UVA Law Students Taking Questions Forum

[Cavalier]

i was optimistic that last wednesdays updates on evals were a sign of things to come. sadly its dropped off

But new grades are up for classes with no evals, e.g. legislation.

[omg]

i was optimistic that last wednesdays updates on evals were a sign of things to come. sadly its dropped off

But new grades are up for classes with no evals, e.g. legislation.

[shudder]

[Morgan12Oak]

What do you guys think of the tentative class schedule? any classes jump out as must-takes or must-avoids? I'm surprised Geis isn't teaching a corporations class. Since there's no more required 1L classes, I'm completely in the dark.

[thesealocust]

Depends what you're looking for. One noteworthy thing is Mahoney teaching Sec Reg, which not only promises to be fantastic, but has some interesting drama / back story to it.

[5ky]

Depends what you're looking for. One noteworthy thing is Mahoney teaching Sec Reg, which not only promises to be fantastic, but has some interesting drama / back story to it.

Go on...

[Kohinoor]

The delay we have in getting grades back is a bad joke.

[thesealocust]

It's a little TL;DR, but sec reg is a bread and butter courses some firms go so far as to require 3Ls to take before returning after graduation. The usual prof had, er, something short of a positive reputation, which meant you'd see like 7 people signed up for a course that had 90 slots (and probably as many people with a legit reason to take / interesting in taking it).

[5ky]

It's a little TL;DR, but sec reg is a bread and butter courses some firms go so far as to require 3Ls to take before returning after graduation. The usual prof had, er, something short of a positive reputation, which meant you'd see like 7 people signed up for a course that had 90 slots (and probably as many people with a legit reason to take / interesting in taking it).

Holy shit, I just checked out some of the reviews from previous semesters. Those are terrible.

[plum]

Also, I guess I should celebrate. It seems like today was the day Con Law exams were finally printed out. I thought "No Documents Found" meant something was wrong, but I guess that finally means every Professors getting to work. Hooray, or something.

i thought it was just a sign of clearing things away for the new semester class schedules, since they emailed the new classes list at the same time...but i like your optimism

[thesealocust]

Yep. Mahoney teaching it is good news.

[Cavalier]

What do you guys think of the tentative class schedule? any classes jump out as must-takes or must-avoids? I'm surprised Geis isn't teaching a corporations class. Since there's no more required 1L classes, I'm completely in the dark.

The new schedule looks amazing. Sucks that Jeffries isn't doing civil rights litigation, but there are enough great classes there to make up for it.

Fall 2011 Administrative Law 4 LC Magill, Mary E. (Magill rarely teaches Admin, and this is four credits!)
Fall 2011 Civil Rights Litigation 3 LC Collins, Michael G.
Fall 2011 Con Law II: Religious Liberty 3 LC Schwartzman, Micah J. (note that Laycock--the expert in the field--is also teaching it)
Fall 2011 Con Law II: Speech and Press 3 LC Schauer, Frederick
Fall 2011 Conflict of Laws 2 LC Collins, Michael G.
Fall 2011 Federal Courts 4 LC Jeffries, John C.
Fall 2011 Jurisprudence 3 LC Schauer, Frederick
Fall 2011 Legislation 3 LC Nelson, Caleb E.
Fall 2011 Remedies 3 LC Laycock, H D.
Fall 2011 Securities Regulation 3 LC Mahoney, Paul G. (Dean Mahoney!)

Spring 2012 Civil Liberties Survey 4 LC Laycock, H D. (Laycock is a great professor, and this is a rare four credit class)
Spring 2012 Con Law II: Religious Liberty 3 LC Laycock, H D.
Spring 2012 Constitutional Theory 3 SM Prakash, Saikrishna B. & Schwartzman, Micah
Spring 2012 Corporations 4 LC Kordana, Kevin A. (probably the best corporations available unless the new hire is good)
Spring 2012 Criminal Investigation 3 LC Coughlin, Anne M.
Spring 2012 Employment Discrimination 3 LC Rutherglen, George
Spring 2012 Evidence 3 LC Collins, Michael G. (rarely teaches evidence)
Spring 2012 Federal Courts 4 LC Nelson, Caleb E.
Spring 2012 Insurance 3 LC Abraham, Kenneth S.

[Morgan12Oak]

Thanks for that Cav. Wish the times were out, I don't want to get my hopes up.

I don't know how I missed Mahoney's Sec. Reg. I'm sure that's gonna be a great class. I'm thinking about getting that PR out of the way too; though Cohen I hear attracts the LR and haven't heard much about Hylton.

I've heard "interesting" things about Leslie. Property II sounds interesting, but from what I've heard about his classes, it doesn't sound like I'd learn a whole lot about property. It also looks like they got rid of all 3 section 1L classes.

[Cavalier]

I'm thinking about getting that PR out of the way too; though Cohen I hear attracts the LR and haven't heard much about Hylton.

Cohen attracts the LR crowd because of his grade distributions. If he thinks someone deserves an A+ (and he has given out as many as seven in a single semester), he will knock someone else down to a C+ to make it happen. His course is very dense though, and his exams are among the hardest I've seen at the law school. Unless you are trying to maximize your GPA (i.e. you're going for a clerkship), you should probably take it with someone else. The other PR classes are all a total joke.

