Stanford 1L taking questions for a bit Forum

[Yukos]

I asked this in another thread but no one answered so I'll try here

How do the 1L electives work? Is there a limited set of choices, or are you free to try any of the 2L/3L electives?

Thanks!

The 1L elective choice is limited. There are still good options among them.

Do you remember what a couple of the classes are? If not it's cool, not like this matters in choosing but I'm curious what my 1L schedule would look like

Thanks!

The winter quarter electives open to 1Ls are:
Antitrust; Civil Procedure II; Comparative Law; Deals; Employment Discrimination; Energy Law; European Union Law; Evidence; Health Care Regulation, Finance and Policy; Immigration Law; International Conflict Resolution; Law & Biosciences Workshop; Law & Culture in American Film; Law & Economics Seminar II; Legal Ethics; Legal History Workshop; Myth, Law and Practice; Natural Resource Law & Policy Workshop; Negotiation; Payment Systems; Protection of Personality; Quantitative Methods: Finance; Religion and the First Amendment; Spanish for Lawyers; Sports Law; Terrorism and the Courts; Toxic Harms; White Collar Crime; Workshop on International Security.

I believe all spring quarter electives are open to 1Ls.

Wow that's way more than HLS, for example. Thanks, it's great to know there's so many options.

[kittonmittons]

Do you feel as though there are any disadvantages to your location? For example, do you find networking to be relatively easy, given your distance from major hubs like New York and DC? Do people have any trouble with things like interviewing, given that they might have to fly cross-country? Also, thank you both so much for all your informative answers here!

[Trustbuster]

Also, for those interested as to what the spring quarter class choices would be, here's a link: http://lawreg.stanford.edu/stanford/pre ... erm=Spring

Side note for the winter class choice hdiv put down, despite Sports Law being listed, it has a prerequisite (Labor Law). So, 1Ls really cannot take it. Sorry to destroy any dreams.

[Almost1L]

What do you have to say to someone choosing between Yale and Stanford?

What will you gain at one versus the other in your opinion?

[Yukos]

Since almost everyone lives on campus, do people usually get some kind of meal plan, or do you just cook everyday in your apartment?

[Davidbentley]

What do you have to say to someone choosing between Yale and Stanford?

What will you gain at one versus the other in your opinion?

Everyone I met at Yale was a Douche. If you are a douche, go there. Your potential outcomes will be virtually identical at either school, thus it comes down to deciding based on marginal benefit. Though, if you have any interest in Silicon Valley/Emerging company work, you would be a fool to go elsewhere.

Do you feel as though there are any disadvantages to your location? For example, do you find networking to be relatively easy, given your distance from major hubs like New York and DC? Do people have any trouble with things like interviewing, given that they might have to fly cross-country? Also, thank you both so much for all your informative answers here!

No. Yes. No.

Since almost everyone lives on campus, do people usually get some kind of meal plan, or do you just cook everyday in your apartment?

A lot of people eat at the commons. People also cook. I don't think anyone does either exclusively. Frankly, it's pretty easy to get free food every day.

[khaleesi]

Anyone know how strict the pet policy is at Munger? Is it actively enforced?

[Davidbentley]

Anyone know how strict the pet policy is at Munger? Is it actively enforced?

My sense is that it's not a big priority.

[anela00]

Anyone know how strict the pet policy is at Munger? Is it actively enforced?

My sense is that it's not a big priority.

I've never lived in Munger (was under construction when I was at Stanford -- woke me up every day at 6am my sophomore year!), but I did live in Escondido Village (graduate couples housing) my senior year at Stanford. Since pets aren't allowed in any of Stanford's on-campus housing, it would be really obvious if you had a dog or something. Which makes me sad because I would love to live with my dog in Munger

[WalkingPlato]

How is the diversity? Does Stanford really take into account the personal statement as much as people say?

[Davidbentley]

How is the diversity? Does Stanford really take into account the personal statement as much as people say?

1) Ah. Seems pretty representative of the country. One thing to note though, all alumni/student groups are smaller at Stanford because of the numbers. You don't get the 150-200 person strong affinity groups that you would at HLS.

2) Who knows. There are a lot of interesting people here, but no one really talks #'s so I couldn't tell you if they got in because they were interesting. The general consensus is that it is a somewhat less formulaic process. Some of the people here have done Jedi Awesome shit. But, they also seem pretty bad ass. It wouldn't surprise me if they had awesome #'s as well.

