UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions Forum

[Emma.]

Do any 3Ls have any advice for which upper-level classes this year are easier/have less-strict curves? I'm hoping to balance my schedule with challenging/easier classes, but have very little info on this.

Corporate Lab

[courtneylove]

Do any 3Ls have any advice for which upper-level classes this year are easier/have less-strict curves? I'm hoping to balance my schedule with challenging/easier classes, but have very little info on this.

By professors, not Rosenbloom or Schmidt. I found Nussbaum, Abebe, Case, Neal, and Torbert to be favorable graders. The Hoeflich PR seminar is great too, laid back lectures and you can write your paper on whatever you want. I've heard Nagorsky guarantees everyone high grades if they do the work for her seminar, but there is a ton of work.

[RamblinBoyofPleasure]

Do any 3Ls have any advice for which upper-level classes this year are easier/have less-strict curves? I'm hoping to balance my schedule with challenging/easier classes, but have very little info on this.

All classes, except some seminars, are required to follow the same curve.

Corporate Lab

Thanks. Any insight into any profs who stretch out the tail ends of their curves? (I want to avoid "the hammer" and similar experiences).

Edit: Thanks courtney! That's what I was looking for.

[courtneylove]

(I want to avoid "the hammer"

I took one of Helmholz's classes and it was much less stressful than 1L property! I'd actually recommend it if you're into a subject he's teaching. I did better than I expected in his class, but I know some people did not...

[Emma.]

If padding your GPA is your objective, you should look at crosslisted across-the-midway classes where you get a law school grade. These are considered LAWS classes, so they don't count as part of the 12 credits you can take outside of the law school.

You can also take many Booth, Harris, etc. classes P/F.

[20141023]

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[Emma.]

I probably need to start looking into how grading at Chicago works a little more, but is it pretty common for students to take classes they have absolutely no interest in just for "extra padding"? Also, how many classes do you actually get to pick throughout law school? It seems like the entire first semester is decided for us, and I've heard that you get to select 1 elective or so for the 1L winter semester or something like that... how do 2L and 3L years work?

Also, how does a Pass/Fail course get factored into one's GPA? (I am just worried that if it isn't counted as something, it will make a bad grade in another course hurt one's grades even more.)

During 1L, all your classes apart from a single 3 credit elective in the spring are mandatory. You get no say.

After 1L, you choose every class. Nothing is mandatory. In order to graduate you just have to complete your 105 credits, a substantial research project, a smaller writing project (usually these are satisfied by taking seminars graded based on a paper, though you will complete an SRP during 2L if you are on a journal), and an ABA required ethics class. You can take 12 credits outside the law school.

Any course taken outside the law school will NOT count towards your GPA unless it is cross listed and designated as a LAWS class. This is true whether you take the class P/F or for a letter grade. There are essentially no P/F options for law school classes. The only exception I know of is for the Greenberg Seminar you can take as a 3L. Those are P/F but only worth a single credit. They don't count towards your GPA. You are right that any class that doesn't count towards your GPA will amplify the effects of other classes on your GPA, but that can be a good thing as well as a bad thing. And overall the effect is minimal. We're talking a maximum of 13 credits out of 105.

[ellewoods110]

is it pretty common for students to take classes they have absolutely no interest in just for "extra padding"?

It depends on the person. I didn't take anything to pad my GPA (and it probably shows). I thought of law school as an opportunity to learn as much as possible about subjects that interested me and would help me most when I need it (on the bar exam/in practice). Others definitely do take certain classes to pad their GPA's. I think that's a fairly miserable way to approach law school, but maybe their shiny GPA makes them happy when they are taking a class that isn't very interesting to them.

[20141023]

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[funkyturds]

Do any 3Ls have any advice for which upper-level classes this year are easier/have less-strict curves? I'm hoping to balance my schedule with challenging/easier classes, but have very little info on this.

Entrepreneurship and the Law

[StarJammer]

If padding your GPA is your objective, you should look at crosslisted across-the-midway classes where you get a law school grade. These are considered LAWS classes, so they don't count as part of the 12 credits you can take outside of the law school.

You can also take many Booth, Harris, etc. classes P/F.

Thank you for this info! Is there a list of traditionally crosslisted classes anywhere, or do we just have to wait and see?

