Cornell 1L taking questions Forum

[danidancer]

when does it start getting super cold? My plan is to buy snow boots and a coat there since finding something suitable in California will probably be difficult. Is that probably the best idea? Thanks!

Round October

More like mid to late November. October is pretty standard fall weather. Light jacket/sweatshirt will be fine until November. First snow didn't stick until Thanksgiving.

[FlanAl]

Well, if you get it in California, you can go to the North Face outlet in Camarillo. (assuming you're in LA area).

down in san diego and thanks for the advice everyone

[Big Tuna]

when does it start getting super cold? My plan is to buy snow boots and a coat there since finding something suitable in California will probably be difficult. Is that probably the best idea? Thanks!

Round October

More like mid to late November. October is pretty standard fall weather. Light jacket/sweatshirt will be fine until November. First snow didn't stick until Thanksgiving.

Agree, definitely NOT October. Last fall I can't remember it even snowing significantly. Spring semester, on the other hand, was a snowy mess.
There is an Eastern Mountain Sports on the commons that sells really good stuff. Don't buy in CA and bring it here.

[Ostrizr316]

Can anyone comment on the pre-orientation program? I didn't get an invite and I just want to know if I'm missing anything substantial, or is it just ice breakers and free breakfast for 5 days?

If you mean the diversity thingy (I don't remember what it's really called), it's the invitees taking mock law classes, briefing cases every day, and at the end taking a mock exam, iirc. It is preparatory work for law school success. Most people who went, though, will tell you it didn't help.

If you're talking about the Academic Orientation Program (AOP), then no, you're not missing anything substantial. I did it last year, and I can honestly tell you that I felt no more or less prepared for class. It is nice to get to meet some of the professors and classmates, but it doesn't give anyone a substantial leg up or anything. Moreover, you will spend the week reading completely irrelevant cases (in our case it was Criminal Procedure) and studying for an exam that doesnt count and that you wont even remember by the time you get it back in October. I actually felt a little bit behind other classmates once it was over, because I had spent the week doing a lot of fruitless studying instead of getting settled in Ithaca.

[KingRajesh]

Can any upperclassmen give me the rundown on these professors? How good they are, teaching methods, grading...

Heise
Hillman
Rana
Holden-Smith
Buble

Thanks so much!

[holybartender]

Holden-Smith owns.

[mths]

Can any upperclassmen give me the rundown on these professors? How good they are, teaching methods, grading...

Heise
Hillman
Rana
Holden-Smith
Buble

Thanks so much!

Heise is the most awesome professor you will ever have.

Hillman gives rough MC exams and you really have to be prepared for class or he'll make fun of you but it's better than having Clermont first.

Rana is hands down the nicest and most articulate professor I have ever had the pleasure of being in a classroom with. Reading load will be almost absurdly heavy but the classes are interesting. Our exam was a 24 hour take home but I doubt he'll be doing that again.

I heard Holden-Smith tortures students for fun and gives closed book MC exams. LOLenjoi.

Don't know who Buble is.

[Arbiter213]

How about:

Johnson
Frakes
Claremont
Mooney
Eisenberg

?

[CyLaw]

Can any upperclassmen give me the rundown on these professors? How good they are, teaching methods, grading...

Heise
Hillman
Rana
Holden-Smith
Buble

Thanks so much!

Hillman is great. Dry humor, but great.

Holden-Smith will scare you to death, but you will learn a lot from her.

Bublé is good for lawyering. Listen to his suggestions. Seemed very fair to me.

[CyLaw]

How about:

Johnson
Frakes
Claremont
Mooney
Eisenberg

?

Clermont wrote your book on Civ Pro. Lectures more than any other professor and loves power point. Good multimedia use in class. It seemed like it was more important to know how to find information than actually knowing the information before the test. Practice looking up answers to the details of Civ Pro. Look for what things are NOT covered by the rules.

[Arbiter213]

How about:

Johnson
Frakes
Claremont
Mooney
Eisenberg

?

Clermont wrote your book on Civ Pro. Lectures more than any other professor and loves power point. Good multimedia use in class. It seemed like it was more important to know how to find information than actually knowing the information before the test. Practice looking up answers to the details of Civ Pro. Look for what things are NOT covered by the rules.

Thanks.

