Do most people hate law school? Forum

[Tiago Splitter]

I'm just finishing up a six week vacation. About eight weeks from now I'll get a one week vacation to give my mind a rest after putting in several grueling 25-35 hour weeks. I'd say I like law school just fine.

[tkim129]

Law school ain't that bad.

It's just like being an undergrad except you need to be more organized because of the extra workload. Class is equally useful (or useless, depending on your perspective) as before and the exams are just as susceptible to strategic preparation. Plus we get tons of free liquor and food.

[DildaMan]

Law school ain't that bad.

It's just like being an undergrad except you need to be more organized because of the extra workload. Class is equally useful (or useless, depending on your perspective) as before and the exams are just as susceptible to strategic preparation. Plus we get tons of free liquor and food.

^. It is a lot easier than engineering. This is probably because I suck at math.

[First Offense]

Law school ain't that bad.

It's just like being an undergrad except you need to be more organized because of the extra workload. Class is equally useful (or useless, depending on your perspective) as before and the exams are just as susceptible to strategic preparation. Plus we get tons of free liquor and food.

Truth. I have more free time now than I did as an undergrad because I don't have to work anymore.

[jbagelboy]

Law school ain't that bad.

It's just like being an undergrad except you need to be more organized because of the extra workload. Class is equally useful (or useless, depending on your perspective) as before and the exams are just as susceptible to strategic preparation. Plus we get tons of free liquor and food.

Truth. I have more free time now than I did as an undergrad because I don't have to work anymore.

I feel a little bad for y'alls undergrads. I think law school is fine, but college was amazing . So much fun, so much more relaxing, so much more going out, kicking it, learning cool stuff. And I was a STEM major too. Law school should not feel like undergrad

[FKASunny]

Law school ain't that bad.

It's just like being an undergrad except you need to be more organized because of the extra workload. Class is equally useful (or useless, depending on your perspective) as before and the exams are just as susceptible to strategic preparation. Plus we get tons of free liquor and food.

Truth. I have more free time now than I did as an undergrad because I don't have to work anymore.

I feel a little bad for y'alls undergrads. I think law school is fine, but college was amazing . So much fun, so much more relaxing, so much more going out, kicking it, learning cool stuff. And I was a STEM major too. Law school should not feel like undergrad

Truth. I have more free time now than I did as an undergrad because I don't have to work anymore.

A lot of us had to work full-time in undergrad, which severely cut down on the kicking it, going out part of life. School then was just another bill I had to pay AND took up what little free time I actually had. School now takes up less time than a full time job and is way less physically and mentally draining than working.

[jbagelboy]

Law school ain't that bad.

It's just like being an undergrad except you need to be more organized because of the extra workload. Class is equally useful (or useless, depending on your perspective) as before and the exams are just as susceptible to strategic preparation. Plus we get tons of free liquor and food.

Truth. I have more free time now than I did as an undergrad because I don't have to work anymore.

I feel a little bad for y'alls undergrads. I think law school is fine, but college was amazing . So much fun, so much more relaxing, so much more going out, kicking it, learning cool stuff. And I was a STEM major too. Law school should not feel like undergrad

Truth. I have more free time now than I did as an undergrad because I don't have to work anymore.

A lot of us had to work full-time in undergrad, which severely cut down on the kicking it, going out part of life. School then was just another bill I had to pay AND took up what little free time I actually had. School now takes up less time than a full time job and is way less physically and mentally draining than working.

I worked 15-20 hrs/wk throughout UG, but not full time. That would be a different experience.

[fltanglab]

Last semester as a first semester 2L was hellish for me. I worked 15 hours/wk, took a full course load, and struggled big time with my journal and other commitments because I had no idea what I was doing. Plus OCI stress...it was just really, really bad. Now things are way more manageable and I don't feel like I'm dying quite as much. Except sometimes journal makes me stay up past midnight, which never happened as a 1L.

[Volake]

I really like law school. I'm a bit surprised this is the minority perspective.

[jbagelboy]

Except sometimes journal makes me stay up past midnight, which never happened as a 1L.

Lol wut. Im never able to sleep before midnight because of work. This doesnt make any sense.

[Tiago Splitter]

Except sometimes journal makes me stay up past midnight, which never happened as a 1L.

Lol wut. Im never able to sleep before midnight because of work. This doesnt make any sense.

Different strokes. A late night for me means studying until about 8.

[jbagelboy]

Except sometimes journal makes me stay up past midnight, which never happened as a 1L.

