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My school allows for 1Ls to take an upper level elective in the Spring semester of their 1L year.
The options are limited. Most students just end up picking Business Associations, it is a tougher course than the other electives.
Other electives include intellectual property, international law, legal history, family law, or evidence (a tough class that is required by graduation)

Among those, Family Law would probably be easiest to get a high grade in. However, Business Associations would allow me to complete a prerequisite to many other courses in the transactional track. Evidence would allow me to complete a course that is required to be completed by graduation.

Would you recommend the class that would give me the best chance at a high grade, or a class that will allow me to get a pre requisite or a requirement out of the way (less easy to get a high grade)?

I was pushing towards family law because then I would have a better chance at a high grade and still have 2 years left to do my other courses.

Take the class you think you can get the best grade in. That is all that matters for getting a job....which is all you should care about.

i agree that getting the highest grade is what matters, but what exactly makes you think family law is easier to get a high grade in? If you are looking at historic grading patterns, then that's fine. If you are simply assuming that Family Law is easier than Business Associations because it's "softer," then you might be making a mistake.

take whatever class has the best chance of an A


but fwiw, I took a business associations class and a family law type class and got an A+ and b+ respectively, so unless you know for sure that the teacher has an easy grading curve no class is a sure thing.


edit: there's only been one class I heard was easy and actually ended up being an incredibly generous curve (half the class got As), other than that most classes were a toss up

Do any of these classes let you do a paper instead of a beastly 4-hour final?

Just take the class which offers the most generous curve. No better feeling than a nice GPA bump from a course you didn't have to put that much work into.

I so prefer the beastly final.

I agree with others though that you should be careful about picking one you assume will be easier.

Alternately, does your school require that you take an elective? I'm all for getting hours out of the way where you can (like credit for summer internships rather than a piddly school stipend), but I advocate doing that after you've locked down the 1L grades for OCI.

BVest wrote:I so prefer the beastly final.

I agree with others though that you should be careful about picking one you assume will be easier.

Alternately, does your school require that you take an elective? I'm all for getting hours out of the way where you can (like credit for summer internships rather than a piddly school stipend), but I advocate doing that after you've locked down the 1L grades for OCI.

Except that you then have to pay for those externship credits, which I think is a fucking travesty.

Yeah, but it also depends on how your school's tuition is structured: If you pay by the hour or if a lighter-than-normal load is prorated, you make it up in your final semester. Also, I know of at least one school where they have an externship you do in the summer (and all its reporting/journaling requirements) but you can register for it the following fall.

Personally I think you should elect to not take any electives as a 1L

banjo wrote:Do any of these classes let you do a paper instead of a beastly 4-hour final?

A 4-hour final is way better than a paper.

Also, if you have experience in Family Law, then I understand saying it's the easier course. However, it gets complicated when you get into choice of law issues (assuming your prof would go into that like mine did). It also gets complicated w/r/t what kind of regime you're in for child support, division of assets, etc.

yeah, way harder to get an A on a paper. an A doesn't only mean you did well, but also means someone else did poorly. professors are people and people don't take joy in fucking people over. if someone clearly did the research and makes sense they aren't going to get a c. the positive of a paper is that you only need to learn what's relevant for your paper so not everything is fair play (ie you can do no work most of the semester).