Fussing With Law Review At The School You're At? Forum

[traydeuce]

I was looking at transferapps (the Yahoo group) and I see a ton of people who cite law review as a soft. And I'm like, why would you bother when you know you're going/getting in elsewhere, as I certainly do. But then I thought, maybe they do it/it's worth it to show the schools you made law review at your home institution, even though you KNOW you're not going there? I don't get that though, because, like, write-on here is May 3-17, they tell you in June or something, so what am I supposed to do, write on purely so in June I can call these schools and be like, Hi Harvard, I made dubyanel law review, aren't I special? I mean really? I just don't want schools to infer that I didn't make the cut if I don't have it on my record. Like the formula here is 2/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, of course if I have a 4.0 these schools have to know I could make the law review. It's not like it's hard or something.

[Mr. Matlock]

I was looking at transferapps (the Yahoo group) and I see a ton of people who cite law review as a soft. And I'm like, why would you bother when you know you're going/getting in elsewhere, as I certainly do. But then I thought, maybe they do it/it's worth it to show the schools you made law review at your home institution, even though you KNOW you're not going there? I don't get that though, because, like, write-on here is May 3-17, they tell you in June or something, so what am I supposed to do, write on purely so in June I can call these schools and be like, Hi Harvard, I made dubyanel law review, aren't I special? I mean really? I just don't want schools to infer that I didn't make the cut if I don't have it on my record. Like the formula here is 2/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, of course if I have a 4.0 these schools have to know I could make the law review. It's not like it's hard or something.

Well, like it would kinda' be cool if you got it, but, I mean really, it's like kinda up to you. Kinda'. I mean, really, I kinda' think I'd go for it. But really, I don't know.

[A'nold]

I was looking at transferapps (the Yahoo group) and I see a ton of people who cite law review as a soft. And I'm like, why would you bother when you know you're going/getting in elsewhere, as I certainly do. But then I thought, maybe they do it/it's worth it to show the schools you made law review at your home institution, even though you KNOW you're not going there? I don't get that though, because, like, write-on here is May 3-17, they tell you in June or something, so what am I supposed to do, write on purely so in June I can call these schools and be like, Hi Harvard, I made dubyanel law review, aren't I special? I mean really? I just don't want schools to infer that I didn't make the cut if I don't have it on my record. Like the formula here is 2/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, of course if I have a 4.0 these schools have to know I could make the law review. It's not like it's hard or something.

I am very intrigued by the bolded.

[GeePee]

I was looking at transferapps (the Yahoo group) and I see a ton of people who cite law review as a soft. And I'm like, why would you bother when you know you're going/getting in elsewhere, as I certainly do. But then I thought, maybe they do it/it's worth it to show the schools you made law review at your home institution, even though you KNOW you're not going there? I don't get that though, because, like, write-on here is May 3-17, they tell you in June or something, so what am I supposed to do, write on purely so in June I can call these schools and be like, Hi Harvard, I made dubyanel law review, aren't I special? I mean really? I just don't want schools to infer that I didn't make the cut if I don't have it on my record. Like the formula here is 2/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, of course if I have a 4.0 these schools have to know I could make the law review. It's not like it's hard or something.

I am very intrigued by the bolded.

Seems like he's saying W&L with a southern twang.

EDIT: Also, in addition to being a soft, what if you're unhappy with your transfer options? LR at a decent school can still land you a pretty good job.

[traydeuce]

^^ Yeah I mean... I aced everything last semester so even with all A minuses this semester, probably unlikely, I'd still be in the top 5%. That ought to be good for large amounts of the top 10.

[kings84_wr]

At my school top 10% Grades on, I would guess that most hte people that put that in their app, graded on.

Im not gonna bother with the W/O competition

[Wooster33]

I don't think it matters enough to justify the effort. For one, some schools don't even have the results back in time and admissions offices understand this. Two, it is sort of a given at most schools with a strong grade-on policy.

HOWEVER, competing will provide you with extra experience for when you attempt to write-on to your destination school, and it sure can't hurt in your application to show you did in fact make it on law review.

[A'nold]

Top blank % grades on here, so if I land in that territory do you think it's cool to put it?

[Journeybound]

Cant those who are accepted to GULC EA write on with the 1L class? Or are they required to write on during the transfer competition?

[Wooster33]

Top blank % grades on here, so if I land in that territory do you think it's cool to put it?

If it's guaranteed, sure. But it seems sort of douchey. However, law school and law students are just douchey in general, so go for it.

