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YAY for SCU!

kendraston wrote:YAY for SCU!

Have you already submitted your deposits?

florentine wrote: Have you already submitted your deposits?

The first, but not the second. I am waiting to see what I get offered in scholarships. You?

kendraston wrote:

florentine wrote: Have you already submitted your deposits?

The first, but not the second. I am waiting to see what I get offered in scholarships. You?

Ya, I plan on doing both in the coming week!

Anyone for sure going here in the fall? I am leaning pretty heavy towards it right now but am still going to wait on my other apps / make a visit before I for sure decide. Pretty excited either way though.

ProZach wrote:Anyone for sure going here in the fall? I am leaning pretty heavy towards it right now but am still going to wait on my other apps / make a visit before I for sure decide. Pretty excited either way though.

I'm a 100%. I am in the running for a full tuition scholarship, though. Pretty hard to beat.

In at SCU, PT only (not my first choice). I don't have great numbers, but doing EA and with my engineering background, I was a little surprised to only get the PT. I talked to the admissions office and they said I could call in April when people started declining FT positions and see if I could be transferred into the FT. I don't remember who specifically I spoke with, but the feeling I got from her is that I should feel proud to be in the PT program and that all of the same opportunities are available to me. I am coming straight out of undergrad and have no current career or job that I need to keep working at. I would just assume only go 3 years and get going with my law career. Does anyone know anything more about this FT program or SCU in general? I am from the midwest, and I have heard wonderful things about the weather, lifestyle, and career prospects in IP law. However, tuition and COL is extremely high considering some of my other options... especially if I go 4 years in the PT program. Plus, I get the feeling like I am just another number in their statistical game (Other law schools seem to make this fact a little less obvious to the applicant in my experience).

I have been extremely excited about possibly attending SCU and being admitted is awesome! But considering the things I've mentioned above, not sure if it's a smart move.

TheGetUpKid wrote: I have been extremely excited about possibly attending SCU and being admitted is awesome! But considering the things I've mentioned above, not sure if it's a smart move.

It sounds like you caught the Admins on a bad day, which is rare. I wouldn't take their response too personally; my experience has been that they tend to treat applicants better than other schools. I am in for the PT program (which is the only option for my situation), but I understand you wanting to move into the FT program. My understanding is that you can transfer into the FT program either before school begins or during the next couple of years as space opens up (which I plan to do). In the meantime, congratulations---you are in at one of the best schools in the country with some of the best prospects in the world. I hope this helps, and maybe I will see you in class in the fall!

Anyone get any sweet apparel to show off yet?

Moving into the fulltime program from part time is as easy as filling out a form at the end of first year (just don't be failing). You pick up 2 classes in the summer and you are already caught up in credits.

Read an article in the Recorder the other week about the growth of the south bay legal market compared to SF. Had some good things to say and made me think a tiny bit harder about SCU. I was accepted with an Emery scholly and am native to Santa Cruz but I'm still terrified about the CA economy. The tuition is brutal as well. Decisions decisions.

McNulty wrote:Read an article in the Recorder the other week about the growth of the south bay legal market compared to SF. Had some good things to say and made me think a tiny bit harder about SCU. I was accepted with an Emery scholly and am native to Santa Cruz but I'm still terrified about the CA economy. The tuition is brutal as well. Decisions decisions.

Another benefit that really influenced me is the strong alumni network. I have met so many well connected people who went to school here, and not to mention almost all the local judges are alums. Just food for thought.

kendraston wrote:

McNulty wrote:Read an article in the Recorder the other week about the growth of the south bay legal market compared to SF. Had some good things to say and made me think a tiny bit harder about SCU. I was accepted with an Emery scholly and am native to Santa Cruz but I'm still terrified about the CA economy. The tuition is brutal as well. Decisions decisions.

Another benefit that really influenced me is the strong alumni network. I have met so many well connected people who went to school here, and not to mention almost all the local judges are alums. Just food for thought.

Whatup UCSC?

kendraston wrote:

McNulty wrote:Read an article in the Recorder the other week about the growth of the south bay legal market compared to SF. Had some good things to say and made me think a tiny bit harder about SCU. I was accepted with an Emery scholly and am native to Santa Cruz but I'm still terrified about the CA economy. The tuition is brutal as well. Decisions decisions.

Another benefit that really influenced me is the strong alumni network. I have met so many well connected people who went to school here, and not to mention almost all the local judges are alums. Just food for thought.

