Cornell Class of 2016 Forum

[Lavitz]

Just ordered my parking permit.

My mentor was an incredible help last year (and still gives me advice, as I pick classes/prepare for interviews). We got paired together because we went to the same undergrad, nothing else in common but he really went out of his way to give me notes/outlines etc. I had pretty bad luck spring semester on a personal level, and he came through w/ non-school related things also. And we're not friends -- really just helps me out, and I say thanks and keep it moving. But I also know people who met their mentor once in the beginning of the year. Just got lucky.

If you're in certain student groups, you'll get paired w/ a mentor through the org as well. And your lawyering TA's are usually v. helpful as well (I went to all of mine w/ various questions throughout the school year). So you'll definitely get guidance from someone if you want it.

Well, they're not going to find anyone else from my undergrad. I already looked through the student directory and didn't see anyone else from there. But that's good to know.

Are all the mentors 2Ls or can they be 3Ls as well? I saw some 3Ls from my location.

It depends on who you get, but you also have to put in the effort to reach out to them. My mentor was great to have and very helpful when I asked questions, but it's not like busy law students would go out of their way to check up on you.

Assigned mentors for other student groups really didn't mean much, at least for me. 2L/3L friends you pick up on your own are probably the most helpful. If you join groups you're interested in you might see the same people over and over again (as people active in stuff tend to be active in...other stuff too), so that can be valuable. Not just "diversity" groups for women and Asians and stuff but whatever sounds interesting to you (ADR and mock trial actually involve *doing* things and thus can take time if you are active in them), and chapters of national organizations like ACS and Fed Soc, etc.

While I'm at it, let me do a little speech about student clubs. You will hear that becoming "1L reps" of these clubs is practically useless. Yes and no. Yes, useless, because your jobs will be determined more by your GPA& interviewing skills than anything else. But at the same time, I found being involved in these clubs (the key is a lot of involvement with one or two, not mere membership in all of them) useful for several things. First, it was something to talk about when applying to 1L summer jobs, which you will be talking about to get your 2L summer jobs. Especially if you plan on starting applying to these things before your fall grades come out, membership/active involvement with student groups help because there literally isn't anything else regarding your law school career thus far. Second, some clubs limit voting for board positions (this happens in spring) to those who were already on the board in the fall. So it can be hard to *later* choose to get involved in clubs if you weren't already on the board as a 1L rep or something else.

Thanks for the tips, Mischief.

[spiritniffler189]

I think 3Ls can -- they asked all students to fill out a form if interested. But a lot of 3Ls are gone at some point during the school year (externship/study abroad) so not sure how many would sign up. I don't know of any 3Ls personally that mentored through CLS (maybe the CLSA board?).

You looked through the student directory for all 3 classes? That's a bit much, haha. There was only one other student from my undergrad last year. I would be surprised if there are any in the incoming class.

[gonewiththewind]

We also had the wonderful (limited) 1L response to the 3L superlatives thread.

Yeah I meant superlatives not honorable mentions. The word escaped me there for a second.
I think the beauty of the hammer/saw e-mail was that it was completely serious, whereas the eleventy-billion e-mail was not.

Lol. Still not sure if the response to the eleventy-billion email was serious or not, given who sent it.

And yes, your mileage may vary regarding your assigned mentor. I had a great one who did so much for me during the year, gave me great advice from the first day, and is still helping me now. I personally know of others who had terrible mentors who were not interested/were too busy on their own.

Also Arbiter is a pretty good resource IRL as well, although sometimes he gives advice without being prompted.

[Lavitz]

That's a bit much, haha.

You don't know me very well, do you? But thanks.

Also Arbiter is a pretty good resource IRL as well, although sometimes he gives advice without being prompted.

[CR2012]

I don't know how official/up-to-date the Student Directory for c/o 2016 is, but it looks like we are at 212 students right now.

[Lavitz]

I don't know how official/up-to-date the Student Directory for c/o 2016 is, but it looks like we are at 212 students right now.

iMisto is still on there. So they haven't removed a bunch of people.