Lol wut. Im never able to sleep before midnight because of work. This doesnt make any sense.

Different strokes. A late night for me means studying until about 8.

Lol I get home at 8! and later sometimes if gym day. Teach me your ways.

[Tiago Splitter]

There's of course no one right way. I just spent a few hours on each of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday doing most of the reading for the following week.

[NotMyRealName09]

Can't remember if I posted previously on this topic - but I fucking loved law school. LOVED IT. I would do law school forever. I'm sure it helped that I tended to ace things, but damn does acing things make a person feel good. In legal practice, short of winning the case, a lot of the work you do is just "great, that's done sufficiently for the task and how much the client is willing to pay, now do some more, and try and get around these horrible facts we have to deal with because our client's defense is terrible."

[TheNextAmendment]

Love every second of it.

[brotherdarkness]

.

[Leprechaun]

I enjoy law school. It's a nice diversion from "real life" for me. But, I am only a 2nd semester 1L, part time (11 hours) night student, so I haven't tired of the process yet. I thoroughly enjoy learning something new every week. I've got a fairly stressful day job that I've been at for over 20 years, and a wife and two kids, so sometimes the added workload "beats me down", but when those thoughts start to go through my mind, I make myself realize that no one is forcing me to do this, that I asked for it, so I better make the best out of it. I believe law school is like pretty much everything else in life, in that you can make whatever you personally want to make out of it. If you want to hate it, you'll hate it. If you want to love it, find the parts that you relish and enjoy those and know that the rest is a necessary evil in order to get those good experiences. About the only thing I can truly say I hated about 1st semester was the waiting game for grades, and I haven't figured out a way to change that yet.

If I truly hated the experience, I'd find something else to do instead.

[beepboopbeep]

I really like law school. I'm a bit surprised this is the minority perspective.

Yea, same. Might depend on school. A lot of people here seem to really enjoy it.

JBagel, aren't you doing moot or something that stretches your time? For us plebeians it's not too bad. Can generally get the week's reading done on Saturday morning/afternoon and play a lot of video games throughout the week, when shitty graded memo isn't looming overhead. Think I've put like 50 hours into Binding of Isaac in the last three weeks.

Only part I'm not super into right now is the increasing social friction due to grade competition, jobs, etc. Some seem just indiscriminately angry (justifiable) and others seem to have taken good first quarter grades to mean a license to talk every class. Imagine it'll only get worse come OCI and once journals get announced.

[jbagelboy]

I really like law school. I'm a bit surprised this is the minority perspective.

Yea, same. Might depend on school. A lot of people here seem to really enjoy it.

JBagel, aren't you doing moot or something that stretches your time? For us plebeians it's not too bad. Can generally get the week's reading done on Saturday morning/afternoon and play a lot of video games throughout the week, when shitty graded memo isn't looming overhead. Think I've put like 50 hours into Binding of Isaac in the last three weeks.

Only part I'm not super into right now is the increasing social friction due to grade competition, jobs, etc. Some seem just indiscriminately angry (justifiable) and others seem to have taken good first quarter grades to mean a license to talk every class. Imagine it'll only get worse come OCI and once journals get announced.

To clarify, I don't hate law school by any stretch. I was just surprised by someone saying they never stayed up working past midnight as a 1L. That's either incredible time management, or a substantial lack of responsibility.

Working late nights doesn't make me depressed or hate an experience. After all, we're going into fucking law lol, plenty of late nights ahead in the office. First, as I discovered in college, I do my best work at night. I am not a morning person at all - I go to my 9AM classes but it's mostly a blur, I can't do substantive work until 11AM. Even when I had a roughly 8:30-6PM consulting job, when I could took my assignments home earlier in the afternoon so I could play tennis while it was still light and worked them remotely after dinner, except when I had 6 or 7AM conf call.

Second, moot court does take up 1-2 hours each day. It will all be over after competition next weekend, and jetlag aside, life will get easier. Still, even with just class readings for 4 1/2 classes, I don't really see how 8PM is done. I guess I usually go out and do things in the city on wkends so I'm not spending that time as productively as possible.

Third, not sure if this is going on at UChi, but Columbia throws firm events at us every lunch and dinner Monday - Thursday these weeks. Of course I don't attend most, but we are encouraged to go to some and they can be useful. Also saves a lot of $ on groceries.

And lastly of course, interviews and submitting job applications consumed a lot of time in january and early february. So everything felt even more unmanageable. Just going into midtown for an interview takes up 3+ hours when its a shitstorm every few days and all the subways shut down.

