UVA Law Students Taking Questions Forum

[whats an updog]

Sorry to go back a bit, but does anyone know this guys story? How does he have UVA internet access? Is he affiliated with the university? What is he doing all day? Some people were talking about him and saying that he makes them really uncomfortable. They didnt understand why the law school wasnt more concerned.

It's a public library. You can get guest passes for the internet. Plus, he's super nice and doesn't bother anyone ever. Like, I've seen him every other day for three years and not once have I seen him bothering someone or doing anything weird (aside from the inherent weirdness of it, of course). Who knows, maybe he's working on a dissertation. Folks should leave him be.

Doesn't even need a guest pass if he uses the hidden network, "wahoo"

[swampman]

Does OCS have a application portal for 1L jobs, or do you have to send each one individually?

Are you a current 1L? For 1L OGI (on grounds interviews), career services will forward the documents you upload to Symplicity to the employer, but that happened a while ago. Other than that Symplicity has individual job postings where you apply to directly to the employer.

[Nagster5]

Does OCS have a application portal for 1L jobs, or do you have to send each one individually?

Are you a current 1L? For 1L OGI (on grounds interviews), career services will forward the documents you upload to Symplicity to the employer, but that happened a while ago. Other than that Symplicity has individual job postings where you apply to directly to the employer.

Nope, I'm a 0L just wondering about the 1L job search.

[rhododactylos]

Does OCS have a application portal for 1L jobs, or do you have to send each one individually?

Are you a current 1L? For 1L OGI (on grounds interviews), career services will forward the documents you upload to Symplicity to the employer, but that happened a while ago. Other than that Symplicity has individual job postings where you apply to directly to the employer.

Nope, I'm a 0L just wondering about the 1L job search.

1L job search is a combination of February OGI, individual job postings on Symplicity, and directly applying to firms/judges/government/public interest groups. It's less streamlined than the 2L process (beacuse pretty much everyone going private sector does August OGI) but Career Services gives you plenty of guidance beginning in October.

[FatherCricket]

How far away is Ivy from the school? When I visited I saw Pavilion, but not Ivy. Is it about twice as far or a little more? Is it far enough away to have an impact on returning home for lunch or going back and forth for study groups?

[doobleykah]

How far away is Ivy from the school? When I visited I saw Pavilion, but not Ivy. Is it about twice as far or a little more? Is it far enough away to have an impact on returning home for lunch or going back and forth for study groups?

If you weren't posting this question on the internet, I'd be asking if you have internet access.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Ivy+Gar ... 051927!3e2

[potatoes]

How far away is Ivy from the school? When I visited I saw Pavilion, but not Ivy. Is it about twice as far or a little more? Is it far enough away to have an impact on returning home for lunch or going back and forth for study groups?

I know plenty of people who live in Ivy who like it. I don't live there personally so my experience is limited to what other's have said, but most people seem to thing that it's pretty convenient!

[5ky]

ivy is really big. it takes 10 minutes to walk from the front to the back. if you're at the side closest to the school, it's like a 10 min walk. i thought it was no big deal.

i liked my time there perfectly fine. i cannot possible fathom how the pavilion would be a better choice than ivy, given the price difference

[First Offense]

ivy is really big. it takes 10 minutes to walk from the front to the back. if you're at the side closest to the school, it's like a 10 min walk. i thought it was no big deal.

i liked my time there perfectly fine. i cannot possible fathom how the pavilion would be a better choice than ivy, given the price difference

Only real perk is proximity to grocery store. But that's not worth 750 more bucks a month.

[Br3v]

ivy is really big. it takes 10 minutes to walk from the front to the back. if you're at the side closest to the school, it's like a 10 min walk. i thought it was no big deal.

i liked my time there perfectly fine. i cannot possible fathom how the pavilion would be a better choice than ivy, given the price difference

Only real perk is proximity to grocery store. But that's not worth 750 more bucks a month.

The biggest perk I think is that is where all the pre-games are, but again, not worth 750

[thebrownnote]

.

[sprezz]

there were other grad school mixers when i was a 1L and presumably afterwards. other than that i dunno how you'd go about doing it. i feel like it's fairly common but also randomly dispersed. the only pseudo-pan-university club i can think of is the jefferson society and a) you aren't going to find a med school student near there and b) on the offchance that you do find one it probably isn't one you want to talk to. all the law school/med school points of intersection i can think of were either "friends from undergrad" or "neighbors on the range/near the corner" or "met on tinder". so i guess live far from the law school, talk to anyone that shows up at section mixers that isn't in your section, and get to swiping. maybe intramurals or pickup games in the AFC instead of north grounds if you're athletically inclined.

[stig2014]

.

[defdef]

If you do a search for "Copeley" in this thread, you'll find a lot of good info. If I were single I'd probably go Ivy, but I don't think Copeley is bad by any means, especially for first year. I know a couple guys who were roommates in a furnished Copeley 2 bedroom, and it seemed to work out fine.

