Ask UCLA 1Ls/2L (3L posters also wanted!) Forum

[krad]

How feasible would it be for you to mail me some Diddy Riese?

Epic request.

Edit: Hah took me a minute to get this one.

2.) Suggestion: good place to be Monday night around 5:00 pm----The inverted fountain. Go and you'll see what I mean.

It's a serious request!!!! I miss those cookies

Meeeeee toooooooo

[jay115]

Yep. Somewhat related I noticed that there are a LOT of double bruins at the law school.

i hate the phrase, "double bruin." i think it's so stupid every time i hear it.

[JJDancer]

What's the overall 1L student body like? (age-wise, diversity, do you only meet people in your section, study groups, places to study)

Thanks!

[weee]

What's the overall 1L student body like? (age-wise, diversity, do you only meet people in your section, study groups, places to study)

Thanks!

In my large section most people seem to be 21-23 with a few of us outliers above that, I know there are a few 40 somethings in other sections. I've met people from a lot of different states that attended a lot of different schools and represent a pretty decent range of UG majors. Meeting people outside of your section will primarily happen if you join one of the sports/clubs/diversity groups and at Bar Reviews, and that will expand. The people I hang out with socially most are not in my section.

People definitely seem to break off into smaller subgroups and it happens pretty fast, but I haven't done that so much.

Study groups seemed to form early, but not everyone is a big fan of them, I didn't end up studying in groups at all for finals this semester during the actual study period.

I feel like a lot of people study in the library. I also see some people studying at coffee shops near Weyburn. Usually if they are at a coffee shop, it will be a few students there studying independently but kind of just feeling good having company.

[jay115]

What's the overall 1L student body like? (age-wise, diversity, do you only meet people in your section, study groups, places to study)

Thanks!

The average age is 25, but most of the people I hang out with or see out at the bars are below 25. More than 50% of people come from out-of-state (a lot of us who went to colleges on the East Coast count for in-state bc we went to high school in CA).

I agree with what weee said about study groups. I joined a study group with my friends pretty early on, but we just dicked around, and I can't say it helped. Until practice exam time, I don't think study groups are helpful. I'm probably still going to study in a group, however, because the library can get dry and boring alone. Unlike weee, most of my friends are from my section, and my section does a bunch of stuff together (dinners out of Westwood and at different peep's places, drinking, etc). I'm part of a identity org, but it just so happened that most of the 1Ls in that org were placed in the same section - which was kind of cool.

I would like to meet more people out of my section, but law school is structured in such a way that it's decently difficult to do so (classes are scheduled for different times of the day, constant exposure to the same people, etc). If you live in Weyburn (grad student housing), it's probably easier to interact with people out of your section.

Diversity-wise: UCLA is decently diverse, but I guess it depends on the sub-group. Women, LGBT, and Asians are decently represented, whereas Latinos and Blacks less so.

[Steveserna25]

Where would you guys suggest living for 1L's? Grad housing or apartments off campus? What are the pros and cons of both? Right now I'm considering moving in with one of my best friends from college because he just got a pretty good job out in Santa Monica. So we've been talking about getting a place in SAMO or Westwood. Thanks in advance.

[weee]

Where would you guys suggest living for 1L's? Grad housing or apartments off campus? What are the pros and cons of both? Right now I'm considering moving in with one of my best friends from college because he just got a pretty good job out in Santa Monica. So we've been talking about getting a place in SAMO or Westwood. Thanks in advance.

This question depends a lot more on you than anything else. If you are pretty social and have no problem meeting people, then you should have no problem living somewhere other than Weyburn.

I live in Weyburn, so I will give you the pros and cons from my perspective.

Pro:
A ton of 1Ls live here.
There is usually a pre-game before any bar review that will take place with members of your section.
There's a convenient campus bus that takes you pretty close to the law school.
There are a few mixers where you can meet non law school grad students in weyburn if you are so inclined.