[Asleep]

Anyone have any info on:

Johnson
Herstein
Whelan

[CyLaw]

Anyone have any info on:

Johnson
Herstein
Whelan

Herstein is great. Funny, young guy. Great hypos. Theory orientated. Wants to know why we come to the policy preferences we do. Watch for central themes on how to justify or critique various policy choices.

[Big Tuna]

How about:

Johnson
Frakes
Claremont
Mooney
Eisenberg

?

You got the best lawyering professor.

[thetobes]

Bump.
Johnson, Whelan?

[nyankees51]

Any opinions on dorf or freed, thanks

[mths]

Any opinions on dorf or freed, thanks

Freed was my lawyering professor and is really really nice. I think we had the least work lawyering class and if you get the same research prof, you can learn a lot about horse law.

[afghan007]

Any opinions on dorf or freed, thanks

Dorf is actually the best professor at the law school. Forget whatever else you heard about other professors in this thread. Dorf is a genius. He balls. He's a comedian. He clerked for SCOTUS. And he "cold calls" down the row, so you know when you'll be speaking in class. Thank your lucky stars for getting him for ConLaw. Just sit back and enjoy.

[AdamatUCF]

Hillman is great. Dry humor, but great.

Holden-Smith will scare you to death, but you will learn a lot from her.

Bublé is good for lawyering. Listen to his suggestions. Seemed very fair to me.

Clermont wrote your book on Civ Pro. Lectures more than any other professor and loves power point. Good multimedia use in class. It seemed like it was more important to know how to find information than actually knowing the information before the test. Practice looking up answers to the details of Civ Pro. Look for what things are NOT covered by the rules.

Herstein is great. Funny, young guy. Great hypos. Theory orientated. Wants to know why we come to the policy preferences we do. Watch for central themes on how to justify or critique various policy choices.

Just chiming in: I was in Cylaw's section so I can comment on the same professors. His summaries are very good.

Civil procedure:
Clermont is theatrical. He'll make powerpoints FLASHY, he'll play little flash movies, and he'll expect in-class answers to be well thought out. He doesn't cold-call as much as other professors, but he's been known to surprise people with it. Cylaw's description of his exam is spot on. It's an exam about how well you can find the information he wants you to find. How well have you learned how the rules and book are organized? Don't let 2Ls and 3Ls freak you out about how it's random and terrible and arbitrary. For 95% of his exam, it's really hard but there's method to it.

Holden-Smith was our second-semester civ pro professor. Each day she'll choose 2-3 people to call on. Those people field pretty much EVERY SINGLE QUESTION that day. She is brilliant but terrifying. You will either keep up with the reading for her class or you will wither under her questioning. Being terrified/forced to read because of her will keep you on top everything, though.

Contracts:
Hillman is amazing. He has a very dry but funny sense of humor, and he's forgiving with cold-calls. He'll try and help you if you give a bad answer by turning it into what you might have been trying to say.

Torts:
Herstein was excellent. He's a quiet guy, so you may want to glue a megaphone to him sometimes, but he's not at all what you'd expect from a law school professor. He's laid back, friendly, and seems more interested in class-discussions than in rigid formality. Plus he almost blushed the first time we talked about "duty". Just make sure to pay attention to his policy/philosophical digressions, since 15% of our exam was policy based and 10% was philosophy based.

Lawyering:
Cylaw seems to have enjoyed Professor Buble's class more than I did. I found the class stuffy, boring, and unrelatable at first. 1Ls love to bitch and moan about lawyering class. It's our favorite past-time. I found that Buble's class got a little better the less I bitched about it and the more I worked towards it. Also, I found out that Buble is a painter, and talked to him about that and realized that he's actually a pretty good guy. Good luck getting ahold of him outside of the 1-2 class hours per week though.

(V--LONG WINDED GENERALIZATIONS (POSSIBLY) TRUE FOR ALL LAWYERING PROFESSORS--V)
In general, I think you'll get out of lawyering exactly what you put in. I didn't put in enough, got an average grade in the class and my writing is crap. If I could do it again, I'd put a lot more effort into lawyering and I'd get better at writing. At the end of 1L, what you take away won't be the elements of negligence, the constitutional limitations of executive power, or the rule against perpetuities. What you'll want for your first and second summer jobs (and possibly practicing law) is the ability to research and write.

