WDH wrote:RetakeFrenzy wrote:WDH wrote:I was at the admitted student program this weekend. Was anyone else from TLS there? The talent show was hilarious, and I had a good time. There is a decent chance I will be there in the Fall.
Wow! How was it? Mind sharing some of your thoughts for us TLSers that couldn't make it?
Yeah I would be happy to share some thoughts! I'll write something up when I get some downtime at work this afternoon, or after I get home this evening!
Alright so here it goes! Hopefully don't out myself too easily!
The hockey game was fairly fun, the Predators lost unfortunately but it was a good time regardless and got to meet a few other fellow admits and a few of the current students who were hosts. After that a bunch of us went downtown to Paradise Park which is a bar themed like a trailer park. There was a band that played and a fair number of people from the city. If anyone is coming from somewhere that has smoking outlawed in bars you might be in for a slight shock, there were a fair number of people smoking inside. I took off a little before midnight because we had an early start (7:30 0_o), but had a good time nonetheless!
Another note: of the two cabs that I was in, both only accepted cash so be warned!
Friday morning, had your typical spread of law school breakfasts. A bunch of fruit, some pastries, coffee, water, maybe some juice? The Dean kicked things off at 7:50ish and I was impressed with him. Next was a criminal law class that we sat it on, the students who I spoke with the night before warned us that of the professors they had, she was probably the worst, she wasn't horrible by anything I could tell, and it was nice to witness that she picked out two students and directed the bulk of the questions towards them. Both were prepared and the discussion the class engaged in was interesting.
Next there was a panel of faculty re: clerkships, clinics, and the career center. I was very impressed with Michael Bressman who is heavily invested in the Federal clerkship hunt for students. He was very engaging and is obviously very passionate about it (which was important to me, I'm starting my gunner ways now in this direction
). The rest of the panel where obviously passionate too, but some current students later did admit that they wish the school had a little more in the way of clinics, but that they do think the school is working to expand the program.
The next round of faculty were involved in various concentrations and where very interesting but also obviously very busy, several had to come in late as they were teaching classes and a couple had to leave early for the same. However as they are professors it was obvious once they started talking they really continued with it and obviously were very passionate about the students despite being so busy.
Lunch was pretty unremarkable, it was probably the blandest lunch at any ASP I have been to (not to say it wasn't bad!), but they just had pre-made sandwiches in boxes you could grab quickly rather than a full on catered spread like some schools have done. Then took a tour of the building and the immediate campus. Campus was beautiful and is apparently an arboretum for the state with tons of trees around. The law school building is also beautiful imo (although the library was a little small.... maybe Cooley has a point...) Students said that you can study in any of the 5 or so libraries on campus and many stated that they do routinely.
After the tour was a Mock Class, that was very impressive to me. The professor was very engaging and brought a lot of students into the discussion, but at the same time kept the class moving forward and pointed in the right direction (granted the cases were relatively simple).
Then they stuck us in a room with something like 5 current students on a panel, who answered questions. They all seemed quite happy (and the 3L's I believe all had jobs lined up!, while the 1L and 2L's had summer things already planned). They emphasized that the school does very well all over the south and fairly well in the rest of the country (although every school has tried to push this on me so far).
Afterwards was a student organization fair which some orgs prepped for and some obviously did not
overall what you would expect. The ACS did have a member and a table (I think he had a small thing of cookies). I didn't see if the Federalist society was present, but I'm sure they were.
Finally there was beer/wine/and food at Blackacre, which was a very good time, chatting with more admitted students and some more current students who showed up. Immediatly afterwards was the Talent Show which was fantastic, some people said that a few things ended up on Youtube (I haven't been able to find it, but if anyone did please post or PM me!) The talents included some racy comedy that was absolutely hilarious, and some a capella, there was a competition between all 4 years (yes admitted students included) to have a volunteer do karaoke, which was some of the most hilariously awful stuff I have ever seen, everyone seemed to love how bad it was too!
To wrap it all up I went out to a couple of bars that were within walking distance of campus with some other admits, and saw some other current students and a certain member of the admissions staff out and about.
If I missed anything please ask or chime in!