[CR2012]

I don't know how official/up-to-date the Student Directory for c/o 2016 is, but it looks like we are at 212 students right now.

iMisto is still on there. So they haven't removed a bunch of people.

Far out.

Burning the midnight oil tonight, Lavitz?

[Lavitz]

Far out.

Burning the midnight oil tonight, Lavitz?

Yeah, my sleep schedule is messed up. I'll probably go to sleep in the morning sometime.

[madc]

Assigned mentors for other student groups really didn't mean much, at least for me. 2L/3L friends you pick up on your own are probably the most helpful. If you join groups you're interested in you might see the same people over and over again (as people active in stuff tend to be active in...other stuff too), so that can be valuable. Not just "diversity" groups for women and Asians and stuff but whatever sounds interesting to you (ADR and mock trial actually involve *doing* things and thus can take time if you are active in them), and chapters of national organizations like ACS and Fed Soc, etc.

While I'm at it, let me do a little speech about student clubs. You will hear that becoming "1L reps" of these clubs is practically useless. Yes and no. Yes, useless, because your jobs will be determined more by your GPA& interviewing skills than anything else. But at the same time, I found being involved in these clubs (the key is a lot of involvement with one or two, not mere membership in all of them) useful for several things. First, it was something to talk about when applying to 1L summer jobs, which you will be talking about to get your 2L summer jobs. Especially if you plan on starting applying to these things before your fall grades come out, membership/active involvement with student groups help because there literally isn't anything else regarding your law school career thus far. Second, some clubs limit voting for board positions (this happens in spring) to those who were already on the board in the fall. So it can be hard to *later* choose to get involved in clubs if you weren't already on the board as a 1L rep or something else.

This may be covered already in the thread, but how do you learn about the student groups/get involved? Is there a student organization fair of some sort?

I don't know how official/up-to-date the Student Directory for c/o 2016 is, but it looks like we are at 212 students right now.

iMisto is still on there. So they haven't removed a bunch of people.

FYI, I was told a week ago that we had 200 people registered.

[hephaestus]

There is a student organization fair a couple weeks after you get here. Also most clubs hold elections within a month or so.

[Arbiter213]

Also Arbiter is a pretty good resource IRL as well, although sometimes he gives advice without being prompted.

I resemble this remark.

[stuckinthemiddle]

Where are you guys seeing the student directory?

[CR2012]

Where are you guys seeing the student directory?

http://support.law.cornell.edu/directory/

[madc]

There is a student organization fair a couple weeks after you get here. Also most clubs hold elections within a month or so.

Thanks, it's good to know! By elections do you mean electing the 1L Representatives? Or the rest of the board?

[gonewiththewind]

There is a student organization fair a couple weeks after you get here. Also most clubs hold elections within a month or so.

Thanks, it's good to know! By elections do you mean electing the 1L Representatives? Or the rest of the board?

1L reps. Usually the board is set already the previous year (although there are some cases, like with ACS last year, where the chapter may not have gotten to it in time)

Edit: ACS already had its elections for this upcoming year this time around.

[hephaestus]

There is a student organization fair a couple weeks after you get here. Also most clubs hold elections within a month or so.

Thanks, it's good to know! By elections do you mean electing the 1L Representatives? Or the rest of the board?

The board elections were done last year. So this is for 1L reps. There may be an organization or two that still has board positions.

[Arbiter213]

There is a student organization fair a couple weeks after you get here. Also most clubs hold elections within a month or so.

Thanks, it's good to know! By elections do you mean electing the 1L Representatives? Or the rest of the board?

1L reps. Usually the board is set already the previous year (although there are some cases, like with ACS last year, where the chapter may not have gotten to it in time)

Edit: ACS already had its elections for this upcoming year this time around.

This is not entirely an accurate depiction of events as they how unfolded, though for our purposes we may suppose that it is...

[gonewiththewind]

There is a student organization fair a couple weeks after you get here. Also most clubs hold elections within a month or so.

Thanks, it's good to know! By elections do you mean electing the 1L Representatives? Or the rest of the board?