[UCLAtransfer]

If you are eminently sure that your second semester grades will turn out as you hope they will, then there is likely very little reason to participate in the LR write-on.

The only slight benefit if you make it onto LR and end up transferring is being able to have a line on your resume under your old school saying "successfully wrote on to LR," or "invited to join LR," etc. Obviously it won't mean much to employers after transferring since you didn't actually do any of the LR work, but I suppose it also can't hurt. (Kind of a soft for employers possibly?)

I wasn't so sure my second semester grades would turn out as well as first semester. (I was afraid first semester was a fluke.) Since you obviously don't get grades until well after the LR write-on is over, I did the write-on to make sure that just in case second semester didn't turn out as expected, that I wasn't left with no good transfer prospects and no chance at LR.

I'm very risk-averse, so for me participating in the LR write-on was a small burden compared to what I saw as the possible downside of not doing it.

Depending on the situation though, I think it can absolutely make sense to not bother to spending the time doing it.

[RonSantoRules]

If you are eminently sure that your second semester grades will turn out as you hope they will, then there is likely very little reason to participate in the LR write-on.

The only slight benefit if you make it onto LR and end up transferring is being able to have a line on your resume under your old school saying "successfully wrote on to LR," or "invited to join LR," etc. Obviously it won't mean much to employers after transferring since you didn't actually do any of the LR work, but I suppose it also can't hurt. (Kind of a soft for employers possibly?)

I wasn't so sure my second semester grades would turn out as well as first semester. (I was afraid first semester was a fluke.) Since you obviously don't get grades until well after the LR write-on is over, I did the write-on to make sure that just in case second semester didn't turn out as expected, that I wasn't left with no good transfer prospects and no chance at LR.

I'm very risk-averse, so for me participating in the LR write-on was a small burden compared to what I saw as the possible downside of not doing it.

Depending on the situation though, I think it can absolutely make sense to not bother to spending the time doing it.

This is exactly what I did. It is nice to put LR grade on/write on on the resume during OCI at your new school, as people seem to understand that it is a good proxy for intelligence. Most firms that interviewed at new school didn't have any clue what XX GPA from old school meant, so I felt that saying "Law Review" seemed to jive with them better than a GPA from a random school they never took people from before. This is merely speculative, but it nice to put it on there.

That said, it was a tremendous time suck and was all for naught, as I would have graded on to LR had I not done it. However, I was not sure about spring grades, and the fear of dropping below the grade on cutoff AND not being able to transfer was enough to scare me into doing it.

[Wooster33]

Most firms that interviewed at new school didn't have any clue what XX GPA from old school meant, so I felt that saying "Law Review" seemed to jive with them better than a GPA from a random school they never took people from before.

Um, didn't your school rank?

[traydeuce]

I mean, we've got a B+ curve. I feel pretty confident that any exam I write will at least be above-average enough to be an A-. As for the write-on providing experience, the write-on here is pathetically truncated - all they want is a 5 pager with up to 10 pages of footnotes. And they give you two weeks to do it! Don't think it would be very valuable preparation. Besides I'm trying for Harvard's write-on (or Columbia's, haven't decided yet, they're concurrent) on the 14th of May. So, supposing that I don't get into Harvard, their write-on should be ample practice for the write-on at the school where I do get in later this summer.

[cafpep]

I transferred from an T2 school to CCN. School did not consider grades, only the written submission. Half-assed writing competition and didn't get on LR at old school. Still transferred, and did very well in OCI--10 V100 offers.

Not sure what the lesson is from all that, but I sure wish I hadn't wasted the time.

[samiseaborn]

I transferred from an T2 school to CCN. School did not consider grades, only the written submission. Half-assed writing competition and didn't get on LR at old school. Still transferred, and did very well in OCI--10 V100 offers.

Not sure what the lesson is from all that, but I sure wish I hadn't wasted the time.

Maybe I'm being dense, but what are you saying here? CCN never read your application/grades, but let you in because you wrote-on to law review?

[GeePee]

I transferred from an T2 school to CCN. School did not consider grades, only the written submission. Half-assed writing competition and didn't get on LR at old school. Still transferred, and did very well in OCI--10 V100 offers.

Not sure what the lesson is from all that, but I sure wish I hadn't wasted the time.

Maybe I'm being dense, but what are you saying here? CCN never read your application/grades, but let you in because you wrote-on to law review?

He's saying that the LR committee considered his submission only on the basis of his competition score and not his grades. He's not saying that the admissions committee did so-- he still needed to be admitted.

[samiseaborn]

Okay, that makes more sense. Thanks for clearing that up.