Con:
There's some construction going on, so there's a slight chance you will encounter a lot of noise during weekdays (usually not that important since you're mostly in class).
It is expensive. Rent is around 1100 for a 2BR and 1200 for a studio. Parking costs extra and street parking is a pain.

I have a friend who lives a pretty good distance from campus with a friend from undergrad, and he is a social guy and I don't think feels left out at all. Weyburn is also just a campus bus drive away from the law school if you feel like going there to hang with your friends after class to eat. The bus stops at 7 but there is allegedly an after hours van that comes every 30 min until pretty late, I've never used nor seen it.

[JJDancer]

Where would you guys suggest living for 1L's? Grad housing or apartments off campus? What are the pros and cons of both?

Con:

It is expensive. Rent is around 1100 for a 2BR and 1200 for a studio. Parking costs extra and street parking is a pain.

Please fix the bolded. Not sure if you meant to be talking about a 1BR, but even then I imagine it is more than 1100 so...
Thanks.

[jay115]

I live close to the law school - 5 minute drive - and I pay $750/month with another person for a 2 bedroom apt.

[weee]

Where would you guys suggest living for 1L's? Grad housing or apartments off campus? What are the pros and cons of both?

Con:

It is expensive. Rent is around 1100 for a 2BR and 1200 for a studio. Parking costs extra and street parking is a pain.

Please fix the bolded. Not sure if you meant to be talking about a 1BR, but even then I imagine it is more than 1100 so...
Thanks.

Rent per person

[JJDancer]

Where would you guys suggest living for 1L's? Grad housing or apartments off campus? What are the pros and cons of both?

Con:

It is expensive. Rent is around 1100 for a 2BR and 1200 for a studio. Parking costs extra and street parking is a pain.

Please fix the bolded. Not sure if you meant to be talking about a 1BR, but even then I imagine it is more than 1100 so...
Thanks.

Rent per person

got it. Thanks!

[Steveserna25]

Do most of the 1L's live in Weyburn? Although I do want to live with my friend, I don't want to be left out of the social scene.

[weee]

Do most of the 1L's live in Weyburn? Although I do want to live with my friend, I don't want to be left out of the social scene.

You most likely wouldn't be left out, but it wouldn't be quite so convenient. A lot of people from out of state who don't have time to look for another place end up in Weyburn, or people who can't be assed to look for housing like myself. Probably in the vicinity of half of my section lives in Weyburn, maybe slightly less. Non Weyburn residents will often come here early in the night and just roll out together, or just meet up wherever the party is.

[sunyoo25]

Thanks for answering questions!

1. Do you leave most of your books at school or do you carry everything around with you?

2. How feasible would it be to bike from Weyburn to the law building, taking into consideration the book load, how flat the area is, and if anyone does this ever, etc..?

3. Would you say having a car is absolutely necessary? I imagine it would be difficult to do chores like grocery shopping without one, but I'm wondering if there are other convenient options, say a bus or UCLA shuttle.

4. How do the law students work out/keep in shape? Is there a good jogging trail nearby (either the law school or Weyburn)?

5. And how competitive do you find your colleagues to be? Are people generally nice about sharing notes and such?
(I've seen this question thrown around on other threads, so I thought I'd ask.)


Sorry for showering you with all these questions!

Thanks very much in advance

[weee]

Thanks for answering questions!

1. Do you leave most of your books at school or do you carry everything around with you?
The only time I leave a book at school is when I will return to school before I need to read from it again, since I rarely read ahead. Some people might just do all of their readings in the library, but I don't know anyone that does. The law school does provide you with a locker for a small fee to the Student Bar Association. I tend to only offload my books during longer lunch breaks.

2. How feasible would it be to bike from Weyburn to the law building, taking into consideration the book load, how flat the area is, and if anyone does this ever, etc..?
It isn't unheard of, most of the people that do it seem pretty sturdy to be able to deal with the book weight. I know one guy that bikes from significantly more distant than Weyburn most days. There is also a shuttle from Weyburn to Campus, but you had best allocate at least 30 minutes to the ride if you want to be on time to classes.