+1

Just wondering, are all of you from California? I'm from the midwest, but have visited family friends in Salinas quite a bit. I can look on a map and see where eveything is relative to each other, but I know that geography will mess with drive times a bit. Can anyone give me an idea about drive times from Santa Clara to Salinas? Santa Clara to nearest major airport (San Fran? San Jose?) Also, how long does it take to get to "SoCal"? LA? San Diego? I know mapquest could give me some answers, but in my experience, mapquest is not really that accurate.

TheGetUpKid wrote:Just wondering, are all of you from California? I'm from the midwest, but have visited family friends in Salinas quite a bit. I can look on a map and see where eveything is relative to each other, but I know that geography will mess with drive times a bit. Can anyone give me an idea about drive times from Santa Clara to Salinas? Santa Clara to nearest major airport (San Fran? San Jose?) Also, how long does it take to get to "SoCal"? LA? San Diego? I know mapquest could give me some answers, but in my experience, mapquest is not really that accurate.

Closest airport is San Jose Mineta. Salinas is roughly 45 min from SJ (maybe less - I rarely take 101 from SJ to that area). SJ to LA via car is about 6 hours, but traffic plays a part. SJ to SF is about 40 mins.

McNulty wrote:

kendraston wrote:

McNulty wrote:Read an article in the Recorder the other week about the growth of the south bay legal market compared to SF. Had some good things to say and made me think a tiny bit harder about SCU. I was accepted with an Emery scholly and am native to Santa Cruz but I'm still terrified about the CA economy. The tuition is brutal as well. Decisions decisions.

Another benefit that really influenced me is the strong alumni network. I have met so many well connected people who went to school here, and not to mention almost all the local judges are alums. Just food for thought.

Whatup UCSC?

Holla! What's ur major?

kendraston wrote:

McNulty wrote:

kendraston wrote:

McNulty wrote:Read an article in the Recorder the other week about the growth of the south bay legal market compared to SF. Had some good things to say and made me think a tiny bit harder about SCU. I was accepted with an Emery scholly and am native to Santa Cruz but I'm still terrified about the CA economy. The tuition is brutal as well. Decisions decisions.

Another benefit that really influenced me is the strong alumni network. I have met so many well connected people who went to school here, and not to mention almost all the local judges are alums. Just food for thought.

Whatup UCSC?

Holla! What's ur major?

BME. I graduated in 08.

ugh this was my first choice but with only 7k in scholly not sure if its worth it, waiting to here back from hastings & pepperdine. McGeorge already offered me 20k, hmm would rather go to SCU but am a little bit worried(terrified) about debt.

hey all, i'm a current 1L, if you have any questions/inquires about the school feel free to post or shoot me a PM

PS - I encourage everyone to at least try to negotiate their scholarship with the school, but they are a pretty stingy school when it comes to $$$$

scu_2013 wrote:hey all, i'm a current 1L, if you have any questions/inquires about the school feel free to post or shoot me a PM

PS - I encourage everyone to at least try to negotiate their scholarship with the school, but they are a pretty stingy school when it comes to $$$$

Thank you for coming on here to help!

So What area are you studying and how is the competitiveness there? Also, do you have a scholarship and, if so, did you make an appeal to get more money??

Thanks again!

florentine wrote:

scu_2013 wrote:hey all, i'm a current 1L, if you have any questions/inquires about the school feel free to post or shoot me a PM

PS - I encourage everyone to at least try to negotiate their scholarship with the school, but they are a pretty stingy school when it comes to $$$$

Thank you for coming on here to help!

So What area are you studying and how is the competitiveness there? Also, do you have a scholarship and, if so, did you make an appeal to get more money??

Thanks again!

no problem, it's more entertaining than reading Con Law

Right now I am pretty set on Criminal Prosecution, but I could also see myself doing Estate Planning or Tax Litigation, we'll see how things shake out over the next year or so.

I did get a scholarship, and SCU would not budge an inch on it. I got multiple other schools to increase their scholarships, I got McGeorge to practically double there's, but SCU was steadfast on their offer. Unless you are a URM (they are in love with matriculating URMs for some reason), or someone who they can possibly steal from Stanford/Cal, you probably aren't going to get an increase. Their lucky that when I visited their campus I practically fell in love with the place, and that I love the bay area haha.

I can't prove it, but I think they really are big on trying to get social justice/public interest people to come to the school also, so maybe if/when you do appeal, try to play that angle? I dunno for sure though.