[whitemamba]

I saw others ranting about their rejections at the DING BAR. I'm guessing I'll be getting mine soon. But I want to go down fighting. I'm going to write a LOCI tomorrow to the admission council. They probably get tens daily. My thinking is that it won't hurt if I'm going to get rejected anways. Any thoughts?

[vzapana]

what's the worst aspect of sls?

[Davidbentley]

I saw others ranting about their rejections at the DING BAR. I'm guessing I'll be getting mine soon. But I want to go down fighting. I'm going to write a LOCI tomorrow to the admission council. They probably get tens daily. My thinking is that it won't hurt if I'm going to get rejected anways. Any thoughts?

Not much I can say on the subject. I think the general TLS advice applies: It probably doesn't help for initial admit decisions, it might for waitlists, but it couldn't hurt. If you have something worth saying, go ahead and say it. You don't want to feel like you left anything on the table.

what's the worst aspect of sls?

Tough. My biggest dislike is the small size. But, that is also probably one of the things I like most about it. It's nice knowing almost every person at the school, but I get tired of waving at people. Also, because of the size, there are actually more events,organizations, and journal slots, then there are people to fill them. 40 members of law review out of a 180 person class is pretty sweet. I don't hate anything about it. At least, I don't think I hate anything that is peculiar to SLS. That is, yes, there are many douchebags here, but that's Law School, and I think the proportion is fairly low compared to other schools. Though, I'm fairly easy to please, and might not be representative.

It might be helpful if I give you a general sense of some of the complaints that people have and my assessment of the merit of those complaints. There's a lot of bitching about Palo Alto in general. It usually runs along the lines of, "Berkeley is so much more vibrant."--Hippies. Or, "I really miss NYC."--People who interned in NYC. Palo Alto is a wealthy suburb. It has tons of the kind of California foothill town vibe, coupled with the high end gentrification/main street/ central business district feel that you get in wealthy suburbs. There's tons of outdoorsy stuff to do, and every stereotypical California Suburb thing you can imagine. It's a bubble, a very nice bubble.

People complain a lot about the gym facilities on campus. They're nice, but overcrowded. Another facility is being planned, but for the time being, they're overrun with STEM undergrads who stare at you. If you go at slow hours it's not bad. Even though you can take many classes outside of the law school (after 1L), there's not much interaction with other departments, I.E., Mixers etc. For some people this is a criticism. My Idea of fun does not include hanging out with PHD and MBA students. Undergrad dorms are right next to Munger, some don't like it. I do.

The quarter system is a source of some discussion. Essentially, I and most people dig it. However, the 1st quarter is not, in any real sense, a quarter. It runs from the end of August until the middle of December. Also, in order to jam in the 1 elective second quarter and the 3+ electives 3rd quarter, the 1st "quarter" contains 5 classes. 4 Doctrinal + Graded LRW. It means that you will have your most labor intensive quarter when you are least capable of handling the workload. It sucks for a bit, but it is nice to be three weeks away from being essentially done with the required 1L Courses. The academic calender has given some people some worry. We finish June 7th and need to be back on August 17th for OCI. That gives you 10 weeks if you don't take any time off. 2L/3L classes don't start until late September.

I hope this helps. If you have any specific concerns, I can probably be more helpful. Overall, it's a pretty sweet waste of 3 years.

[lakers24fan]

What's quality of life like at Stanford? I'm from SoCal and debating between SLS and HLS, and my decision seems to be coming down to where I'm gonna enjoy myself most. I went to undergrad in L.A., so I definitely enjoy being near a major city/having lots of stuff to do/being able to get out of the bubble/partying/drinking.

What do students at SLS do for fun (when you have time)? Doesn't it get somewhat boring and tiring living in suburbia, seemigly isolated from everything?

[lakers24fan]

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[Yukos]

Since this thread seems dead, I'm a Stanford 1L entering winter quarter happy to take questions (if there's any interest).

[splat232]

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[Yukos]

Since this thread seems dead, I'm a Stanford 1L entering winter quarter happy to take questions (if there's any interest).

I'm currently debating between HLS and SLS. I'm originally from the northeast, but the idea of relocating to California is just as appealing as staying back east, so I'm really open to both schools at this point. My decision, like one of the posters above, seems to be coming down to quality of life.