[joeshmo39]

I have said before, and I will say again, right here, in the next clause in this very sentence, that the laptop bundles are way too expensive. Just buy a decent laptop for about 700 and you will be fine. Maybe 600, but any cheaper you are probably going to end up with a cheap, all plastic, 15", garbage machine. I have an Asus and it's nice, I also think Dell makes a decent machine. I would avoid HP and Compaq, they are both owned by HP now and both, in my experience, have poor build quality. Build quality should be a big concern because we don't need much power. I have a 1.3 Ghz dual core and it's never been a problem. Anything you buy these days will be fast enough.

Owning a Mac at UVA won't be a problem, a lot of people do. We have no special exam software that you would even need bootcamp for. I would say ~40% of students have Macs. I know some people pay for Apple Care and the UVA replacement policy, and I can understand being risk averse, but don't spend that much money for the insurance and the replacement plan. I actually agree with the Best Buy or Wal-Mart insurance policy. The best plan, the one I use, is to never take my lap top out of the law school. How you may ask? Drop Box + Desktop PC at home = light travelling awesomeness.

I will now go play Crysis, which I did not get to play during the school year (mad props to go the guy who beat Oblivion and leveled up in WoW). I did get some SC2 in and some Beyond Good and Evil. Next semester, my whole world will stop for as long as it takes to complete Mass Effect 3.

[dailygrind]

shit, i got a refurbished hp for like 300 bucks and i'm perfectly happy with it (most of the family buys refurbished since none of us have a need for real computing power - none of our computers suffer from a reliability problem). if all you do is surf the net, type, and watch tv, you don't need anything fancy at all. just make sure you like the keyboard and back your files up on dropbox. also, i highly recommend buying a monitor so you can dual screen at home. it's pretttty awesome.

[uvahooo]

[UVAHoo2013]

has anyone else with Verizon had issues around Barracks / Arlington the past few weeks? I'm about ready to switch to AT&T

[socraticmethodman]

I think I could roll with the laptop I've got now just fine, but I think I'm going to get the bundle solely for the loaner. $1400 is an expensive insurance policy, but on the extremely off chance I needed it, I would be really glad I had it.

If you already have a laptop, why not just get the new one, set it up then reformat the old one and keep it as your spare for insurance?

You can still get an extended warranty, you just don't need the extra expense of having a loaner available or same day on-site service.

This is what I plan on doing; keeping my old mac as a backup and buying a new pro from my undergrad (they have a really good special right now). I think I'm also going to get an Apple Time Capsule, just to be safe lol.

[grash]

.

[bgdddymtty]

MOrley or Hylton for trusts and estates?

I just finished Corporations with Morley, and I'd recommend him. He's really enthusiastic and doesn't hide the ball at all - he pretty much gives you everything you need to know on the final. He compensates for this by making the final ludicrously hard - it was my last final and I had a nightmare about it that managed to snap me out of my post-finals drunk coma and wake me in a cold sweat.

So, if you want to know the material, go with him. Alternatively, if you dislike uncovering the material, but excel at application, go with him. If you want to protect your grade more than learn the material, and you are better at uncovering the material than application, maybe don't go with him.

When you say "hard," what do you mean? Really deep questions? Crazy, over-the-top issue spotter? Written in Swahili?

[grash]

.

[uvahooo]

MOrley or Hylton for trusts and estates?

I just finished Corporations with Morley, and I'd recommend him. He's really enthusiastic and doesn't hide the ball at all - he pretty much gives you everything you need to know on the final. He compensates for this by making the final ludicrously hard - it was my last final and I had a nightmare about it that managed to snap me out of my post-finals drunk coma and wake me in a cold sweat.

So, if you want to know the material, go with him. Alternatively, if you dislike uncovering the material, but excel at application, go with him. If you want to protect your grade more than learn the material, and you are better at uncovering the material than application, maybe don't go with him.

When you say "hard," what do you mean? Really deep questions? Crazy, over-the-top issue spotter? Written in Swahili?

I can't access his cover sheet to determine how much depth I can go into without breaking some rules, so I'll just go off my memory of what he said in class. Essentially, the test is going to be too long given the amount of time you have.

Oh... didn't people cry after his exam? I know at least two people who were in that corps class. Also, he's new apparently so he doesn't know how to write exams.

[grash]

.

[uvahooo]

Oh... didn't people cry after his exam? I know at least two people who were in that corps class. Also, he's new apparently so he doesn't know how to write exams.

I would not at all be surprised if some people cried after that exam. As I said, it was ludicrously hard. But this is balanced out by the fact that he gives you everything. After almost every case he says "This is what I want you to take away from this case: XYZ." If he didn't make the test hard, everyone would get a B+.

I disagree re: whether or not he knows how to write an exam. IMO he's figured it out. It's just that the exam was, as previously stated, ludicrously hard.

Idk about writing exams. Maybe he is just experimenting with his method? Idk. I'll check with my friend.

[joeshmo39]

I heard the test was just a straight issue spotter/typing race for Morley. Just a read and react scenario, no tricks, no word limits.

shit, i got a refurbished hp for like 300 bucks and i'm perfectly happy with it (most of the family buys refurbished since none of us have a need for real computing power - none of our computers suffer from a reliability problem). if all you do is surf the net, type, and watch tv, you don't need anything fancy at all. just make sure you like the keyboard and back your files up on dropbox. also, i highly recommend buying a monitor so you can dual screen at home. it's pretttty awesome.

Yeah not every HP is garbage, I'm just saying on the whole it's not a brand I would trust. Dropbox is awesome though, as is the dual monitor.