Stanford 1L taking questions Forum

[JeremyPaul]

thanks so much for all this advice! reading this forum has been really helpful for me as an SLS admit.

i have a question about social life / housing. right now my plan for next year is to live on campus (probably rains or EV cause of $$) during the week, but spend friday night, saturday night (and maybe sunday night) up in san francisco to be with my partner. it'll suck to be away from him during the week, but i don't think the commute is really realistic during the first year.

anyways, my question is whether i'll get to be involved in the social scene on campus even if i'm not around on the weekends. will people be hanging out during the week at all? i know we're all going to be killer busy, but i guess i'm just thinking that it's not worth living down on campus if i won't even have people to eat meals with / talk to / de-stress, etc.

would love to hear your take on this!

[dc1s]

JP, Bar Review (law students pick a bar to meet up) is every Thursday night, so you will at least have that.

[JeremyPaul]

Bar Review (law students pick a bar to meet up) is every Thursday night, so you will at least have that.

agreed. now just have to ask myself if that's worth it... though i guess i'll save tons of time on the commute, too.

[tgir]

tag

[lawschool2k11]

Question for SLSers: Does the late end date of classes impact summer job opportunities in any way (including some of the DC government summer programs)?

[JeremyPaul]

Does the late end date of classes impact summer job opportunities in anyway

a few people asked about this during diversity preview day. the answer i heard was that many nonprofits and government offices were excited to have someone who could work through all of august and also some of september. this is often when orgs don't have any legal interns and so they were very excited to have someone cover that span. the 3L who talked about this had worked for the federal department of education and said he also got a lot more responsibilities during that period because no other law students were in the office. he also split his summer so that the first half was at a firm in dc and the second half at the department of ed, thus spending the less "traditional" part of his summer with the gov while the "traditional" part was with a firm.

[Kretzy]

Question for SLSers: Does the late end date of classes impact summer job opportunities in anyway (including some of the DC government summer programs)?

On the firm side, most of the firms I spoke with had separate start dates for Stanford/Chicago students; I know some will make 1Ls shorten their summers so they aren't staying too much longer than their other summer counterparts (for example, I'm spending 9 weeks at my firm instead of 10, and I'm staying 2 weeks longer than anyone else due to our late end date). I don't know anyone adversely affected by ending late, except folks who wanted a longer summer break before/after a job.

[chup]

thanks so much for all this advice! reading this forum has been really helpful for me as an SLS admit.

i have a question about social life / housing. right now my plan for next year is to live on campus (probably rains or EV cause of $$) during the week, but spend friday night, saturday night (and maybe sunday night) up in san francisco to be with my partner. it'll suck to be away from him during the week, but i don't think the commute is really realistic during the first year.

anyways, my question is whether i'll get to be involved in the social scene on campus even if i'm not around on the weekends. will people be hanging out during the week at all? i know we're all going to be killer busy, but i guess i'm just thinking that it's not worth living down on campus if i won't even have people to eat meals with / talk to / de-stress, etc.

would love to hear your take on this!

Diff'rent strokes, man. Some people spend seemingly half their 1L year on the second floor of the library, and that becomes a social hub. Others (including me) treat it like the hermetically sealed, claustrophobic death trap that it is and do their socializing elsewhere. If you're the kind of person that will hang around the law school even when you don't immediately have classes, you'll probably be fine.

Oh, and bar review.

[JeremyPaul]

thanks aschup! good to know where is, and is not, a deathtrap.

[MaxWeber]

.

[notanumber]

i'm currently tearing my hair out over SLS vs. HLS. i want to eventually work in public service and try to run for elected office in NorCal (originally from CA), and even though i feel that SLS would be a more "comfortable" experience (i.e. less stressful), my impression is that HLS is where the people who run the country come from....any SLSers want to talk me down from going to HLS? i had been pro-Stanford since day 1 but the history/tradition/prestige thing really got to me, quality of life be damned.

Either school will be fine if you want to work in NorCal politics (but...why?). Both SLS and HLS grads are deeply involved in local and regional politics (from every political perspective) and one will not necessarily be better than the other.

That being said, going to Stanford will enable you to start getting involved in politics as a law student which will certainly help you to make connections and if working in NorCal politics is your single-minded goal, would clearly be the better choice.

[neonx]

Thanks for this helpful, helpful thread.

Also, are incoming 1Ls typically able to get lotteried into the 2-bedroom/2-bath Munger suite?

[BioEBear2010]

Also, are incoming 1Ls typically able to get lotteried into the 2-bedroom/2-bath Munger suite?

There aren't many of these units available, but I do know some current 1Ls living in 'em. I don't know how many 1Ls apply for the 2-bedroom, so i can't say with any certainty how easy they are to snag. SLS 1Ls do, though, have the highest rooming priority of any student at Stanford.

