive are T14 students in class, out of class (studying, notes, professor relations), and socially?

I'm a 0L, but I would guess yale, Stanford are the least competitive due to their relaxed grading scales. I'd guess Cornell and Chicago are most. I've heard the students there do the most studying. But it would be interesting to hear from someone who has attended a T14.

They are all the same. Why would there be a meaningful difference between schools that all teach the same material in the same way attended by mostly the same kind of people? There's nothing to be gained by being a dick to people you have to spend three years with.

No one has been to all 14 schools. No one, I imagine, has been to more than 2. No real way to compare.

phillywc wrote:No one has been to all 14 schools. No one, I imagine, has been to more than 2. No real way to compare.

Obviously. But people may have visited. Have you ever heard of comparing based on what you've heard from others? Kind of like Consumer Reports bubba.

Competitiveness of T14s don't matter for the reason Nelson said. Go to the best t14 for your career (meaning best job prospects for you in the area you want to work balanced with concerns over cost).

After you have decided what that school is, don't then discount it and choose a different, less fitting school because of some preconceived notion you have about how competitive that most fitting school is.

"Competitive" is a huge misnomer. Seriously, how is a law student going to compete with you? Hide stuff in the library that is easily available online? Refuse to give you notes for the class you missed when you can get an entire outline from the student group you're part of? "Study harder?"

I enjoy watching the NU TLSers. They exude a very entertaining combination of laid-back trollishness, hyper-sensitivity, and fatalistic sarcasm -- often all at the same time. That said, I wouldn't assume NU itself exhibits any of these personalities on an overarching basis.

Yeah, I think when people say "competitiveness" they really mean "assholishness." It just seems like a silly thing to worry about. Whereever you go, there will be people you like and people you don't like. Just find a solid group of friends and you're good.

i heard GULC is like a vicious fight to the death as its 6000 students try to devour the couple of thousand meals thrown into their lion's den.

Pancakes12 wrote:I'm a 0L, but I would guess yale, Stanford are the least competitive due to their relaxed grading scales. I'd guess Cornell and Chicago are most. I've heard the students there do the most studying. But it would be interesting to hear from someone who has attended a T14.

Cornell 1L here. No idea how we compare to anyone else because I've only attended one school.

Maybe we do study a little more during the semester because of the 4 substantive classes + graded LRW. Maybe. But I'm not really sure if that makes us "competitive" even if we do. Whenever someone asks me if it's competitive, I just shrug and say "We work hard, but it's not cutthroat or anything. We get along really well."

This is more a personality issue.. There are some shit people at every T14, after all, these people want to become lawyers. There's no useful broad strokes label for any particular set of schools.

Can't speak for other schools, but Columbia students are notorious for ripping pages out of books in the library so they can't be accessed by anyone else. Killed me on my tax final.

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Tiago Splitter wrote:Can't speak for other schools, but Columbia students are notorious for ripping pages out of books in the library so they can't be accessed by anyone else. Killed me on my tax final.

That actually happened? I thought that was a myth.

How's Penn?

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BigZuck wrote:

Tiago Splitter wrote:Can't speak for other schools, but Columbia students are notorious for ripping pages out of books in the library so they can't be accessed by anyone else. Killed me on my tax final.

That actually happened? I thought that was a myth.

In The Paper Chase(HLS), someone hid a bunch of books pertinent for exams.

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brotherdarkness wrote:

ZVBXRPL wrote:

BigZuck wrote:

Tiago Splitter wrote:Can't speak for other schools, but Columbia students are notorious for ripping pages out of books in the library so they can't be accessed by anyone else. Killed me on my tax final.

That actually happened? I thought that was a myth.

In the Paper Chase, someone hid a bunch of pertinent books during exam time.

We're talking about real life here.

I'm sure it's happened though.

ZVBXRPL wrote:

BigZuck wrote:

Tiago Splitter wrote:Can't speak for other schools, but Columbia students are notorious for ripping pages out of books in the library so they can't be accessed by anyone else. Killed me on my tax final.

That actually happened? I thought that was a myth.

In The Paper Chase(HLS), someone hid a bunch of books pertinent for exams.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't a documentary. Maybe it was based on a true story or something though, I'm not going to look it up.

Like brotherdarkness said, I'm more interested in what's happening at real life schools in 2014.

Just so we're clear I was kidding. Tearing pages out of books not only makes you weird, it's also completely pointless cuz internet and, well, OTHER COPIES OF THE SAME BOOK.

If anything CLS is probably one of the more laid back schools because first semester we only have 3 graded classes and P/F legal writing. But even if we had six classes there just isn't really any way to sabotage other people. [sarcasm] Trust me, as a typical ultracompetitive CLS student I have tried everything. [/sarcasm]

Also, my apologies to Zuck if I was supposed to continue with the troll bit a little longer.

Based on the 1L thread it seems like based on quantity of work we actually had it easy fall quarter. I mean we read like 10 pages per class typically. Ofc, that is fall quarter, but I don't think the amount of reading increases, just the amount of exams (and therefore outlining) + more LRW shit w/ the graded open memo and brief.

ZVBXRPL wrote:

BigZuck wrote:

Tiago Splitter wrote:Can't speak for other schools, but Columbia students are notorious for ripping pages out of books in the library so they can't be accessed by anyone else. Killed me on my tax final.

That actually happened? I thought that was a myth.

In The Paper Chase(HLS), someone hid a bunch of books pertinent for exams.

I saw that during the scavenger hunt. Bell had to dress up as a doctor and a friar in order to get into the other libraries.

That's pretty gunnerish.

stillwater wrote:i heard GULC is like a vicious fight to the death as its 6000 students try to devour the couple of thousand meals thrown into their lion's den.

I had to look...total student body looks to be just under 2,000...so a "couple thousand meals" should be plenty.

Krahn86 wrote:

stillwater wrote:i heard GULC is like a vicious fight to the death as its 6000 students try to devour the couple of thousand meals thrown into their lion's den.

I had to look...total student body looks to be just under 2,000...so a "couple thousand meals" should be plenty.

Nailed him!