Do you have any thoughts on student life at Stanford? Do you like the small size of the student body, or can the social scene get tiring? What about Palo Alto? It generally seems to be a much less exciting area to live in than Cambridge. On the other hand, I'm into skiing/the outdoors so having Tahoe within driving distance might make up for the fact that it's in suburbia.

I had the exact same choice and I can tell you honestly I am soooo happy I chose Stanford. Obviously any comparison you'll hear is one sided because (with a couple exceptions, I guess) everyone only attends one or the other, but I can tell you I love it here.

Everything starts with the small size. I know almost everyone by name and can go to any social function and be sure that there's a decent group of people I know well to talk to. At the same time, everyone has extremely different backgrounds so conversations are almost always really interesting. I got along great with people at HLS's ASW but it seemed to tilt towards overachieving K-JDs, whereas Stanford is almost all people who have been out in the world at least a year and done something really cool (intelligence officer, IDF liaison, Jeopardy contestant, TMNJ episode writer, undocumented farm workers organizer, to name a few).

The small size also means that we have crazy access to our professors. For example, Pamela Karlan, who has been mentioned as a potential SCOTUS justice and who will be running the DOJ's post-Shelby voting rights strategy took every person in her class out to lunch (and I talked with her personally many times). If you have any interest in clerkships or doing research with professors, I think Stanford is a much better place because of this access. Also, our writing class is only 30 students (first quarter, second and third quarters it drops down to 18), and I think Harvard's is 80 (which I just can't imagine--legal writing is hard enough as it is). Finally, I've heard many clinics are hard to get into at Harvard but you can almost always get the clinic you want here (the exception being the Supreme Court Clinic, for obvious reasons).

Based on the one night I spent there, I think Cambridge has a much better bar scene than Palo Alto, but we get out to the bars almost every week and it's still pretty fun. San Francisco is surprisingly hard to get to, and I don't think 1Ls spend much time out there (2Ls and 3Ls do, though, and many 3Ls live there). I don't mind being out here at all (and I don't even have a car) but if you really want an urban school or your social life revolves around bars (as opposed to my preference, house parties) than Harvard will probably be better for you. As an aside, Stanford is an open-container campus, which is really fun.

I imagine all the outdoors stuff is better here. Skiing in Tahoe is much better than East Coast skiing, and there's tons of great hiking around Stanford (including on campus). Also, don't underestimate the weather. Today is the coldest day this week and the high is 61. The high in Cambridge today is 21. You will be crushed with work the last couple weeks of fall quarter and it is so important to be able to go outside, run, bike, whatever because the sun is out and it's in the low-60s. This isn't LA or Florida--it's not warm every day--but the vast majority of the time it's the equivalent of an April or May day on the East Coast.

Some other things to consider: housing on-campus here is 1000000x nicer than at Harvard, our grading system is more forgiving (no GPA, no LP), I think we get electives earlier (could be wrong though), much easier to get Law Review here (similar number of slots, 1/3 as much competition), quarters are hectic but allow you to cycle through a lot of classes, clinics are full-time here, our first year is longer than HLS's (I don't mind so far but in June this might bother me). Obviously tons of brilliant people go to HLS every year, do great and love it. But again, choosing Stanford was one of the best decisions of my life and literally every day I think about how great my life is here (despite the stress and work that naturally comes with 1L).

[splat232]

.

[drawstring]

Have you ever heard of someone getting restricted credit in a course?

[khaleesi]

Have you ever heard of someone getting restricted credit in a course?

One of my profs said she gave out 2 in 10+ years of teaching. I feel like everyone knows someone who knows someone who got an R, but it's still super rare. It's more likely on pure multiple choice exams because then your exam can be objectively bad, but usually you should be able to download an old outline and string together a coherent answer to get your P.

[Yukos]

Unless you're going full-on "straight Ps = 160 Gs" and literally refusing to study I wouldn't waste any time thinking about RCs.

[Cicero76]

What do you have to say to someone choosing between Yale and Stanford?

What will you gain at one versus the other in your opinion?

Everyone I met at Yale was a Douche. If you are a douche, go there.

Quoting for irony. 179 humbledouche

[ThinkNegative]

What do you have to say to someone choosing between Yale and Stanford?

What will you gain at one versus the other in your opinion?

Everyone I met at Yale was a Douche. If you are a douche, go there.

Quoting for irony. 179 humbledouche

Hereby disowning that guy...