Don't do what 90% of us did and blow off lawyering as a crappy 2-hour class that everyone gets the same grade in (which isn't true anymore since the new curve). Take the time, start your memos/briefs early, revise them often, and find the TAs in your class who give good advice. Do well in lawyering and you'll be glad you did. Everyone I know who did really well in lawyering was also in (or near) the top 10% of the class. This might just be selection bias or coincidence, but working on your writing seems to help other areas of law school as well.

Summary: Don't blow off lawyering. It seems arbitrary and worthless when you have 4 other classes, but it's a real chance to start writing and researching a lot and work on some really fundamental skills.

[johnnyutah]

Is it true that there is an escaped tiger living in the woods outside of town?

[mths]

Is it true that there is an escaped tiger living in the woods outside of town?

Of course

[theturkeyisfat]

Hillman is great. Dry humor, but great.

Holden-Smith will scare you to death, but you will learn a lot from her.

Bublé is good for lawyering. Listen to his suggestions. Seemed very fair to me.

Clermont wrote your book on Civ Pro. Lectures more than any other professor and loves power point. Good multimedia use in class. It seemed like it was more important to know how to find information than actually knowing the information before the test. Practice looking up answers to the details of Civ Pro. Look for what things are NOT covered by the rules.

Herstein is great. Funny, young guy. Great hypos. Theory orientated. Wants to know why we come to the policy preferences we do. Watch for central themes on how to justify or critique various policy choices.

Just chiming in: I was in Cylaw's section so I can comment on the same professors. His summaries are very good.

Civil procedure:
Clermont is theatrical. He'll make powerpoints FLASHY, he'll play little flash movies, and he'll expect in-class answers to be well thought out. He doesn't cold-call as much as other professors, but he's been known to surprise people with it. Cylaw's description of his exam is spot on. It's an exam about how well you can find the information he wants you to find. How well have you learned how the rules and book are organized? Don't let 2Ls and 3Ls freak you out about how it's random and terrible and arbitrary. For 95% of his exam, it's really hard but there's method to it.

Holden-Smith was our second-semester civ pro professor. Each day she'll choose 2-3 people to call on. Those people field pretty much EVERY SINGLE QUESTION that day. She is brilliant but terrifying. You will either keep up with the reading for her class or you will wither under her questioning. Being terrified/forced to read because of her will keep you on top everything, though.

Contracts:
Hillman is amazing. He has a very dry but funny sense of humor, and he's forgiving with cold-calls. He'll try and help you if you give a bad answer by turning it into what you might have been trying to say.

Torts:
Herstein was excellent. He's a quiet guy, so you may want to glue a megaphone to him sometimes, but he's not at all what you'd expect from a law school professor. He's laid back, friendly, and seems more interested in class-discussions than in rigid formality. Plus he almost blushed the first time we talked about "duty". Just make sure to pay attention to his policy/philosophical digressions, since 15% of our exam was policy based and 10% was philosophy based.

Lawyering:
Cylaw seems to have enjoyed Professor Buble's class more than I did. I found the class stuffy, boring, and unrelatable at first. 1Ls love to bitch and moan about lawyering class. It's our favorite past-time. I found that Buble's class got a little better the less I bitched about it and the more I worked towards it. Also, I found out that Buble is a painter, and talked to him about that and realized that he's actually a pretty good guy. Good luck getting ahold of him outside of the 1-2 class hours per week though.

(V--LONG WINDED GENERALIZATIONS (POSSIBLY) TRUE FOR ALL LAWYERING PROFESSORS--V)
In general, I think you'll get out of lawyering exactly what you put in. I didn't put in enough, got an average grade in the class and my writing is crap. If I could do it again, I'd put a lot more effort into lawyering and I'd get better at writing. At the end of 1L, what you take away won't be the elements of negligence, the constitutional limitations of executive power, or the rule against perpetuities. What you'll want for your first and second summer jobs (and possibly practicing law) is the ability to research and write.

Don't do what 90% of us did and blow off lawyering as a crappy 2-hour class that everyone gets the same grade in (which isn't true anymore since the new curve). Take the time, start your memos/briefs early, revise them often, and find the TAs in your class who give good advice. Do well in lawyering and you'll be glad you did. Everyone I know who did really well in lawyering was also in (or near) the top 10% of the class. This might just be selection bias or coincidence, but working on your writing seems to help other areas of law school as well.

