Top Law Schools

I am updated on my former classmates at the TTTT I dropped out of last year, and I especially see these 2Ls and 3Ls talk about studying hard in their classes and stressing about midterms/finals. This attitude totally contradicts the attitude on this website about post-1L being "easy street." I guess my question is why these students care so much about their work when it will have minimal impact on their grade or job potential?

PS side note - I toured Charlotte School of Law (did not attend there) and then added their students' Facebook page. It is so tragic reading their posts about jobs, debt, community service, etc. It's like a schadenfreude feeling . . .

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Thjey try harder but they're dumber. I didn't go anywhere great (Ford HAM). But people who go to TTTs are remarkably dumber.

Take bar passage rates for individual school for example. Mine had like a 92%. Places like NYLS and Albany are in the 80s yet they teach you to pass the bar from day one. Those students basically took a 3 year bar course, yet they still have a lot of people fail the bar because they're dumb.

Re OP: On the other hand, I'm at a TT and 2L's be gunnin' hard as fuck.

The idea that you have to gun really hard 1L year and then can chill out in 2L and 3L year is premised on the idea that you're going to get full-time employment at OCI before you even start your second year. Since this is only even marginally the reality at top schools, one would expect the "chill out during 2L and 3L" effect to be negligible at lower ranked schools that don't even really have OCI.

I actually agree with this hypothesis. Everyone at my T14 (except for a couple SCOTUS gunners) gave up on hard-core library-till-midnight gunning after 1L. Most people stopped caring after they got offers. However, the few people that did not secure offers still seem to care a ton about grades (I am not sure if that is wise or not). I can see how a TTT where people have to hustle during 3L to secure employment would have more motivated 2Ls and 3Ls than my school.

Danger Zone wrote:Re OP: On the other hand, I'm at a TT and 2L's be gunnin' hard as fuck.

T50 here, and there seem to be a few gunners but not more than a couple per class. I transferred down from a school in the 30s because of the markets and I gotta say, kids there were a hell of a lot smarter. I remain guarded. They will not outwork me.

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brotherdarkness wrote:

I transferred down from a school in the 30s because of the markets and I gotta say, kids there were a hell of a lot smarter.

I was surprised by just how obvious and drastic the difference in intelligence is. My original school was a T25 at the beginning of my 1L year and, though there were some very smart people, they were very much a minority. At my current T10, the vast majority are extremely bright.

Similar experience (though coming from a lot lower than T25).

Totalimmortal wrote:

Danger Zone wrote:Re OP: On the other hand, I'm at a TT and 2L's be gunnin' hard as fuck.

T50 here, and there seem to be a few gunners but not more than a couple per class. I transferred down from a school in the 30s because of the markets and I gotta say, kids there were a hell of a lot smarter. I remain guarded. They will not outwork me.

So you transferred from a regional school ranked 32 to a regional school ranked 46 and you think everyone at your first regional school was "a hell of a lot smarter." Obviously none of this is in your head.

Lord Randolph McDuff wrote:

Totalimmortal wrote:

Danger Zone wrote:Re OP: On the other hand, I'm at a TT and 2L's be gunnin' hard as fuck.

T50 here, and there seem to be a few gunners but not more than a couple per class. I transferred down from a school in the 30s because of the markets and I gotta say, kids there were a hell of a lot smarter. I remain guarded. They will not outwork me.

So you transferred from a regional school ranked 32 to a regional school ranked 46 and you think everyone at your first regional school was "a hell of a lot smarter." Obviously none of this is in your head.

Egregious pro-UC Boulder trolling. (But I totally agree).

Bronte wrote:The idea that you have to gun really hard 1L year and then can chill out in 2L and 3L year is premised on the idea that you're going to get full-time employment at OCI before you even start your second year. Since this is only even marginally the reality at top schools, one would expect the "chill out during 2L and 3L" effect to be negligible at lower ranked schools that don't even really have OCI.

I agree with this. At my T20, a lot of 2Ls have locked something down from OCI or in the same time frame and has adopted the "coasting until graduation" mindset. Grinding sounds like a lot of extra work unless you're getting after a clerkship or something.

If only a very small percent are getting jobs, it makes sense to try to be in that top percent.

Let me put it this way. I would have tried a lot harder if I had gone to a TTT.

I bet the biggest gunners are the same at top schools and at TTTs, and I bet there are a lot of people who DGAF at both, but it makes sense to think the middle would be at least a little more diligent at a TTT. Lots of people at top schools get a biglaw SA and then coast for two years.

People here are chilling more, especially those who either didn't get or opted out of journals or aren't doing moot court. In terms of actual class preparation, I don't know a single person putting in as much effort as they did during 1L, though I do know several who are as anxious about grades (typically because of clerkships)