[canoe]

quick question.

iirc, uva has a non-distributed curve. a prof can give out whatever distribution of grades as long as it adheres to a 3.3 mean or median?

so isn't it quite possible that you could get screwed if you're gunning for DC/clerkships by having professors who are all mean/median-heavy? aka gives out tons of B, B+s and extremely few Cs and As. it would seem that for high-performing students, it'd benefit them to attend a school like NU that offers a curve with a specified grade distribution.

[UVAIce]

quick question.

iirc, uva has a non-distributed curve. a prof can give out whatever distribution of grades as long as it adheres to a 3.3 mean or median?

so isn't it quite possible that you could get screwed if you're gunning for DC/clerkships by having professors who are all mean/median-heavy? aka gives out tons of B, B+s and extremely few Cs and As. it would seem that for high-performing students, it'd benefit them to attend a school like NU that offers a curve with a specified grade distribution.

Maybe, but it's been my experience that students who do well continue to do well. All of the cases of big grade drops or "surprises" that I've heard of involving UVA Law students had some kind of context to it (e.g. they feb clubed way too hard, family issue, etc.). It also helps that most of my friends who were big time gunners had an idea what professors did or did not give out higher grades.

[5ky]

the vast majority of professors follow a general 10/20/40/20/10 distribution (A, A-, B+, B, B-). there's some fudging at the margins for certain professors, but this will not (full stop) impact your ability to get to DC or get a high quality clerkship.

i mean this earnestly, but if you're trying to make decisions based on schools on these types of factors, you're really missing the forest for the trees. i urge you to take a few steps back to try to get a better understanding of the bigger picture

[asundialwatch]

quick question.

iirc, uva has a non-distributed curve. a prof can give out whatever distribution of grades as long as it adheres to a 3.3 mean or median?

so isn't it quite possible that you could get screwed if you're gunning for DC/clerkships by having professors who are all mean/median-heavy? aka gives out tons of B, B+s and extremely few Cs and As. it would seem that for high-performing students, it'd benefit them to attend a school like NU that offers a curve with a specified grade distribution.

Technically possible, but generally doesn't make much of a difference. The biggest impact is probably for people who are near the top of the class after 1L for clerkships, since your professors are random and some give out A+s. Still, this impacts such a narrow group and honestly doesn't even make much of a difference there since people who do well will still likely land near the top despite having professors with narrower curves. After 1L, there is plenty of info out there (though mostly based on rumor) to guide students who are worried about landing in classes with narrow curves for clerkship or whatever other purposes. But as mentioned above, you probably shouldn't base a decision about where to attend law school on this. That's putting the cart before the horse a bit.

[First Offense]

The professors that give more As are pretty well known.

[rhododactylos]

quick question.

iirc, uva has a non-distributed curve. a prof can give out whatever distribution of grades as long as it adheres to a 3.3 mean or median?

so isn't it quite possible that you could get screwed if you're gunning for DC/clerkships by having professors who are all mean/median-heavy? aka gives out tons of B, B+s and extremely few Cs and As. it would seem that for high-performing students, it'd benefit them to attend a school like NU that offers a curve with a specified grade distribution.

Technically possible, but generally doesn't make much of a difference. The biggest impact is probably for people who are near the top of the class after 1L for clerkships, since your professors are random and some give out A+s. Still, this impacts such a narrow group and honestly doesn't even make much of a difference there since people who do well will still likely land near the top despite having professors with narrower curves. After 1L, there is plenty of info out there (though mostly based on rumor) to guide students who are worried about landing in classes with narrow curves for clerkship or whatever other purposes. But as mentioned above, you probably shouldn't base a decision about where to attend law school on this. That's putting the cart before the horse a bit.

The other thing is that judges and employers are both well aware of UVA's curve and what a particular GPA means in the context of UVA. The amount of B+'s, A-'s, etc. that professors give doesn't affect the number of people we send to DC and to appellate clerkships and SCOTUS each year. The cream rises to the top during 1L regardless of what the curve is, and after 1L the top-of-the-class SCOTUS-competitive people get specialized advice on which courses and professors they should be taking to maximize their chances.

The only place the lack of a forced grade distribution really matters is that some 1L sections will by luck of the draw get multiple professors who give more B+'s than the average (e.g. Kordana, Harrison, Woolhandler). These sections might place fewer people on VLR because there are fewer A's to go around than there are with A+-through-C professors like Jeffries, etc.

[UVALawHoo]

When is the spring grade deadline? Also, any advice for a clueless 1L about who the good professors (grade wise) are for future classes?

[albanach]

The professors that give more As are pretty well known.

And those who give many As may well also give Cs. A 0L should be concerned about both since law school is like the stock market - past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

[cornerstone]

The professors that give more As are pretty well known.

And those who give many As may well also give Cs. A 0L should be concerned about both since law school is like the stock market - past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Exactly. But if you really need to think about it, consider it an insurance policy. If you do well you can keep it up, but if you don't there's not too far to fall. As 5ky said, if you're picking a school for the curve you've got the wrong idea.

[andthenIwaslike]

But seriously when is the spring grade deadline?

[First Offense]

But seriously when is the spring grade deadline?

June 8 I think.