GULC Students Taking Questions Forum

[Mr. Blackacre]

Another vote in defense of the registrar (can't believe I'm saying that). Grade delay is 95% professors. I already have one of my grades back. Last semester, I had one grade back a week (!!) after the exam - and from a professor who has a legitimately insane schedule outside of GULC (should be fairly easy to guess who). On the other hand, I've also had the whole 5 weeks to grade the exam, takes the 3 day grace period deal too.

[Glasseyes]

This is the same registrar that continually sends out the wrong instructions to exams (seen it happen at least 4 times already); the same registrar who sent a classmate the wrong LRW prompt entirely, failed to catch the error until after the kid wrote the brief, so the kid had to write a second brief in the middle of exams with nothing but a lazy apology in exchange; the same registrar who enabled the disastrous grade switcheroo last year, ruining the curve for an entire section. Yeah, great registrar we've got.

[TLSModBot]

Again, 5 people for 1500 or so students (each taking anywhere from 4-7 classes). Also no one notices when things go right, only when they go wrong.

Although with MyAccess being down I'm feeling a lot less charitable toward them at the moment.

But seriously: fuck the administration that spends its money on vice-presidents and not more/better paid staff. There is zero incentive to work well in a non-faculty role in GULC because there is no appreciation and substandard pay (with a general hiring/pay freeze to boot!)

[BmoreOrLess]

I'm excited for the impending posting of 3L grades but not 2L grades for mixed classes, leading to an inevitable fuck up that would not occur if they posted all of the grades at once.

[TLSModBot]

I'm excited for the impending posting of 3L grades but not 2L grades for mixed classes, leading to an inevitable fuck up that would not occur if they posted all of the grades at once.

I still haven't gotten half my grades back so who knows if I'll even have 'em in time for graduation - you 2Ls might be getting grades before some of us 3L's do.

[qlinault]

I'm excited for the impending posting of 3L grades but not 2L grades for mixed classes, leading to an inevitable fuck up that would not occur if they posted all of the grades at once.

Do they actually do this? Is this why some curves are unavailable?

[TLSModBot]

I'm excited for the impending posting of 3L grades but not 2L grades for mixed classes, leading to an inevitable fuck up that would not occur if they posted all of the grades at once.

Do they actually do this? Is this why some curves are unavailable?

Yeah I have all my grades now

[JTIII]

Eh, it's not hard to tell who was section 3 and who wasn't. The section 3 student body is—and this is absolutely a generalization—the definition of bleeding-heart, dyed-in-the-wool liberal, PI-focused, change-the-world-through-progressive-policy types. I've met a couple kids who don't fit that description who did section 3: a couple of them thought it was fine, and a few absolutely hated it. Meanwhile, the PI-types who do it do usually love it. Overall it seems like a tight-knit group, possibly because they know the rest of the school is laughing at them.

GULC will tell you it doesn't matter at all for hiring, and maybe they're right, but that's not the impression I get from firm interviewers. Comments I got during OCI interviews:

"Wait, you guys have that weird section, right? Like some kind of stupid public interest thing that doesn't mean anything. Man, why would anyone do that?"
From an alum: "did they get rid of section 3 yet?"
"Just to confirm, you weren't curriculum B, right?" -asked completely deadpan, in all seriousness.

A lot of non-section 3 professors also mock it pretty hard when section 3 kids aren't around, and of course a lot of the student body does as well. I know some very PI-centric kids from my section who think the section 3 kids are goofy. But live and let live. We try to let them live in their blissful little bubble, which not-coincidentally fits their worldview pretty well. I'm partly teasing, but in all seriousness, unless you have a compelling reason to do it—like: you have zero interest in the private sector, you know that isn't ever going to change, unlike the other 85% of PI-only people that come to law school yet still do OCI, and you legitimately want to work for an NGO or do civil rights work, and nothing else in life would make you happy—yeah, unless that's you, I would steer clear.

I was in section 3 this year. If I could do it over again, I probably would not choose the section 3 route, but not because the rest of the school was laughing at us (lol). Background: I was a paralegal at a top NYC firm before law school. I chose section 3 because I was a social science UG major and thought curriculum B, which pulls in social science (and other related) concepts, might be interesting. But ultimately (maybe just my perception), the workload was heavier (one extra class in the fall semester + a lot of reading in general), the students were more committed (probably a self-selection thing), and the professors seemed to expect more because "you're section 3" (heard this a lot). Yes, many people who choose section 3 are hardcore PI-oriented, but I was surprised to find that at least a comparable number of people are going for the firm jobs. There isn't really anything in the curriculum that makes it inherently public interest-y. This hippie/save the world stereotype isn't accurate.