[20141023]

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[caito]

Sorry to change the subject, but I had a quick question about the University's health care insurance (U-SHIP) for those of you who are enrolled in it.

I quickly read through this, but I wasn't able to tell whether births are covered. (My wife and I are debating starting a family towards the end of my time in law school.) I noticed prenatal care coverage such as "Maternity Testing" and postnatal care coverage such as "Routine Newborn Care," but I didn't see anything about the actual birthing itself. I'm just worried because I've heard that it can cost around $10,000 for a normal birth and over $15,000 for a cesarean section, and want to make sure that I enroll in the proper insurance.

Hey Regulus. I actually gave birth last year, using the university's health insurance (my husband was a grad student, so I was on his plan). And yes, it did cover birth and a 2-night hospital stay, in addition to 9 months of prenatal care. Feel free to PM me w/ any specific questions you two may have (which I'm totally happy to answer, just maybe not on such a public forum).

[norkanite]

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[20141023]

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[norkanite]

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[beepboopbeep]

I won't tell you it's worth it to go at sticker, but I will tell you that I ED'ed at Chicago this cycle and got a small scholarship ($10,000 per year), and other TLSers who ED'ed this cycle also got some money. However, there have also been people who got nothing who were ED, and $30,000 is so little in the grand scheme of things that I wouldn't really consider it a reason to take on that amount of debt.

Just FYI, I have a special situation where my family took out home equity loans with <2.0% interest for my student loans, so I will not be dealing with the high rates of federal loans. However, I will also no be eligible for income-based repayment programs like Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

Lastly, what is you GPA / LSAT? If your GPA is truly so low that you won't be eligible for scholarship elsewhere within the T14, your chances at UChicago are probably greatly diminished even with ED. However, if you just have a "decent" GPA (like a 3.6~3.7) and a killer LSAT score, it might be a better idea just to blanket the T14 and see where you get offered money. Once you ED somewhere, you lose the ability to negotiate scholarships because the school knows you're coming no matter what.

I'm currently working with a 170/3.5, but I'm retaking in October with ~7 months of studying. Since I can wait until after the test to ED (also considering NU's), I'm just testing the waters to see if this is something worth thinking about if I'm sub-175. Seems like a smart tradeoff on your finances - I have friends doing the same thing, but it's not really an option for me. I do have a pretty robust legal network from my current job for worst-case IBR/PAYE plans. Anyway, thanks for all of your contributions on here.

If you can get a few more points, I absolutely wouldn't ED anywhere. 3.5 is low for Chicago but not unheard of, and 170+ seems to be in pretty high demand these days. Our family/money situations are probably different, but with 3.6/173 I had 75k at Chicago (off the waitlist) and 85k at CLS.

[cwid1391]

The most important question in this thread: What is the official successor to the UChilawgo tumblr?

[Mal Reynolds]

Good luck tomorrow, 2Ls.

[20141023]

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[RodneyRuxin]

And as Mal said, I hope everything goes well for you all this week.

I've been looking for a dentist as well so I'll give a shameless bump to your question.

Also, I appreciate the wishes. It appears that the incoming 1L class seems like genuinely good people (at least, you've treated us much better than we treated the incoming 3Ls/recent grads). I look forward to meeting you all soon.

[Xifeng]

Also, I appreciate the wishes. It appears that the incoming 1L class seems like genuinely good people (at least, you've treated us much better than we treated the incoming 3Ls/recent grads). I look forward to meeting you all soon.

Until they get all elitist and exclusive on us. Right now they're adorably organizing events and planning cat cafes

[cwid1391]

Until they get all elitist and exclusive on us.

It's only a matter of time.

[Emma.]

...much better than we treated the incoming 3Ls/recent grads...

[Toby Ziegler]

Question for those UChi folks with families. I will be attending law school and my wife and I have a little guy, and probably one more that will come during law school. Are any of you in the same boat where you are going to school and your spouse stays at home with kids/works PT? As you can imagine my selection of a law school takes (heavily) into consideration how those three years will effect my family, and the amenities available to them. How are the housing options limited, abundant, somewhere in between? Also as been asked here before, Chicago has a reputation for high crime rates/being a dangerous city, but at the same time I hear that said often about Seattle, yet I have never felt unsafe in the city with my family. Thoughts?

Any additional thoughts pertaining to having a family and attending UChi would be much appreciated!