I honestly can't imagine playing video games, or reading for pleasure (okay not entirely true, I read Franzen's new kraus book last month, but its not frequent), during school. Those aren't in my repertoire. To relax I go to the gym or occasionally catch up on TV (for example this weekend, House of Cards, YES), and these could be substituted out.

I'm not surprised UChi kids are enjoying law school. It seems like a pretty self-selective group of students that actually like being in school in general, and always have. Caught the drift of that at ASW too. Not a bad thing at all. Just not everyone's cup of tea.

[lawhopeful10]

Law school isn't terrible itself but worrying about grades/debt/job depending on your situation can suck. Also to chime in on the above topic I never studied past midnight during my 1L fall ever and finished near the top of the class. If you do a little at a time throughout the semester I can't imagine why you would need to study that late unless you just a late night person and staying up is your thing. I would go out of town to visit my girlfriend most weekends and not get work done so I think if you actually focused on school from 9-5 you would need very little time outside that.

[Crowing]

I really like law school. I'm a bit surprised this is the minority perspective.

Yea, same. Might depend on school. A lot of people here seem to really enjoy it.

JBagel, aren't you doing moot or something that stretches your time? For us plebeians it's not too bad. Can generally get the week's reading done on Saturday morning/afternoon and play a lot of video games throughout the week, when shitty graded memo isn't looming overhead. Think I've put like 50 hours into Binding of Isaac in the last three weeks.

Only part I'm not super into right now is the increasing social friction due to grade competition, jobs, etc. Some seem just indiscriminately angry (justifiable) and others seem to have taken good first quarter grades to mean a license to talk every class. Imagine it'll only get worse come OCI and once journals get announced.

I'm enjoying myself quite a bit at the moment too. But my response might be a little more jaded come spring.

Our daily workload is quite reasonable. It's the added long-term projects like memo/outlining that compound that. Otherwise at least during fall quarter it was very doable to go home in the evenings and just not give a fuck about law stuff.

[Pulsar]

1L law school is way better than 2L law school, at least if you're confident you are doing well. Everybody's taking the same stuff, there is comraderie (unless your classmates are total douches), and hopefully what you are learning seems novel and interesting. But by 2L what you are learning seems a little less interesting and definitely not novel, your classmates are spreading out into different interests (and, depending upon how big a town your school is in, possibly different neighborhoods), and, if you did well in 1L, congrats, you get to do a bunch of bullshit work and take orders from gunnery and likely over-enthusiastic 3Ls all year on Law Review in the hopes that you might graduate onto e-board and one day become one yourself.

tldr: 1Ls, it most definitely gets worse. GL.

--can't wait for summer and getting out of here.

[jbagelboy]

1L law school is way better than 2L law school, at least if you're confident you are doing well. Everybody's taking the same stuff, there is comraderie (unless your classmates are total douches), and hopefully what you are learning seems novel and interesting. But by 2L what you are learning seems a little less interesting and definitely not novel, your classmates are spreading out into different interests (and, depending upon how big a town your school is in, possibly different neighborhoods), and, if you did well in 1L, congrats, you get to do a bunch of bullshit work and take orders from gunnery and likely over-enthusiastic 3Ls all year on Law Review in the hopes that you might graduate onto e-board and one day become one yourself.

tldr: 1Ls, it most definitely gets worse. GL.

--can't wait for summer and getting out of here.

This is basically the opposite of what Ive heard. 2L and 3L seem way happier/more relaxed than 1L

ETA: unless you want to clerk

[brotherdarkness]

.

[Nelson]

1L law school is way better than 2L law school, at least if you're confident you are doing well. Everybody's taking the same stuff, there is comraderie (unless your classmates are total douches), and hopefully what you are learning seems novel and interesting. But by 2L what you are learning seems a little less interesting and definitely not novel, your classmates are spreading out into different interests (and, depending upon how big a town your school is in, possibly different neighborhoods), and, if you did well in 1L, congrats, you get to do a bunch of bullshit work and take orders from gunnery and likely over-enthusiastic 3Ls all year on Law Review in the hopes that you might graduate onto e-board and one day become one yourself.

tldr: 1Ls, it most definitely gets worse. GL.

--can't wait for summer and getting out of here.

This is basically the opposite of what Ive heard. 2L and 3L seem way happier/more relaxed than 1L

ETA: unless you want to clerk

It all depends on how much you loaded yourself up for. 2Ls have a lot more control, but you can make yourself way more miserable than a 1L with journal + moot court + extracurriculars + hard classes.