[BmoreOrLess]

I'm excited for the impending posting of 3L grades but not 2L grades for mixed classes, leading to an inevitable fuck up that would not occur if they posted all of the grades at once.

Do they actually do this? Is this why some curves are unavailable?

Yeah I have all my grades now

I'm still missing my doctrinals that had 3L's in them.

[buckiguy_sucks]

do they release an answer sheet for the bb test after write on

i know they don't do scores but i'm curious about the bb test specifically since they could just release an answer key and we could self check

[BmoreOrLess]

Nope.

[Glasseyes]

do they release an answer sheet for the bb test after write on

i know they don't do scores but i'm curious about the bb test specifically since they could just release an answer key and we could self check

No answer sheet. And I'm 99.9% confident ours had actual/unintended typos in addition to the shit we were supposed to catch.

Let's take a trip down memory lane: we got an obscure international cite that based one of its index numbers on a date—the index number was separate from the "year" component of the cite, which is when the claim was filed rather than initiated, if that makes sense (that took like an hour of outside research to confirm; fuck my life)—and that index number mistakenly read 2102 instead of 2012. Did they account for that when grading? Doubtful, because the rule wasn't even described adequately in the BB, it was just a straight up transcription error. So is that "correct" for purposes of the BB exam? Who fucking knows. The gods of law review are arbitrary and capricious, with zero accountability.

[Hand]

The gods of law review are arbitrary and capricious, with zero accountability.

^ why I want to be on main journal

[TLSModBot]

My annual PSA: All Journals are dumb; they don't teach you anything, and the boost in hiring is very minor/nonexistent compared to the work (ESPECIALLY for main journal).

Also when you don't listen and complain later about the pointless bitchwork I reserve the right to laugh at you.

[buckiguy_sucks]

My annual PSA: All Journals are dumb; they don't teach you anything, and the boost in hiring is very minor/nonexistent compared to the work (ESPECIALLY for main journal).

Also when you don't listen and complain later about the pointless bitchwork I reserve the right to laugh at you.

my reasoning is that its easier to not have to answer "why aren't you on a journal"

i'm a garbage interviewer and trying to minimize chances to say something dumb

[buckiguy_sucks]

but also lol @ a test about being meticulous having typos

[Gray]

.

[Glasseyes]

My annual PSA: All Journals are dumb; they don't teach you anything, and the boost in hiring is very minor/nonexistent compared to the work (ESPECIALLY for main journal).

Also when you don't listen and complain later about the pointless bitchwork I reserve the right to laugh at you.

my reasoning is that its easier to not have to answer "why aren't you on a journal"

i'm a garbage interviewer and trying to minimize chances to say something dumb

Some law firms have a No Journal No Interview policy. And other law firms assume that if you don't have it on your resume, you didn't make it.

Eh, I think way less firms are in that camp than the alternative. If you're gunning for Williams & Connolly, yeah, you better shoot for main journal, because you'll need it to get your clerkship anyway, and you're not getting an offer without a clerkship. Meanwhile there are people going to V5's with secondary journals. Could you land those gigs with no journal at all? Who knows.

For what it's worth, I tried for main journal and landed on a secondary, and I took it cuz getting a job trumps all else ans anything that might help is worth doing. Journal still sucks ass, but I didn't strike out, so I guess it's worth it?

[TLSModBot]

I understand the pre-OCI nervousness. Protip: unless you're gunning for WillCo/clerkship/highest-end outcomes, you can drop out of Journal after OCI. Here's how you do it:

1. Get your offer an lock it in post-OCI (the easy part I know, right?)
2. Call/email your recruiting contact and ask if they would care if you drop journal (give whatever excuse most makes sense - but "I want to focus on my studies" is always a good generic one).
3. They will say "We don't care"
4. Tell Journal to go fuck themselves and that you've already notified your firm.

Journals are toothless to enforce any kind of commitment, so you do so entirely at your own sufferance. Got this info, btw, from a V10 associate during a callback. Also have heard of others doing it and was envious - didn't do it myself because I'm a masochist.