Summary: Don't blow off lawyering. It seems arbitrary and worthless when you have 4 other classes, but it's a real chance to start writing and researching a lot and work on some really fundamental skills.

thank you

[AdamatUCF]

Is it true that there is an escaped tiger living in the woods outside of town?

It ate a guy from my torts class. True story.

[AdamatUCF]

How about:

Johnson
Frakes
Claremont
Mooney
Eisenberg

?

I'm fairly certain Johnson didn't teach last year, so most of us won't know her.

Eisenberg, and maybe Frakes, are new so we won't have much helpful information. Eisenberg replaced the professor who'd been teaching Contracts since prehistory.

[thetobes]

Hillman is great. Dry humor, but great.

Holden-Smith will scare you to death, but you will learn a lot from her.

Bublé is good for lawyering. Listen to his suggestions. Seemed very fair to me.

Clermont wrote your book on Civ Pro. Lectures more than any other professor and loves power point. Good multimedia use in class. It seemed like it was more important to know how to find information than actually knowing the information before the test. Practice looking up answers to the details of Civ Pro. Look for what things are NOT covered by the rules.

Herstein is great. Funny, young guy. Great hypos. Theory orientated. Wants to know why we come to the policy preferences we do. Watch for central themes on how to justify or critique various policy choices.

Just chiming in: I was in Cylaw's section so I can comment on the same professors. His summaries are very good.

Civil procedure:
Clermont is theatrical. He'll make powerpoints FLASHY, he'll play little flash movies, and he'll expect in-class answers to be well thought out. He doesn't cold-call as much as other professors, but he's been known to surprise people with it. Cylaw's description of his exam is spot on. It's an exam about how well you can find the information he wants you to find. How well have you learned how the rules and book are organized? Don't let 2Ls and 3Ls freak you out about how it's random and terrible and arbitrary. For 95% of his exam, it's really hard but there's method to it.

Holden-Smith was our second-semester civ pro professor. Each day she'll choose 2-3 people to call on. Those people field pretty much EVERY SINGLE QUESTION that day. She is brilliant but terrifying. You will either keep up with the reading for her class or you will wither under her questioning. Being terrified/forced to read because of her will keep you on top everything, though.

Contracts:
Hillman is amazing. He has a very dry but funny sense of humor, and he's forgiving with cold-calls. He'll try and help you if you give a bad answer by turning it into what you might have been trying to say.

Torts:
Herstein was excellent. He's a quiet guy, so you may want to glue a megaphone to him sometimes, but he's not at all what you'd expect from a law school professor. He's laid back, friendly, and seems more interested in class-discussions than in rigid formality. Plus he almost blushed the first time we talked about "duty". Just make sure to pay attention to his policy/philosophical digressions, since 15% of our exam was policy based and 10% was philosophy based.

Lawyering:
Cylaw seems to have enjoyed Professor Buble's class more than I did. I found the class stuffy, boring, and unrelatable at first. 1Ls love to bitch and moan about lawyering class. It's our favorite past-time. I found that Buble's class got a little better the less I bitched about it and the more I worked towards it. Also, I found out that Buble is a painter, and talked to him about that and realized that he's actually a pretty good guy. Good luck getting ahold of him outside of the 1-2 class hours per week though.

(V--LONG WINDED GENERALIZATIONS (POSSIBLY) TRUE FOR ALL LAWYERING PROFESSORS--V)
In general, I think you'll get out of lawyering exactly what you put in. I didn't put in enough, got an average grade in the class and my writing is crap. If I could do it again, I'd put a lot more effort into lawyering and I'd get better at writing. At the end of 1L, what you take away won't be the elements of negligence, the constitutional limitations of executive power, or the rule against perpetuities. What you'll want for your first and second summer jobs (and possibly practicing law) is the ability to research and write.

Don't do what 90% of us did and blow off lawyering as a crappy 2-hour class that everyone gets the same grade in (which isn't true anymore since the new curve). Take the time, start your memos/briefs early, revise them often, and find the TAs in your class who give good advice. Do well in lawyering and you'll be glad you did. Everyone I know who did really well in lawyering was also in (or near) the top 10% of the class. This might just be selection bias or coincidence, but working on your writing seems to help other areas of law school as well.

Summary: Don't blow off lawyering. It seems arbitrary and worthless when you have 4 other classes, but it's a real chance to start writing and researching a lot and work on some really fundamental skills.

Awesome info! Thank you so much.