[neonx]

Also, are incoming 1Ls typically able to get lotteried into the 2-bedroom/2-bath Munger suite?

There aren't many of these units available, but I do know some current 1Ls living in 'em. I don't know how many 1Ls apply for the 2-bedroom, so i can't say with any certainty how easy they are to snag. SLS 1Ls do, though, have the highest rooming priority of any student at Stanford.

On the Stanford Graduate Housing web site (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/rde/shs/grad/res_chart.htm), there are rates for the Academic Year (9/16/11 - 6/18/11). Stanford Law doesn't begin in September does it?

I thought the move-in was mid-to-late August.

[BioEBear2010]

On the Stanford Graduate Housing web site (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/rde/shs/grad/res_chart.htm), there are rates for the Academic Year (9/16/11 - 6/18/11). Stanford Law doesn't begin in September does it?

I thought the move-in was mid-to-late August.

It is. There's an exception for SLS (and I think Stanford Med) students.

[Kretzy]

i'm currently tearing my hair out over SLS vs. HLS. i want to eventually work in public service and try to run for elected office in NorCal (originally from CA), and even though i feel that SLS would be a more "comfortable" experience (i.e. less stressful), my impression is that HLS is where the people who run the country come from....any SLSers want to talk me down from going to HLS? i had been pro-Stanford since day 1 but the history/tradition/prestige thing really got to me, quality of life be damned.

None of us are going to talk you down. If you like the name of HLS, and that's something important to you, you should probably go there. The lack of grades here means you can spend almost all of your time on local politics, if that's your thing, so sacrificing starting those relationships for a possible marginal gain from HLS' name (or network) seems silly, but I suppose I've heard sillier reasons.

Harvard's awesome. It sounds like you want that name (and some impression you believe follows it) forever, and that's really important to you. So go there.

[chup]

i'm currently tearing my hair out over SLS vs. HLS. i want to eventually work in public service and try to run for elected office in NorCal (originally from CA), and even though i feel that SLS would be a more "comfortable" experience (i.e. less stressful), my impression is that HLS is where the people who run the country come from....any SLSers want to talk me down from going to HLS? i had been pro-Stanford since day 1 but the history/tradition/prestige thing really got to me, quality of life be damned.

None of us are going to talk you down. If you like the name of HLS, and that's something important to you, you should probably go there. The lack of grades here means you can spend almost all of your time on local politics, if that's your thing, so sacrificing starting those relationships for a possible marginal gain from HLS' name (or network) seems silly, but I suppose I've heard sillier reasons.

Harvard's awesome. It sounds like you want that name (and some impression you believe follows it) forever, and that's really important to you. So go there.

This is some excellent reverse psychology.

Unrelated, but since this is the ask-a-1L thread: why is 90% OF YOUR CLASS taking Lemley's IP course?

[Kretzy]

This is some excellent reverse psychology.

Unrelated, but since this is the ask-a-1L thread: why is 90% OF YOUR CLASS taking Lemley's IP course?

I'm not sure why everyone's taking Lemley. I'm in it, and it's taught me that I don't want to do IP, so I guess that's a net-positive. Honestly, I thought the class was going to be larger, since it seems like Evidence with Fisher was bigger last term.

[BioEBear2010]

This is some excellent reverse psychology.

Unrelated, but since this is the ask-a-1L thread: why is 90% OF YOUR CLASS taking Lemley's IP course?

I'm not sure why everyone's taking Lemley. I'm in it, and it's taught me that I don't want to do IP, so I guess that's a net-positive. Honestly, I thought the class was going to be larger, since it seems like Evidence with Fisher was bigger last term.

I thought there would be more 1Ls in it, too, given the Evidence explosion last quarter. But still, it's crazy crowded (and I hate my seat in the back of the class).

But I'm an IP hopeful, so don't look at me

[JeremyPaul]

Anybody know which faculty at SLS are openly LGBT? So far all I got is Prof Karlan and Prof Sullivan. Anybody else?

[Kretzy]

Anybody know which faculty at SLS are openly LGBT? So far all I got is Prof Karlan and Prof Sullivan. Anybody else?

Jane Schacter, Juliet Brodie and George Fisher are as well. I'm probably forgetting folks, but those are people I know off the top of my head.

[MaxWeber]

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[Lt. Aldo Raine]

This link says that around half of the spots in Munger are quads, with the remainder being mostly studios.

https://www.stanford.edu/dept/rde/shs/g ... _chart.htm

I'd say a majority of 1Ls living in Munger are living in quads that they drew into with blind roommates, but, as BioEBear said above, we do not know much about the relative difficulty of drawing each option. You see more of a mix in the type of students 1Ls end up with. I live with 3 other 1Ls. Most 1Ls in quads have at least 1 roommate in a different program.

[MaxWeber]

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[JeremyPaul]

Jane Schacter, Juliet Brodie and George Fisher are as well.

thanks kretz!