The competitiveness in the fall was non-existent, people were extremely friendly/wanting to hang out/play sports/get drunk, and everyone was down to get together to go over problems and what not. Now that grades have come out though, there's a weird tension in the air, and people seem to be reverting to their "groups" a little more. I'm hoping this goes away in the coming weeks as people get over/accept their grades and start to desire being human again and wanting to enjoy life, we'll see I guess

scu_2013 wrote:

florentine wrote:

scu_2013 wrote:hey all, i'm a current 1L, if you have any questions/inquires about the school feel free to post or shoot me a PM

PS - I encourage everyone to at least try to negotiate their scholarship with the school, but they are a pretty stingy school when it comes to $$$$

Thank you for coming on here to help!

So What area are you studying and how is the competitiveness there? Also, do you have a scholarship and, if so, did you make an appeal to get more money??

Thanks again!

no problem, it's more entertaining than reading Con Law

Right now I am pretty set on Criminal Prosecution, but I could also see myself doing Estate Planning or Tax Litigation, we'll see how things shake out over the next year or so.

I did get a scholarship, and SCU would not budge an inch on it. I got multiple other schools to increase their scholarships, I got McGeorge to practically double there's, but SCU was steadfast on their offer. Unless you are a URM (they are in love with matriculating URMs for some reason), or someone who they can possibly steal from Stanford/Cal, you probably aren't going to get an increase. Their lucky that when I visited their campus I practically fell in love with the place, and that I love the bay area haha.

I can't prove it, but I think they really are big on trying to get social justice/public interest people to come to the school also, so maybe if/when you do appeal, try to play that angle? I dunno for sure though.

The competitiveness in the fall was non-existent, people were extremely friendly/wanting to hang out/play sports/get drunk, and everyone was down to get together to go over problems and what not. Now that grades have come out though, there's a weird tension in the air, and people seem to be reverting to their "groups" a little more. I'm hoping this goes away in the coming weeks as people get over/accept their grades and start to desire being human again and wanting to enjoy life, we'll see I guess

Dang I was really hoping to hear that they are a little more generous on an appeal but I guess not... What have you thought about your professors and classes so far? Also what drove you to this school above your other options? Thanks again!

Professors are a mixed bag, I've had a couple who I think are amazing, and a couple who I think should retire from academia, but I'm guessing this is common across all law schools. At least they all seem very open to meeting with students outside of class to going over practice exams/the material, although I've heard one of my new profs this semester is not like that so we'll see how that plays out.

Classes aren't as socratic as most students fear. In my contracts and crim law classes last semester there was random cold calling, in contracts the prof was really nice and wouldn't get on your case if you didn't know all the facts, and usually when you were called in you just needed to give a quick overview of the case, before she opened it to the whole class to talk about (where gunners would fill the rest of the time). In Crim Law if you didn't know what was going on, prof would get on your ass, and if you didn't know/disrespected him, he'd be a total dick to you. Frankly I liked this teaching style, it kept me on top of my readings, really made me pay attention, not to mention he was my best professor last year (in teaching style), and the guy was a genius.

In Torts the professor knew the law front and back, and instead of cold-calling she would just snake up and down the rows throughout the semester, so you had an idea of when you would come up. She was very motherly and wasn't hard on us at all. At the same time, I also felt like I could've learned a lot more if she would've been more of a hard ass, it was almost a little too easy-going.

Civ Pro the guy has been teaching for 40 years or something and he seems to have given up, he didn't cold call a single time in the fall, read straight out of the book for lectures, etc... he has started to cold call this spring semester though, so i'm hoping the class isn't the hour long boredom fest that it was in the fall.

As far as why I chose SCU, I really wanted to come to the bay area, and I didn't get into Davis/Hastings, and my numbers weren't near good enough for Cal or Stanford, so it came down to SCU/USF/McGeorge. McGeorge offered me the most money, and to be honest I really liked their campus, faculty, and the other students I met when I visited; however Sacramento is not my kind of city at all, I really wanted to like it but I just couldn't do it, so it came down to USF and SCU.

USF has a nicer "school" (building wise) in my opinion, plus it's in an amazing location, however I knew if I went to that school i would be way too distracted by exploring san francisco all the time to get any work done. When I visited SCU I just absolutely loved the campus. The school building itself and the law library are kind of out-dated, but the campus as a whole is great. It's lively (tons of students, undergrad and grad, live in on-campus housing), it's gorgeous, and I really like the undergrad feel of it. Add on to the fact that SCU offered me a scholarship, and there you go.

Sounds pretty good. For some reason lately I have been extremely scared of debt and I really want to get some more money. Did you get offered a scholarship and if so did you negotiate for more?