1L reps. Usually the board is set already the previous year (although there are some cases, like with ACS last year, where the chapter may not have gotten to it in time)

Edit: ACS already had its elections for this upcoming year this time around.

This is not entirely an accurate depiction of events as they how unfolded, though for our purposes we may suppose that it is...

Trying to put that (relatively) positive spin on.

[MischiefMayhemSoap]

Also, CLSA (Cornell Law Students Association) plans parties. People will go bonkers running for 1L rep for that. It literally is a group that plans school parties and doesn't even sound interesting. At least the reproductive justice or whatnot and wine club sound interesting.

[Arbiter213]

Also, CLSA (Cornell Law Students Association) plans parties. People will go bonkers running for 1L rep for that. It literally is a group that plans school parties and doesn't even sound interesting. At least the reproductive justice or whatnot and wine club sound interesting.

The Wine Club ALSO just plans parties, but they only invite people they like under a pretense of first come first served. They're both as useful as nipples on a man. At least CLSA isn't pretentious about being a bunch of drunks.

[gonewiththewind]

Also, CLSA (Cornell Law Students Association) plans parties. People will go bonkers running for 1L rep for that. It literally is a group that plans school parties and doesn't even sound interesting. At least the reproductive justice or whatnot and wine club sound interesting.

The Wine Club ALSO just plans parties, but they only invite people they like under a pretense of first come first served. They're both as useful as nipples on a man. At least CLSA isn't pretentious about being a bunch of drunks.

Yeah, it's the substantive/diversity clubs that plan events that actually have speakers coming to them. ACS and Fed Soc were pretty good for that (though objectively the quality of the Fed Soc speakers was better, unless you really liked free food). LALSA/BLSA/APALSA had good career oriented events.

[MischiefMayhemSoap]

Also, CLSA (Cornell Law Students Association) plans parties. People will go bonkers running for 1L rep for that. It literally is a group that plans school parties and doesn't even sound interesting. At least the reproductive justice or whatnot and wine club sound interesting.

The Wine Club ALSO just plans parties, but they only invite people they like under a pretense of first come first served. They're both as useful as nipples on a man. At least CLSA isn't pretentious about being a bunch of drunks.

Yeah, it's the substantive/diversity clubs that plan events that actually have speakers coming to them. ACS and Fed Soc were pretty good for that (though objectively the quality of the Fed Soc speakers was better, unless you really liked free food). LALSA/BALSA/APALSA had good career oriented events.

You don't have to be actually active in any of these to go to the events, but get on the list serv for those so you can get all their free food.

[gonewiththewind]

Also, CLSA (Cornell Law Students Association) plans parties. People will go bonkers running for 1L rep for that. It literally is a group that plans school parties and doesn't even sound interesting. At least the reproductive justice or whatnot and wine club sound interesting.

The Wine Club ALSO just plans parties, but they only invite people they like under a pretense of first come first served. They're both as useful as nipples on a man. At least CLSA isn't pretentious about being a bunch of drunks.

Yeah, it's the substantive/diversity clubs that plan events that actually have speakers coming to them. ACS and Fed Soc were pretty good for that (though objectively the quality of the Fed Soc speakers was better, unless you really liked free food). LALSA/BLSA/APALSA had good career oriented events.

You don't have to be actually active in any of these to go to the events, but get on the list serv for those so you can get all their free food.

I thought you had to be LALSA/BLSA member to go to their career oriented stuff.

[MischiefMayhemSoap]

You don't have to be actually active in any of these to go to the events, but get on the list serv for those so you can get all their free food.

I thought you had to be LALSA/BLSA member to go to their career oriented stuff.

Member as in list serv.

[gonewiththewind]

You don't have to be actually active in any of these to go to the events, but get on the list serv for those so you can get all their free food.

I thought you had to be LALSA/BLSA member to go to their career oriented stuff.

Member as in list serv.

I think you still have to sign up for those specific events though, right? Correct me if I'm wrong.

You're definitely right about the ACS/Fed Soc events: they want people to go to them, so even if you're not on the listserv for those, you'll still almost certainly hear about them.