[Gray]

.

[Hand]

I understand the pre-OCI nervousness. Protip: unless you're gunning for WillCo/clerkship/highest-end outcomes, you can drop out of Journal after OCI. Here's how you do it:

1. Get your offer an lock it in post-OCI (the easy part I know, right?)
2. Call/email your recruiting contact and ask if they would care if you drop journal (give whatever excuse most makes sense - but "I want to focus on my studies" is always a good generic one).
3. They will say "We don't care"
4. Tell Journal to go fuck themselves and that you've already notified your firm.

Journals are toothless to enforce any kind of commitment, so you do so entirely at your own sufferance. Got this info, btw, from a V10 associate during a callback. Also have heard of others doing it and was envious - didn't do it myself because I'm a masochist.

or maybe because you're not a dick? quitting means other people will need to do the shit they expected you to do, and those other people already have enough things to do

either way it wouldn't be an option for me as I'm skipping OCI and will need everything I can get that makes me look in any way appealing on my resume to help me hustle my way to an acceptable PI gig come 3L

[TLSModBot]

I understand the pre-OCI nervousness. Protip: unless you're gunning for WillCo/clerkship/highest-end outcomes, you can drop out of Journal after OCI. Here's how you do it:

1. Get your offer an lock it in post-OCI (the easy part I know, right?)
2. Call/email your recruiting contact and ask if they would care if you drop journal (give whatever excuse most makes sense - but "I want to focus on my studies" is always a good generic one).
3. They will say "We don't care"
4. Tell Journal to go fuck themselves and that you've already notified your firm.

Journals are toothless to enforce any kind of commitment, so you do so entirely at your own sufferance. Got this info, btw, from a V10 associate during a callback. Also have heard of others doing it and was envious - didn't do it myself because I'm a masochist.

or maybe because you're not a dick? quitting means other people will need to do the shit they expected you to do, and those other people already have enough things to do

either way it wouldn't be an option for me as I'm skipping OCI and will need everything I can get that makes me look in any way appealing on my resume to help me hustle my way to an acceptable PI gig come 3L

I'm sure you'd feel exactly the same if you were asked to do bluebooking DURING OCI week (I was!). Or be forced into meaningless new initiatives by eager-beaver EICs whose big plans critically lack actual thought on implementation ("everybody write blog posts for the 3 blogs we're launching except we didn't actually figure out how they're getting hosted but hey write shit anyway we'll figure it out except we never will and whoops it's the next EIC's problem now!"). I could go on about the structural problems inherent in running an organization through yearly changing know-nothing law students but y'all will get to experience it firsthand. Main Journal apparently suffers less structural defects butbhas WAY more work so enjoy that!

Fuck Georgetown's 12 (and ever-growing) journals. When you consider the entire system is a glorified busywork-laden means of allowing law school professors to engage in what is largely a self or co-referential circlejerk (sorry, 'legal academia') just lol at deriving some sense of duty towards it.

[EzraFitz]

I don't mind people who use journal at OCI and then drop it, so long as they aren't a dick about it, and about notifying their firm. Whatever you think of it, tell the firm and don't push back. It's a great way to get the Journal Board to hate you, the school to get pissed, and both to email your employer if you don't. And trust me, they won't be as chill about it as you calling the recruiting coordinator. So be smart, just let them know.

[BmoreOrLess]

I don't mind people who use journal at OCI and then drop it, so long as they aren't a dick about it, and about notifying their firm. Whatever you think of it, tell the firm and don't push back. It's a great way to get the Journal Board to hate you, the school to get pissed, and both to email your employer if you don't. And trust me, they won't be as chill about it as you calling the recruiting coordinator. So be smart, just let them know.

TBF, like 10 people would need to drop off TTL for it to have an appreciable impact.

[EzraFitz]

I don't mind people who use journal at OCI and then drop it, so long as they aren't a dick about it, and about notifying their firm. Whatever you think of it, tell the firm and don't push back. It's a great way to get the Journal Board to hate you, the school to get pissed, and both to email your employer if you don't. And trust me, they won't be as chill about it as you calling the recruiting coordinator. So be smart, just let them know.

TBF, like 10 people would need to drop off TTL for it to have an appreciable impact.

This is true. Everyone would edit 5 footnotes instead of 4. TRAGEDY.