3. Would you say having a car is absolutely necessary? I imagine it would be difficult to do chores like grocery shopping without one, but I'm wondering if there are other convenient options, say a bus or UCLA shuttle.
Car isn't necessary, I have one and I barely use it. There are Whole Foods, Ralphs, and Trader Joe's within a reasonable walking distance. Most people still have cars, you can also just ask a friend for a ride to the store. There are a lot of buses running around town, but I don't really know where they go except that there is a convenient bus to the getty center just across Wilshire on Veteran.

4. How do the law students work out/keep in shape? Is there a good jogging trail nearby (either the law school or Weyburn)?
When I first moved in, I was shocked to see the number of joggers that would be running by on Veteran on a regular basis, I think it is a pretty popular trail. A lot of people also run around the campus. There's a pretty good sized gym in the middle of campus, but I gather it is pretty busy from my friends that go during peak hours.

5. And how competitive do you find your colleagues to be? Are people generally nice about sharing notes and such?
(I've seen this question thrown around on other threads, so I thought I'd ask.)
I always share, and I've never had a request for notes refused. There are very few people that are somewhat competitive, and they are not cutting throats or being really blatant about it. Considering the nature of law school grading, I would expect people to be more competitive than they are. Tangentially, I highly recommend dropbox as a backup method, I recommended it to a few classmates and it saved them from catastrophic note losses. If you're interested to try it and don't have it already, send me a PM so I can get a referral link (it just increased my dropbox size by 250MB)

Sorry for showering you with all these questions!

Thanks very much in advance

[supersar]

Any tips on the best way to go about finding a roommate?

[weee]

Any tips on the best way to go about finding a roommate?

http://www.law.ucla.edu/current-student ... fault.aspx

There's a roommate finder on there, I can't recall exactly when you get your lawnet account to be able to get on there.

In the housing application you get some general preferences you can include like smoking/non-smoking drinking/non-drinking how messy they are, whether they prefer to have tv/music on while studying, and when they generally like to sleep. I'm not sure how well they actually match you to someone who checks all the corresponding boxes.

Otherwise, make a friend at admitted students' day?

[chebbyshev]

I have a few questions about housing.

I want to live in either Weyburn or Hilgard apartments, because the other ones listed on UCLA's housing website look unreasonably far from campus. How are housing assignments given? Lottery, seniority or a combination of the two? As a 1L, how easy do you think it would be to get an apartment in one of those two places?

As a follow up to that last question, I was a bit surprised to see that the per-person cost of living in a studio on campus (in Weyburn or Hilgard) was basically the same as living in a double or even triple apartment. It looks like there is no monetary incentive to share your place with some random person, which seems to be the reason most people end up getting roommates in grad school anyway. So, is it difficult to land a studio on campus through the draw or whatever the system is?

I also noticed that the Weyburn apartments don't allow anything bigger than a full bed... this is sort of a minor concern but I just bought a queen bed and don't want to buy something else. I also don't fit on anything smaller than a full because I'm 6'4". Do you know if UCLA actually enforces this policy? I don't mind having less living space if I can sleep comfortably. Hilgard has a similar problem, as they only provide furnished apartments that include full beds.

I'm asking all of this I guess because I'm trying to decide whether or not to find my own place or go through UCLA. Given my interest in living close to campus, in a studio, and at a cost comparable to or even less than a place through UCLA, what would you recommend?

Thanks a lot for answering all of these questions.

[weee]

I have a few questions about housing.

I want to live in either Weyburn or Hilgard apartments, because the other ones listed on UCLA's housing website look unreasonably far from campus. How are housing assignments given? Lottery, seniority or a combination of the two? As a 1L, how easy do you think it would be to get an apartment in one of those two places?

As a follow up to that last question, I was a bit surprised to see that the per-person cost of living in a studio on campus (in Weyburn or Hilgard) was basically the same as living in a double or even triple apartment. It looks like there is no monetary incentive to share your place with some random person, which seems to be the reason most people end up getting roommates in grad school anyway. So, is it difficult to land a studio on campus through the draw or whatever the system is?

I also noticed that the Weyburn apartments don't allow anything bigger than a full bed... this is sort of a minor concern but I just bought a queen bed and don't want to buy something else. I also don't fit on anything smaller than a full because I'm 6'4". Do you know if UCLA actually enforces this policy? I don't mind having less living space if I can sleep comfortably. Hilgard has a similar problem, as they only provide furnished apartments that include full beds.

I'm asking all of this I guess because I'm trying to decide whether or not to find my own place or go through UCLA. Given my interest in living close to campus, in a studio, and at a cost comparable to or even less than a place through UCLA, what would you recommend?

Thanks a lot for answering all of these questions.

1) Housing is by lottery OR the law school has some spots reserved. These spots usually go to out of state people who won't have time to search for housing as they come in, but is also part of some scholarship offers.

2) $100/month isn't no incentive, it's just small. The bedrooms in a 2BR will hardly be able to hold a queen and nothing else, but you get a decent common area.

3) Assignment in studio/2br is by some sort of random system, but you get to set your priority of what kind of apartment you want when you apply for housing.

4) It is possible to have a queen, but I would only recommend even thinking about it if you got a studio, it would take up most of the usable space in the room. I actually planned my furniture out by looking at the floorplans online and then cutting out scale model furniture bits to see what will fit.

5) if it is not too much trouble for you, I would apply for the lottery and then also go searching for a better place, if you find something you are happy with you can just not accept the housing offer.

[silverlake33]

Thanks for taking the time to do this, OP.

Any 2/3Ls who can elaborate more on career prospects (CA and east coast) and how helpful the school is in this regard?

[weee]

Thanks for taking the time to do this, OP.

Any 2/3Ls who can elaborate more on career prospects (CA and east coast) and how helpful the school is in this regard?

You're welcome but sorry that there aren't any 2L/3L that noticed this thread or cared to post.

Here's the school released data for Class of 2009, sorry if it doesn't really shed much light on the current situation.

http://www.law.ucla.edu/career-services ... stics.aspx

I've been doing my share of networking and I can tell you the general sense of what is going on. Summer Class sizes are growing, but firms have been pretty conservative in setting their classes and then if they see additional need they sort of re-open their search. A lot of the more elite firms are really aiming to have a class size that allows them to give a 100% offer rate.

The market in CA is improving, but it is definitely slow to do so. One message was clear, grades are #1. I have a friend at a V25 in LA and he did campus recruiting last year, they pretty much had a hard cutoff at 3.5, which is well above median.

[Rory1987]

bump

[krad]

Weee thanks for taking questions. Do you know people paying OOS sticker (1L OOS, 2L/3L in-state) at UCLA? How do they feel about this now that they're actually living it?

[Rory1987]

How easy is it to take the degree back to the northeast? Know of anyone working in NY, Philly, Boston, DC, etc?

And what percentage of the class is getting BigLaw nowadays? I know UCLA is rumored to have a lot of people who want to do PI, is this true?

[weee]

Weee thanks for taking questions. Do you know people paying OOS sticker (1L OOS, 2L/3L in-state) at UCLA? How do they feel about this now that they're actually living it?

I know there are people from OOS, but nobody really talks about what their financial aid packages were. I assume that there are people OOS that are paying sticker, especially if they want to end up in CA. Even though the extra 10K sounds like a lot, that 10K extra the first year isn't going to break someone that could otherwise handle the debt if it was 10K less. That being said, EVERYONE makes sure they don't jeopardize their in state status for 2L and that meeting on how to establish in-state status was very well attended.